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A Family House Turns Into Club Clive

modern architure house of clive wilkinson in los angeles

Can a family house be the ultimate entertaining house? It seems so by looking at the amazing modern house designed by architect Clive Wilkinson in Los Angeles.

Space Planning

This fabulous modern architecture house integrates a sense of togetherness. The house works wonderfully for entertaining because the plan emphasizes the flow of people, like the way nightclubs are designed.

But it is done at an house scale. The space planning encourages people’s interactions in an airy yet cozy environment.

Any family with young children wishes for a long communal dining table with a glass wall wide opened to the backyard next to a kitchen looking at the pool.

The place can accommodate lots of people at the same time without feeling crowded. People can play, swim, take a sunbath, prepare food and eat with the impression of being in the main area.

A Search for the Ideal Urban Starter Home

Even if his friends refer to his house as Club Clive, the house was not designed for partygoers. It was designed to compensate for the drawbacks of dense city life for families: the lack of usable outdoor space.

After you examined the house carefully, you see how it fits into the lifestyle of young families by trying to maximize the indoors-outdoors connection. It is funny because the 53 years old owner lives alone in this house.

The New York Times describes the plan of this 3,300-square-foot home in these terms:
“The house reduces the starter idea to bare essentials: two overlapping stucco barns (one contains a living room, the other the kitchen/dining areas and guest bedrooms) surrounding a pool and social space, with a third barn for a master bedroom suite.”

I would live in a house like that. Get the whole story on The New York Times.

  • Jenn
    August 31, 2008 at 10:22

    great post, being that we’re looking for an urban starter home right now. if i could afford it, this would be our ideal space, open concept in an urban area that incorporates outdoor living as well.

    jenn