For this private residence in Los Angeles, we replaced the existing covered patio with a new automated louvered roof, opening the family room, dining room, and living room onto the pool and yard beyond. The scope was contained to the house's rear elevation and existing covered patio; the rest of the residence was untouched.

The new patio cover is a 625-square-foot steel-framed lattice roof — a motorized, spaced-roof assembly — carried on slender Kynar-clad steel columns and beams that read as a single continuous datum along the back of the house. The beams conceal integrated LED lighting and radiant space heaters, so the operable louvers, light, and warmth work together, letting the owners tune shade and comfort through the day and into the evening, and close the roof fully against rain. Beneath it, we added a new outdoor kitchen with a solid-surface counter, sink, and built-in barbecue; a cast-in-place concrete fire and water feature; new stone-paved stairs to the upper patio; and a steel-and-glass guardrail at the raised terrace edge.

The governing move was opening the ground floor to the yard: we replaced three existing openings at the family room, dining room, and living room with floor-to-ceiling with the Nana Wall SL70 folding glass wall systems, each spanning 15 to 21 feet. The stacked glass panels fold completely out of the way, dissolving the wall between interior and covered patio and putting the pool, sport court, and mature palm and olive plantings on direct axis with the main living spaces.

Landing the new steel structure against the existing two-story, wood-framed house required close coordination with the project's structural engineer to introduce new columns and connections without disturbing the original foundation, and to route the roof's drainage, lighting, and heating circuits beneath the retained floor above. The finished room — dining, lounge, kitchen, and fire feature under one operable, lit, and heated roof — reads as original to the house rather than added onto it.

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