The design for King Roof house took shape by providing answers to two questions. Firstly, rather than using a generic pitch roof, what are the spatial advantages of slopped roofs in creating grandiose and embracing interior spaces? And secondly, how to define a new prototype that would organically be inspired by its surrounding landscape while proposing its own iconic values?

Although in American style houses, the climate reasons like air insulations under the attics or redirection of snow/rain has been the main driver for using pitch roof, the applications of such roofs hardly makes sense in the dry climate of southern California.

The King Roof, however, house is pushing the idea of slopped roof towards creating double curvature and planar composition of roof surfaces and more interior grandiose space. As a result of the need of integrated continuation of roofs to walls, they frame the openings and views towards their front hill-type horizons. The semi modular formations of the roofs also define a smooth transition between public spaces and private rooms.

The adjacent hills of Honky dory in Orange County California were the formal inspiration for creating the composition of the roofs.  Through the design process the geometry of the roof particularly made more sense when the prospective residents of the house, who are the family roofing contractor called KING ROOFING, were interested in putting their signature stamp on the area. Therefore, the steel-framed roof is composed of series of semi-planar and double curvature surfaces which dictates the language of the geometry to also define the shape of the wall and lower windows.

It is within the power of an integrated dialogue between the interior and exterior space that the King Roof House offers a prototype that maintains the essence of American-style houses while proposing their other advantages like none-attic embracing space within the culture of and antiquated roof style immersed in a southern Californian hills.

  • Location: Hunky Dory Lane, Trabuco Canyon, Orange County, California, USA

  • Client: King Roofing

  • Architects: Qastic Lab.

  • Principals in charge: Azin Babakhanlou, Mahdi Alibakhshian

  • Design Team: Patricia Bathola, Nguon Keat Tiv,  Ning Yi, Taraneh Iranpour, Soroush Sasanian, Clair van der Swan, Connor Van Cleave, Farzad Farahani, Maryam Laleh, Mahdi A.Bakhshian

  • Design Consultants: Azin Babakhanlou - Mohamad Momenabdai

  • Structural Engineering: Nast Enterprises

  • Civil:  Proactive Engineering Consultants

  • Area: 6300 SQF

  • Project Year: 2017-Present

  • Status: Design Development / On the Boards