There’s no mistaking the fact that this pale blue residence is home to a basketball enthusiast. After all, the first thing you see from the curb is a cantilevered volume stretching out a hoop over a painted court on the driveway. Even if architect Stephane Malka hadn’t named it “Dunk House,” it probably would’ve ended up with that nickname around its Manhattan Beach, California neighborhood, anyway. This bold front-and-center placement pays homage to the Los Angeles street basketball tradition and announces to the world that the home belongs to an unnamed retired pro basketball player.

From there, the home’s identity gets less literal, but no less gorgeous. “Dunk House” is really a love letter to LA, defined first and foremost by its color. Malka created a special shade of “Los Angeles Blue” just for this application, explaining that the polarized paint interacts “with the various solar luminosities, and automatically adjusts its color to match the Californian sky’s tones, merging the house with its surrounding.” This gives the home a “contemporary stealth camouflage” that makes it less obtrusive in the landscape, merging almost seamlessly into its surroundings.
That camouflage continues from the main house to the mirrored guest home in the backyard, which reflects all the lovely sky blue as well as the adjacent palm trees and the swimming pool that stretches between the two building...