step inside the kappe house, one of southern california's great midcentury modern homes

"The Kappe House in Rustic Canyon, California has been listed for sale, bringing newly released photographs of its midcentury interiors into view. Designed in 1967 as the personal residence of architect Ray Kappe - who co-founded SCI-Arc together with Thom Mayne of Morphosis - the house stands as one of Southern California's most studied works of residential modernism. Set on a steep, wooded site in Pacific Palisades, the structure hovers above the hillside on a framework of vertical concrete supports and expansive redwood beams."

"Inside Southern California's Kappe House, listed here, seven split levels extend across 4,157 square feet, with conventional room divisions dissolved in favor of interlocking platforms and sightlines. Movement occurs gradually, with short stair runs linking living areas, bedrooms, and studio spaces. The cumulative experience is shaped by shifts in elevation and perspective. Redwood ceilings and beams define each level, their tone deepened by time."

"Redwood ceilings and beams define each level, their tone deepened by time. Walls of glass and large skylights draw in changing light from morning through evening. Sunlight filters through the canopy above, casting shifting patterns across timber surfaces and exposed concrete. The house reads as both disciplined and expressive, a demonstration of what Kappe described as an additive process of design in which each structural decision informs the next."

The Kappe House in Rustic Canyon, California was designed in 1967 as architect Ray Kappe's personal residence and is currently listed for sale. The house occupies a steep, wooded Pacific Palisades site and is elevated on vertical concrete supports and expansive redwood beams, allowing the terrain to pass beneath the structure. Interior space unfolds across seven split levels and 4,157 square feet through interlocking platforms and short stair runs rather than conventional room divisions. Extensive glazing and large skylights bring shifting natural light into redwood-clad interiors, while exposed concrete and timber articulate an additive structural logic.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine