Ray Kappe’s house doesn’t look like much from the street. Tucked away in Rustic Canyon in Santa Monica, the house is mostly hidden behind a jungle of trees, bushes, and ground cover all growing wild, probably unchanged from the time when he bought the lot in 1962 for just $17,000, a bargain price because the steep hillside was thought to be impossible to build a house on. Kappe Residence in the Pacific Palisades. On one side of the biggest, most bizarre looking tree, a driveway leads to a carport where a few old Mercedes are parked. On the other side of the tree, a simple path of concrete steps leads up through the greenery to the house. Built without a traditional foundation but rather as platforms supported by a series of columns the house has a minimal footprint on the landscape, seeming to hover above and within the greenery. Strikingly beautiful for its use of redwood and enormous glass windows, open walls, spaces differentiated by staggered levels, and its overall cohesion with the natural environment, the house serves as the most shining example of an architectural philosophy that valued nature, sustainability, democratic access to fine design, and made Kappe one of the most influential modern architects in the world. Ray Kappe Born in Minneapolis in 1927, Kappe spent much of his childhood among the forests and lakes of Minnesota. After moving to Los Angeles at the age of 13, Kappe went on to study architecture at the University of California-Berkeley and then returned to Los Angeles to begin his practice in the mid 1950s. His first project was an apartment complex in West L.A. that he worked on with Carl Maston, one of the fathers of mid-century modern architecture. In 1972, he founded the Southern California Institute of Architecture with the mission to advance the field in new ambitious directions. Kappe's lap pool and pool house Kappe himself became known for his early emphasis on environmentally sustainable housing and later in his life for his use of prefabrication –– trucking in premade components to assemble on site rather than building a house from scratch. While many view prefab houses as of lower quality or being less considered in their design, Kappe saw the potential for prefabrication to lower the cost of construction and make high end design more affordable and accessible to more people. It simply required a talented and attentive architect like Kappe to imbue premade components with the same feeling of singular intention found in a designer home. For Kappe, architecture served not to create an aesthetically striking building but to support an ideal way of living. Kappe's Last Home - made with prefabricated materials and constructed in 18 hours. Before his death in 2019, one of Kappe’s final projects was in designing a prefab house that became the first ever home to receive LEED Platinum certification, the highest mark for environmental sustainable building design. Ray and Shelly Kappe Kappe Residence Exterior and Carport Kappe giving a lecture to students at SCI-Arc. When Kappe founded the school alongside professors at Cal Poly Pomona, he said he wanted to create a
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Photographer Leslie Williamson steps into the Pacific Palisades home of this iconic Californian architect.
Ray Kappe's own home exemplifies his style: multi-leveled, woodsy, dramatic, incorporating nature, and often hiding the entryway. Photo by Dave Weinstein, 2009
Ray Kappe relaxes in the central living space, which offers views onto other shared family zones. Behind him is a view down into his office. Half a level up, Shelly Kappe stands at the entrance to the upper family room. Photo 1 of 12 in Ray Kappe-Designed Multilevel House in Los Angeles.
Rummaging through the internet late last night I found myself admiring the work of two creatives in one project, the first being Californian architect Ray Kappe and the second photographer Joao Canziani. I actually found this wonderful set that explores the family home of Ray Kappe sitting within the arcives over at Dwell, which as always is the perfect stop for any design ...
Blog post about Los Angeles architect Ray Kappe, whose papers reside at the Getty Research Institute.
A modern masterpiece of glass and redwood, the home of architect Ray Kappe is often referenced as one of the greatest residences in Southern California, looks much the same today as it did a half-century ago—a contemporary extension of the early SoCal glass-house tradition, begun decades earlier by architects like Rudolph Schindler, Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, and Harwell Hamilton Harris.
[Photos by Elizabeth Daniels] How about a little loveliness to get you through the holiday? This is the Rustic Canyon home of Ray and Shelly Kappe, designed by architect/SCI-Arc founder Ray back...
Architects: Ray KappeArea: 444 m² (4,775 ft²)Year: 1970Renovation: 2012Photography: Michael La Fetra, Julius ShulmanClient: Leonard Gertler & Judith
Kappe House Precedent Study by Betsy Jean Cole
From the Publisher: The April 2016 issue of a+u introduces 18 works by 12 architects from around the world. The issue begins with one of the...
Professor Ray Kappe House. Now you know.Added: A wonderful anecdote about a Kappe House visit from the U of Toronto weblog (see bottom).
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Ray Kappe's houses can come across as quirky. Space in a Kappe home is layered and complex. His houses tend to be many-leveled, complete with half steps, with each level open to the others, visua
Los Angeles architect Ray Kappe built a multilevel house for his family back in 1967, and the results still resonate today.
