We're talking about adding on at the back of the house.
It's another remodeling strategy--especially for tight lots. Here
are five ways to go Try looking backward. On a tight lot, it may be the
best way to find space for an addition. Setback requirements often
preclude expansion to the front or side. And, as design review boards
monitor the impact of each prospective addition on a neighborhood's
visual character, they are becoming increasingly critical of what is
seen from the street. Enter the "caboose": an extension at the
rear of the house that enhances the existing structure without
overpowering it. In these pages, we present five such additions,
exploring the accomplishments of each. Will your caboose be visible from
the street? If so, you must consider how it will relate to the
house's architectural character. But if the rear elevation is
visible only from your own back garden, there may be an opportunity to
be more daring. How will your addition work with the existing floor
plan? Can it improve traffic flow? Can it use windows and skylights to
brighten interior rooms? Is there a way to create a new or better link
with the outdoors? Will you face restrictions? Local codes may prohibit
what you build from occupying, with the existing house, more than a
certain percentage of your lot. Or daylight plane or height limits may
be imposed, so you won't shadow your neighbors.
They added 750 square feet ... for openness, garden views
A feeling of openness in a tight space is the major achievement of
this rear addition to a vintage 1912 Berkeley bungalow. The primary
living spaces moved away from the street-front side of the small house
to face the more private rear garden, allowing the owners to use the
original house as an office and guest quarters. Architects Philip
Mathews, Regan Bice, and Charles Debbas used a simple, barn-like form
with a three-part organization--shed roofs flanking a taller central
gable--to shape the roughly 750 square feet of new space. This new
silhouette has its own distinctive character, but it nevertheless fits
naturally with the house's straightforward peaked roof. Inside, the
roughly 25- by 30-foot addition is essentially a series of overlapping
spaces. At the center and facing north toward the back garden is the
two-story gable, which contains a breakfast area, stairway, and sleeping
loft. The wings to its east and west--like large saddlebags--are the
living room and kitchen-dining area, respectively. French doors in the
central section open onto a brick terrace and the garden beyond. The top
of this section--just below the roof spine--functions like a monitor
roof, with small square clerestory windows along its length for an even
distribution of natural light. Designed as a legal second unit, this
addition has its own entrance from the rear of the driveway. Flexibility
is built in: if the owners ever want to combine the two structures into
a single spacious house, they have only to remove a closet wall, opening
a central hallway.
One way to protect neighborhood character is by regulating the size
of residential additions. In this case, in San Francisco, the homeowner
wanted to add on a large multipurpose room that could serve as home
office, library, and guest room. To arrive at an allowable size for the
addition, Berkeley architects Henry Siegel and Larry Strain averaged the
depth that neighboring houses project into their rear lots and kept
within that limit. Although it differs in character from the front of
the house, the 250-square-foot addition is a good neighbor. The
architects broke its rear wall into a series of bays--respecting the
scale of neighboring houses and paying homage to local architectural
vernacular. The bays' diagonal layout made it possible to save a
garden-facing bedroom window and the entrance to an existing basement,
and it preserved the northern neighbor's light and views. The
addition's roof line is a few feet higher than that of the main
house where they join. This allows for a band of street-facing
clerestory windows that bring natural light into the lofty new room. The
existing house had been badly remodeled before, and adding on provided
an opportunity to improve a tortuous floor plan. A new hallway from the
front of the house to the new space at the rear eliminates the need to
pass through the kitchen to reach a pair of bedrooms at the back; it
also brings light into the central core of the house.
More square feet are difficult to find on the small, crowded lots of
Venice, California. To gain two bedrooms, a bath, and a soaring new
breakfast room, Judy and Don Michel's caboose went up--adding a
second story--atop the rear of the house. Its gabled form keeps it in
visual harmony with the house and its neighborhood of former summer
cottages. The two main-floor bedrooms became an office and a guest room.
When planning access to the new upper-level bedrooms, architect Kenneth
David Lee of Encino decided to put the stairway at the back of the house
rather than up front by the entry. After all, the upstairs is a private
family space, so why reach it from the most public part of the house?
Geometric contrast gives a quality of surprise to the addition at the
rear of this boxy, two-story 1960s tract house. It also makes good
sense. From inside the glassy half-cylinder shown at far left, you feel
surrounded by daylight. The owners asked Los Angeles architect Melinda
Payne to rework the rear of the house, which had been too dark in
daytime. She replaced a Pullman kitchen with a square, island-anchored
room. To brighten it, she used light maple cabinets and flooring, and
white synthetic marble (Corian) counters. A windowed semicircular
breakfast area opens to the garden. Upstairs, a circular bath welcomes
the daylight through glass-block walls, balcony doors, and a wire-glass
skylight. On opposite sides of the central shower are identical sinks
with mirrors above, cabinets below. Dressing areas are along a short
passage to the bedroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7mCqQnlohM
casual relationship with the
PHOTO : outdoors
PHOTO : Bays step out and windows step down, creating illusion of
deeper space as new addition
PHOTO : extends into garden. At highest point, ceiling soars to 15
feet
PHOTO : Addition stopped short of existing window at right, saving
the bedroom's garden view
PHOTO : Though visible from street, setback gable doesn't
overpower modest facade
PHOTO : Stairwell climbs out of new two-story breakfast room at
back of house. Once-dark kitchen
PHOTO : gains abundant natural light from breakfast room's
skylight and big windows
PHOTO : Balcony is an open-air perch off new glass-block bath above
breakfast area
PHOTO : Ridge skylight rains daylight on stall shower at center of
circular bath
PHOTO : Circular soffit over breakfast area echoes shape of bath
above it. Waist-high wing walls
PHOTO : with inset glass blocks define kitchen
PHOTO : Angled out from two-story house, the addition adds
contemporary accents with large window
PHOTO : grid, tile-covered patio, overscaled trellis
PHOTO : Before, Mediterannean-style house sat square to the lot,
with smallish windows and poor
PHOTO : access to the back garden
