Californian Vintage with Mark Rios

A few years ago Mark Rios, landscape architect trained at Harvard founder of the studio Rios Clementi Hale Studios based in Los Angeles, purchased the house of his dreams, a small villa of the 50s in a modern style located in Bel Air on the hill of a canyon surrounded by greenery with a panoramic view of the nearby Getty Center and the Pacific Ocean. A challenge led him to reread the architecture of that period and produce a restoration very careful and respectful to the original style. I do not agree with the choice of my neighbors to destroy old houses to make way for new homes filled with rooms which then will not be used, explains th architect, I prefer a house of modest size but surrounded by a large garden.

Rios saw potential where others saw only problems. He looked over the sprawling finishes, the worn wooden floors and reread 50s style adapting it to contemporary needs without changing the original nature. I think I realized the kind of house that would be perfect then, he said. Inspired by the Japanese architecture with views of the carefully manicured gardens, and modern American style with beautiful transitions between interior and exterior, the architect focused on the opening of the house to the surrounding landscape. After breaking down the partitions, reducing the two large bedrooms, Rios created a study area adjacent to the master bedroom and a living room full of sessions that opens onto the living and dining room.

Target light turns and everywhere there are sliding doors and windows to full height. Rearranging the furniture has distributed the new plan according to a central axis extending visually from the porch of service which is the entrance, the most important room in the house. For finishes Rios chose paneling to wooden boards on the walls and the floor thick slabs of a Venetian which continue seamlessly between indoors and outdoors and create the foundation upon which the perfect, durable, colorful , bright, ideal building for both indoor and outdoor use, is laid.