designSTUDIOmodern

happyFAMILY

 

We've had the pleasure to be working on a residential design for clients who aren't afraid to think outside the box, or rather think about how best to use the box. To that end, over these past few months we've been working on a moderately sized shipping container based home (ISBU home to those sticklers for terminology,) comprised of a total of seven modified ISO shipping containers.

 

The ground floor is composed of a 40' Hi-Cube that houses a home office and a guest suite (whose shower area opens up to the backyard and possible future pool) and a 20' standard container that comprises a gourmet kitchen, both of which bookend a sunken entry area (for shoe removal,) and a raised dining area, which open into the high vaulted space of the family room. Under the stairs, which rise up along a tall polygal wall, is the door from the carport and exterior storage container that defines the far edge of the home. Through a commercial glass door and a commercial overhead door on the back wall, can be found the wide covered porch and the extents of the backyard (and possible future pool...)

 

 

Heading back inside and up the stairs lands you at a catwalk "hallway" that serves the two boy's room, their shared bathroom and play area between, the compact washer and dryer closet, and the parent's en suite. Each bedroom is housed in a standard 20' container with it's own cantilevered balcony overlooking the frontyard and the servant spaces (bathrooms, utility room, andmaster closet) are infilled between the containers.

 

 

At each end of the catwalk are a roofdeck off the parent's suite (located over the exposed area of the 40' container below,) and access to a second 40' container that serves as the boy's realm (which has it's own exterior stair access to the backyard as well as a deck above the carport.)

 

 

Capping the whole ensemble of downstairs public spaces and upstairs private spaces is a large pre-engineered steel roof structure that makes room for an "attic" space above the bedroom containers with access to adjacent exterior roof decks.

 

With the free flow of ground floor space, the compartmentalization of the private spaces on the second floor, and the extra "attic" and upper roof deck spaces provided by the pre-engineered roof structure, the house is composed so that it tightly integrates the indoors and outdoors. Coupling that with integrated planters at the entry, backyard, and between the inner and outer stairs, this house will become further enmeshed into it's site through the landscaping.

Think (and eat) inside the box

We absolutely love it when people talk about our la Boîte projects. Even if they use the term "quirky," we get that they are raving about the design and sustainable ideas inherent in "the Box"

link to gethappyaustin blog

 

 

 

rainwater harvesting

The amazing and prolific storms that moved through central Texas yesterday and last night got us to thinking about rainwater harvesting systems again. We've been proponents of the idea since WAY back to our first project out at Deep Eddy West. For that project we used two 10K gallon tanks to capture the rain from over 4000s.f. of roof area off two separate buildings. The water is used for potable water as well as landscape irrigation, and actually lasted them through the recent drought (just barely!) Of course that particular 20K gallon system was integral to the overall design of the project. We knew rainwater was going to be a big component from the get-go and designed the buildings and systems accordingly (hence the butterfly roof on the big building and the shed roof on the smaller building...)

 

 

There are also simple systems available for retrofit applications for collecting rainwater for landscape usage around your house. Non-potable systems are incredibly easy, especially if you already have gutters and downspouts. Our personal favourite system is the RainWater H2OG. We like it so much that we became distributors of the product and use the tanks in our own projects for most any situation where we need to hold water (potable water and waste water tanks for our various food trailer projects.) The best part of the Rainwater H2OG system is that it is low-profile and modular, so it can be installed along the walls of your house, distributed around to various downspout locations, or built within the structure of a wooden deck. No more needing to figure out how best to hide a big ugly old water tank.

 

If you'd like some pricing information for the rainwater hogs, or to discuss the install of an entire rainwater harvesting system give us a shout.

Small house

Sometimes in the design/build business you meet clients that want to do some nice and simple things. They seem incredibly sane and together when you first meet them, but as the talking to them about their project drags on into months, and then years, and everytime you have a meeting the project scope has changed significantly, you just get the sinking feeling that they are maybe a bit crazy. Then one day they call you out of the blue and are "ready to get started," so naturally you jump at the chance to finally be able to put pen to paper and get some of those ideas out of your head and into the wild. The ideas that have been bouncing around in your head for a year or so just spill out and an almost fully formed design rises out of the flurry of activity. You're jazzed because the project is so strong, and it meets and excedes every single programmatic requirement and desire expressed in the various discussions, and no compromises reared their ugly little heads in the process. You are very happy with the whole thing and can't wait to get it built...

 

and then that feeling you had all along (rememeber the one where you thought the client may be a bit crazy?) becomes so very right...

 

Well this design was like that. Which is too bad really, because as you can see this would be a great little house.

 

 

At 838sf conditioned space, with a modest master suite and a bonus bedroom/office, this house would live like a much larger house with the various decks and protected space. Simple, small, easy to build, efficient. Nice.

 

 

pretty pretty sushiBOX

While work is commencing on the box modifications (cutting, grinding, welding, grinding some more, etc...) for sushiBOX, we're also working on finalizing colours for the interior and exterior and coordinating with the logo design. To help this process along, and to make some pretty visuals of what we are working towards, we put together this little rendered image. We'll be tweaking and updating as we come to more conclusions about colours and various other details, but for now it gives a good overview of the intent of the end product.

Current thinking for the box is an aluminum silver paint on the exterior, hot pink on the insides of the door flaps and the interior ceiling, and accents of bamboo plywood for cabinets.

 

The guys have also tackled removing the load doors from the container in order to fashioned them into the end flap that will be top hinged like the side flaps. We're trying to keep as much of the exterior "container-y" feel of the box, and to that end when closed the flaps should read pretty much like the end of any old container, complete with the standard closure bars and hardware.

Feral Architecture

Sometimes even the best conceived plans are let out into the world with out much care, and they go feral. Oftentimes in the world of architecture and design this is at the request of the client, oftentimes a builder that just wants a set of drawings to get permits and build something. The details are left on the drawingboard and the project has to fend for itself, with the hope that its underlying design are sufficient to make for a successful project. The beachHOUSE in Port Aransas is a case in point.

 

The drawings date back to 2006, when we were approached by a builder in Austin to provide designs for two projects, one of which was for his personal beach get-away. Jumping at the chance to get something built in my hometown, we quickly went to work on a compact 1100 s.f. plan for a very constricted lot. The tight budget, lot constriants, and desire for a truly simple functional place, conspired to form a simple modern box that meets the programmatic requirements with a certain quiet modesty.

 

Even accounting for the various screw-ups that happened during the un-supervised construction process, the design is a success. A straighforward 16' wide by 48' long bar defines a master bedroom suite, a secondary kids bedroom, a public bathroom and a kitchen that opens into a larger 20' x 16' living area. High clerestory windows (though built at a shorter head height than intended...) allow ample north light into the building from what is effectively a cramped rear setback that looks into the rear neighbours yard. Large sliding glass doors topped with transoms on the street side of the house open the living area and kitchen onto a shaded front deck (sadly out of scale to the house because the pier and beam foundation was built 18" higher than required...)

 

The well lit living area and kitchen take advantage of the SIP panel roof system and have a full 10' ceiling height, while the hallway, bathrooms and bedrooms are furred down to allow for the HVAC system to feed all the spaces from a simple and efficient straight trunk line. Large eye level picture windows in the hall allow for the relatively tight 4o" wide passage to feel much more expansive.

 

Simple utilitarian bedrooms are amply lit by the clerestory windows as well as floor length single hung egress windows. Closets and storage are more than sufficient for a vacation house and the bathrooms while compact can accommodate two adults in the master, and at least two kids in the public bathroom.

 

 

Galvalum Snap-Lock roofing wraps the exterior siding surfaces of the house and lends a rigorous rhythm to the facade.

 

Even with the slight rhythmic flaws in the window placement, the taught galvalum skin is a playground for shadow and light, which are always a source of quotidian beauty in the salt air.

 

While the house is currently abandoned, and I'm assuming being foreclosed on by the bank, the overall conception of the house is still a resounding success. While many details were not carried through as intended, the spatial characteristics and light quality serve as successful prototypes and test-beds for subsequent designs. Primary among those designs are the plans for ClearSpace Modular, which take as a point of departure the floor plan of the beachHOUSE as the prototype for the many different plan iterations. The bedroom layouts, the compact bathroom plans, the hallways, and the overall kitchen and living area design are all derivatives of this abandoned and neglected design. 

Download BeachHOUSE drawing set

colour, pattern, and rhythm

Colour, pattern and rhythm have been a constant interest in the work of designSTUDIO. We are currently composing different colour and material palettes for various projects and are taking cues from past work. There has been an ongoing interest in different siding approaches working with different colours and patterns of vertical metal siding. The most recent iteration of this was in a studio addition for a Grammy winning musician living in a simple Mid-Century builder ranch (another thread that runs through our work). In that siding, a four-colour pattern, based on the chord progression of "If the House is a Rockin" marches around the building. The siding and colours are all standard issue CF-Panel "Snap-Lock" roofing materials from Mueller Metal Buildings.

 

To take those ideas in a different direction we are now working with a horizontal lap siding pattern composed of three widths and corresponding colours. This pattern makes for a "randomized" look as blocks of the same width of siding intersperse around the building. In reality there is a total of four block patterns (two of which are simply inverted arrangements of the previous two patterns). The overall pattern is determined by an interweaving of 4", 6" and 8" exposures of Hardi-Panel lap siding. By assigning different colours to each width, a vast array of looks and feels can be accomplished through modest means.

This one feels a bit masculine and protected.

This one vibrant and open.

And this one subdued.

midCENTURY Addition

A non-descript builder ranch house in a close-in South Austin neighbourhood gets a decidedly modern living room addition and a minor interior update. Taking direct cues from 50's modern designs and the existing wood framed carport, the glassed-in room spreads into the spacious backyard with a new foundation and steel framed pavilion.

Serving as a temperate weather living-room, finely attuned to the elements, large custom steel and insulated glass barn-doors roll back to open the corner of the space to the outdoors. Generous 4' overhangs protect the glass walls from mid-day heat, while the clerestory windows of the new dining area open to allow for passive ventilation.

A modest light-filled 3/4 bath does double duty as a laundry room and serves as a solid back-drop for the new top-lit dining area adjacent to the existing vintage kitchen and its stained mahogony ply cabinets. A new ovesized steel and glass pocket door opens up the brick wall around the existing back door to allow for easy entertaining and connection to the new social spaces.

The existing living room vaults up to the underside of the existing roof and allows for a new bank of North-facing clerestories to bring much needed light to the original living area of the house. The small existing bar gets shifted and expanded to a proper sized bar at the center of the new layout.

What was a rather tidy functional home in untouched condition, the simple box gets re-worked into an ambitious re-imagining and distillation of the mid-century vocabulary and in so doing, changes the way the home responds to it's direct surroundings. No longer a passive container for living, the home becomes an active participant in the life of the owner through its registering of light and shadow and its direct responses to the overall climate through the opening up of its glass walls.

Download Floor Plan PDF

casitaMOD

designSTUDIO has slowly but surely been plugging along on some modular designs over the past few years. Last year we teamed up with start-up modular company ClearSpace Modular and will soon be going live with some modular designs that will be aimed squarely at the segment of the modern modular market that we feel keeps being overlooked, namely the affordable end.

We have decidedly taken a more mid-century approach to the designs and overall ethos of the line. Floor plans are smaller, a typical 3/2 within a 1200 s.f. floor plan, much like what our grandparents would have been used to (though in our case the whole family doesn't have to share a single bathroom!) and overall materiality and detailing are more in keeping with the simple material palettes of that era. We are also maximizing the connections to the exterior with large expanses of sliding doors, unlike most standard modular offerings.

Once we feel like we have the fine-print of the product lines finalized we'll surely post the designs and particulars as well as link to the dedicated web-site for the line. Until then, we wanted to share a little project that sprung almost fully formed from the work we were doing with the modular line. It is informed by what we've learned working on the modular line, and will serve as the smallest member of the modular family.

Conceived as a stand-alone mini-efficiency for remote sites and more temporary stays, the CasitaSpace is a 420 s.f. module with an integrated 8' covered deck and entry porch. The overall idea is that the space is a vessel to view the landscape through. Dark and protected, it is set up to frame a landscape view, and offers up protection from the elements as well as a gracious interior space within which to feel protected and secure. In that sense it is an updated "cave", though with a lot more amenity than merely protection from the elements and a protected view out.

Along one long wall are located the 3/4 bathroom, the kitchen, and on the exterior deck, a utility/storage area. A nook adjacent to the entry door can house a murphy bed, built-in work area, or storage/display wall. A small platform above the bathroom area can serve as a single sleeping platform up in the top of the overall space or as storage.

 
A small entry is carved out of the front corner of the space, to allow for a protected deck that steps down to the ground. A floor to ceiling translucent window on the end of the shower wall casts even light into the tiled bathroom space.

Tiny windows and skylights, pushed to the corners, as well as a floor to ceiling screened window at the entry, allow for gentle reflected light to infuse the space, all the while acting as a foil for the larger view out the end wall and across the covered exterior deck.

For additional info contact Mark Meyer at designSTUDIO.