Inside a Futuristic Home with Detachable Rooms

Architectural Digest

Today Architectural Digest tours a futuristic home nestled among the trees in Malibu, California. If you were to imagine life on Mars your mind might conjure an image similar to this extraordinary residence. Built by architect Ed Niles in 1992, his experimental builds have been redefining the architecture of Southern California for decades. The innovative design features a long structure with modular rooms that can be unhooked and rearranged along the house's spine. Join Ed as he talks you through the creative process behind this architectural marvel.  Director: Chase Lewis Director of Photography: Grant Bell Editor: Alex Mechanik Host: Ed Niles Producer: Chase Lewis; Meg Sutton Line Producer: Joe Buscemi Associate Producer: Josh Crowe; Marisah Yazbek Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Kariesha Kidd Camera Operator: Josh Andersen Audio Engineer: Paul Cornett Production Assistant: Ariel Labasan Post Production Supervisor: Andrew Montague Post Production Coordinator: Holly Frew Supervising Editor: Christina Mankellow Assistant Editor: Billy Ward Junior Editor: Paul Tael Colorist: Oliver Eid

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 All my work responds at some level to its surrounding.

00:19 Whether the surrounding is nature,

00:21 in the sense of trees, gardens, the ocean, or the desert,

00:25 it doesn't make any difference what it is.

00:28 I'm responding to it.

00:30 So all this enters into an equation.

00:32 And how it comes out is what we call creativity.

00:37 You must have a knowledge of architecture.

00:38 You must have a knowledge of structures.

00:41 You must have a knowledge of the human being.

00:44 You must be able to get emotional.

00:46 If you aren't emotional, don't be an architect.

00:49 Big waste of time.

00:54 I am Ed Niles, my daughter and myself built the house

00:59 with the owners.

01:01 The home took about three years to design

01:05 and two years to build.

01:07 And that was completed right about '92.

01:11 The client came to me and I began to know them

01:13 more as individualists.

01:15 They had real concerns about certain things.

01:18 They loved nature.

01:19 And we looked around to find a site, a site

01:22 that he could feel free.

01:24 The variety of modules--

01:33 I use the word module here because it really

01:35 has a context that makes sense.

01:36 These rooms today can be unhooked and rearranged

01:42 along the spine.

01:44 In terms of the idea behind this,

01:46 these are the upper sections where you're in the room now.

01:49 This is the gallery down the middle.

01:52 And these are the separate spaces

01:54 that have separate air conditioning, heating, water,

01:57 everything.

01:58 So when something happens here, this whole panel hinges down

02:03 and you have access to that.

02:05 The structure right now is this one here.

02:09 That would be the module that was originally his office.

02:12 And this was the bathroom module that we moved.

02:15 Every module in itself is like a package that's moved

02:19 and then plugged in to what's going down the middle.

02:23 The bridge or the connector to the other building,

02:30 that was actually designed in five different ways.

02:33 It's plugged in over here at one time.

02:35 There is a level of technology that's apparent.

02:39 And usually, there's a tremendous amount

02:42 of visual transparency.

02:44 That if I got a great mountain over there

02:46 and I'm standing here and over there, I can see through

02:48 and there's that mountain.

02:49 There's this idea that seeing through and/or being

02:54 transparent is another way to place it, to me,

02:56 is a very important piece of what it is.

03:00 Philosophically, my approach is always

03:03 to be reflective of where I am at that moment in time.

03:06 This is the Dimitri Vergoon space.

03:16 He was my structural engineer.

03:18 I worked with this from the very beginning.

03:20 Its primary use is entertaining, hearing music,

03:26 being the somewhat center of the universe here.

03:29 It doesn't share itself with anything else.

03:31 In fact, the kitchen is left to a very minor piece of it.

03:35 But the idea is you could flow in and out.

03:38 The ceiling height is 36 feet from where I'm standing.

03:42 And the translucent roof system is

03:46 on the orientation of the moon and the orientation of the sun.

03:51 So what happens is the sun travels across the arc.

03:54 And this room is continuously lit during the day.

03:59 The space we're in is a suggestion of a kitchen.

04:03 And the word suggestion only implies

04:05 that we weren't working with a client with a great necessity

04:10 or essence to be cooking all the time.

04:12 So the idea was to put in a symbolic kitchen,

04:15 essentially, with the normal sinks, normal refrigerators,

04:19 and such.

04:20 But the original concept behind it

04:22 was to simply have a space that one

04:25 could have food delivered to.

04:27 That was the lifestyle they had.

04:29 They traveled quite a bit.

04:30 They had many parties here.

04:32 But a lot of it was set up outside.

04:34 This became mainly the place for making drinks.

04:38 Where we are, what is left over of the main space,

04:41 this is the sitting area that normally would

04:44 face into any entertainment, whether it

04:47 be TV or other devices.

04:50 I think the main thing it's about

04:51 is you stand here and speak.

04:52 You can see there's no echo at all.

04:54 I was set up purposely for that, without putting acoustic tiles

04:58 everywhere to try to control it.

05:00 The gray, greens, and things of that nature

05:03 do not replicate nature, but do not draw attention

05:06 to any more than there is.

05:08 You don't need color to remind you of what's going on.

05:11 There's just so many pieces and parts

05:13 that are coming at you in its original form.

05:15 We're in a bridge that connects the main living

05:23 space to all of the secondary bedrooms of the suspended upper

05:28 structure.

05:30 Each side of you, as you recognize,

05:32 you never lose your position in time or space.

05:35 You're constantly aware of the forms that are around you,

05:38 especially at nighttime.

05:40 Going up and down the stairs, very exciting,

05:43 because you're getting the glow of all the light

05:45 from the upper structure going through the fiberglass system.

05:49 And you're getting the light going the other way,

05:51 of course, coming out of the main structure.

05:54 So you're always in context with where you are in space.

05:59 You're always seeing the ocean, or you're always

06:01 seeing across the court, below, and beyond.

06:05 I've used bridges many times, depending

06:07 on the nature of the project.

06:08 They're very exciting.

06:10 The difficulty is, like any other piece of architecture,

06:13 you've got to be mathematically correct,

06:16 because normally they're brought in by crane

06:17 and they have to fit perfectly.

06:19 We are in the--

06:27 call it the-- it's not a hallway, really.

06:30 The hallway would be enclosed.

06:31 This has always been open, except for some doors that

06:34 connected on his office.

06:36 It's sort of a meeting place for everybody that's up here.

06:39 So its main purpose is the connectivity,

06:42 but without getting into a typical tailored hallway.

06:46 Being up like this allowed you to really differentiate

06:50 sleeping privacy from what happens on the ground plane.

06:54 The ground plane being a place where

06:56 there's a lot of activity, a lot of movement,

06:58 people coming and going.

06:59 This was a secluded area upstairs.

07:02 Again, the sunlight is allowed to do the job,

07:06 to light the space softly, to give it the sense that there

07:09 is something outside.

07:11 At nighttime, the moon, all the other things I've said before,

07:14 play into this space and give it life.

07:17 This is the primary sleeping zone.

07:26 It is extremely important to the house,

07:28 because once you've made the choice

07:30 to leave the main living space below,

07:32 this has to operate as a world in itself.

07:36 I have to add, that's probably one of the most exciting spaces,

07:38 because you are immersed in the trees, and the trees change.

07:43 So during the wintertime, you get a lot more light in here.

07:45 Well, the natural light here is obviously critical,

07:48 because it's part of seeing nature outside.

07:51 But also, you're in the air, like being in an airplane.

07:53 And so the ground plane disappears,

07:56 and so there's a sense of flight,

07:58 a sense of freedom in the air, because you

08:00 don't see the ground at night.

08:02 So what you have is that sensation

08:04 of being really isolated in time and space.

08:09 The balcony was critical, because just being outside,

08:12 being on a chair, being on a chaise lounge,

08:15 or just being in the spa, was a completely independent world

08:18 again.

08:19 But the view is sensational, especially at nighttime,

08:23 when you're seeing the crescent of Santa Monica

08:25 and all the way around.

08:27 It carries with it a lot of things

08:29 that I try to replicate in many homes.

08:32 This gives a chance for people to express themselves

08:35 emotionally and not feel there's going to be

08:38 somebody else challenging it.

08:39 The space is a bathing and dressing area as part of it.

08:48 Dressing is across the hall, but this space

08:50 was designed so that both of them

08:52 could utilize an island sink.

08:55 It also gave them a lot of surface area and access.

08:57 And so as a piece of furniture, it really--

08:59 it's not just a counter.

09:00 It's a piece of furniture that we designed

09:02 that floats in this space.

09:04 This is the south-facing court towards the ocean,

09:16 towards the islands.

09:17 This is the place where a variety of furniture types

09:20 have been tested.

09:21 And the sliding glass door sections

09:22 are California-bred.

09:24 Most of these doors are normally so small,

09:26 it's not worth the time to even open them up.

09:28 So these were big, and they were also

09:31 done on rollers or stainless steel

09:33 so that we didn't have a problem with corrosion.

09:36 The pool was essential primarily because the owners wanted one.

09:44 The other use was the fact that at nighttime,

09:47 this pool would be lighted and is a great reflection

09:50 piece on the site.

09:51 The third item is the ability to use it

09:54 as part of a heat sink for the water source heat pumps

09:57 so that instead of using energy and electricity

10:00 to generate heat, we use these--

10:02 extrapolate it from the water.

10:03 And it's like something that ties itself back

10:06 to the main structure in terms of what it is

10:08 and how it works.

10:09 Sculpture is a big part of the exterior landscape.

10:20 The idea from the beginning was you can pick them up and change

10:23 them after you change your mind.

10:25 That dynamic was good because over the years,

10:27 Milt would call me up and he'd say, I bought this new piece.

10:30 You've got to come over and see it.

10:32 And that really created the action on the space.

10:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]

10:38 I would say the home itself is unforgiving.

11:00 There are no options.

11:02 You're in a room or you're not in a room.

11:04 You are within nature or you're not in nature,

11:07 depending on the time of day.

11:09 You walk from room to room and you

11:12 experience different views of nature,

11:15 different impacts of nature.

11:17 But you also are affected by the fact

11:20 that you're moving through the world at a different time

11:23 of the day constantly.

11:25 But being separated from nature is not the intent.

11:29 The point being is that you are separated

11:32 from your own inward nature automatically,

11:36 whether you want to or not.

11:38 And that's where the architect comes in,

11:40 is a translator of emotions, issues, technology, all

11:46 of that into an object.

11:48 [MUSIC PLAYING]

11:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]

11:55 [MUSIC PLAYING]

11:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]

12:02 (gentle music)

12:05 [Music]

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