For a writer, the perfect work space is simpler than that of many creative professionals. Authors primarily need two things: solitude and a view. For those wordsmiths fortunate enough to be accepted into the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, both aspects are readily supplied by a collection of stunning, solar-powered, live-work studios set amidst the beautiful Northern California wilderness.
Interior walls are white to avoid competing with the scenery. The interior floors were constructed from materials from the architects’ sample library; combined, they create an enticing patchwork pattern. All building materials exceed the recommended guidelines of California’s Build It Green program.
Daylighting, and a window to the sky, is provided by rectangular holes in the steel canopy, which then align with skylights in the cabins. The strategic placement of studio doors, which face southwest, allow for passive solar gain, which naturally warms the spaces and their inhabitants, who may not be accustomed to the cool climate and fog.
Program founder Carl Djerassi commissioned the project as a memorial to his late wife, Diane Middlebrook, an American biographer and professor at Stanford University. When architect Cass Calder Smith, a childhood friend of Djerassi’s son, was brought on board, Smith was immediately awed by the property, 500 acres of rolling hills overlooking the Pacific Coast near the town of Woodside. “I knew the studios had to look out over that landscape,” Smith says.
Long an inspiration for America’s greatest authors, the Pacific coast is highly visible thanks to building siting that provides uninterrupted views toward the southwest. The northeast-facing sides contain clerestory windows angled toward the surrounding ridge lines and trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The four one-room studios are grouped together but skewed a few degrees from one another, which gives the arrangement a casual appearance and allows privacy for the visiting writers. This informality contrasts with the rigidity of the freestanding steel canopy above, which supports a solar array that is tilted to optimize the panels’ southwestern exposure.
The nature of the Diane Middlebrook Studios—280-square-foot units that are available to artists of all stripes but cater especially to the needs of writers—drove the design. “I was inspired by the need for both privacy and interaction,” says Smith, principal and CEO of CCS Architecture, which has offices in San Francisco and New York City. “Each studio contains a certain degree of privacy to provide the selective isolation that a writer would want. But I also wanted them to be a collective.”
“I was inspired by the need for both privacy and interaction,” says architect Cass Calder Smith. “I wanted them to be a collective.”
The four one-room studios are noticeably skewed a few degrees from each other, breaking the idea of uniformity. However, they are conceptually and physically connected by a canopy roof that spans all four studios. Atop that roof is a solar array—paid for by a private donor—that provides most of the studios’ electrical needs. The strategic positioning of studio doors toward the southwest reduces energy consumption, and sleeping nooks are situated behind the working areas, farthest away from the light. Altogether, the project is a tangible memorial to its namesake, a woman who revered the work of artists and produced her own reverential work.
