Understanding how good design and architecture can impact your wellbeing begins with considering the home as more than shelter – it can be a place of comfort, safety and inspiration that supports a healthy way of living. Assembledge+ demonstrates how architecture and wellbeing can be considered together through spatial planning, materiality and a connection to nature. Led by Los Angeles architect David Thompson, the practice approaches each project through a thoughtful design process that responds to its inhabitants and surroundings. This design masterclass explores how warm modernism and timeless design can shape spaces that feel calm and restorative.
Organised as three pavilions surrounding a courtyard of existing olive trees, this residence demonstrates how good design and architecture can impact your wellbeing through a balance of gathering and retreat. The living, sleeping and guest pavilions establish an open arrangement for communal life while providing opportunities for privacy. This approach to Los Angeles architecture allows spaces to shift between connection and solitude, reinforcing the relationship between architecture and wellbeing.
Natural light is equally fundamental to the residence. Large expanses of north-facing glass welcome diffused natural light, while architectural overhangs help protect other facades from heat gain. These passive strategies inform a sustainable home design that responds directly to the site, sun and climate. For Assembledge+, how good design and architecture can impact your wellbeing is closely tied to understanding these environmental conditions, with natural light helping create interiors that feel open and connected to their setting. It is an approach to sustainable home design that also reflects the ease of Southern Californian indoor-outdoor living.
Glass bridges connect the pavilions, creating transparent transitions that blur the boundary between interior and landscape. This biophilic design approach makes movement through the home feel like movement through the garden, strengthening the connection to nature from one space to the next. Western red cedar and other natural materials bring tactile warmth to the architecture, reinforcing the practice’s warm modernism while supporting a considered material environment. Through indoor-outdoor living, the Los Angeles architect treats landscape as an integral architectural element rather than something separate from the home.
Water, planting and outdoor rooms further demonstrate how good design and architecture can impact your wellbeing. Surrounded by a green perimeter, the residence echoes its broader landscape internally, allowing views towards nature from throughout the house. This connection to nature is central to the project’s biophilic design and its interpretation of Los Angeles architecture, where climate and landscape become active parts of domestic life.
Ultimately, this design masterclass proposes that architecture can positively influence everyday experience through subtle, carefully considered decisions. The project’s warm modernism brings together sustainable home design, indoor-outdoor living and biophilic design without losing sight of comfort or function. In doing so, it offers a clear perspective on how good design and architecture can impact your wellbeing.
0:00 – Establish Connections To The Landscape
2:38 – Integrate Openings For Natural Light
4:09 – Use Eco-conscious Solutions
5:41 – Highlight The Soothing Qualities Of Nature
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Filmed and edited by O&Co. Homes.
Production by The Local Production.
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
The Local Project acknowledges the traditional territories and homelands of the Indigenous peoples in the United States. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our respective countries and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands.
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