A mid-century modern home set in the foothills of LA's Mount Washington neighborhood.
Perched on Palmero Drive and originally built in 1955, the newly reimagined 8,400-square-foot home unfolds against a backdrop of the iconic Los Angeles skyline. By building in harmony with the surrounding landscape, the once-neglected home has transformed into a refuge of calm. "Much of our design leans toward the ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn, enabling us to achieve a visceral effect," Amanda Gunawan explains.
For Gunawan and Wong, the promise of subtlety and neutrality are core to their design approach. “The space shouldn’t energetically spark something in you; you should feel neutral.” Gunawan believes a home should be a retreat of calm, an “uncharged space” that asks the mind to quiet, to take pause. “If you go in strong [with design], it energizes you quickly and then promptly dies out.”
For both partners, the term “neutrality” in no way means a lack of point of view. Neutrality is a vehicle for harmony, considering every detail in order to maintain an energetic balance, and then leaving just enough room for authorship. “It is collaborative design in the truest sense, egoless in its inclusion of the many hands that manifest a vision and then an almost Buddhist act in then, letting it go,” Wong elaborates.
