The B W House, designed by Julie Snow Architects, occupies a corner lot in a single-family neighborhood of Minneapolis.
A cast-in-place concrete system forms the walls of the first floor and garden, while wood siding clads the upper level.
The rear of the house opens into an enclosed garden that essentially doubles the living space of the first floor.
The home integrates a streamlined kitchen into adjoining living and dining spaces.
Exposed concrete serves as both a structural and finish material for the first level. Upstairs, plaster walls convey a contrasting sense of lightness.
Walnut floors on the second level supply a warm hue to balance the coolness of the glass and plaster.
The home's site plan.
The home's first and second floor plans.
The front elevation with the inverted window bay situated to capture distant views. Architect Adam Sokol also offset the roof ridgeline to produce more headroom in the space directly above the windows.
The almost solid rear elevation blocks undesirable views of nearby houses. The patio is cut out from the building's form to provide protection. "The cutouts also de-emphasize the volume," Sokol says. That volume is clad in EcoStar shingles that are manufactured using recycled tires Sokol adds.
The site plan shows how many houses abut the narrow lot in this dense neighborhood.
This drawing shows Sokol's simple starting point and the moves he made in response to the site and program that resulted in the final form.
The western wall cants away from the adjacent house at a 6-degree angle to allow natural light into the neighbor's living spaces.
A small terrace on the third floor can't be seen from the street and is sheltered by a large oak tree. "It's very hidden," Sokoal says, "and people are often surprised when they discover it."
The combined kitchen and dining space gains sunlight from three directions--the oversized patio door, the windows at the top of an open stair, and a glass wall in the living room.
The second-floor guest bedroom has built-in bookshelves and a cozy alcove that can be used for multiple purposes.
Sokol opened the three-story stairwell and aligned it with large windows and skylights. To save on cost and to integrate the stair with the interior spaces, Sokol designed a "distorted spiral drywall railing that winds down the entire stair."
The angled wall in the top-floor master suite is clad in natural birch for a pale reflective surface that amplifies natural light throughout the room.
Detail showing the birch wall panels and sunlight being reflected.
The master bath shower is also tucked beneath the offset ridgeline and brightened with an operable skylight.
An evening streetscape shows the close proximity of neighboring houses.
The distant tower vista as seen from inside the house.
Floor plans
Section drawings
residential architect September-October 2009 internal logic project: Mullen Street House; architect: Steely Architecture, San Francisco; general contractor: Structura General Contractors, San Francisco; landscape architect: Bernard Trainor Associates, Pacific Grove, Calif.
Cutouts weave outdoor spaces into the volume of the building.
Bath cabinets are faced in a zebrawood veneer.
Two floors below, a sheltered outdoor space tunnels through the building, joining its private and public sides.
The top-floor master bedroom opens onto a rooftop deck.
The landscaped side yard climbs in a series of terraces that relate to interior floor elevations. Exterior materials that wrap into the building reinforce the inside-outside connection.
The owner requested a compact building footprint to maximize the outdoor space.
An open kitchen and dining area preserve views to the backyard.
Walnut flooring anchors the white walls and millwork.
Bright white interiors are juxtaposed with a charcoal-gray exterior.
Crisp detailing complements the white-on-white master bath.
A large window in the master bedroom frames leafy views.
A full-height door opens to the master bedroom and adjoining bath.
Mahogany and concrete block landscape walls complement the cube and orchestrate the relationship between the street, a required parking court, and the house.
The main house seen from the courtyard.
Studio 0.10 architects conceived of the MuSh Residence as two volumes, with the art studio, the garage, and apartment located with ease of access from the street.
The main house is located toward the rear of the lot, creating a courtyard between the two volumes and offering views of the nearby nursery.
The corner of the home shows a detail of the custom-patterned zinc rain screen, which creates a breathable air space that prevents heat transfer from the outside to the inside.
The architects designed a circulation/art display form that is framed in ipe.
From the nursery, the two- and three-story volumes rise above the single-level homes in the neighborhood.
High-performance glass largely eliminates the penetration of harmful UV light to protect artwork.
The apartment in the front volume features a long narrow plan and polished concrete floors.
The bathrooms in the main house are clad in white mosaic tile.
Another shot of one of the bathrooms.
The dining room and kitchen overlook the courtyard. Folding ipe doors bring in lots of light.
Juxtaposed against the exteriors, the interiors are light and bright with ipe wood floors and white-painted gypsum walls.
The floor plans of the two volumes.
The exploded axo shows the various design elements of the home.
Folding doors allow views of the backyard and allow cross ventilation.
In addition to the circulation/art display form, a Santa Barbara, Calif., craftsman fabricated all the windows and doors from solid ipe hardwood.
CHDA 2012 Custom Home / 3,000 to 5,000 Square Feet, Merit Linden Hills Cottage, Minneapolis Entrant/Architect: Rehkamp Larson Architects, Minneapolis; Builder: JS Johnson & Associates, Hopkins, Minn.; Landscape designer: Field Outdoor Spaces, Minneapolis; Interior designer: Alecia Stevens, Minneapolis
The Custom Home Design Awards judges especially admired the project's light-filled kitchen.
"The scale of the pieces and parts is so important," says architect Jean Rehkamp Larson. Case in point: the home's well-detailed entry foyer.
Throughout the house, ceiling beams and trim define spaces within spaces.
Larson tucked one of the home's four bedrooms under the eaves on the second level.
Elevation drawings for the Linden Hills Cottage.
The home's site plan.
The home's main level floor plan.
The home's upper level floor plan.
The home's lower level floor plan.
Architect Steven Ehrlich’s own house gestures to the street with fabric privacy panels and front and side courtyards.
By separating the project into a main house (left) and garage/guest house (this page, rear) Ehrlich created an outdoor room that acts as an extension of both spaces.
Existing trees, new landscaping, and a perimeter wall all enhance this urban home’s sense of privacy.
Split-Level House
The bullnose facade references other corner buildings on the street.
Brick walls, mahogany windows, sapele siding, and the sandblasted concrete entry platform are a twist on traditional neighborhood materials.
The home’s framing system, a hybrid of steel and engineered wood, helped trim costs.
Blackened oak storage consoles double as room dividers throughout the house.
The exterior brick wall continues into the foyer.
A blackened steel stair frame stitches the levels together, as do the oiled steel handrails and pickled white oak flooring.
Clad in anthracite zinc, the master suite is 4 feet lower than the roof terrace.
Russian Hill's tiny infill lot in San Francisco was subject to many physical and regulatory site constraints.
An open kitchen/family room with a breakfast bay and a counter for casual dining stretches the width of the house. A full story above grade at the rear of the building, the room enjoys elevated city views.
A two-story entry hall lends a sense of verticality to the living and dining areas at the front of the house.
A folded street-front façade allows this guest room window to wrap a corner.
The main stair channels light through the core of the building.
An etched glass privacy fence expands the lower-level family room to take in the compact backyard. A gas-fueled firepit provides an off-center focal point.
A second gable added to the home’s east façade gives it a pleasing symmetry (opposite). Fresh white trim highlights its traditional style and materials.
Period-style detailing like a coffered ceiling and built-in bookcases ensures compatibility between the home’s exterior and interior.
