CASA FORMA
CLIENT
PRIVATE RESIDENT
LOCATION
LOS ANGELES, USA
ROLE
LEAD ARCHITECT
BUDGET
$4.6 MILLION
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Casa Forma is a sculptural concrete residence built around continuous, curving surfaces rather than conventional flat walls and right angles. The project treats the house itself as a single molded form, poured and shaped as one gesture.
Structure and finish are unified in exposed concrete throughout, removing the usual distinction between architecture and interior, so that the building reads as one continuous sculptural object inside and out.
DESIGN APPROACH
A sweeping cantilevered stair forms the visual and spatial core of the house, curving through a triple-height void that connects all three levels. It is visible from nearly every room and becomes the piece around which daily movement is choreographed.
Rather than being enclosed, the stair is treated as freestanding sculpture, lit from above by a long skylight that tracks its curve throughout the day.
MATERIAL & LIGHT
The material language is almost entirely board-formed concrete, terrazzo, and blackened bronze, chosen to hold their raw, poured character rather than being finished smooth. Formwork patterns remain visible as a deliberate record of construction.
Light enters through narrow full-height slots cut into the curved walls, casting long, moving shafts across the concrete surfaces that shift dramatically between morning and evening.
SPATIAL EXPERIENCE
The plan avoids conventional rooms in favor of continuous curved zones that flow into one another around the central stair void, with only bedrooms and bathrooms enclosed for privacy. Movement through the house feels closer to walking through a landscape than a sequence of rooms.
Furniture and built-in elements follow the curvature of the walls, reinforcing the sense that every element belongs to one unified spatial idea rather than being placed afterward.
SITE & CONTEXT
Sited on a tight urban infill lot, the house turns a nearly blank curved façade to the street for privacy while opening dramatically toward a private rear garden. The curved geometry also let the design work around an irregular property boundary that a rectilinear plan could not accommodate efficiently.
This response allowed a distinctly sculptural building to sit comfortably within a dense residential block without overwhelming its neighbors.
ARCHITECTURAL LANGUAGE
The composition rejects flat planes entirely in favor of compound curves, generated as a single continuous surface rather than assembled from discrete walls, floors, and ceilings. Every transition between surfaces is rounded rather than met at a hard edge.
This gives the building a strong, immediately recognizable identity from the street while remaining materially and tonally consistent with the concrete structures found elsewhere in the neighborhood.
INDOOR & OUTDOOR
The rear of the house opens through a full-height curved glazed wall onto a sunken garden, blurring the line between the poured-concrete interior and the landscaped exterior. A shallow reflecting channel along this edge carries reflected light deep into the ground floor.
Covered outdoor seating continues the same curved geometry as the interior stair, so the garden reads as a continuation of the house's form rather than a separate space.
COURTYARD CONCEPT
The stair void remains the project's clearest idea: a single sculptural gesture that every level of the house is organized around, visible from the entry, the kitchen, and the upper bedrooms alike.
Its presence means the house is experienced as one continuous spatial event rather than a stack of separate floors, reinforcing the architecture's central sculptural intent at every level.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE
Thick poured concrete walls provide substantial thermal mass, moderating internal temperature swings across the day, while the narrow light slots limit direct solar gain compared to a fully glazed façade.
Locally sourced aggregate and on-site formwork reduced the project's material transport footprint, and the exposed structural concrete removes the need for most secondary interior finishes.
DESIGN OUTCOME
Casa Forma shows how a house can be conceived as sculpture without sacrificing everyday livability, treating structure, stair, and surface as a single unresolved idea carried through to completion.
It stands as a study in what becomes possible when a residence is designed from a single formal concept outward, rather than assembled from a kit of familiar architectural parts.