Just some quick pics of our progress with the glulam frame that defines the overall structural parti of the lightBOX addition. The spatial qualities and light quality are starting to coallesce. The weather, though fickle, is making for some lovely light.
The glulam columns had to be threaded through some of the existing walls and floor structure of the existing house. The connection is a surgical procedure performed on the existing house to graft the new structural language onto that of the original little stick-framed system. All the original services had to be shifted to make this possible.
The connection detail between the glulam columns and the second floor beams is through a hidden cross-dowel connection, like giant IKEA furniture. Cool!
The souther glulam framed wall will be infilled with sliding doors and fixed glass that opens the interior of the box to the yard, perfect for entertaining and livng an indoor-outdoor life during pleasant weather.
The 3x6 tongue and groove floor decking compresses the floor structure to a minimal depth and forms a consistent material palette within the new kitchen and dining core of the addition. This space becomes central to the life of the updated house.
The new double height living space allows a decompression from the tight and dark spaces of the existing house, prior to exiting to the outdoor decks and the back yard. The modulated light, coming in through clerestory windows, the extensive southern glazing and the double-height translucent wall, will make for a gradated transition from the shadowy interior of the existing house to the harsher Texas light of the outdoors.
A second story master-suite nestles itself against the gable roof of the existing house. This helps the addition recede into the background from the street, but proclaim itself proudly to the alley-way, a welcome surprise for the suddenly vibrant social life springing up with all of the alley-flats in this block.