Inside a Calm House Designed for a Young Family Living in Venice Beach (House Tour)

A fusion of an Australian and Californian sensibility, Venice Beach House is a calm house that captures the spirit of its owner and a resonating sense of place. Tribe Studio Architects and Arabella McIntosh bring a distinct, globally inspired approach in crafting the Los Angeles home of Armadillo co-founder Jodie Fried. Whilst an embracing of the natural elements and the similarities in climate that bind both Los Angeles and Australian design, Venice Beach House is founded on the creation of a series of spaces that capture the travelled spirit of its owner. As the occasional home to Jodie Fried and her family, the resulting calm house speaks to a combined methodology, drawing upon the renowned Californian outdoor lifestyle and familiar elements found home in Australia. Located among an assortment of established bungalow-style homes, the surrounding context plays a key role in shaping the proposed form, scale and proportion of the home whilst referencing a key Australian influence. Built by Tatum Constructions, Venice Beach House is, at its heart, a calm house. Expressing an openness between inside and out, the home invites connection with the surrounding landscape and ensures a natural spillover of function into the outdoor spaces. The established fig tree in the front garden inspired and directed the planning to optimise natural shading and orientation to create key connections with the natural elements. As Venice Beach is known for its dense vegetation and landscape, drawing that narrative into the design and integrating living elements became a keen expression of context. The four-bedroom home incorporates multiple outdoor opportunities for play both inside and out whilst acting as an escape for the older residents. The sanctuary feeling is further reinforced through an open embrace of the landscape and the welcoming of natural light, ventilation and immersion within living elements. As a one-storey form, the calm house sits comfortably in relation to its neighbours, responding delicately to the established surrounds whilst drawing focus to the outdoor spaces as their own areas with distinctive functionality. A textural and tactile palette reinforces the connection to nature both inside and out, with robust underfoot elements that facilitate the openness of the home to encourage movement and flow. Celebrating through gestures of contrast, Tribe Studio Architects and Arabella McIntosh design Venice Beach House as an open and embracing calm house that is a place of retreat, beautifully capturing the spirit of place and heritage. 00:00 - Introduction to the Calm House 00:29 - The Location of the Home 00:48 - The Californian Bungalow 01:03 - The Brief 01:22 - A Visual Palette Cleanser 01:47 - A Walkthrough of the Home 02:36 - The Material Palette 02:50 - Aspects of the Surrounding Borrowed Landscape 03:31 - The Material Palette Continued 04:03 - Following the Sun 04:28 - Favourite Aspects of the Home For more from The Local Project: Instagram – Website – Print Publication – Hardcover Book – The Local Project Marketplace – To subscribe to The Local Project’s Tri-Annual Print Publication see here – Photography by Sam Frost. Architecture by Tribe Studio Architects. Interior Design by Arabella McIntosh. Build by Tatum Construction. Styling by Gena Sigala. Filmed and Edited by Cheer Squad Film Co. Production by The Local Project. The Local Project acknowledges the traditional territories and homelands of the Indigenous peoples in the United States. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our respective countries and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands. #CalmHouse #Architecture #VeniceBeach Sync ID: MB01TP337AX8MD4