NORMAN PASSIVE HOUSE ADDITION
This is the Norman’s Forever Home!
This addition extends the existing 100yr old home significantly, adds living space, an ADU and a garage/shop.
Besides the obvious performance goals, this home design had some special requirements;
Master on the main with no curb access
Neighborhood engagement with a front porch with room for seating
A very specific kitchen layout desigend by home owner (with a littel help from us)
A large exterior patio area (to be partially covered at a alater date)
An ADU to provide the family rental income
A Sunroom that is thermally seperated from the rest of the home to prevent overheating, but allow for an indoor greenhouse.
About Building Form
The project goals required a clean building form that would make it easy to build and be affrdable. So, we contained the program inside a simple box but designed a faux-dormer with the roof shape and siding changes to create an apealing archtiecutre. This was very cost effective without involving complicated strucutral and carpentry work and added a lot of human scaled curb appeal at a reduced financial price point.
Aging-In-Place
Aging-In-Place was a goal, even though the floor height was dictated by the existing house, and 38” above grade at the front porch. We created the entry area so that it could be easily seperated from teh rest of the first level home, and act as the entry for jsut he upstairs.
Since the yard’s grade slopes up to the south, we could creating a “No Step Entry” from the side of the home, giving the clients a very spacious, one bedroom ‘flat’ when/if the stairs become a burden in the future, without any strucutral changes to the home.
Future-Proofing
If the first level get’s converted into a seperate living area then the second level can easily be made into a very nice Living Space, too
We planned the structure of the home and the plumbing lines so that the upstairs is freed up for future changes. This 3 bedroom plan would make a great income stream for the home owners, or fewer adaptions would be required to make this a space for live-in help if needed too.
We do not try and guess the unknowable future needs of our clients, but instead we create spaces that are affordably adaptable.
Images From The Build
