The homeowners lived in their San Francisco spec house for a few years before realizing it could be their forever home. Divided into smaller rooms, the traditional house was dark and compartmentalized. Instead, they wanted open, flowing spaces with lots of natural light streaming into the house. The homeowners were surprised when one of the conceptual designs presented a reverse floor plan, swapping the bedrooms to face the City and bay views at the street side of the house, and connecting the living spaces outward to the backyard. The new great room ended up as one large open volume. A linear batten system with integrated lighting systems floats along the ceiling, visually connecting while also defining the use areas within the space. With raised ceiling heights and large windows and glass sliding doors, the open and airy great room now extends out onto the new patio surrounded by lush landscaping to create one even larger indoor-outdoor room.

Klopf Architecture project team: Geoff Campen, John Klopf, Sherry Tan, and Alison Markowitz-Chan

Interior furnishings and decoration: Urbanism Designs

Contractor: San Francisco Design and Construction

Landscape Architect: Terremoto

Structural Engineer: ZFA

Photographer: Mariko Reed