747 wing house

The 747 Wing House is a unique residential structure designed from the wings of a decommissioned Boeing 747-100 airplane. Located in the Ventura County portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, the house has been widely publicized internationally because of its unique design, its sustainable use of recycled materials, the dramatic transportation of the wings to the building site, and its creative repurposing of abandoned infrastructure to achieve an architectural work of significance.

A triumph of regenerative design, the 747 Wing House upcycles airplane components into poetic roof forms. The Boeing was bound for the garbage pile before S.E.A. intercepted and reimagined it as architecture. The wings and tail stabilizers were all pre-engineered as self-supporting structures, making them perfect lightweight long-span roof profiles. The project represents S.E.A.’s commitment to maximizing the longevity of building and product life cycles in novel ways.

The location has a rich history characterized by the creative and innovative repurposing of materials or structures. The fifty-five-acre property is part of the historic Tony Duquette estate, defined by diverse follies that the Hollywood set designer built with repurposed industrial scrap. The Wing House is thus an artistic response to Duquette’s legacy for the 21st century.

Many of the previous pads and retaining walls were kept to minimize the project’s impacts on the landscape. The main building uses one wing and the tail stabilizers for the roof, while the guest house is covered by the remaining wing. The roofs appear to float by utilizing steel brace frames which strategically connect to points on the wings where engines were previously mounted. This liberates the exterior walls to be frameless, floor-to-ceiling, self-supporting glass, providing sublime panoramic views of Boney Mountain and Serrano Valley.