Hawthorne Studio

This small studio in the garden of a historic residence in Pasadena, California, houses the library of architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. Upon leaving his full-time position at the LA-times in 2018, he brought back his collection of books to his house in Pasadena and asked us to re-think a small structure behind the carport in his garden: it had to serve as a reading and writing studio. Still, it needed to function as well as a small guest-unit when required.



The design consists of a single continuous blue element that incorporates the flexible storage for books, a desk, and access to a small bathroom, defining a clear horizon with the irregular pitch roof volume.
-At the same time, the studio characterized by these blue bookshelves wrapping around its rectangular space, the pill-shaped bathroom surrounded by an uninterrupted grid of white square tiles. Light filters into the bathroom through a single glass clerestory window. It generates a visual continuity between the two interior spaces while not allowing the humidity of the shower to reach the books. The studio opens up towards a patio in the garden that serves as an outdoor extension of the writing studio.

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