The A+M House, also known as the “shape-shifting” home, has a guitar-shaped base that morphs into a rectangle at the top. The smaller base leaves more space in the yard for gardening, walking, and parking. The building sits on a 2,400-square-foot property a block from the beach.
Eric Owen Moss, the home’s architect, told The Epoch Times the “A” stands for his daughter Addison, and the “M” for his son Miller. It also has another meaning.
“A.M. stands for morning, when the sun comes up and people smile and say good morning, and good things happen,” said Moss, who lived in the home with his family for two years.
Built in 2022, the building consists of three floors plus a rooftop.
“The house is really divided, not on the ground floor, but on the second and third floor, between the north end and the south end. And there’s a stair and a bridge between the two,” he said.
From the glass-walled stairwell, one can see the Santa Monica Canyon landscape.
The unique home has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, and a combination living room and theater where the floor slopes up to the walls at the perimeter. The theater seating area is sloped up with three benches on it, complete with cushioning, facing a fold-down screen where Moss’s kids would play games and watch movies.
Each bedroom has its own bathroom and large storage closet. Two of the bedrooms have loft spaces for friends or guests.
Most of the home is made of wood, with very little steel. Moss used a software called Rhino to design and render the house digitally.
“You give the software to a fabricator who makes the wood, and the software tells the fabricator how to make the sticks. And the sticks are all different. Every stick in the house is different because the walls curve as they go from the bottom to the top. So there are very few conventional straight pieces of lumber. But because of the software, it’s relatively easy to do,” Moss said.
The exterior is coated with an industrial material called polyurea that is gray when applied, and later turns green. It’s sprayed on in layers and accommodates the curved shape of the structure. The waterproof material is often used on stadium roofs.
Moss decided to put the home on the market for rent, because he wants to live in his apartment that is closer to where he works. However, he said he could live in the house forever, recalling moments when he sat with friends to barbecue on the roof deck overlooking the ocean.
“I would say the proximity to the ocean is a big appeal for me—seeing it, swimming in it, looking at it, and just going up and down the bike path, which adjoins the beach, which adjoins the ocean. I think that’s a big asset.”
