Klopf Architecture has designed the C-Through House, a spectacular modern home in Palo Alto, a city in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. Conceived as a C-shaped house with a small private courtyard and a large private rear yard, this new house maximizes the floor area available to build on this smaller lot.

An Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) integrated into the main structure gave a floor area bonus. For now, it will be used for visiting relatives. One challenge of this design was keeping a low profile and proportional design while meeting the FEMA flood plain requirement that the finished floor start about 3′ above grade.

DESIGN DETAILS: ARCHITECT Klopf Architecture STRUCTURAL ENGINEER ZFA Structural Engineers LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Outer Space Landscape Architects CONTRACTOR Coast to Coast Development

The new house has four bedrooms (including the attached ADU), a separate family room with a window seat, a music room, a prayer room, and a large living space that opens to the private small courtyard as well as a large covered patio at the rear. Mature trees around the lot’s perimeter were preserved, and new ones were planted, for private indoor-outdoor living.

What We Love: This Palo Alto house provides a wonderful indoor-outdoor living experience thanks to a central courtyard and large walls of glazing. Despite the compact lot, the architects did a fabulous job of maximizing the floor plan layout by building up one level and below one level. There is also ample privacy given to the inhabitants by preserving trees already existing on the property in addition to the clever configuration of this home’s design.

Tell Us: What details do you find most appealing in the design of this dwelling? Let us know in the Comments below, we enjoy reading your feedback!

Note: Be sure to check out a couple of other incredible home tours that we have showcased here on One Kindesign from the portfolio of the architects of this project, Klopf Architecture: Before and After: A midcentury California home gets a stunning new look and Striking pool and guest house in Sonoma inspired by Mies van der Rohe.

PHOTOGRAPHER ©2023 Mariko Reed

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