If there’s any contemporary firm that fully embodies the concept of indoor-outdoor living, it’s the Los Angeles–based Marmol Radziner. But in its projects, blending architecture with nature goes well beyond open-air rooms and floor-to-ceiling windows. “In a Marmol Radziner residence one is less aware of the house and more conscious of the trees. Counters in bathrooms and kitchens seem to be made out of the stones outside,” writes Mona Simpson in the foreword to Site: Marmol Radziner in the Landscape ($65, Princeton Architectural Press).
The new book details 19 of the firm’s houses with a focus on the structures’ relationships with their settings, as well as provides insight into the minds of founders Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner. “With this book, rather than create a traditional monograph, we chose to highlight our firm’s architecture in relation to the site,” they say in the preface. “As a design-build practice with a background in restorations of modernist architecture—including homes by Richard Neutra, R. M. Schindler, and John Lautner—Marmol Radziner continues the modern legacy of blending architecture with its environment.”
Here, we explore nine of the book’s projects.
