24 DESIGN OC FALL | WINTER 2020

BOOK

SPACE, MATERIALITY, AND LIGHT by KARINE MONIÉ

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fter receiving a Bachelor of Environmental Design from Texas A&M University, working at Stephen Miller Siegel in New York City and with Preston T. Phillips in Bridgehampton, and completing an internship at Norman Foster’s office in London, Scott Mitchell continued his studies at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) before establishing Scott Mitchell Studio in Los Angeles in 1999.

His first book, Scott Mitchell Houses, recently published by Rizzoli, reflects Mitchell’s warm modernist and material-driven aesthetic through eight projects around the world. Two hundred color illustrations and photos grace the volume’s 272 pages, which comprise a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger, a contribution by fashion designer Calvin Klein, and an essay by architecture and design writer and author Michael Webb.

Mitchell’s sense of order, atmosphere of calm, and humanistic approach—which was influenced by a number of sources, including his relationships with architects Richard Meier and Charles Gwathmey, the work of Louis I. Kahn and Rudolph M. Schindler, and his personal experiences in Japan, Jordan, Australia and the American Southwest—is visually translated by the use of concrete, glass and steel.

Through every space he designs—including the iconic restaurant Nobu Malibu—Mitchell plays with materiality and light, and connects the built and natural environments through monolithic forms that frame cinematic vistas.

Left: Photo by Trevor Mein / Courtesy of Scott Mitchell Studio

Right: Photo by Scott Frances / Courtesy of Scott Mitchell Studio

Inset: Scott Mitchell Houses, book cover. Photo by Scott Frances / Courtesy of Scott Mitchell Studio

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