A Malibu home designed by architect James Charlton

The lesson of this beach house is that simple materials and forms can produce an exciting structure, and that a small space can be livable.

The frame is simple post and beam. The walls are glass and stucco. The main floor is brick laid dry over a slab. The bedrooms are a balcony above the carport. The patio is brick laid in sand, and sheltered by extensions of the stucco walls.

It is tucked on a narrow beach below cliffs at Malibu, California.