Japanese-Inspired Post & Beam Kit House in Pas's Poppy Peak

According to its listing, this post-and-beam in the San Rafael hills is one of only three residences in the LA area made by Kokoro Country Houses, a Newport Beach building firm founded in 1973 by designer Gordon Steen. Modeled after sixteenth-century Japanese rustic farmhouses, Kokoros are a hybrid of prefabrication and custom design. Constructed from redwood, fir, spruce, pine, and oak trees, the wood-frame kit houses feature a core that "snaps together like a set of giant Tinker Toys," per this 2001 LA Times story, which also notes that Kokoro houses "have survived fires, hurricanes and quakes virtually unscathed." Built in 1981, the Poppy Peak version features three bedrooms, two baths, vaulted ceilings, a fireplace, skylights, and a wraparound deck. Sited on a 7,083-square-foot lot, it's asking $795,000.
· 1893 KAWEAH Dr [Redfin]
· A Bow to Japanese Architecture [LAT]