Located in rural western Sonoma County, the project was to replace an aging garage and add an artist studio to a pre 1900’s farm house. The design used the simple prefabricated Quonset hut roof raised on a 6 foot high concrete stem wall.
The two buildings, each 20ft by 36ft, have end walls with 10x12 openings, a glass garage door and 3 folding patio doors. This allows for flexibility of use and integration of the landscape. The front structure, the garage or “car temple” as the owner calls it, exposes the ribs and the concrete on the interior. Imbedded in the concrete stem wall exterior is a stone wall sculpture from Borobudur, Indonesia.
The artist studio, of the same construction, has concrete stem walls in the interior that create a bath and bar area. To maintain the light throughout the structure, there are translucent plastic panels above the concrete. The sliding bar wood and metal barn door, was reused from the client’s house. The ash plywood panels on the roof, hid the insulation below the metal roof. The bench creating the exterior patio at the rear, was formed using the ribs of the roof.
