A short subdivison in West Seattle is serving as the site for two prefabricated homes for a Seattle developer.

CAST worked with a modular factory in Oregon to understand the constraints involved with building, shipping, and installing factory built structures. Leveraging this knowledge we have designed a prototype house which balances the economy of modular construction with selective site built elements to gain the modulation, character, and function which stock prefabricated construction typically lacks.

By making changes to the homes orientation, location of site built portions of the structure such as awnings, eaves, parking, and decks, an extremely economical structure is tailored into a series of custom homes.

This new home was permitted under Seattle’s citywide backyard cottage ordinance (which is rapidly approaching it’s second year anniversary). The existing home, with a large corner lot and alley access, was an ideal candidate for a backyard cottage. The site allowed both the existing home and new cottage to enter from separate streets, have separate outdoor living areas and maintain a great deal of privacy from one another.

The owner desired a modestly scaled 800 square foot structure with exterior massing that followed the traditional lines of the existing home and a modern, light filled interior that opened to a private courtyard and was suitable for entertaining guests. The floor plan centers on a double height dining room with clerestory windows, sleeping loft and a large 4 panel door that frames views of the private courtyard and terraced garden. The cottage features radiant floor heating, an efficient on boiler with integrated solar hot water collection and a 1500 gallon cistern for rainwater catchment.

The homeowner served as the general contractor and invested considerable sweat equity which allowed the total project cost to come in at just under $100,000 ( ! ).

View from the dining room into the kitchen.

1,500 gallon cistern for rainwater catchment.

View from the kitchen into the dining room and living room.

You can view a video of the entire discussion at seattlechannel.org:
Backyard Cottages: 1 Year Later

There is also a backyard cottage annual report available to download from the DPD’s website:
Backyard Cottages Annual Report - April 2011

Of particular interest was the number of cottages permitted in the first year (57) and their relatively even distribution throughout the city. One of the primary concerns opponents had expressed in opposition to the ordinance was a fear that dense concentrations of cottages would “take over” single family neighborhoods causing widespread parking and privacy issues. The fear was so potent and adamantly expressed that at one point during the development of the ordinance city council members considered placing limits on the number of permits per year (50) and limits on the number of cottages allowed in any given area. Thankfully, neither limit was written into the code and the fears have been proven to be unjustified thus far.

A few other interesting issues that came to the surface during the discussion were:

1. The relatively high costs of constructing a backyard cottage makes it difficult for home owners to see a return on their investment if they hope to use a cottage to generate rental income. In general it was felt that backyard cottages were an important new housing typology for the city and that the cottages are a valuable addition to the city’s rental stock. It was proposed that the city should consider incentives that would help lower the cost of constructing a cottage and help encourage their creation. A reduced permit fee and property tax credits are two areas I think the city should review.
2. The feeling that the off street parking requirements (2 spaces) was in most cases unnecessary and to the detriment of green space and usable yards. One idea put forth was to loosen the parking requirements by making it easier to obtain a parking waiver on streets where parking is not an issue.
3. The base height limit was thought to be a bit too low and creates unreasonable difficulties for the construction of two story structures. During the public comment portion of the meeting architect Jim Burton suggested changing the datum to which the base height could be measured (top of plate) to add a bit to the base height limit and encourage homeowners to exceed minimum requirements for insulating roofs and ceilings. The overall height limit was thought to be adequate with the exception of the following issue:
4. The current ordinance sets the height limit to 15′ above an existing home. This was thought to be problematic and unfair in the case where the property owner’s lot has a significant slope up behind the existing home.
5. The current ordinance does not allow for a backyard cottage to be built on a through lot (a lot with a street on both the front and rear lot lines of a property). This was generally thought to be a mistake in the writing of the ordinance and that the ordinance should be revised to allow cottages on through lots.

All in all it was a fun and informative meeting. Kudos to the city employees key in the development of the ordinance and to Sally Clarke and the city council for passing the ordinance unanimously. After the first year of real world testing the ordinance has proven to be a resounding success.

“On December 13, the Seattle City Council passed new rules for buildings in high-density residential neighborhoods. The decree has drawn predictable criticism from some activists, who complain the new rules will change the city’s character, but in fact the gripes of these activists hit on exactly what’s great about the new rules: They allow more housing.”
-Dominic Holden for The Stranger

Read more at the Stranger:
Ditching Town Houses

Kate and Ric have begun construction on their backyard cottage… They have been working hard the last few weeks and have enlisted the help of a few friends and colleagues along the way. A few key players have been helping guide us through the process:

• Rusty Borromeo of Borromeo Construction LLC is providing his general contractor and construction expertise
• James Jenkins of O’Brien & Company is contributing his green building knowledge and will be our Built Green Verifier  – we are aiming for 5 star Built Green certification
• Cory Fraser of LFD Structural Engineering LLC provided the calculations and engineering for our plan set

Ric has been doing a wonderful job of photographing the process and has put together a few galleries of the construction process thus far (all images in this post are © 2010 Ric Cochrane). He has also agreed to write up a blog post on the experience thus far – so stay tuned for that!

DECONSTRUCTION GALLERY
An existing shed (that was a bit worse for wear) was painstakingly deconstructed and all reusable and recyclable materials were sorted and stacked

LABOR OF LOVE – THE FOUNDATION
Digging in the dirt and other fun activities – the true definition of ‘sweat equity!’

LUMBER FROM THE BONE-YARD
Salvaged beams, columns and decking are being purchased from Bruce Borjesson of Pacific Resources

The Artalejo-Lacas Residence has been featured in the Fine Homebuilding “Houses 2010″ issue! It is on the newsstands now, check out the article which starts on page 45…

Artalejo-Lacas residence

Stefan Hampden is presenting a seminar on How to Select and Work with an Architect for the Seattle branch of the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Need an Architect? AIA Seattle’s Saturday Seminar can help answer this and other FAQs about what architects and clients can achieve together, and how to get the best value for your investment. This seminar, presented by architects, gives those looking to build or remodel (projects big and small) the information and confidence they need to successfully choose and collaborate with an architectural professional.

To register, visit the Seattle AIA website…

CAST architecture is presenting a class on backyard cottages for the Phinney Neighborhood Association

Looking for more space? How about a new guesthouse, studio or rental property? Learn more about Seattle’s new citywide backyard cottage ordinance and what it could mean for your property. We will review the ordinance and outline how to budget, plan, permit and construct a cottage in your backyard.

We’ve completed the second round of design on our CAST architecture case study backyard cottage.

The plan has been fine tuned to optimize it for advanced framing. We adjusted the spaces to work better with Kate and Ric’s needs and have started looking at potential materials and finishes.

We’ve also started talking about systems – at this point everything is on the table, solar hot water, energy efficient boiler, hydronic floor heating systems, rainwater cistern for flushing the toilets and watering the yard, super insulated walls…

I suspect that our choices will narrow as the reality of our budget forces us to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right now however, the possibilities seem limitless!