"A" Cabin

The "A" frame with a low "skirt" roof is a response to the owner's desire for a compact cabin in close contact with nature in a clearing in the woods on Gull lake, WI. The 1700 square feet structure fits a family of four in summer and in winter, including pets and guests.

While the cabin was on the drawing boards, the owners, who are passionate readers, asked me to incorporate a library to the project. After a better understanding of their reading habits, we agreed that instead of adding a new room we could share the space of the stair with that of the library. The shelves holding the books become the treads of the stair, and the owners can comfortably pick a book as they walk up to the bedrooms.

Combining uses not only economizes square footage and resources, but it can also generate a unique place that is more significant to the home than the addition of two separate spaces, in this case a stair and a library. This is a good example of our principle of achieving "more home with less house": better space quality with less dollars and materials spent. Although difficult to measure in numbers, this design decision makes a significant contribution towards the green nature of this home.

Forest Horizon

The owners bought this beautiful property to build a retirement home in close proximity to nature. The terrain has a narrow flat ridge with two adjacent faces sloping into the De Moines River, and is covered by a continuous natural forest. Their aspiration to be in close contact to nature defined the main design goals: to incorporate the views and sounds of the woods into the heart of the home, and to minimize the impact of the building on the natural environment. The final solution was inspired on a kid's teeter-totter; the home sits on the top of the ridge with its two symmetrical extremes projecting out into nature. The screen porches at both ends are high above the ground, overlooking the forest as it slopes down to the river. The stone columns that support the porches minimize an otherwise continuous perimeter foundation.

Most heritage trees were spared cutting except for a mature black walnut and an ash, but neither went to waste. Instead, they were sent to a local sawmill to be cut into boards, kiln dried and sent back to the site to be used in the house. The main entry door was built using the black walnut and the ash was used to build the pool table. As a discrete tribute to the fallen trees the craftsman carved a walnut leaf on to the style of the front entry door, and an ash leaf on the pool table's leg.

Do It Yourself Shed

This shed was commissioned by the Family Handyman magazine and was featured in their July 2007 edition. The client wanted a well-designed and carefully detailed suburban backyard shed that could be constructed by an amateur builder using off-the-shelf materials. In order to reach a broad audience the budget was kept to a minimum. All the details were developed focusing on simple, easy to communicate fabrication tasks. Materials were used in their original dimensions to avoid extra cuts. The shed won a RAVE award in 2007 and was published in the Minneapolis St. Paul magazine.

Facade Lift

The owners contacted us to help them figure out the only part of their home they had not yet remodeled: the front elevation facing the street. A new open porch added a sitting space on the front and helped enhance the experience of entry to the home. An exterior stair and railing, carefully detailed, connects the entry to the driveway and to the front yard. Even though the project was of reduced scope and budget, it significantly transformed the "face" of this home towards the neighborhood.

Hearth Transplant

This suburban home had a layout problem shared by many of its kind: too many separate rooms and no one central, spacious gathering place for the family. It has a sunroom, a family room, a back entry, an informal eating room, a kitchen, a formal dining and a formal living room that are all laid out back to back on the main level. Although physically connected, none qualified to be that special place that invites the family to gather in a home. In short, it had too many rooms and no heart.

A bigger and more inviting family "heart" space was created by knocking down the wall of the sunroom and by moving the fireplace to the center wall. This project had to respond to a nowadays dilemma: should we locate the TV or the fireplace at the center of the family room? By providing a set of sliding doors on the bookcase, our answer was that both TV and fireplace can share, without interfering amongst themselves, the centre of the family room.