Davidson Rafailidis has turned a general contractor’s former office space into a small apartment dwelling, in an interior adaptive re-use that treats space as constantly evolving and ever-changing.

Over time, most spaces stray from their original programs and developlives of their own. While the role of the initial occupant/owner is reduced inthe process, the role of a building, by contrast, becomes more prominent, generous and unpredictable. Buildings can often be seen hosting unexpected uses and formal reinterpretations. Even in theshort timespan of a single year, spaces can offer changing and distinct qualitiesthat require users to engage with them in different ways.

Big Space, Little Space, takes this transformative nature ofspace as its premise. Rather than dictating specific uses for designatedspaces, a variety of spaces that can trigger unexpected uses are offered.These encourage formal re-interpretations and continuous constructionby the various inhabitants over time. Big Space, Little Space is anadaptive re-use of a masonry garage built in the 1920’s transformed intoan apartment dwelling and workshop for a couple, tucked awayin the middle of a residential block in Buffalo, New York.

The square plan of the space offered few windows in relation to the overall floor area. One strategy was therefore to treat the roof(concealed 12” beneath a parapet) as a 5th facade, and insert ten operableskylights and a roof hatch for natural light, ventilation, and roofaccess.

Instead of clearing out the building and designing the interior from scratch, Davidson and Rafailidis reinterpreted the existing forms/spaces. An existing, partitioned area within thegarage space that was recently used by a general contractor as an officewas retained. This “Little Space” was seen as the overlap betweentwo bigger, existing spaces: the fenced garden and the garage/workshop. The “Little Space” can be read as part of both, – it can extend into both. The reading of the plan flickers between these different configurations.

Big Space, Little Space does not dedicate spaces to traditional uses.Instead, the project offers spaces that are seasonally responsive and influx, where inhabitation can retreat into the warm insulated Little Spacein the harsh winters, and can spread into the “Big Spaces” – the generousgarden, workshop, and roof deck in the warm seasons. In this sense, theliving area can be anywhere between 464 sq ft to 5,165 sq ft. There is nostationary plan. The spaces are rather offerings for temporary andinformal uses. The objective was to create spaces that are useful foreverything and where the meaning and usefulness of each space renegotiateswith each new user.

The “Big Space” had a small budget and the “Little Space” had a bigger budget,two-thirds of the entire project budget was invested in the Little Space. The Little Space has fully insulated perimeter walls and isheated with a single radiator. New radiant heating in an exposed newconcrete floor was also provided for the bathroom. Five operable skylightsoffer additional natural light and ventilation to the Little Space. Thebig workshop, in contrast, has untouched and uninsulated walls. It isupdated with five new skylights and a roof hatch with staircase to accessthe big roof. It is heated with an existing gas garage ceiling heater thatis able to temporarily heat up the Big Space when needed in short time.The big garage/workshop acts as a climatic buffer space to the LittleSpace. The garden is fully fenced, making it feel like a room without aceiling. The door opening to the garden was enlarged and a 23 foot wideretractable awning was installed, with a 13 foot cantilever, transformingthe big garden into an exterior room and providing more privacy. CorTensteel shutters give the Little Space more security during long periodswhen the occupants are traveling.

Davidson Rafailidisavoided any materials that might read as “residential” so that the space would not prescribe a specific use, but rather, be open for all sorts of different uses. The kitchen, for example, reads more as a technical, abstract grid/frame than a residential kitchen. The most residential element might be the curtain, but its large, almost institutional scale blursthe domestic connotation.

The resulting wide range of finishes and materials, from the raw, cutbricks at the entry door, to highly refined surfaces and materials likethe white oak cabinetry, creates an open, transient and generousspace where the intervention integrates with those of the past aswell as ones that will surely come in the future. The space is seenhere as an animate thing with a lively past and an unknown future, wherethe intervention is just one of many. The space was not ‘remodeled’ toeliminate its messy past, but rather added to in a similar way toparticipants in the surrealist game, the Exquisite Corpse.