Extreme living in Laguna

HGTV’s program “Extreme Living” will showcase the home of Dariouche Showghi, a longtime Laguna Beach resident, at 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

The program highlights homeowners around the country who are living in “unconventional homes in seemingly unlivable and extreme conditions,” according to HGTV.

Showghi’s segment will discuss the structural and construction techniques he used to design and build his multi-tiered dream home that plummets down a 60-foot-by-140-foot site with a 90-foot drop.

“If it were any steeper, you’d have to carve into the rock and live in a cave,” Showghi said.

Although the professor has taught architecture for more than 30 years at Cal Poly Pomona, and has already built two other homes for his family — one on Nyes Place, the same street as the steep site, and the other in Joshua Tree — Showghi embraced the challenge of building on land that some would not dare to walk across. He was able to purchase the “unbuildable” lot for $85,000 — a steal in comparison to prices of flat lots.

“If you can build a home on a lot like this you have unobstructed ocean views forever,” Showghi said.

As a student of the Dutch nonfigurative art movement, De Stijl, Showghi, born in Iran, studied in Holland where he met his wife, Gretha, and later had two sons, Kurosh and Anush, before moving to the United States.

“I am an architect and also an artist and I do not distinguish between the two. My home captures both,” Showghi said.

Despite his expertise in the field of architecture, Showghi still had to present plans to the Design Review Board, a process that many builders find to be exhaustive and a cause of extensive time delays. But not for this builder.

During his first meeting with the board, the architect presented 3-D plans of the intended structure, which were unanimously approved. Showghi feels his success with the board is due to his belief that community comes first.

“You have to work with the community; that is why I met with my neighbors before I met with the DRB [Design Review Board]. Even during excavation, we built a wall around the property to protect them.”

In 2002, after two years of leading a construction team with Kurosh every day and spending endless nights planning and organizing, the home was finally finished. There are four floors boasting ocean views from every room; the bottom, an art studio, guest apartment with two bedrooms on the third, main floor on the second and garage and office on the street level top floor. The second and third floors extend into wraparound balconies, and the bottom and third floors also have private gardens.

Staying true to the De Stijl aesthetic, the home uses only horizontal and vertical lines and is decorated and painted in the three primary colors, red, blue and yellow complemented by black and gray accents. The open floor plan of shared, but separate space breaks the stereotypes of modern and contemporary design as cold and sterile.

“My house is open, and when you walk in you are free to experience your own feelings,” Showghi said.

Gretha agrees.

“Laguna Beach is an art colony, and it should be daring and not scared to use color.”

The father-and-son team did everything except for specialized projects like plumbing, electric and gas, and excavation — the latter of which took only seven days, a short time considering the project. To cut costs, they hired specialists by the hour instead of taking bids. They built the home for less than $450,000, an unheard of cost for such a large building.

“I even built a place for the excavation machine operator to turn around, so he could easily go up and down the hill. It saved so much time and money,” Showghi said.

In the end, only four caissons were used to carry the front load of the house and from the bottom floor up, like a stair case, the remainder of the house rests on the hill.

“There are no supporting walls, just glass. Conceptually, I understand this, because the best designs start with proper planning and organization, but most importantly an understanding of the topography,” Showghi said.

HGTV will feature this home in episode 108 of its “Extreme Living.” Visit www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows.