2021 RDAA | Renovation | Translucence House | Fougeron Architecture

In a city celebrated for its quality of light, Anne Fougeron’s buildings take translucence to a new level. As the house name implies, her renovation swept clean a 1960s floor plan and its messy additions, opening it dramatically to the secluded double lot overlooking the city and bay. Taking a surgical approach, she broke apart the existing box, saving half of the exterior and interior walls, and added a 500-square-foot glass living and dining pavilion that pushes out toward the view.

Anne says the design was inspired by California’s Light and Space art movement, which explored the way people perceive space. Vertical and horizontal wood slats on the interior and exterior help to diffuse the light, and at the center of the house, a brown-glass stair and bridge shifts from solid to transparent with the changing daylight. “The brown glass is Midcentury Modern and has warmth to it,” she says. “Glass can become very transparent in that space because there’s so much brightness, and having color means you can see it.”

Bits of color are also incorporated in the forest green breakfast room and the furniture. “Once you get all that glass, we try to figure out ways to give the glass some focus and create depth,” she says. “A bright area in front of the eye helps to bring you some sense of pleasure and warmth.” These interventions, combined with solar panels, a Tesla powerwall, and a drought-tolerant landscape, create a house that’s as habitable as it is inventive.

Renovation

Citation

Fougeron Architecture
Translucence House
San Francisco

Project Credits

Architect: Anne Fougeron, FAIA, Fougeron Architecture, San Francisco

Builder: Samantha Burton, Young & Burton, San Francisco

Landscape Architect: Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture, San Francisco

Structural Engineer: Paul Endres, Endrestudio, Emeryville, California

Colorist: Jill Pilaroscia, Colour Studio, San Francisco

Project size: 4,038 square feet

Site size: 0.196 acre

Construction cost: Withheld