To save time while providing a distinctive modern home for our client, the S-Squared team worked closely with a high-end contemporary modular builder to fine-tune our designs to work within the factory’s capabilities. 

Due to the home’s unique angular geometries and high ceilings, about 35% of the structure was built on-site using traditional means and methods. Utilizing prefab units for the rest of the home saved several months of construction time. 

Our clients were thrilled with their impeccably designed 5-bedroom, 5-bath home that was efficiently built using the best of both prefab and site-built design.

This new two-story Craftsman home features a two-car garage and porch-style front patio with tapered columns and stone base. 

The home has an abundance of natural light throughout the day thanks to its copious glazing. At the kitchen nook, windows wrap around three sides, allowing great views into the south-facing backyard.

From wooden floors and stained ceiling beams to carefully detailed wall paneling and coffered ceilings, the refined interior of the home features a high level of attention to detail. 

This home has many highly memorable elements, including a grand fireplace in the double-height living room and a gracious staircase leading up to a loft study. 

Located on a small but prominent corner lot just steps away from Mountain View City Hall, this striking 3-level contemporary home is an exciting addition to the downtown streetscape.

The exterior features dramatic rooflines contrasted with a mix of floor-to-ceiling aluminum windows, smooth white stucco, and western red cedar. Window placement responds to the many existing mature trees on the site.

The residence is split amongst three levels connected by a central stair and elevator, with living and exercise rooms on the ground floor, his/her offices on the upper level sharing a balcony, and family bedrooms in the lower level.

The primary living area features a vaulted ceiling, with a tall wall of glass offering transparency to the private rear yard.

As we worked with our clients to realize their vision for a contemporary new home in Mountain View, we integrated architecture, interiors, furniture, and décor at every step of the process. The end result is a unity of exterior and interior form that is pleasing not only to the eye, but to all of the other senses as well.

Lightly-finished cedar warms the palette, marks the passage of time through natural weathering, and even offers a light aroma of incense. Organic materials used throughout the home are comforting to the touch and pleasing to the eye, and custom furniture design ensures that every element in the home looks and feels like it belongs. 

Our clients requested a single-level, family-friendly design with great light, high ceilings, and easy indoor-outdoor flow. 

The client's request for a traditional style resulted in a carefully balanced yet informal design, where the stateliness of Colonial style columns is offset by playful asymmetry.

In our design, the relative formality of the front gives way to a looser composition at the rear, where large expanses of folding glass doors and windows bring the outside in at the great room, games room, and master suite. A generous outdoor covered patio features a fireplace and comfortable seating for as many as 20 guests.

Set amongst its neighbors of mostly one story 1950's ranch homes, this contemporary single-story design blends into its context with its modest scale and understated front elevation. A skylit foyer leads past two bedrooms and into a spectacular great room with an inverted barrel vaulted ceiling and four-sided clerestory windows of frameless glass.

The arc of the ceiling creates a unique lens-shaped form that rests delicately on slender steel posts, drawing the eye over the boundaries of the property to views of the sky and trees. Integrated roller shades provide sun and glare control when needed.

Since this striking contemporary home is situated on a corner lot, the owners requested we locate the garage facing the intersection to create privacy for the house. Given this prominent location, we used standing seam metal and unique surface treatments to make the garage an object of architectural interest.

The asymmetric gable of the garage is repeated in several different locations on the front, side, and rear elevations, framing views to the exterior. On the interior, these same forms translate into vaulted, light-filled spaces with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling windows and custom linear skylights providing balanced natural light and views throughout the day.

At the rear of the property, the master suite creates a west-facing courtyard anchored by a shimmering lap pool that provides both exercise and visual calm for the homeowners.

We love the challenge of odd-shaped lots, as they are often the driver of interesting forms and spaces. For this cul-de-sac lot in Los Altos with five angled property lines, we created an innovative design with two wings wrapping around a front entry courtyard.

The larger wing contains the garage and a light-filled main living area with high ceilings and a covered rear patio. The second wing features a master suite and four additional bedrooms. The home also has a south facing, triangular below-grade rear patio to bring light and air to the partial basement.

Generous living areas allow the home to function equally well as a hub for social gathering as well as private family life.

Our design for this home on a gently sloping oak-studded parcel in Saratoga, California features clean lines and a crisp white front façade. 

A gracious parking court with textured permeable paving offers great views to the south and introduces a playful water feature that is re-engaged in both the living and great rooms. 

The home has four additional en-suite bedrooms on their own level three feet above the public wing and primary suite,  affording mutual privacy and minimizing site grading.

Inside, a series of portals and terraces frame commanding views at multiple levels. Directly under the master suite is the home's basement fitness center, featuring an indoor pool with walkout patio, gym, and wet and dry saunas.

Our clients came to us with their vision of a light-filled two-story home that would balance requirements for living, working, and entertaining while reflecting their love of contemporary design.

Our response was to create walls of glass opening onto two outdoor spaces: a private rear yard and a contemplative central courtyard designed around a distinctive water feature. 

The home's front facade represents an abstracted yin-yang motif that repeats in the courtyard. A meandering pathway directs visitors to the front door, which opens onto the view of the interior light court.

Two other slot courtyards bring light, air, and greenery further into the house, with layers of glass dissolving the boundaries between interior and exterior space.

Set on an upsloping corner lot in Los Altos, California about 10 feet above street level, this three-level grand Craftsman has a commanding presence. 

The exterior palette features durable and attractive cement fiber shingle siding, natural stone accents, and both natural and painted wooden trim elements. The house also presents an extensive set of windows, drawing in an abundance of natural light and allowing outward views to the wooded site. 

The interior design mixes both formal and rustic elements together per the client’s request. Elegant millwork complements more textural elements, such as stain-grade headers and a rough stone fireplace. 

Overlooking the bucolic rolling foothills of Stanford University's pasture land in Portola Valley, California, this project afforded a unique design opportunity in terms of views and architectural character.

The relatively demure front facade fits in well with the traditional mid-century neighborhood. 

The rear facade shows no such restraint, organizing about a 1.5 story great room and kitchen whose 15-foot tall windows and reverse shed roof capture the verdant greenery beyond the rear fenceline. 

Expansive overhangs shelter outdoor activity areas while reducing heat gain on the glazing line.

Inspired by Santa Barbara’s distinctive flavor of Spanish revival architecture, this whole-house remodel and addition transformed a nondescript cottage into a distinctive Mission-style courtyard home.

This contemporary design was developed around an interior courtyard, with sliding aluminum doors, a decorative rainscreen, and other intricate details.

This contemporary home includes Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired details such as triple windows, deep overhanging eaves, and prominent indoor/outdoor spaces.

Sited on a corner cul-de-sac lot, this stately L-shaped building has separate wings for bedrooms and living areas, abundant natural light, and a gracious covered patio.

This Eichler-inspired contemporary home has large windows and low-slung roofs with deep eaves as well as improved insulation, hydronic heat, and other “green” features.

This striking home features a dramatic gable roof and ample windows and balconies that overlook surrounding oak and redwood trees.

With a crisp exterior featuring front and rear covered porches and an airy interior plan, this stately home feels both classic and contemporary.

This Japanese-inspired design includes an outdoor walkway that connects all the rooms and is sheltered by a dramatic cantilevered roof above.

This family-friendly home includes lofty ceilings, dazzling light fixtures, and extensive use of glass to create an open and bright atmosphere.

This contemporary take on classic Craftsman style features intricate millwork, playful tile and wall colors, and distinctive light fixtures.