It’s All About the Landscapes at These 9 Marmol Radziner–Designed Houses

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.

Greenery meets architecture at this house in Pacific Palisades, California.
Greenery meets architecture at this house in Pacific Palisades, California.
Photo: Benny Chan Ward
In Desert Hot Springs, California, this prefabricated house is wide open to the landscape.
In Desert Hot Springs, California, this prefabricated house is wide open to the landscape.
Photo: David Glomb
This prefabricated house is set in the middle of the wilderness near Moab, Utah.
This prefabricated house is set in the middle of the wilderness near Moab, Utah.
Photo courtesy of Marmol Radziner
While many of Marmol Radziner’s projects are set in remote places, Villa Amsterdam is located in a suburb of the Dutch capital.
While many of Marmol Radziner’s projects are set in remote places, Villa Amsterdam is located in a suburb of the Dutch capital.
Photo: Ossip van Duivenbode
The Benvenuto Court ski lodge has perfectly framed views out of each window.
The Benvenuto Court ski lodge has perfectly framed views out of each window.
Photo: Richard Powers
The desert becomes part of the bathroom at this home in La Quinta, California.
The desert becomes part of the bathroom at this home in La Quinta, California.
Photo: Roger Davies
In Beverly Hills, California, this Marmol Radziner work exudes midcentury flair.
In Beverly Hills, California, this Marmol Radziner work exudes midcentury flair.
Photo: Roger Davies
It seems as if the sycamore trees of Los Angeles’s Mandeville Canyon are the walls of this home.
It seems as if the sycamore trees of Los Angeles’s Mandeville Canyon are the walls of this home.
Photo: Trevor Tondro
Site: Marmol Radziner in the Landscape. © 2019 Marmol Radziner, published by Princeton Architectural Press.
Site: Marmol Radziner in the Landscape. © 2019 Marmol Radziner, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest