designSTUDIOmodern

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 approches 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.