We've completed the second round of design on our CAST architecture case study backyard cottage.

The plan has been fine tuned to optimize it for advanced framing. We adjusted the spaces to work better with Kate and Ric's needs and have started looking at potential materials and finishes.

We've also started talking about systems - at this point everything is on the table, solar hot water, energy efficient boiler, hydronic floor heating systems, rainwater cistern for flushing the toilets and watering the yard, super insulated walls...

I suspect that our choices will narrow as the reality of our budget forces us to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right now however, the possibilities seem limitless!

Good turnout for the Phinney Ridge Home Fair.  I spoke to a few friends who had exhibited and the consensus was that the outlook for 2010 was pretty good.  Their anecdotes reinforced my feeling that we'll see a bounce in work and the industry will get back on track (although not the bubble-hot track we'd been on).  Since architects are the canaries in the construction coal mine, it was great to hear other design professionals seeing the uptick in new projects that we have been seeing. Also, I wanted to hit one point I missed in my presentation about How to Work with an Architect - taking the first step:

As part of the interview process, get the architects that you are interested in out to your house, your site.  It is critical to get their impression of your project, and plus in talking through the project on site you'll get a window in to how they process information, how they work, communicate and if they have good ideas right off the bat.

We offer the first consultation free of charge, of course, because it is also critical for us to get an understanding of the project, the challenges, and get to know you as a client.

If you have additional questions about things I said in the presentation, or topics I didn't have time to cover, please email me at matt@CASTarchitecture.com and I'll be happy to address them!

We're looking forward the annual Phinney Ridge Home Fair this Sunday, the 31st, from 10 am to 4 pm.  Usually we have a table there, but we jumped on it a little too late. I'll still be there.  In fact, I'll be giving a little talk on How to Work with an Architect to help people looking to build understand the role of the architect, and the design process.  I'll talk about how to select an architect, how much it will cost, and go in deep about what to expect every step of the way.

If I'm lucky there'll even be time for some questions!

Starts at 1:50 and runs to 2:30. I'm going to hang out afterwards as long as there are curious minds with questions.

In case you can't make it, I'll post the handout that goes through the process afterwords.

The Seattle channel recently interviewed myself and CAST clients Kate Lichtanstein and Ric Cochrane regarding the backyard cottage we are currently working on together. They included our project in a broader story that profiles an owner of a recently completed backyard cottage and gives a basic outline of the new Seattle backyard cottage ordinance.

Seattle Channel Video can be played in Flash Player 9 and up

Here's another new project in the office, an addition to a residence on Capital Hill. The existing house is a tiny 750 sq. ft. bungalow on one of Seattle's steepest streets. The owners found the compact plan a perfect fit when they first moved in, but two kids later, they desperately need more room. They are drawn of the core values of modern architecture: emphasis on natural light, spaces that flow together, honest and straightforward materials and want a house that expresses that. They are comfortable making a pretty bold statement, but they also want the addition to feel comfortable in the existing fabric of the neighborhood. They are interested in sustainability that is designed in from the ground up, which led to the early decision to preserve the existing structure instead of starting from scratch on the site.

How to add onto an existing building that has a well-defined or historical style is a perennial architectural puzzle (and hip roofs are especially difficult to achieve seamless integration). In this case, we approached it by creating a clear contrast between the new and the old through form, material and color. But it's not enough to just plunk a contemporary form next to an old house and expect a real conversation to take place. In this addition, the new and old talk to each other both in how the volumes intersect and in how the two differing styles overlap.

Intersection Our early drawings all show a long, narrow addition running north-south to hold the downhill edge of the property. However, after looking at dozens of alternative schemes, we realized the potential for a very special outdoor space, between the south-facing wall of the addition, the steep hillside and the existing house. Private, yet with almost ideal sun exposure, this patio is the heart of the design but it sets up a tricky problem: we wanted to the public and private wings of the house to fit up against one another while at the same time creating a space between them.

In the rendering above, you can see how we resolved this conundrum: the charcoal-colored wall literally acts like a giant door, swinging out of the (blue) addition to carve space from the (yellow) existing house and define the courtyard. This dividing wall gets a different material and different detailing show a clear relationship between the planning and the way the house is actually made. Creating a courtyard at the joint between the new and old helps to differentiate the two volumes and separate the bedrooms from the public spaces. The slight angle of the addition's south wall also provides enough solar exposure so that a concrete trombe wall behind the south-facing glass is effective in reducing the use of conventional heating by about a third. (More on the passive solar design of this house in a later post)

Overlap While they are separated by their overall form, the old and new portions of the house are tied together by elements that extend the language of one style into the other portion of the house. The largest example of this is the secondary level of detailing we are developing for both structures. The large-scale metal sun canopy of the addition is repeated at a smaller scale as a canopy at the front entry and then inside the original house as a pair of room-divider screens that create separate zones within the loft-like space (and incidentally help act as shear walls).

The language of filtering light through parallel vertical columns even extends the site design: the wide sideyard on the west creates the perfect bamboo garden outside the kitchen's horizontal slot window and a verdant path to the courtyard.

In the fall, we started the design for a new house in Sand Point.  Although the project stalled here in schematic design, we were very excited about the work, and hopefully it will come back in some form (we recycle!).  Here are the three schematic designs we presented: Scheme 1:  PLUS

The clients wanted to have a 'permeable' house with soft transitions that welcomed neighbors but kept private space private.  The design delineated the corner site into 4 quadrants with varying degrees of privacy.  A manicured garden graces the stepped path from the very public corner, while the upper drive on the southwest provides the day to day family entrance (at grade for the client's aging parents.  One the northeast, a wide terrace off the living spaces provides a great entertaining space that opens to the more quiet neighborhood edge.  The two volumes of the plus create a very private backyard on the southeast.

The house has a very clean organization--living spaces are lined up in the lower volume, each with access to the eastern terrace/backyard, with the bedrooms stretched across the second story volume.  The second story volume bridges over the first story, bookended with a mudroom and a semi-detached mother-in-law, creating two apertures--one for the entry, the second for an covered outdoor living room.  At the intersection of the two volumes we have an atrium with a sculptural stair.

Scheme 2:  HINGE

The second scheme is also addresses the clients' concerns about overwhelming the street, creating a private backyard, and blurring the edge between garden and house.  The design features a low slung wood and glass box with a broad, planar green roof along the west edge of the site.  A two story box, following the north site edge, contains the living room, media room and mother-in-law on the main floor, with bedrooms and a double studio/playroom above.

If the first scheme is PLUS, this one probably should have been nicknamed 'minus' because the overlap of the two volumes is subtracted to make a dramatic vertical space where the geometries interact.  In the morning, light floods the kitchen.  In the evening, the screened/glass wall on the western wall of the second story filters through to the living room:

Scheme 3:  WING

The central idea of the WING scheme is two volumes--one private, one public--connected by a glass skinned entry, under a big angular roof.  Again we're reinforcing the site's geometry to vary the degrees of privacy and expand the livable space of the house beyond the envelope with a series of outdoor spaces each with a unique character and function.  At the corner, a terrace defined with a low seat wall, is the place for after dinner drinks, sunsets, and engaging with the neighbors. Toward the backyard, we have a perfect spot for baking in the summer sun, and a outdoor hangout/informal dining space with fireplace adjacent to the kitchen.

Of the three options, the clients' preference was PLUS.  It has the strongest volumetric presence, an elemental simplicity and it handled the site issues and their program with sophistication and subtlety.

We are very excited to begin a new project for the Sunset Hill neighborhood to transform an abandoned City Light substation parcel into a pocket park.  Based on the input from the community thus far, the program is very intriguing:  a community space with an artist-in-residence caretaker, powered by a serious photovoltaic array. There may be more or different elements as the project evolves in the community design process, and as we navigate through various City agencies and funding sources, but fundamentally this has all the values we expound as a firm:  sustainable building, energized public space, housing options/density, and  an interactive process that invests people in the civic life of their neighborhood.

In 2008, I designed a structure with a similar program for a Dwell Magazine conceptual competition:

Set at the east end of Crissy Field in San Francisco, this Community Room/Exhibit Hall creates an anchor for a new sculpture park. The hall is a multipurpose space, more infrastructure than building--for public events, private events, exhibits, etc. The glass sliding panels open the hall to the public, the park and the views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A small caretaker's residence is situated on the second floor, using the broad roof of the Community Room as a vegetable garden, eliminating the conflict between the public park and the private residence. The glass screen walls provides security, and electricity--the design on the glass is created with a photovoltaic interlayer, which powers the house and hall. Stormwater is captured, stored and used to irrigate the roof garden.

While this little conceptual project may help to inform the Sunset Substation, I'm excited to apply some of this experience in designing a real world pocket park.

Stay tuned....

UPDATED AUG. 8th 2019

Now that the new legislation is in place we’ve updated Quickstart Guide for 2019. Please keep in mind that this information is intended as a high level primer for the code that governs backyard cottages in Seattle… It should only be used as a basic starting point for planning. If you would like to move forward with the design and permitting of a backyard cottage for your home we recommend careful scrutiny of the entire ordinance and the assistance of an architect or design professional.

Download guide as a printable pdf

We've seen an unexpected level of interest in backyard cottages in the 2 months since the new ordinance has been in effect. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the projects is the diversity of needs for each one... We have a young couple with a small house on a large lot that would like an outbuilding with a workshop and guestroom. We have a couple planning to build and occupy a cottage in their backyard in order to open up their home for their children and grandchildren to live in. We have a third couple who have separated but are committed to raising their children together. They currently live in the same house and believe that adding a backyard cottage to the property will maintain the proximity they need to raise their children together while providing them the space they need as individuals.

In a bit of a surprise, we have yet to see anyone looking to build a cottage for the sole purpose of rental income. Although one of the guys here at the office has been running the numbers and is strongly considering building a cottage for rent in his backyard.

We've completed the first round of design on our CAST architecture case study backyard cottage.

Kate and Ric's cottage is intended to serve as an art studio, workshop and guest house. It is also designed so that it may function as a rental home if needed. Our initial round of planning looked at how the spaces might work as a rental thinking that those functional requirements would be more restrictive than the requirements for an art studio and workshop.

Elements common to all three schematic design options:

All three options place the cottage at the SW corner of the site, chosen for it's relationship to the more public areas of the existing home and for an opportunity to create a shared outdoor room for both the cottage and the home. They all have a gable roof which was chosen for the height bonus allowed in the ordnance and to help marry the form of the cottage to the form of the existing home. All three options have the kitchen, living and bath rooms on the first floor and a bedroom loft on the second floor. Another feature common to all the options is the use of salvaged galvanized steel scaffolding components (see image below) which we plan to use as treads for ladder to the loft spaces.

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SCHEMATIC DESIGN OPTION 1

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This design incorporates an existing garage which more or less sits on the South and West property lines. The city land use desk (walk in) indicated that it was probable that we would be able to grandfather the building envelope of the existing garage into a new backyard cottage but they were unwilling to guarantee it. They recommended that we go through formal land use approval early in the process. Regardless of their final call we did know that we would have to stick within the building envelope of the garage for all portions of the backyard cottage that did not conform to the new ordinance. The potential advantage of using the existing garage is that it would allow us to use up less of the yard space for our new structure.

This drawing illustrates the site plan and floor plans. The existing garage is the portion of the structure that bumps out to the south and the west.

This is a view of the cottage from the SE. You can see the envelope of the existing garage on the south side of the structure.

A view from the NE looking through the shared outdoor room.

A view looking from the dining room, past the scaffolding ladder and into the living area.

A view from the living room into a private shade garden inspired by small Japanese courtyard gardens and created in the 5' setback from the lot line. a four foot concrete wall and cedar fence above create a very private and intimate indoor/outdoor space.

A view from the street.

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SCHEMATIC DESIGN OPTION 2

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The major element in this design is the creation of a covered outdoor workspace to the south of the cottage.

The covered patio to the south provides a sheltered outdoor workspace. The loft space is pulled back from the east wall allowing two stories of light to fill the first floor studio.

View from the SE

View from the NE

Loft space

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SCHEMATIC DESIGN OPTION 3

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This scheme ended up being the winner with Kate and Ric. They felt it was the best fit for their needs in terms of layout and size. It features a simple open plan on the first floor and a second floor that is more private than the lofts in the first two options.

Pass through doors and a simple plan define this scheme.

View from the SE.

View from the NE.

Entry from shared outdoor room

Looking toward the kitchen and dining room.

Bath with a private shade garden.

Loft.