Sustainable House Design in Boano Los Angeles by KZ Architecture

This modern house located in an infill waterfront lot in Bay Harbor, a modern town developed in the 1950s, the home’s aesthetic reflects the clients’ enthusiasm for modern art and architecture and pays tribute to the town’s historic character. The design aspired to create a dialogue between solid and void, building and landscape. This dialogue is evident from the street as visitors walk along a covered path through the front courtyard. The solidity of one volume is juxtaposed against the lightness of the other; the landscape and built elements fuse with one another.



The design team set goals that would be respectful of the context and the landscape, as well as conscious of resources and sustainability. Despite the quasi-urban setting, this effort resulted in a reduced footprint in the highly priced site and the adoption of the LEED for homes scale to ensure a sustainable path. The outside permeates the interior and the home is enveloped with natural light and views. Spacious and distinct exterior living spaces such as porches and balconies flow from within and reach out onto the landscape, providing environmentally sensitive solutions for a home in a tropical climate. In the living room, the spatial expansiveness from the front courtyard to the water is punctuated by the presence of the stair with its solid sculptural structure set against the lightness around it. Deeply rooted in its context, this project represents a milestone for residential sustainable design in South Florida, as the first home of its type to achieve silver LEED certification and Florida Green Building Coalition Gold Certification.