"Steelhouse" was orignally conceived by Swiss-American agps architecture, in connection with an exhibition of the work of the Eames Studio, as a "Case Study" home for the 21st century. Sustainability and flexible living patterns are the operative design concepts behind the resulting newly completed home.

Construction materials are exposed and expressed without compromise, their placement guided by geometric discipline and thermal function. Recycled fly-ash concrete makes up the walls of the lower level, which is earth-sheltered for natural insulation. Aluminum windows and doors around the entire perimeter admit abundant daylight to minimize the demand for electric lighting. Dual-glazed for insulation and operable for ventilation, glass is protected from the heat of the sun by overhanging solar collectors and roll down shade screens on a cantilevered steel frame.

The rigorous structure yields a multiplicity of functional options and architectural amenities. While conventional room arrangements are available (3 bedrooms 3 baths), the plan is configured to encourage combining interior volumes in an array of creative alternatives for sleeping, entertaining, studio, office and gallery uses. With a contiguous flat private yard at the rear and a room-sized deck off the living room, the house is perched above the street, high in the Hollywood Hills, wide open on three sides to canyon, mountain, city and ocean views. Convenient by car to several neighborhood shopping areas, with easy access to hiking trails and off-leash dog park Runyon Canyon.

This home typifies the dynamic and responsive architecture of Sarah Graham and Marc Angelil, who practice and teach internationally and have been recognized with numerous awards for their widely published commercial, institutional and residential structures. The house is set in a water-wise landscape and is designed to heat and cool itself without fossil fuels by passive means, and to generate its own hot water and electrical power using thermal and photovoltaic solar collectors, a sustainable and elegant machine for living.