suburban tract house

Home.

We are still not exactly sure of what the tone of this experiment should be. This house is one of three being built, the other two a more conventional ranch and a four-square.  It is already taking slightly longer than the other two - so on that level, has it in a small way, already failed? The development group has spoken of this house as “the new”, and maybe in that way, it is also a bit of the unknown.  The unknown always takes longer, we tell ourselves.  It is also seen as a prototype for future iterations, so we continue to work out details and construction strategies as we go.

So maybe a moment to reflect on the voice of the house instead.  We talked at the outset as a team about a change not so much in architectural configuration, but a change in lifestyle.  This house was fostered under the idea that typical housing values in these large tract developments had collapsed in the real estate bubble implosion and that there was an opportunity to examine the very nature of home in the mass-produced housing industry.  But what is the nature of home?  Frank Lloyd Wright spoke of the hearth as the center, and in some ways the essence, of home.  We are mid-westerners, so it is hard not to reference that guy. There is probably an entire book to be written on the transformation of that symbolism within modern culture, as the hearth’s functional underpinnings have given way to central heating, energy efficiency, and a big television. So what then. What is the heart of this home to be?

Lemons.

We had three basic principles in mind with the design of this house. They are: 1. everybody should have a fruit tree - sweet fragrance, an idea of abundance, and a small token of a good life in one package; 2. houses should be about quiet, protected places - places that can be marked by the track of the sun and dimensioned with shadow; and 3. houses need to breathe - in this day and this climate, a house needs to embrace the out and make it part of the in.  The courtyard plan we have borrowed is from a history much older and more profound than the faux craftsman details that pass for cultural continuity in these communities. This courtyard will be the voice of the house and the spatial turn of the phrase in this experiment.  We are eager to see if this revisited hearth will be embraced by the market’s current set of expectations.

The Design.

We looked at the building blocks of the typical American tract house and asked not only what types of spaces they could contain, but also what types of spaces could they create. The design supposes a house that is turned inside out, creating dimension and scale by the use of contained outdoor space.  We wanted to borrow a hint of 60’s Rummer House planning and cram it on a standard 50’ wide site with a two car garage.  We realized we need to look at a 3-dimensional solution, and re-imagine a pattern of living on two floors.

What emerged was the idea of creating a nucleus for the house as an outdoor elevated courtyard.  The “boxes” shaping this space become an open framework for programming different lifestyles and family configurations.  The first house will have a single great room incorporating the kitchen, dining and family room, with the other box incorporating a small sitting room or office and the master suite.  Entry and two bedrooms plus a bath are on the first floor with the garage.

We wanted to employ a language of utilitarian simplicity and return to a model of living large in a smaller house.

These drawings can be viewed at a larger scale back on the main page.