phinney ridge backyard cottage

We have been working with a couple who are planning on moving out of the original house, and into a new backyard cottage.  We’re pushing the limits within the ordinance–almost exactly 800 square feet–in order to build a 2 bed room, bath and a half cottage. Although the house is small, the spaces inside feel just right.  And we’ll be able to include a lot of high finish touches and crisp details because we aren’t spending money on lots of square footage. Having a finite perimeter and volume really focuses the mind on the priorities of the design.

The character of the house the client’s wanted is very craftsman and the scale and roofline fits right in with the neighborhood in general–certainly not the scary developer vision that opponents of the ordinance summoned during the public hearings.  It reinforces that these projects are for people with a vested interest in both their property and their neighborhood and are very sensitive to the impact on their neighbors.

Here is another view which shows off the walkout patio off the dining space, the entry mudroom and the band of windows that wrap the living room, dining and kitchen:

seattle backyard cottage in phinney ridge

We are also going to integrate a rain water harvesting system, radiant floors on a super efficient combination boiler, vaulted ceiling upstairs, and a extra height crawlspace with a rat slab to make up for some of the storage space lost in the downsizing.  For floor plans, follow the jump below:

First floor plan:

Second floor plan:

If you can’t make it, but have questions, you can post them in the thread below and I’ll respond…

We’ve completed the first community design workshop for the Sunset Substation pocket park and we’ve started a blog for the project at www.SunsetSubstation.org.  The results of the workshop are posted here and you can read a write up from the Ballard News tribune here and another article from KOMO’s neighborhood blog here. Now that we have some community input, we can start shaping their unique goals for bringing solar power generation and community space together.

In other news, Stefan is working through designing a micro-hydroelectric generation station for an eco-retreat/outdoor recreation center and meditation retreat in Colorado, and should be posting an introduction to the project and more information about micro-hydro.  Suddenly, we have a lot of projects which have some active or passive alternative energy components–very exciting stuff.

Tim is leading the charge on backyard cottages.  We have two custom cottages currently in design, and another design which will be available as a prefab.  We’re finalizing the pricing, so we will have a more comprehensive information available soon.

We’re also working with a homebuilder  to develop a series of spec homes bases on a fusion of asian design, modern spaces and out of the norm materials (see image above).  We’re especially excited because the house’s function emphasizes a series of landscapes integrated into living spaces, so we’ll have courtyards, pocket gardens, and salad gardens for growing your own vegetables off the kitchen.  Our big presentation is on Tuesday so I’ll post the schematic renderings afterwards.

Finally, this is the last weekend to see our WASTE NOT installation in the alley east of First Avenue, south of Occidental Park.  Anyone need 2500 2 liter bottles?

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!

Also, I wanted to hit one point I missed in my presentation about How to Work with an Architect – taking the first step:

As part of the interview process, get the architects that you are interested in out to your house, your site.  It is critical to get their impression of your project, and plus in talking through the project on site you’ll get a window in to how they process information, how they work, communicate and if they have good ideas right off the bat.

We offer the first consultation free of charge, of course, because it is also critical for us to get an understanding of the project, the challenges, and get to know you as a client.

If you have additional questions about things I said in the presentation, or topics I didn’t have time to cover, please email me at matt@CASTarchitecture.com and I’ll be happy to address them!

I’ll still be there.  In fact, I’ll be giving a little talk on How to Work with an Architect to help people looking to build understand the role of the architect, and the design process.  I’ll talk about how to select an architect, how much it will cost, and go in deep about what to expect every step of the way.

If I’m lucky there’ll even be time for some questions!

Starts at 1:50 and runs to 2:30. I’m going to hang out afterwards as long as there are curious minds with questions.

In case you can’t make it, I’ll post the handout that goes through the process afterwords.

aerial view

Here’s another new project in the office, an addition to a residence on Capital Hill. The existing house is a tiny 750 sq. ft. bungalow on one of Seattle’s steepest streets. The owners found the compact plan a perfect fit when they first moved in, but two kids later, they desperately need more room. They are drawn of the core values of modern architecture – emphasis on natural light, spaces that flow together, honest and straightforward materials – and want a house that expresses that. They are comfortable making a pretty bold statement, but they also want the addition to feel comfortable in the existing fabric of the neighborhood. They are interested in sustainability that is designed in from the ground up, which led to the early decision to preserve the existing structure instead of starting from scratch on the site.

How to add onto an existing building that has a well-defined or historical style is a perennial architectural puzzle (and hip roofs are especially difficult to achieve seamless integration). In this case, we approached it by creating a clear contrast between the new and the old through form, material and color. But it’s not enough to just plunk a contemporary form next to an old house and expect a real conversation to take place. In this addition, the new and old talk to each other both in how the volumes intersect and in how the two differing styles overlap.

Intersection Our early drawings all show a long, narrow addition running north-south to hold the downhill edge of the property. However, after looking at dozens of alternative schemes, we realized the potential for a very special outdoor space, between the south-facing wall of the addition, the steep hillside and the existing house. Private, yet with almost ideal sun exposure, this patio is the heart of the design but it sets up a tricky problem: we wanted to the public and private wings of the house to fit up against one another while at the same time creating a space between them.

the new courtyard

In the rendering above, you can see how we resolved this conundrum: the charcoal-colored wall literally acts like a giant door, swinging out of the (blue) addition to carve space from the (yellow) existing house and define the courtyard. This dividing wall gets a different material and different detailing show a clear relationship between the planning and the way the house is actually made. Creating a courtyard at the joint between the new and old helps to differentiate the two volumes and separate the bedrooms from the public spaces. The slight angle of the addition’s south wall also provides enough solar exposure so that a concrete trombe wall behind the south-facing glass is effective in reducing the use of conventional heating by about a third. (More on the passive solar design of this house in a later post)

Overlap While they are separated by their overall form, the old and new portions of the house are tied together by elements that extend the language of one style into the other portion of the house. The largest example of this is the secondary level of detailing we are developing for both structures. The large-scale metal sun canopy of the addition is repeated at a smaller scale as a canopy at the front entry and then inside the original house as a pair of room-divider screens that create separate zones within the loft-like space (and incidentally help act as shear walls).

from the street

family room at intersection

The language of filtering light through parallel vertical columns even extends the site design: the wide sideyard on the west creates the perfect bamboo garden outside the kitchen’s horizontal slot window and a verdant path to the courtyard.

open living space

Scheme 1:  PLUS

The clients wanted to have a ‘permeable’ house with soft transitions that welcomed neighbors but kept private space private.  The design delineated the corner site into 4 quadrants with varying degrees of privacy.  A manicured garden graces the stepped path from the very public corner, while the upper drive on the southwest provides the day to day family entrance (at grade for the client’s aging parents.  One the northeast, a wide terrace off the living spaces provides a great entertaining space that opens to the more quiet neighborhood edge.  The two volumes of the plus create a very private backyard on the southeast.

The house has a very clean organization–living spaces are lined up in the lower volume, each with access to the eastern terrace/backyard, with the bedrooms stretched across the second story volume.  The second story volume bridges over the first story, bookended with a mudroom and a semi-detached mother-in-law, creating two apertures–one for the entry, the second for an covered outdoor living room.  At the intersection of the two volumes we have an atrium with a sculptural stair.

PLUS-aerial view

PLUS-street view

PLUS first floor plan

PLUS-second floor plan

Scheme 2:  HINGE

The second scheme is also addresses the clients’ concerns about overwhelming the street, creating a private backyard, and blurring the edge between garden and house.  The design features a low slung wood and glass box with a broad, planar green roof along the west edge of the site.  A two story box, following the north site edge, contains the living room, media room and mother-in-law on the main floor, with bedrooms and a double studio/playroom above.

HINGE-street view

If the first scheme is PLUS, this one probably should have been nicknamed ‘minus’ because the overlap of the two volumes is subtracted to make a dramatic vertical space where the geometries interact.  In the morning, light floods the kitchen.  In the evening, the screened/glass wall on the western wall of the second story filters through to the living room:

HINGE-interior at entry

HINGE-first floor

Scheme 3:  WING

The central idea of the WING scheme is two volumes–one private, one public–connected by a glass skinned entry, under a big angular roof.  Again we’re reinforcing the site’s geometry to vary the degrees of privacy and expand the livable space of the house beyond the envelope with a series of outdoor spaces each with a unique character and function.  At the corner, a terrace defined with a low seat wall, is the place for after dinner drinks, sunsets, and engaging with the neighbors. Toward the backyard, we have a perfect spot for baking in the summer sun, and a outdoor hangout/informal dining space with fireplace adjacent to the kitchen.

WING-street view

WING-backyard

WING-first floor

WING-second floor

Of the three options, the clients’ preference was PLUS.  It has the strongest volumetric presence, an elemental simplicity and it handled the site issues and their program with sophistication and subtlety.