Sisters is a proposal for the resurrection and re-appropriation of the notably Richard Neutra-designed and Ayn Rand-occupied, Josef von Sternberg house, in Northridge, California. Originally built in 1935 and demolished in 1971, the veritable estate originally envisioned on “a distant meadow” originally included just one primary bedroom and several servant quarters. Taking this project as our starting point, which serves as a sort of archetype for the heroic single family, individualistic American dream, we set about plotting a reversal of power. From one residence, the proposal carves four, which encircle shared spaces devoted to community, education and agricultural self-sufficiency. The original house is reconstructed as a glass greenhouse at the center of it all, with the building’s original rooms quite literally exploded across the site into discreet units, affording its residents the formal experience of the single family typology while living and working in community.

Like the three sister crops, the units in this project are envisioned as socially supportive, typologically diverse, and ecologically aligned. We designed the project’s three programmatic considerations in a parallel sisterhood: The Communal, The Sustainable, and The Spatial.