Modern Zen Mountain House / Calabasas, California
The Sunken Rooftop Deck
On the top of the world
The sky is a view, too. Every house has one, yet it is almost always overlooked. At the Modern Zen Mountain House in Calabasas, California, a sunken deck is set into the planted roof of the View Room: a place for cool evenings around the fire pit, for stargazing, or for watching the lights of the valley below.
A private mountaintop
Sunk below the planted roof, the deck is sheltered from the wind and screened from the neighbors while staying open to the sky in every direction. Lounge seating circles the fire, and planting surrounds it, so from above the deck reads as a garden with a hearth at its center. It feels like a private mountaintop within the city.
Getting there
The deck is reached from the pool terrace below or from the home’s second level, by steps lit for evening use, so it extends both the outdoor living areas and the private rooms upstairs.
