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house3

house3

As part of an ongoing personal investigation, house3 continues our research into houses with small, average programs ranging in the 2,000 to 2,500 sf range, which maximize the space within the size constraint. It is also an effort to critique the typical suburban development house. Over the past seventy years since the post-war housing boom, the ideal average home has undergone many changes in program and form. Those changes have diminished the essential aspects of a house and highlighted the less desirable utilitarian elements. This exploration endeavors to resolve personal opinions of how standard programs within small footprints and budgets can be achieved through exploring a modern vocabulary. What makes a house? Why does one building look like a house, and others do not? These were questions under consideration.

The process of developing the form was partially developed from 3-dimensional computer modeling and simultaneously through traditional sketching. The plan grew out of a 30’ square parti with a central circulation spine; the cube maximizes area within the least exterior surface. Additional forms expand out from the square datum and then pierce back through it, becoming a secondary organizational device.

The program includes basic living, dining, and kitchen spaces on the first level with three bedrooms on the upper level. Other amenities include a fourth bedroom or home office on the first floor. Storage space is added where possible. The basement houses the practical aspects such as the laundry, mechanical room, and two-car garage. The form is modeled to downplay these aspects in articulation but uses them as opportunities to highlight other spaces. An example of this is the garage roof serves as an outdoor deck off of the living room.