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Square One: Good Home Design Starts Here

Design snapshot: From fishing shacks to home

Katie Hutchison, Contributor

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Photo: Katie Hutchison

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We were fortunate enough to live in this charmer for a while. It’s a collection of fishing shacks that were assembled over time into a single home. The resulting house is comprised of small wings that reach out to grab daylight, view, and breeze. The wings also provide private, pocket spaces off of the larger, more public space where they intersect. Because the different appendages were once separate buildings, their upper floor levels don’t align, resulting in intermediate levels that further differentiate special spaces.
 
Though this house evolved gradually, it’s a great model for how to conceive of a new home. Divide spaces among smaller components, perhaps even with different floor heights, to create desirable offshoots from a primary shared living space. Resist the all-too-common tendency to bundle everything into something monolithic. A casual assemblage, like the grouped fishing shacks, can be so much more gratifying.
 
by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast and SquareOne

Read more design snapshots by architect Katie Hutchison.

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Design snapshot: Roof riddle

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The Microbial Home

Comments (1)

debsilber writes: As someone trying to create functional, family-friendly spaces within a box of a house (typical 1970s construction)I can appreciate what you say, Katie. Every house needs a variety of spaces that run the continuum from public to quasi-public to private--something too many houses don't provide. If only the folks who built my house resisted, as you say, "the all-too-common tendency to bundle everything in to something monolithic"!
Posted: 10:23 am on December 1st

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