Beachside Home Showcases Living Art
From within the Dane's cubist home, this Zen-like garden and the ocean take command of a flawlessly simple, warm interior space. Mark Weaver and Associates, an interior design and project management firm, worked closely with FormLA® Landscaping design and build teams to ensure the garden became an effective interior design element.
The Vision: Ocean and Garden Take Center Stage

When his dear friends Cari and Richard Dane decided to dramatically renovate their beachside property, Mark Weaver, an interior designer and project manager, wanted to ensure they ended up with the home of their dreams.

 

Richard envisioned a highly contemporary, cubist home. Cari wanted to ensure the home exuded all the warmth and charm of their 1950s beach cottage and vibrant FormLA-designed garden. As the interior designer and project manager, Weaver provided a vision to unify the interior and exterior spaces. Additionally, he aimed to complement the architecture Richard loved, while providing the warmth and vibrancy Cari craved.

 

Because the home is nearly transparent, with extraordinary window-space dedicated to showcasing an expanse of ocean and the small garden space, the project required Weaver's well-known painstaking attention to detail. Weaver synchronized the efforts of the architect, his own interior design team, and FormLA Landscaping designer, Isara Ongwiseth to produce a comprehensive aesthetic and experience on the Dane property.

The Challenge: Big Jobs for a Small Space

The Dane’s garage-sized garden needed to perform on many levels. In addition to fulfilling roles typically expected of a landscape, the garden had to hold weight as an interior design element.

 

"The landscape is critical to the interior experience, as the home’s extraordinary expanses of window space showcase either the ocean or the garden," notes Mark Weaver.

 

To hold weight as the home’s artwork, the garden needed to possess a commanding charm and flawless synchronicity with the clean, simple interior space and modern architecture.

 

FormLA designer Isara Ongwiseth notes that, while holding to this exceedingly high aesthetic standard, the landscape also needed to fulfill more traditional roles. The home needed to provide both a noise and physical barrier to Pacific Coast Highway traffic. Also, the Danes wanted an outdoor kitchen.

 

Ongwiseth had an additional concern. "Protecting water quality, avoiding run-off, and excluding invasive plants that could contribute to Malibu's fire, flood, slide cycle required careful consideration," he notes.

 

To meet each challenge, Weaver and Ongwiseth needed to plan and ensure exacting execution of even the smallest details.

The Result: Living, Enduring Modern Art

In sharp contrast to the speed and noise of the Pacific Coast Highway, the Dane residence produces an experience of calm and wonder. Weaver credits the synchronicity between the streamlined modern architecture, minimalist interior, and Zen-like garden for this sense of peace.

 

Isara Ongwiseth describes the garden elements critical to creating this experience:

  • Clean lines and a simple color palette complement the modern, minimalist architecture and tailored, clean interior designs.
  • The curved accent and retaining wall provides a sense of movement and elevates mature olive trees to provide additional privacy from hillside homes and PCH.
  • The outdoor kitchen is only visible to the cook. The curved accent wall protects both the outdoor and indoor aesthetic.
  • Simple and commanding, a rock sculpture provides a focal point from the interior entryway and the approach to the front door.
  • The custom door created by John Krwczyk features waves and an olive tree, extending a warm welcome and adding a sculptural element to the garden space.
  • The spines and points of the tree aloe add fire-element drama to the Zen-like space.
  • Like golden clouds, warm green-gold grasses provide warmth and movement to the peaceful green and white landscape.
  • In sync with the austere lines of the building, a low-growing version of the FormLA® IdealMow™ lawn requires no chemical fertilizers or pesticides and very little water. It protects both the ocean and surfers from toxic chemicals.
  • Stylishly simple, the curved beds of permeable gravel accented with concrete pavers allow rain to absorb into the landscape.
  • Infrastructure was critical to protecting both the aesthetic and the ocean. Subsurface drip irrigation is all but invisible and produces no run-off or noise.

Weaver is pleased with the results of the project. "The FormLA design and build teams were patient, detail-oriented and thorough," notes Mark Weaver. "Our close coordination produced a cohesive experience where the garden and ocean are the celebrities of the home."