Inspired by everyone from Kazuo Shinohara to David Lynch, Australian architect Richard Stampton turns a dilapidated 1920s cottage into a luminous home.
Soon after arriving in Los Angeles from Australia in 2019, architect Richard Stampton set out on foot to take in the landscape and the pink and gold Southern California light.
Redwood siding lends an organic texture to the exterior of architect Richard Stampton’s Los Angeles home. “We wanted to slowly gain some presence in the community and not come in swinging,” Richard says of redoing the existing 1920s bungalow on the site. “It was a more sensitive approach that was required in a neighborhood where people had been living for a long time.”
Photo: Rory Gardiner
Mostly searching for a fixer-upper, he and his wife found a wreck of a house on a hillside site in Silver Lake. Sizing up the 1920s structure and the orange, fig, and lemon trees, he saw what it could be. “Underneath the extraneous structures was a beautiful L.A. cottage,” he says.
Three shades of yellow paint bring warmth to the interiors. Before moving to Southern California, Richard read filmmaker David Lynch’s recollection of the “inspiring and energizing” light on his first morning in Los Angeles. “I wanted to capture that experience,” he says.
Photo: Rory Gardiner
On visits to Japan, Richard was taken with the work of architect Kazuo Shinohara, who’d designed a home with a tentlike roof. “I didn’t set out to make the interior here look like a tent,” Richard says, “but friends have told me, ‘You love disappearing into the wilderness and staying in a tent, and you’ve made your house look like one.’”
Photo: Rory Gardiner
See the full story on Dwell.com: This Australian Architect’s Silver Lake House Is a Love Letter to Los Angeles
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