jerome byron's 23 sqm timber guesthouse in LA takes its cues from children's treehouses

located in los feliz, a hillside neighborhood in los angeles, the ‘monon guesthouse’ by jerome byron takes its cues from the treehouses and fort-building days of childhood. the 23 sqm (245 sq foot) timber dwelling is designed to spark creativity and imagination for both the husband and wife, an entrepreneur and writer, and their two young children. nestled in a wild and graphic garden of cacti and grasses shaped by local LA office terremoto, the small, geometric structure serves as an extension of the family’s main, hillside property.all images by luke sirimongkhon

the site at the back of the los feliz family property was first approached by terremoto, and re-imagined to be a wild and graphic garden of cacti and grasses. the local LA office then reached out to jerome byron, who began to dream of a childlike, treehouse structure – a kind of garden folly for kids and parents at the back of the garden. the ‘monon guesthouse’ takes shape as a small dwelling with clean lines and unusual proportions that closely follows the initial sketch. ‘inspired by the treehouses and fort-building days of childhood, its geometries are both simple and surrealistic, squares, circles, a 45-degree roof, a precocious kid’s sketch of a playhouse come to life,’ notes byron.

the californian architect-designer developed the project around primary geometries but with an interior, spatial complexity. cedar decking connects the client’s existing home, an exterior hot tub and a set of stairs that leads up to the guesthouse site. the same material then crawls up and around the structure itself as a vertically oriented cladding with an open-joint cladding system. a large sliding wood door takes users within the plywood-clad interior, whose ground level encloses an office nook that overlooks the backyard; a built-in couch with mohair cushions; and the client’s two vintage pinball machines.

a big, yellow, detachable ladder leads up the loft level, which features a daybed that converts into a guest bed and an elevated view across the hot tub and garden. a large circular window is playfully eclipsed by a large noguchi globe pendant – ‘a circle within a circle that emphasizes the theme of primary forms,’ as jerome byron explains. at night, the plants cast wild shadows against the playhouse while the noguchi lamp shines like a soft, captured moon.