“Kintsugi” is a remodel and addition to a modest 1950s single-family home that had undergone multiple prior renovations. After careful consideration, the owners opted to remodel rather than rebuild, guided by the philosophy of kintsugi—the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The approach is a reflection of the owners’ commitment to sustainability and low-consumption living.
The project is also a reflection of the architect’s approach which takes big-project, and big-living design thinking, and applies it to a modest project.
From their assignment abroad in Japan, the clients asked the architect to lead a comprehensive design effort through interiors and landscape design that incorporated the existing home despite its unwieldy and difficult existing conditions. Together, additional square footage, preserve open outdoor garden space, and forge functional, community-building modern spaces, and site flow for this walk-and bike-commuting, super active family of five, on budget.
The owners’ experiences in Japan helped inform the design. Over a number of Colorado-Tokyo Zoom calls, we discussed scraping the old home for a fresh start. But in the spirit of reducing their impact, the owners chose to take the kintsugi approach, and infuse the existing conditions with beauty without erasing the past.
The design transformed the old cramped kitchen, living, and dining space into a seamless, modern main level. This new space features a large kitchen, a sunny “tree house” dining area, and living area. Generous exterior aluminum clad wood windows, doors, and wall-washing skylights modulate and embrace the Colorado sunshine. The design introduces a private main-level primary suite and consolidates the kids’ bedrooms upstairs. With a super-surgical strategic addition, the small suite nevertheless holds space for seating, yoga, privacy and repose.
The additions are set apart from the existing home by rot-resistant Western Red Cedar siding, with silvering aging agent applied. We rehabilitated and re-painted the existing cementitious lap siding.
The avid biking-hiking-skiing family entered the house regularly from the front and back. To address the circulation, utility, and storage challenges this posed, we introduced a utility core with custom-designed, floor-to-ceiling custom-made white oak screens which concealed and revealed a host of utilitarian spaces running down the central spine of the home.
The fifteen-foot long kitchen island, locally crafted from concrete and white oak, is the heart of the home. For a family that loves to cook and gather for meals, the detailing of the island was critical to the success of the space. The kitchen is book-ended by a glazed sunny dining area nestled in a tree on one end, cantilevered to preserve the tree roots. On the opposite end, a steel and glass frame and custom oak bookcase partition suggests a soft separation between the active public space of the kitchen and living room’s repose, but keeps the footprint small. The living room is organized around a 2-sided fireplace and glass patio doors for this outdoor-loving family.
Making lemonade with a difficult upper level, the design re-tools the bedrooms and bathroom to celebrate the wonderful light and mountain views, introduced a west rooftop deck atop the primary mini-addition, and carved privacy and storage for their boy-girl-boy upper level dwellers.
Kintsugi is the second project on this property from our design office. We also designed the two-story granny flat, seen at the west of the lot in 2016, which was the beginning of an enduring friendship between the architect and owner.
Team:
Architects: Laura Marion
Structural Engineer: GFE Structural, GC: Buildwell, Palmer Woodworking
Photographers: Randy Land & Laura Marion
Materials Used:
Facade cladding: Western Red Cedar, James Hardie smooth cementiious siding
Flooring: Solid white oak STK
Doors: Interior - Trustile Exterior - Sierra Pacific Aluminum Clad Wood
Windows: Sierra Pacific Aluminum Clad Wood
Interior lighting: Nora (recessed 4” LED lighting) w/ USHIO bulbs; dining pendants: Soren Ravn Christensen Clava Dine; Kitchen Island Linear: Juniper Design Thin Suspension. Bathroom LED vanity bar: KUZCO Chute; Recessed step wall lights. WAC LED step wall lights LED200; Living Room Wall Light: Living Room Swing Arm Sconce Serge Mouille
Interior furniture: Curved Sofa: Room & Board Reese Sofa
