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Addressing an urgent need for housing within a lower density area, this project sources solutions without sacrificing the comfort and character of the city. The completed project demonstrates innovative housing design through, moving away from the singular imposing block that dominates cities today. Forty-five units break down into nine autonomous townhouses, maximizing the ease and comfort of living while using minimal square footage. A 2+2+1 composition features two apartments on the first and second floors, concluding with a single penthouse. These all, however, share in a unifying courtyard, eliminating the need for corridors and fostering a sense of community within, complimented with public amenities such as a fitness club, party room and a large rooftop terrace with ocean and views.
TK_9x5 KalThom advantages the site’s diverse context while championing an inviting urban lifestyle. The surrounding neighborhood comprises a mix of industrial and "mission-style" buildings. The exterior blends the distinctly contemporary building in its context through material treatments, weaving brick, stucco, and profiled metal panels. Ground-floor apartments connect to urban life via stoops opening to the street. Meanwhile, the crisp modern form of the interior courtyard creates an urban oasis within. Top floor patios ensure a porosity that creates pockets of ocean and mountain vistas that permeate throughout the courtyard, framing the unique landscape as people pass through. Even while within the building, residents remain connected to the outside city and landscape.
The project complies with advanced California Building Energy Efficiency Standards, which outline strict regulations to keep carbon emissions to a minimum. This ensures responsible decisions both during and after construction, such as including ample areas ready for solar power and energy-efficient mechanical systems.
The project’s thoughtful design introduses a variety of passive energy features. Each apartment has its own form of outdoor space. Every unit has two exterior faces with operative windows, enabling not just natural ventilation but cross-ventilation as air flows through the apartments. This allows efficient environmental control benefiting from California’s mild climate. Beyond construction, this design invites a way of living that limits energy use well into the future.
Careful decisions about community, materials, and quality of life take precedence in the design. In an area tentative of extreme growth, organizing more units around a familiar cluster of townhouses gently introduces an innovative housing solution. It offers diverse apartment types, from small studios to two bedrooms, that are accessible to a large range of incomes, within a singular building of limited space. Each unit has a distinct character through constant yet varied entrances and outdoor spaces, maintaining an indoor-outdoor environment in the city.
Two building skins compliment each other, navigating tradition and modernity. Exterior maintains materials and forms legislated by strict local zonning codes. The interior courtyard, however, adopts a contemporary design. Volumes enhance material differences, where abstract dark profiled metal panel counterpoints white stucco surfaces. The ample staircases—each for its own townhouse—move beyond circulation paths into sculptural objects.
The building continually navigates between the needs of the city and of its residents. It proves that comfortable lifestyles can be achieved within contemporary urban contexts. The integration of a small corner coffe shop, a bike repair store and surf storage room - all welcome access to the city, reflecting priorities for walkability, smaller footprints, and engagement with the unique local community. In doing so, residents maintain a high quality of life within an increased capacity for more.
Nestled between rolling hills and the Pacific Ocean, Ventura is attracting an influx of residents seeking the many amenities it has to offer. KalThom makes housing more accessible through higher density within a luxurious, laid-back setting. There is a balance between external obligations to the city, code, and context, while prioritizing inhabitants’ experiences and access to all the area has to offer. This project proves the needs of an urbanizing city can be met without making concessions.
Studio Antares A+E is a collaborative practice with aim on integration of architecture, arts and environment through emphasis on advanced methods of project delivery. We operate as a think-tank practice assembling team of experts for the particular needs of each job. Based in Los Angeles, California and practicing throughout the United States and abroad, we strive to understand the specific cultural context of each task that we undertake and to find a unique solution for each particular challenge.
