0385 Tray House in the kitchen

Here is the casual relationship between the kitchen work area and the dining space of the Tray House. This can work for you if you like a large formal dining table and a kitchen table in the kitchen proper, or with a daily table in the dining area, and stools at the island in the kitchen for less formal meals. Continue reading "0385 Tray House in the kitchen"

1201 XHouse5 backyard

The back of the XHouse5 has a pair of doors into the living room, and right beside it a door to the mud room. Above is the master bedroom, and bath. Continue reading "1201 XHouse5 backyard"

0967 XHouse3 the whole place

From this spot in the kitchen you can take in the entire XHouse3. Well.., not all of it, but its a cool view! Continue reading "0967 XHouse3 the whole place"

0357 Steel Case House party is always best in the kitchen

The Steel Case House may have a great living room, but the kitchen and family room is where everybody hangs out during a party! Continue reading "0357 Steel Case House party is always best in the kitchen"

0965 XHouse2 overview

The XHouse2 has the same plan and footprint as our iconic steel 3030 house design, but made instead with easy to build stud construction. Continue reading "0965 XHouse2 overview"

0380 Cube House upstairs family room

Well here it is, I don't know why we've waited so long to look at the Cube House's upstairs studio space, perhaps the most significant outcome of its interesting 2+3 story organization. If you recall the living room of this house is very high, with a story an a half space for a loft like living area. Above the living room is this studio space which is also a story and a half tall, and when combined with the living room equals the three stories on the other side of the house. So what do you do with this space? A kick-ass family room? A dancing or painting studio? Photography? You name it - its yours. Continue reading "0380 Cube House upstairs family room"

0518 U House bedroom hallway

The bedroom hallway opposite the master bedroom wing in the U House has its own sliding door to the deck, all the better to create that wide open connection to the courtyard and the landscape beyond. Continue reading "0518 U House bedroom hallway"

0237 Pretender front facade

Well, this is it, the front of the Pretender. We've not been avoiding it, but we've spend all our time looking at the other parts of the house that are so obviously modern. But this is the business end of the house, where all the pretending goes on, for the sake of pacifying the neighbors that are less than open minded. So you can dress this up as a farm house, or put the big fat greek columns on it if thats what it takes. Just think of this side like a traditional blank slate. Do what you have to do to make it work and don't think twice about it. Its worth it to have your cool modern house thats hiding out back. Your welcome. Continue reading "0237 Pretender front facade"

1299 XHouse4 finally! all the way upstairs

If you've been following along with us we've been on a slow walk up the stairs to the attic floor of the XHouse4. And here we are - we've arrived! The attic floor is one large room, with wide dormers that admit a lot of light. There is a full bathroom, and an hvac closet, and storage closets under the sloped ceilings. This space can be split into two rooms if you wish, used as bedrooms, a great home office, a playroom for the kids, or anything else you can think of. So enjoy, its does not get much better than this. Continue reading "1299 XHouse4 finally! all the way upstairs"

0857 L House in the kitchen

Our last blog post for the L House showed a view down the circulation path that goes along the living spaces and ends at the kitchen. Today we are in the kitchen looking back into the living spaces, and we can see how the corner of the kitchen overlaps and is one with the circulation zone. A little overlapping of spaces happens because the kitchen extends out to the column line. This results in a kitchen that is in a discrete room, but still participates in the open plan living of the home. Continue reading "0857 L House in the kitchen"

Stacked Townhomes - a second Philadelphia precedent

To follow up on the last Stacked Townhome precedent study today we look at another infill project in the same neighborhood of Philadelphia - Hawthorne. This example is a more representative example of a stacked townhouse because unlike the first one which was a flat under a two story unit, this example consists of two units that are 1 story + 1/2 floor. This configuration is more consistent with the contemporary model of Stacked Townhomes.

If you go back to my first post on this design study you can see a sketch of this configuration. There is typically a ground floor entry, one door for each unit, with one unit on the ground floor and half the second floor; and the second unit on half the second floor and the entire third floor. In this case the setting is urban, and the ground floor unit has a small rear yard, and the upper unit only a small balcony. On this site the rest of the lot depth back to the alleyway is dedicated to a shared parking lot.

Continue reading "Stacked Townhomes - a second Philadelphia precedent"

0738 Palo Alto the whole thing

And we conclude our tour of the Palo Alto house with a wide view of the entire living - dining - kitchen space, the back yard and the entry court. Continue reading "0738 Palo Alto the whole thing"

0367 Porch House kitchen & table area

Now that we are upstairs in the Porch House we should finish looking around. From the living room here is the dining area and the galley kitchen beyond. The laundry in this compare weekender is right there - a stacked unit right next to the frig! Continue reading "0367 Porch House kitchen & table area"