California-based studio Donaldson + Partners has designed a circular house partially embedded in the landscape with large concrete parabolic arches in Montecito, California.
Seven years in the making, the 14,000-square foot (1,300-square metre) house is sunken into a four-acre lot between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, outside Santa Barbara.
Donaldson + Partners has created a submerged, concrete house in California
Robin Donaldson, founder of Donaldson + Partners, envisioned a "house for the twenty-first century" for a pair of artists that tests the relationship between landscape, art and experience.
"We were inspired by the combination of incredible site and visionary clients to keep pushing the design, which resulted in a house that both emerges from and is part of the landscape; that acts as backdrop to both the rhythms of daily life and two vibrant art practices; and that entirely redefines what we imagine a house could be," Donaldson told Dezeen. The project was seven years in the making
Donaldson worked closely with the owner to design the circular structure so that it  "emerges from and burrows into the landscape."
Topped with solar panels and a landscaped rock garden roof, the concrete and glass house is accessed by a suspended metal walkway that approaches a semi-circular door and a "wormhole" entry into the house.
Different areas are carved out of the main body to create parabolic arches
Inside, a great roo...