The Kimball Residence is located on one of the smallest buildable lots in downtown Raleigh. The form of the house perfectly mimes the maximum building envelope allowed by local building code. The house program is tightly packed, and openings are carefully located and oriented to edit the tight surrounding context. Elevated exterior spaces are carved from the volume of the house, and a rear courtyard provides a garden refuge in the city. A steel and oak stair, visible from the street, ascends through a program that is “upside down” – the main living spaces are on the top floor.
The woodland classroom building is located in a forest on the south side of the Museum’s campus. The building is a flexible space for science learning that blends indoor space with the surrounding natural environment. The stand-alone restroom building is located on the north side of the Museum’s campus, within a new outdoor exhibition area called Hideaway Woods, just up the trail from a Patrick Dougherty sculpture. We worked with the Museum of Life and Science to master plan these portions of their expanding campus and locate these small structures to minimize disturbance to the surrounding environs and, in the case of the woodland classroom, maximize connections with the natural environment.
Our clients wanted a four-bedroom house with large public spaces that would open onto a constrained suburban site near downtown Raleigh. The existing site was long north to south and sloped down to the street on the north side. A stream bisected the site near the street, and the associated floodplain precluded construction on the front half of the property. A dramatic slope at the rear of the site prevented locating the house far back on the property. Our response to these constraints was a compact, two-story “L” that creates an private outdoor space between the house and the hillside.
The Corbett Residence is on a wooded site, down a winding drive. The drive is thin and meanders between trees to protect the house from view. The house is a low black box that strikes a line across the slope, mimicking the horizon. The house is at the edge of a hill, above a creek, and is oriented to admit light and views of the forest. At the east end of the house, the master bedroom looks out to a large red oak and fern glade. Our clients, who are restrained, contributed beautiful ideas and challenged us to express necessity.
Looking to connect its future to the past, Vail Systems, a communications software developer, found a perfect home in the former Chicago Daily News pressroom. The once industrial space has been transformed into a collaborative environment that inspires innovation. Unique structural elements organize functional requirements. Staff is located in large reconfigurable areas, while meeting spaces are organized under mezzanines and catwalks.
Our clients wanted a glass house. The difficulty was that they wanted this house placed on a visually exposed 50’ x 100’ city lot that they owned in NE Portland. This posed the challenge of designing a glass house with privacy. Our solution was to design a pavilion-like structure in which the body of the house is supported by 4 ten-foot tall “legs.” The legs are placed strategically to block unwanted views and provide privacy.
The house was designed primarily for one person who had three specific requirements: (1) she wanted “something dramatic;” (2) She wanted to feel “as if I’m living in the trees;” and (3) she wanted the house to be utterly devoid of unnecessary ornamentation to the point that she could see the marks of construction, from exposed bolts to the “unfinished” ceiling structure.
Three simple volumes hover above the desert, responding to the challenges of a sloping site and to an ethic of building with minimal disruption to the natural environment. The available buildable area was bifurcated by a minor drainage-way, which inspired the architects to leave the cars behind and link the parking area to the main house by a bridge that allows rainwater and wildlife to flow beneath it.
Our clients approached us to substantially renovate and make an addition to an existing Deck House north of Chapel Hill. The original house was a 1986 replica of a sixties-era Deck House. When our clients approached us, they had not yet purchased the property. Our first effort was to help them imagine the potential of improving the house. After a successful feasibility study, they purchased the home in December 2010.
The Chasen Residence is in a hip and growing, yet historic, neighborhood several blocks east of downtown Raleigh. Representing a new house type in Raleigh, this house is affordable, small, modern and urban. The efficient plan confines the entries, stairs, hallway, kitchen, and half bath to one side of the house, opening up the rest of the space for living.
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