Architects' House in San Francisco33 photos

Working on the Switchback private home project, architects Vivian Li and Robert Edmonds of Edmonds + Lee Architects had the opportunity to discuss with each other day and night about the ideal fixtures and best window frames, and also gained that special freedom that comes from realizing they already have enough experience to build their dream home.

While urban society tends to isolate itself from San Francisco, protecting families from potential aggressive impacts of the urban environment, the architects instead wanted to create an apotheosis of dense spatial arrangement, yet the space feels light, airy, spacious, and open.

Designers' familiarity with shared architectural constraints set their priorities: partitions made of simple drywall, a staircase from painted steel, vanities crafted from cast artificial stone, and most details made from readily available materials.

The key to this home lies in the fact that it was built by people who truly live within a budget, who are invested in construction within that budget, who face financial and design limitations and embrace them to create creative and aesthetically convincing solutions.