Mission Canyon Residence

Our contemporary home design for Ron and Kevon is all about the indoor-outdoor Santa Barbara lifestyle. They were drawn to their dramatic foothill site because of the amazing 360-degree panoramic views. We felt the same inspiration. So, we purposely placed each living space in their home to capture a specific vista: sunrise and Rincon coastline to the east, Santa Barbara city and boat harbor to the south, sunset and the Campus Point coastline to the west, and the towering Los Padres mountain range to the north. The outdoor living spaces are seamless extensions of these interior spaces with fantastic views as backdrops. The glass wall of the great room fully pockets into the wall and disappears, creating a 35-foot wide floor-to-ceiling opening onto the pool terrace – their indoor living room transforms into the outdoors!

It was challenging to ensure that this indoor-outdoor “glass house” design was sustainable for its exposed Santa Barbara foothill surroundings. Their home needed to be comfortable for year-round living, energy-efficient, fire-safe, and water-wise. The foothill environment is prone to high summer temperatures, strong winds, and wildfires. In fact, our home design replaces a previous home that was tragically destroyed on this property by the 2009 Jesusita Wildfire.

For comfort, energy efficiency, and water efficiency we specifically calculated the lengths of the extended roof overhangs to shade and cool the house in the warm summer season and to allow direct sunlight to heat the home in the winter. High-performance doors and windows are configured to maximize cross ventilation taking advantage of the cooling ocean breezes. Concealed roll-down shades provide further daylight control and privacy. The outdoor living spaces are designed with courtyard walls that provide sheltered protection from the strong winds that often occur on this exposed hillside site. They also serve to provide visual privacy from the adjacent neighbors. The pool is heated by a low-profile roof solar water heating system. Low-flow plumbing fixtures and native/adaptive drought-tolerant landscaping with drip irrigation conserve water.

For fire safety, we designed their home with fire-resistant materials and detailing: high fire-rated roofing, metal facias, plaster roof eaves, plaster and concrete exterior walls, metal frame doors and windows with heat-resistant dual laminated glazing, concrete floors and patios, fire-rated hardwood pool decking, an automated fire sprinkler system, integrated fire truck driveway access with safety turnaround, and a defensible fire-retardant and native/adaptive drought tolerant landscape.

Those of us who are fortunate to live here on the Central Coast truly appreciate our temperate year-round Mediterranean climate and love to take full advantage of it. Indoor-outdoor living is a common thread throughout our design work, from traditional to modern homes.