American designer Geoffrey von Oeyen has created a home office in southern California that features wooden exterior walls and a highly abstracted sawtooth roof.

The project, called Case Room, entailed creating a home office for a pair of attorneys living in a two-storey, late-1980s dwelling in the beach city of Malibu. The couple wanted a satellite office where they could not only work privately, but also meet with clients and bring in staff. The extension was constructed at the rear of the L-shaped residence, in a spot formerly occupied by a patio.

Rather than create a simple rectilinear volume, the design team took a sculptural approach. Encompassing 650 square feet (60 square metres), the addition was envisioned "as a series of blocks obliquely sliced and assembled in a descending sequence in section", said designer Geoffrey von Oeyen in a statement. Von Oeyen, who formerly worked for Frank Gehry, runs an eponymous design and architectural practice in Los Angeles.
The extension is topped with an abstracted sawtooth roof, with angular cuts that vary in shape and size. "The serial, symmetrical roof gables, which step down one foot at each progression from the maximum city-defined height limit, align in plan with the major programmatic divisions of the space," the designer said.

The new building is wrapped in dark-toned cedar, which mimics the redwood cladding on the existing dwelling. To separate the office from the home, the team constructed a skyl...