The goal of this project was to break conventional notions of what is truly needed in a house and design for the client’s specific lifestyle. This two-bedroom, two-bath home is just 1,250 square feet, yet ideally fits the needs of the owner. A comprehensive research process was used to define the parameters of the project, analyze the client’s lifestyle and develop a clear idea for the project. The big idea centered around three principles.
1) Be modern, minimal and sustainable: focus on the experience with volume, light and interactions more than square footage.
2) Emphasize the interaction of the house with the site and hillside: drawing from the owner’s rural background and her unconventional, creative interpretations.
3) Be super-efficient: the budget was very modest and the client’s desire was to have very little waste, a high level of sustainability and low maintenance. The design met those goals and responded to her lifestyle as a writer, musician, runner, cinephile and creative spirit.
Materials Used: The exterior has two basic materials of reclaimed sinker cypress and factory painted corrugated metal. Given a challenging, narrow 40 ft. lot that is all solid rock and severely sloping from front to back, we placed the house on concrete piers and steel beams to elevate it and minimize the amount of rock that needed to be removed. It is extremely efficient in every sense of the word. The home was also designed with a “green” focus. The exterior skin includes reclaimed sinker cypress, and we’ve used xeriscape landscaping, solar panels, and spray foam insulation in the walls for higher insulation values. The interior includes hardwood floors that utilize “shorts” from other projects, high efficiency mini-split mechanical units, tank-less water heaters, low VOC paints and reclaimed materials. It was a challenge to build a home on a very tight budget, while also designing a long-lasting, sustainable, custom home. We needed to keep the square footage low, but still have the house feel spacious and connected to the site.
