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Houses By Design

Connecting to the Outdoors and Neighbors

Working within a small footprint, this remodel for an intergenerational family incorporated simple elements to open up the space both inside and outside.

By Janice Rohlf Issue 305 - Feb/March 2022

For this remodel, the aim was a better connection between the home and the backyard, which the client, an intergenerational family, shares freely with neighboring families. The residents on the block have chosen not to incorporate fences into their backyards, encouraging free movement among homes. Built on a narrow, 25-ft.- wide lot, the original house was only 19 ft. wide. In an effort to open it up, the architects wanted to incorporate a wide sliding door on the main floor, which wouldn’t allow for enough bearing wall to remain. The solution was to swap out the classic wood-frame structural system for a steel moment frame welded together prior to construction. The result is a home open along the entire width of the garden, invisibly structurally sound and visibly inviting.

The living room of a floor with a staircase

The interiors were split up into remodeled space and new construction. Given the modest footprint of the house, it was important that one couldn’t distinguish the new construction from the remodeled space, which ultimately makes the spaces feel more generous in size. The raw-steel stair sits at the intersection of the new and old buildings.

A bright kitchen with many windows in a corner

A kitchen with a dining room table and an oven

Skylights at the top of the stair draw light down into the middle of the footprint and augment the beautiful surface of the steel. To take the focus away from the 1970s-era low ceilings in the remodeled space, the quartz backsplash was extended from countertop to ceiling. In addition, the usual upper cabinets were eliminated in favor of a single linear shelf. These two design moves make the wall the focus instead of the ceiling.

Architect Allied8, allied8.com
Builder
Envision, envisionremodels.com
Location
Seattle
Photographer
Rafael Soldi


RELATED LINKS

  • Opening Up a Small Kitchen
  • Designing Outdoor Spaces: How To Get More From Your Home By Extending It Outside
  • House of Four Gables

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  1. miw | Jan 31, 2022 02:40pm | #1

    Amazed that the handrail on the stair passes code.

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