Lookout House

Amidst a neighborhood of large, traditional homes, this house lacked any special character or identity. A history of addition, modification, and ‘updates’ achieved nothing more than a conventional suburban home with mid-century aspirations.

A young family saw potential.

The family suspected that previous additions had been unsuccessful because they were not bold enough. The most recent addition, an over-large shed roof section, was neither practical nor useful to the family, to say nothing of its detailing. While formal, it was simultaneously oversized [from the exterior] and undersized [from the interior]. A half gable. A half gesture.

This would be the site of intervention.

A design strategy conscious of many project parameters, including the requirement to work within the existing footprint, was developed. A new volume, an extrusion of the existing vernacular massing, was manipulated to house the expanded program.

While the existing footprint of the house and its mumbled desires were generative design forces, the resulting volume makes no attempt to re-deploy the existing home’s vocabulary, even forgetting the good manners of simulating existing materials and apertures.

Finally. The unabashed expression of a specific efficiency of function and program.

Idiosyncratic and whimsical, an irrepressible spirit blossoms through the once lifeless and confused gray suburban house, expressing the energy of the young family who lives there.