Wozland Restoration with ALNO Kitchen

Steven Wozniak, Father of the Personal Computer and co-founder of Apple, created his vision of the smart house, Wozland, in 1980’s at the peak of his Apple involvement.  The 7100 Square foot home was considered by all to be the state of the art in home electronics and computer integration.  If the house wasn’t unusual enough, Steven, with the help of the San Francisco Academy of Science, created an authentic cave replication beneath the house that included a rock and water garden.  In the attic, a three dimensional maze was built for his children. 

Today, Michael Shadman and Larry Willard, have taken on the daunting task of restoring and up-grading this landmark estate to a 21st century masterpiece.  The design team headed by architects Avi Agasi and Amnon Levy focused on preserving the unique features that were a part of the original design by Wozniak while enhancing the unique elements of the home.  The original house consisted of separate spaces connected by corridors.  In the new design by Agasi + Levy, featuring large view windows and skylights, provides for an integrated and open living area that flows directly to the expansive exterior and dramatic mountain views. 

One of the neglected areas in the original design was the kitchen.  This oversight was corrected and the new kitchen is now one of the primary focal points of the home.  The architects wanted a space that would function as a kitchen, while at the same time act as an independent architectural element that would be at home in the overall garden environment of the house.  Working with European Kitchen Design of Palo Alto’s President and ALNO Specialist, Deganit Albalak, the design team chose the clean, modern lines of ALNOSIGN.  The architects felt that this high-gloss lacquer kitchen blended seamlessly into the organic styling of the house, while staying true to Wozniak’s original vision.  

Deganit described the kitchen as “free and easy, open and inviting.  A kitchen without boundaries or barriers, a kitchen free from conventional thought.  The kitchen was designed to be open to the rest of the home and as such it must function on multiple levels, from food preparation to social interaction.  This kitchen was created to blend effortlessly into the living and family areas of the home, it had to impress as well as be useful.  I feel that we successfully archived the delicate balance between form and function. “