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David Jaehning Architect

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David Jaehning Architect

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David Jaehning Architect is an international practice based in San Francisco. We believe that precise ideas require equally rigorous forms and details.

The work of the studio is based on research that explores local typologies and historic forms, as it develops contemporary projects within public and private realms. The practice is interested in a delicate complicity with vernacular settings, combined with restrained formal and spatial interventions. This philosophy creates bold singular works that are both highly abstract, yet strangely familiar. The studio aims to have a wide range of work at a variety of scales for a multiplicity of cultures. This approach underscores our interest in materials and thoughtful construction, which is embedded into the research of our office.

10/13/2026

2101_House on a Hill

Interior pyramidal voided roof forms; a call back to Charles Moore’s Orinda House.

08/04/2026

Fogline Four

Sited on the northern point of the Santa Cruz Mountain range, where coastal fog meets steep, unforgiving terrain, the Fogline Four is a set of houses unified by site and divided by strategy. Rather than imposing a single architectural language across the group, each house responds to the mountainside on its own terms — testing a different relationship between built form and slope.

Shear House sits perpendicular to the hillside. Its form is shifted and sheared along a single plane, creating a facade that reads as a deliberate cut against the grade — a moment of tension between the built form and the land it stands on.

Carve House takes the opposite approach, cutting its mass directly into the hillside. The retaining structure required to hold back the earth is not hidden but expressed — sculpted into a series of outdoor terraces that turn a structural necessity into usable, occupiable space.

Float House lifts its living volumes above the ground plane entirely. The upper two stories cantilever over a lower level of carport and storage, with reinforced retaining walls anchoring the composition below — allowing the house to hover above the slope while the site continues underneath it largely undisturbed.

Step House follows the topography most literally, staggering its interior volumes in a series of terraces that trace the existing grade. The section becomes a direct translation of the hillside itself, with each level stepping down in concert with the land.

Taken together, the four houses form a study in how a single site condition — a steep mountain edge — can generate four distinct, valid architectural responses: shear, carve, float, and step. Each strategy carries its own structural logic, material expression, and relationship to the ground, offering a comparative lens on how architecture might engage difficult terrain rather than flatten it into a banal submission.

07/22/2026

BA Bakery – Bascom

The project proposes tenant improvements to an approximate 2,000-square-foot existing retail space located on Bascom Ave in San Jose, California. The scope of work includes the design of a retail bakery incorporating a fully equipped commercial kitchen, preparation areas, storage rooms, and associated back-of-house facilities to support daily operations.

The front-of-house area will feature a retail sales space, designed to showcase baked products and enhance the overall guest experience through strategic layout, lighting, and material selection. The design integrates functional zoning to ensure efficient workflow between production, service, and sales areas, while meeting applicable accessibility, health, and safety codes. Exterior improvements include minor adjustments to the existing fenestrations to save structural modifications, new architectural interventions, and a revised outdoor patio for dining.

In collaboration with Out Of Office

04/17/2026

1802_House in Sunshine Valley

The House in Sunshine Valley has been selected as a 2026 Design Awards Finalist by the AIASF. This wouldn’t have been possible without the team that made it happen:

Owner: Zhaohui Ma
Arborist: Kielty Arborist Services
Archaeological: Holman & Associates
Architect: David Jaehning Architect (Marta Elliot, Aaron Goldstein, Colin Griffin, David
Jaehning AIA, Cameron Yetta)
Biological: Coast Ridge Ecology
Civil: Sigma Prime
Contractor: Jack Chen
Fire protection: Aegis Fire Systems
Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing: Design/Build by Contractor
Photographer: Timothy Hursley
Structural: Dimas LLC

04/09/2026

02/13/2026

We are excited to announce that the Architect’s Newspaper has featured the House Sunshine Valley in their January/February 2026 issue, now in newsstands.

A special thanks to our team:
Owner: Zhaohui Ma
Arborist: Kielty Arborist Services
Archaeological: Holman & Associates
Architect: David Jaehning Architect (Marta Elliot, Aaron Goldstein, Colin Griffin, David
Jaehning AIA, Cameron Yetta)
Biological: Coast Ridge Ecology
Civil: Sigma Prime
Contractor: Jack Chen
Fire protection: Aegis Fire Systems
Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing: Design/Build by Contractor
Photographer: Timothy Hursley (final built images, otherwise DJA)
Structural: Dimas LLC

12/19/2025

The VO residence is sited at the head of Sunshine Valley in Moss Beach, California. The concrete structure is nestled into the hillside and is formed by three shear walls that frame and open to the riparian corridor below and to the east. Breeze blocks and a perforated garage door dapple the tandem garage with light and open air.

07/18/2025

Wood syntax

07/10/2025

Worms-eye axonometric view of carved ceiling volumes for a new coastal residence.

Address

381 11th Street
San Francisco, CA
94103

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 6pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 6pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 6pm
Thursday	8:30am - 6pm
Friday	8:30am - 6pm

Telephone

+14157273577

Website

http://www.davidjaehning.com/

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