ARA HOUSE
This new family estate is located on a beautiful flag lot in Atherton, California. Surrounded by mature oak, pine, cedar, walnut and birch trees and bordered by twenty foot tall hedges along portions of the property lines, the setting provides total privacy from the neighboring houses. The earliest design strategy involved setting the building on an angle, roughly thirty degrees, off of the orthogonal grid of the lot, creating diagonal, vanishing vistas from each major space and increasing the sense of space surrounding the home. The trapezoidal-shaped exterior spaces on the north, east and south sides of the property have been transformed into landscaped outdoor rooms for family living, with extensive private gardens, terraces and a swimming pool with an adjacent changing room.