Walk-Through: A Bamboo Kitchen Dominates This Super-Green House by Minarc
Lawyers can be skilled at getting what they want. This Los Angeles house’s owners, married attorneys with a newborn, were intent on living super-green. Not finding an existing house that met their standards, the couple bought a ¼-acre lot and commissioned another husband-wife duo, Minarc principals Tryggvi Thorsteinsson and Erla Dögg Ingjaldsdóttir, to start from scratch.
Built with prefab panels manufactured by a company that Thorsteinsson and Ingjaldsdóttir also founded, the 2,500-square-foot structure is sustainable to the max. It also indulges the owners’ love of food and wine. They often invite friends over for meals washed down by vintages from a 1,000-bottle cellar. “This house is basically an excuse for a kitchen,” Ingjaldsdóttir says.
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That kitchen is predominantly sustainable bamboo. On the main run of cabinets, it’s outlined with black recycled rubber, wrapping the top and sides. The island, meanwhile, is wrapped in a composite of quartz. “One of the most abundant materials on earth,” Thorsteinsson notes. But not just any quartz composite—this one is tomato red. Things cool off with a mural showing a glacier in Thorsteinsson and Ingjaldsdóttir’s native Iceland.
Anyone hoping to perch at the island should look closely at its front panels, actually the backs of high stools that virtually disappear when pushed in. Furniture in the adjacent dining area maintains the clean aesthetic, as featherweight aluminum chairs by Frank Gehry surround a glass-topped table. Ditto for the living areas, both indoor and out. The latter boasts chaise longues manufactured from recycled milk jugs.
Bathrooms overflow with eco consciousness. In the powder room, wood scraps stack up to form a vanity supporting a sink in recycled rubber. For a truly back-to-nature experience, right next to the soaking tub in the master bathroom, there’s a lush plant wall.
