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Inside a House Built Into the Ground With a Secret Sanctuary (House Tour)

ByMyProperty Life

Inside a house built into the ground with a secret sanctuary, Prime House reveals an immersive residential experience shaped by land, light and ritual. Located in Ojai, Southern California, the home is embedded into its site, presenting only subtle clerestory glimpses from the street before unfolding into a deeply grounded and contemplative environment. Designed by architect Samantha Mink, the project reflects both a personal memory of shared retreat and a broader architectural exploration of immersion and retreat.

Approach is defined by descent. From street level, a stairway leads downward into a concrete vestibule, setting the tone for a house that prioritises transition and threshold. Upon entry, the architecture opens dramatically towards a mature oak tree, anchoring the home visually and emotionally. This immediate connection to nature establishes a sense of transportive calm, a defining quality inside a house built into the ground with a secret sanctuary.

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Concrete forms the structural backbone of the project, paired with Douglas fir, stainless steel and water. These materials are left largely exposed, valued for their inherent strength and honesty. The main living and kitchen spaces sit alongside the oak tree, while the primary bedroom and bathroom open onto a private garden. Rotating mirrors and carefully framed views allow shifting perspectives, reinforcing the idea of movement through space without excess.

Water plays a central architectural role, acting as both divider and connector. A pool wraps around the home, physically separating the main residence from the studio wing while visually unifying the project. A waterfall descends from a concrete tower, feeding a channel that leads to a sunken hot tub – the home’s hidden sanctuary. At the base of the tower, this space becomes acoustically charged, with reverberating sound amplifying its sense of enclosure and retreat. It is here that we see inside a house built into the ground with a secret sanctuary at its most literal.

The studio wing mirrors the main house in materiality while offering a more introspective atmosphere. Sunken living areas, a dining space and bathing zones tucked beneath stairways reinforce the idea of inhabitation below ground, where protection and privacy are prioritised over display. Landscape design by Terremoto and Sushwala Hedding acts as a buffer between house and street, with meadow planting on one side and lush gardens on the other, allowing the home to recede into its surroundings.

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Through its careful orchestration of descent, enclosure and landscape, inside a house built into the ground with a secret sanctuary becomes an architectural meditation on retreat, where protection and openness coexist in quiet balance. Despite its monumental presence, the house maintains an intimate scale, using perception rather than size to create a sense of expansiveness.

For Samantha Mink, the oak tree remains the emotional centre of the home, visible from nearly every room and serving as a constant point of orientation. Prime House stands as a study in perseverance, material restraint and spatial immersion. Inside a house built into the ground with a secret sanctuary demonstrates how architecture can dissolve boundaries between building and landscape, offering a place not only to live, but to disappear into.

00:00 – Introduction to A House Built Into the Ground
01:00 – The Brief and Inspiration
01:31 – Walkthrough of the Home
02:11 – Unique Design Aspects
03:02 – Landscaping and Development
04:55 – Primary Material Palette
05:38 – Surprising Aspects
06:11 – Proud Moments

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Photography by Pablo Veiga.
Architecture by Samantha Mink.
Build by Steve Schneider and Andrew Stasse.
Landscape design by Terremoto and Sushwala Hedding.
Filmed and edited by O&Co. Homes.
Production by The Local Production.

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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