Original carving
On a sliver of hillside in Oakland, architect Charles Debbas sculpted a house for his family. Elegant, bold, and naturally cooled, the new structure seems to float in place between land and sky.It took Charles Debbas two decades to build his dream house. Now completed after a pair of false starts, his new residence is more than he could ever have imagined. “I had always wanted to build my family a house in the Oakland Hills, to take in the infinite views to the west,” says the founder of 20-year-old Debbas Architecture in Berkeley. Not only was the property in “one of the most prized locations in the world,” he says, but the narrow, steep site—almost vertical in places, with houses on both sides—presented an exciting challenge. The result is a subtle and very private 3,200-square-foot, four-bedroom structure built into the hillside, with the roof discreetly below street level. Neighbors walking their dogs in the morning or taking an evening stroll can still enjoy uninterrupted views of the bay over the house.
Debbas, who grew up in Lebanon and came to study architecture at UC Berkeley in 1978, started looking for properties in the Oakland Hills in the 1980s. After the horrific fire of ’91, he redoubled his search. “I knew the lots with the best views would be the first to be acquired, even when the hills were still covered in ash,” he says. Three years later, he became the owner of a lot just 50 feet wide that plunges down to a large, flat garden planted with olive trees. Over the next 12 years, he designed—and quickly discarded—two “very experimental” structures for the site. “It was important to integrate the house effortlessly into this sliver of land,” he says. “In the end, I planned a structure that is as simple and true to the land as possible. I did not want to make a statement or design something trendy that would date quickly.”
The arc of windows slashed through the building’s side follows the upward curve of the living room ceiling. The exterior of the house is clad in Dutch-made, fire-resistant, resin-composite panels, which are extremely durable and crafted of sustainable materials. They are installed centimeters away from the house’s exterior structure, thereby allowing moisture to evaporate and preventing staining.
In the concept at which Debbas finally arrived, each room has a terrace, a balcony, and access to the garden or an enclosed courtyard, and most rooms have grand expanses of windows for viewing the scene outside. Beside the front entrance, Debbas created a sheltered garden terrace containing a wood fireplace with a concrete surround. The terrace opens to the house through large, pivoting, cherry-framed doors that slide and fold to open up the space and make the walls seem almost invisible at times. From a steel and glass-railed balcony that appears to float beyond the top-floor living room, the family can see San Francisco’s sparkling nightscape in the distance—and sometimes the Sutro Tower through a fog bank on the horizon. The green carpet of tree-lined East Bay streets is visible below. Merged with the slope, the lowest level of the three-story house has direct access to the olive tree–shaded garden, which offers glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The top floor, which includes the living room, the dining area, and a breakfast bar, has bay views on three sides. A balcony that opens from the sitting area offers expansive vistas from the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge in the south to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge in the north. The armchairs are by Ligne Roset, the sofa is by B&B Italia, and the ceiling was crafted of European beech panels.
Debbas’s palette of materials is both simple and rich, with beech panels floating in the living room ceiling, and Brazilian cherry floors throughout the first level. “A modern house does not need to be cold and alienating,” says Debbas. “Natural materials add a familiar note.” Though the design is modern, the various woods the architect selected give the house character, making it feel warm, quiet, and intimate, and neither stark nor vacant.
Debbas avoided the temptation of vast so-called picture windows. Instead, he framed his west-facing walls with a series of aluminum-framed sliding doors, glass-railed balconies, and Douglas fir–framed pivoting windows that all offer complete temperature control and superb light modulation. Debbas wanted to sculpt the light by carving the sides of the house with glass, turning the structure into a sundial of sorts, with the rays “constantly redefining the character of the house, day to day and hour by hour,” the architect says.
In many ways, the house design is informed by Debbas’s days at UC Berkeley’s department of architecture. The structure nestles into the earth, and shades that jut over the western windows prevent direct sun and heat from entering the house. The family never uses air-conditioning. “As students back when solar design was an integral part of an architect’s education and formation, we dealt in-depth with solar and sustainable issues,” Debbas recalls. “So when I approached this design, as I do all my work, I think those issues weaved, rather than superimposed, their way into the essence of the house.”
Debbas has managed to balance his green concepts with the breathtaking views and challenging setting. In the early morning, the pale blue haze and birdsong in the garden transport the family to the country. “In the early evening, we are mesmerized by the rolling fog, and the changing sunset breaks the postcard stillness of the views,” Debbas says. “Nature draws our full attention—and, for the moment, the house offers us the perfect viewing position.”
Diane Dorrans Saeks is San Francisco’s contributing interior design editor.
Main photo: One result of building the house into the hillside is the consistent temperature it enjoys by being surrounded with earth.
Debbas, who grew up in Lebanon and came to study architecture at UC Berkeley in 1978, started looking for properties in the Oakland Hills in the 1980s. After the horrific fire of ’91, he redoubled his search. “I knew the lots with the best views would be the first to be acquired, even when the hills were still covered in ash,” he says. Three years later, he became the owner of a lot just 50 feet wide that plunges down to a large, flat garden planted with olive trees. Over the next 12 years, he designed—and quickly discarded—two “very experimental” structures for the site. “It was important to integrate the house effortlessly into this sliver of land,” he says. “In the end, I planned a structure that is as simple and true to the land as possible. I did not want to make a statement or design something trendy that would date quickly.”
The arc of windows slashed through the building’s side follows the upward curve of the living room ceiling. The exterior of the house is clad in Dutch-made, fire-resistant, resin-composite panels, which are extremely durable and crafted of sustainable materials. They are installed centimeters away from the house’s exterior structure, thereby allowing moisture to evaporate and preventing staining.
In the concept at which Debbas finally arrived, each room has a terrace, a balcony, and access to the garden or an enclosed courtyard, and most rooms have grand expanses of windows for viewing the scene outside. Beside the front entrance, Debbas created a sheltered garden terrace containing a wood fireplace with a concrete surround. The terrace opens to the house through large, pivoting, cherry-framed doors that slide and fold to open up the space and make the walls seem almost invisible at times. From a steel and glass-railed balcony that appears to float beyond the top-floor living room, the family can see San Francisco’s sparkling nightscape in the distance—and sometimes the Sutro Tower through a fog bank on the horizon. The green carpet of tree-lined East Bay streets is visible below. Merged with the slope, the lowest level of the three-story house has direct access to the olive tree–shaded garden, which offers glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The top floor, which includes the living room, the dining area, and a breakfast bar, has bay views on three sides. A balcony that opens from the sitting area offers expansive vistas from the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge in the south to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge in the north. The armchairs are by Ligne Roset, the sofa is by B&B Italia, and the ceiling was crafted of European beech panels.
Debbas’s palette of materials is both simple and rich, with beech panels floating in the living room ceiling, and Brazilian cherry floors throughout the first level. “A modern house does not need to be cold and alienating,” says Debbas. “Natural materials add a familiar note.” Though the design is modern, the various woods the architect selected give the house character, making it feel warm, quiet, and intimate, and neither stark nor vacant.
Debbas avoided the temptation of vast so-called picture windows. Instead, he framed his west-facing walls with a series of aluminum-framed sliding doors, glass-railed balconies, and Douglas fir–framed pivoting windows that all offer complete temperature control and superb light modulation. Debbas wanted to sculpt the light by carving the sides of the house with glass, turning the structure into a sundial of sorts, with the rays “constantly redefining the character of the house, day to day and hour by hour,” the architect says.
In many ways, the house design is informed by Debbas’s days at UC Berkeley’s department of architecture. The structure nestles into the earth, and shades that jut over the western windows prevent direct sun and heat from entering the house. The family never uses air-conditioning. “As students back when solar design was an integral part of an architect’s education and formation, we dealt in-depth with solar and sustainable issues,” Debbas recalls. “So when I approached this design, as I do all my work, I think those issues weaved, rather than superimposed, their way into the essence of the house.”
Debbas has managed to balance his green concepts with the breathtaking views and challenging setting. In the early morning, the pale blue haze and birdsong in the garden transport the family to the country. “In the early evening, we are mesmerized by the rolling fog, and the changing sunset breaks the postcard stillness of the views,” Debbas says. “Nature draws our full attention—and, for the moment, the house offers us the perfect viewing position.”
Diane Dorrans Saeks is San Francisco’s contributing interior design editor.
Main photo: One result of building the house into the hillside is the consistent temperature it enjoys by being surrounded with earth.
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