Linking indoors and outdoors … seamlessly

Sunset, Feb, 1992 by Daniel P. Gregory

How do you double the apparent size of your condominium living room without actually adding space? Los Angeles architect Ted T. Tanaka solved this architectural riddle by borrowing a technique perfected in Japan and also seen in the work of such acknowledged masters of modern architecture in Southern California as Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra: the seamless linkage of inside and out.

Tanaka treated the living room and patio as a continuous space. A nearly invisible glass wall runs down the center to divide the garden courtyard from the sparely furnished indoor living area, without seeming to enclose either.

When you are inside looking out, a green curtain of bamboo, drawn along the outer edge of the patio, is the single visual boundary for both indoor and outdoor areas.

Consistency in the choice of materials adds to the feeling that the two spaces have fused: floors of both living room and patio are integrally colored, scored black concrete; walls inside and out are white; and indoor and outdoor furniture is limited to simple, black, geometric shapes.

A glass-topped concrete table at one end of the living room reflects dappled light and the leafy shapes of the bamboo--further blurring the line between indoors and out.