6/30/2011

small space ideas


Base architecture has designed houses on almost all combination of small lot configurations from corner lots, flat lots, sloping lots front to back and back to front and also side falls. In the case of the Small street house being a site that slopes both from front to the back and across the site, it offers many opportunities to explore the spatial relationships proven across a mixture of levels and functions within the house whilst at the same time exploring the close relationships that exist on the adjoining lots.

Along with the parameters of the residential house lot code, character code, single unit dwelling code and the requirements of the client, it is equally important to address the architecture of the surrounding dwellings. After assessing the surrounding neighborhood it is apparent that there are various existing strengths in the built form that express there own character. The overall character of these dwellings is expressed in the form of the building which includes flat roofs, low pitched roofs, parapets, skillions and gables. – Photos by Christopher Frederick Jones

small natural house



This Tye river cabin small and natural house design is nested into a nine-acre site on a river. Protecting a fragile river ecosystem was the challenge here. The owner wanted a home that was in harmony with natural sorroundings by minimizing the impact to the environment to the greatest extent possible. at the same time the client wanted a home that was comfortable, functional and aesthetically pleasing.

The 600 square foot living space consists of two bedrooms, one bathroom, a livng room and kitchen. Features and finishes, such as reclaimed old growth douglas fir and a poured-in-place concrete fireplace, evoke the surrounding environtment, and the many large combination window/doors that open the interiors to the outside serce to further enhance the connection to nature. This retreat is essentially a wooden tent on a platform that opens to the forest and river. Materials are allowed to weather to merge with the site.