Initial formal explorations were done through iterative compositional exercises. The forms used in initial studies were extrusions take from prints by Eduardo Chillida. From these studies a myriad of formal traits were selected with which the final massing was composed. The Chillida prints were a means to develop individual sensibilities towards the figure-ground problem.
The resulting proposal engages the site and the ground through a sunken courtyard typology. The intent was also to challenge the definition of a diptych, to produce an illegibility between one house and the other. The diptych is best defined through the two courtyards, one for each house respectively.
With a site adjacent to the L.A River, and the Frogtown Bike Path, the response was to extend the bike path over the site, blurring the boundary between public and private space. While the courtyards read as two from the level of the bike path, below grade at the entrances the courtyard reads as one space which wraps around a mass.