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Pro Spotlight: 3 Tips to Tailor Architectural Design to Your Life
Two Los Angeles principal architects share how highly tailored designs can address the particularities of your life
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Who: Sarah Lorenzen and Peter Tolkin of TOLO Architecture
Where: Los Angeles
In their own words: “Every project is unique and each one offers new challenges and opportunities.”
When it comes to architectural design, aspirational aesthetics are often top of mind. But nothing should be more influential than your own lived experience. “There are so many factors that influence a design: cultural references, context, materials and the client’s own vision,” says Sarah Lorenzen, a principal architect at TOLO Architecture, alongside fellow principal Peter Tolkin. “As we design, we continuously look for ways to make the project relevant and useful to the people who use it.”
Where: Los Angeles
In their own words: “Every project is unique and each one offers new challenges and opportunities.”
When it comes to architectural design, aspirational aesthetics are often top of mind. But nothing should be more influential than your own lived experience. “There are so many factors that influence a design: cultural references, context, materials and the client’s own vision,” says Sarah Lorenzen, a principal architect at TOLO Architecture, alongside fellow principal Peter Tolkin. “As we design, we continuously look for ways to make the project relevant and useful to the people who use it.”
Art, academia and architecture. Tolkin grew up with design already a part of his life. “My father’s an architect and my mother was in fashion design; that led me to study art and to eventually become an architect,” he says. Lorenzen came from an art school background as well. “When I was a year out from graduating, I couldn’t imagine myself working independently in a studio. I started thinking about ways of collaborating with others, not only responding to ideas in my head but to issues that someone might have,” she says. She then pursued her graduate degree in architecture.
Lorenzen and Tolkin met while teaching architecture at Cal Poly Pomona. Tolkin had founded his own architecture practice in 2000, but just as he wanted to have someone to discuss ideas with, Lorenzen expressed her interest in undertaking more practical work. “We worked on a project together in 2016, and it was clear she wasn’t just going to be an employee or sounding board,” Tolkin says. Lorenzen joined the practice, which was renamed TOLO Architecture as a contraction of the first two letters of the principals’ last names.
Lorenzen and Tolkin met while teaching architecture at Cal Poly Pomona. Tolkin had founded his own architecture practice in 2000, but just as he wanted to have someone to discuss ideas with, Lorenzen expressed her interest in undertaking more practical work. “We worked on a project together in 2016, and it was clear she wasn’t just going to be an employee or sounding board,” Tolkin says. Lorenzen joined the practice, which was renamed TOLO Architecture as a contraction of the first two letters of the principals’ last names.
An open, conversational approach. Lorenzen and Tolkin don’t approach their projects with a preconceived aesthetic outcome. Instead, each of their projects is connected by their distinctive methodology. “When asked to design a house, we often begin the design process by asking our clients to fill out an extensive survey that addresses issues of lifestyle, such as how a person lives, works and entertains,” Lorenzen says. “An open, engaging dialogue affects what ultimately gets built.”
Ready for an architectural design that responds to your lifestyle? Lorenzen and Tolkin share their approach below.
Ready for an architectural design that responds to your lifestyle? Lorenzen and Tolkin share their approach below.
1. Evaluate the Specifics of How You Live and What You Love
Take time to understand your own behaviors at home. “It might seem a bit too personal, but it helps to understand things like, ‘Do you like to spend time in bed other than when you’re sleeping?’ ” Lorenzen says. As another example, Tolkin and Lorenzen recently asked their client to envision his morning routine, from going downstairs to taking a swim to eating breakfast. “We learned the sequence of his ideal morning, then designed the house around that sequence,” Lorenzen says.
For this Pasadena home, the homeowners asked TOLO Architecture to adapt the space to their current needs while retaining the home’s character. The entire home, including the primary bedroom extension, new outdoor living room and updated pool and landscaping, are oriented around the ample sunlight and Arroyo Seco views. “Think about where you want to be when you get up in the morning, what you want to see as you’re having dinner or breakfast and what kind of light you’d like,” Lorenzen says.
See more of this project
Take time to understand your own behaviors at home. “It might seem a bit too personal, but it helps to understand things like, ‘Do you like to spend time in bed other than when you’re sleeping?’ ” Lorenzen says. As another example, Tolkin and Lorenzen recently asked their client to envision his morning routine, from going downstairs to taking a swim to eating breakfast. “We learned the sequence of his ideal morning, then designed the house around that sequence,” Lorenzen says.
For this Pasadena home, the homeowners asked TOLO Architecture to adapt the space to their current needs while retaining the home’s character. The entire home, including the primary bedroom extension, new outdoor living room and updated pool and landscaping, are oriented around the ample sunlight and Arroyo Seco views. “Think about where you want to be when you get up in the morning, what you want to see as you’re having dinner or breakfast and what kind of light you’d like,” Lorenzen says.
See more of this project
2. Think Beyond What You’ve Seen Before
There’s more than one way to design every project. And your own project doesn’t need to look like anything you’ve seen before. “You can find a lot of character in the selection of materials, whether using less common materials or an unusual combination of more ordinary ones,” Tolkin says. “We’re both very interested in materials and have a large library where we can show our clients textures and colors.”
The Branch House in Santa Barbara is the perfect example. “In the Montecito area, you usually see Mediterranean-style architecture, which uses flashes of copper as a downspout or at the edge of a roof,” Tolkin says. “We took that idea and used copper shingles as cladding for the entire exterior.” Functionally, the copper works as armor for the home, which is in a fire-prone area. Aesthetically, the patina changes with the landscape full of oak trees, shifting from orange to blue through the seasons.
See more of this project
There’s more than one way to design every project. And your own project doesn’t need to look like anything you’ve seen before. “You can find a lot of character in the selection of materials, whether using less common materials or an unusual combination of more ordinary ones,” Tolkin says. “We’re both very interested in materials and have a large library where we can show our clients textures and colors.”
The Branch House in Santa Barbara is the perfect example. “In the Montecito area, you usually see Mediterranean-style architecture, which uses flashes of copper as a downspout or at the edge of a roof,” Tolkin says. “We took that idea and used copper shingles as cladding for the entire exterior.” Functionally, the copper works as armor for the home, which is in a fire-prone area. Aesthetically, the patina changes with the landscape full of oak trees, shifting from orange to blue through the seasons.
See more of this project
3. Have Wide-Ranging Conversations With Your Architect
Just as home sizes and styles have changed over time, the way people enjoy and thus position their rooms has changed. “Certain domestic behaviors and arrangements have become rote, like the bedroom has to have this piece in this position because that’s the way things are done,” Lorenzen says. “But that’s not really true. Those decisions are cultural and change over time.”
The best way to break away from what’s usually done is to approach your relationship with your architect as an open, wide-ranging conversation. “You never know how a particular interest or opinion will shape a project,” Lorenzen says.
Each project has its own context and set of influences, as evidenced by the Sherman Residence in the San Fernando Valley, seen here. The home was designed to unite indoors and outdoors with a series of wood-and-glass pavilions connected via interstitial gallery spaces. From each room, the homeowners can now appreciate the way their home is uniquely situated within its striking and varied landscape.
See more of this project
More: For more information on TOLO Architecture and examples of its work, visit the firm’s Houzz profile.
This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.
Just as home sizes and styles have changed over time, the way people enjoy and thus position their rooms has changed. “Certain domestic behaviors and arrangements have become rote, like the bedroom has to have this piece in this position because that’s the way things are done,” Lorenzen says. “But that’s not really true. Those decisions are cultural and change over time.”
The best way to break away from what’s usually done is to approach your relationship with your architect as an open, wide-ranging conversation. “You never know how a particular interest or opinion will shape a project,” Lorenzen says.
Each project has its own context and set of influences, as evidenced by the Sherman Residence in the San Fernando Valley, seen here. The home was designed to unite indoors and outdoors with a series of wood-and-glass pavilions connected via interstitial gallery spaces. From each room, the homeowners can now appreciate the way their home is uniquely situated within its striking and varied landscape.
See more of this project
More: For more information on TOLO Architecture and examples of its work, visit the firm’s Houzz profile.
This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.
Principals Peter Tolkin and Sarah Lorenzen—working under the moniker TOLO—guide the design of a variety of... Read More
Review by Laura Parker:
In 1998-99 I started working with Peter Tolkin on the design of my 400-square-foot back yard photography studio/gallery. The idea was to compliment the design of our 1912 Craftsman bungalow with somet...More