Project: Agahnia House
Architects: Sebastian Mariscal Studio
Location: La Jolla, California
Year 2018
Landscape: Marcie Harris Landscape
Photo Credits: Paúl Rivera
Text by Sebastian Mariscal Studio
A humble path seductively leads to a filtered stonewall with a mysterious presence. There are no windows and no reference to any grand entrance. Rather, a dense and naturally grown vegetated surroundings filtering the Agahnia house, to its almost disappearance. A door opens to discover an exterior space. The ground is sunken below the entrance level to contain a pond teeming with lilies, lotuses, and koi. A floating bridge guides us to a crafted space beyond and the absence of railings initiates an awareness and intimate dialogue of oneself with the architecture. The sound of gurgling water slows one’s attention to nature’s pace as the swimming koi create a dance of color below one’s feet. The enclosure beyond, crafted with rich warm Mahogany contrasts the stone and natural vegetation, creating a welcoming feeling. A sliding door reveals a sequence of flawless interior and exterior experiences based on natural conditions of space, light and airflow.
A subtle, yet deep-rooted relationship with nature is made evident, as the individual is removed from a public context into a more intimate one and is allowed to exist in an environment of silence, reflection, and peace.
The interior homage to nature is permeated to its exterior, as the house’s roofs are filled with vegetation (and a portion with solar panels), creating a vegetated fifth façade for the uphill neighbors and blurring the house with the golf course field and the ocean in its horizon.
