Los Angeles
The origins of the West Los Angeles residential area corresponds to the development of film studios in the early 20th century. The first residential neighborhoods around them were homes for silent film stars and people from the industry. The likes of Charlie Chaplin were the housing development promoters. This is the case of the Highland Avenue location where this Moroccan Art Deco Revival style villa was built in about 1930. The architecture of these residences was meticulously eclectic and were built with the rigor of a film production of seemingly unlimited resources. I therefore chose to intervene thinking about Mikado, the Chinese stick game in which the challenge is to disassemble a swarm of sticks by picking up one by one on each turn without affecting the position of the others. I marvel at the infinite amount of combinatorial possibilities that construction with 2x4 inch pieces of wood allows. This is how I placed this drum construction with regular studs, as a theatrical backdrop that contains a spiral of steps and which extends in the upper floor, creating a linear series of security bars that follows the geometry of traditional Moorish balconies. The flooring reproduces the plan of a Buonarrotti building, where cement planes correspond to the walls, and mosaics laid on site by artisans correspond to the openings and rooms. Carrara marble planes slide to allow access to the kitchen and house a collection of Bohemian crystals by Czech artist Bojek Sipek.
Photo Timothy Hursley
