Trellis House
Location
Los Angeles, California, US
Client
Private
Typology
Residential
Status
Permit Phase
Size
8 units | 16,503 sq. ft.
Architects
M-Rad Inc.
Design Team: Matthew Rosenberg; James Hughes, AIA, LEED GA, NCARB; Kristy Velasco, AIA, NCARB; Roberto Ortiz de Landazuri; Margerie Bonnet; Etienne Serveau
collaborators
Structural Engineers: NOUS Engineering
Civil Engineers: CalLand Engineering
Landscape Architects: NAVA Landscape Architecture
MEP: S Y Lee Associates
Trellis House is a small-lot residential development in Atwater Village, conceived as a contemporary response to Los Angeles’ evolving patterns of urban infill. Located near the Los Angeles River and Griffith Park, the project introduces new housing density while maintaining a strong relationship to landscape, walkability, and the scale of the surrounding neighborhood. Rather than presenting itself as a single monolithic object, the architecture is organized as a cluster of individual volumes that together form a compact yet porous residential ensemble.
The project is structured around a series of unit clusters arranged along a shared internal drive, allowing each home to maintain a strong sense of individuality while participating in a collective composition. This fragmentation of mass helps break down the overall scale of the development and creates a rhythm of solids and voids across the site. The result is a neighborhood-like atmosphere in which circulation, access, and open space are carefully choreographed to balance privacy and community.
The architectural identity of the project is defined by a trellis-inspired structural framework that wraps the buildings and supports climbing vegetation. This lattice becomes both a formal and environmental device, softening the massing and transforming the facade into a living, evolving surface. As the volumes shift and step, they generate balconies, terraces, and planted edges that extend domestic space outward and create a layered relationship between interior, exterior, and landscape.
Landscape plays a central role in shaping both the spatial experience and the environmental performance of the project. More than 75% of the planting palette is composed of native species, creating a resilient and locally rooted ecosystem while improving privacy and microclimate. At the top, a shared roof terrace reinforces the project’s communal dimension, positioning Trellis House as a model for small-scale, high-quality urban housing where architecture, nature, and community are tightly interwoven.