Hidden Glade by EKVA | ArchiPro US

We experience the home not as distinct environments, but as a singular cohesive space shaped by the place and its hosts. Furniture, landscape, and architecture were conceived together, creating a seamless indoor-outdoor living experience, reflecting the idealized vision of Mediterranean climate living.

Title:: Hidden Glade
Architect:: EKVA
Category:: Residential/; New Builds
Completed:: 2026
Price range:: $2m - $3m
Building style:: Modern
Photographers:: Thomas Story

Amid Los Altos’ effortless natural beauty, the home turned inward, disconnected from the landscape just beyond its walls. The garden, the trees, the sky, the birds would be equally a part of the house and daily activities as the hallway, kitchen and sitting rooms. Our natural house concept begins at the entry. Instead of tacking a statement piece onto the facade, we pulled green spaces into the footprint of the home, creating a porch carved as a void from the mass. Clad in charred wood, and flanked by billowing desaturated grasses, the darkened entry portal creates the impression that space has been removed from the building and given back to nature. The glazed roof opens to the sky flooding the otherwise shadowed space with natural light. On axis with the entry, a second void, punctuated by a large picture window framing a Japanese maple.

At the center of the home, the kitchen’s vaulted heavy timber structure with a full glass façade faces the garden, framing 200-year-old redwoods and inviting you to walk down the planted steps to the basalt dining patio.

The remaining gathering spaces are connected through generous openings to a shaded outdoor lounge.

Small apparently disconnected spaces were taken as opportunities to creatively introduce daylight and experience the outdoors. The powder room is accessed through a secret door hidden in a paneled wall, proceeding into a dark ebonized wood and noir stone mud room in stark contrast to the sun-bleached powder where the entire ceiling is glazed providing an unobstructed view of the cinematic sky.

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The home’s layout naturally supports a clear circulation route for tour guests. Visitors enter through the front porch and proceed through the main entryway, and can either explore the kitchen, mudroom and powder, leading into the ADU, or they can explore the living room, dining room and primary suite bed and the bedroom wing of the home. Each of the spaces within the house leads to the backyard whether it be the kitchen, ADU, dining/living room, or bedroom wing via a central playroom. A variety of outdoor spaces, including a lounge deck, outdoor dining and cooking, and a firepit area set within a grove of redwoods, further define the indoor/outdoor procession through a seamless circular path.

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Professionals used

EKVA

Architects

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EKVA. At EKVA we believe in the power of design to shape and impact communities, lifestyles, and emotional experiences. Spaces are crafted with more than the end result in mind — the shared journey is just as important to us. From elegantly hosted meetings to ongoing engagement, we nurture an understanding behind each choice and detail. Your purpose is our priority. EKVA is an architecture firm founded by married couple Dinesh Perera and Katie Handy. They met over 20 years ago in the Architecture Program at UC Berkeley. Working together as architects began by collaborating on a wide variety of design competitions. Katie and Dinesh explored different visions and began to understand how their designs could influence our world. A strong, well-rounded, and unified sensibility was built from their synergy. Ekva is a Sinhala word and acknowledgement of Dinesh's roots in Sri Lanka. In Sinhalese, ekva means "create together" and "join together." EKVA is a team of professionals and visionaries. Our collective expertise brings a diverse and open-minded approach to projects that value the bigger picture. Join us, and let's create together.