We read excerpts from Sarah Susanka's book entitled Not So Big House (a great book which I look forward to reading in its entirety soon) for a class I took this past semester. Strangely enough after the semester ended I went home for winter break only to find that the house my father's friend has been working on building for years is designed after ideas from the book. The house has been completed recently, with some landscaping changes still in the process, and we got to take a tour. The following are some ideas I had in comparing the house to the book.
Approaching the house from the long winding driveway through the woods, it doesn't appear to be very different from many other houses. And it comes complete with some of the same aspects one may have seen in magazines like Dwell, the faucet that turns on with a touch, the porch awning that retracts with a button, the pond with a small walking bridge over it, the outdoor patio with built in grill, and blinds operated with a switch.
However, it also blends in some aspects from the book. To explain, the basic idea of the book is to minimize unused space in a house. For example, a typical house may come with a dining room and parlor room. After following Susanka's methodology of recording spaces one spends the most time in and one feels the most comfortable in one, may discover that the dining room is nothing but wasted space. Similarly this house doesn't have high ceilings, as they create nothing but wasted space. It also has an open kitchen / eating / living room area which increases the chances of the space being used. However, it does have an extra dining room, a mini kitchen on the second floor, an extra full bath above the garage, and a dumb waiter which only goes between the second and third floors instead of the first and third. It also has a couple small corner spaces which I have no idea how they would be used and are not currently being used, for example directly behind the front door if opened at a 90 degree angle. Based on Susanka's suggestions I question how often these aspects are actually used. I also question the architect himself on the elevator, which is very small and has the entrances on the first and second floor perpendicular to each other so that one has to turn in the elevator to get out, a maneuver that is very difficult to do depending on the size of the wheelchair.
The house also makes me question what Susanka's approach is to guest rooms. Clearly they are spaces one wouldn't use unless guests are around and as such may be seen as unnecessary. But, as one can see from Eisenman's House VI (a house entirely void of guest rooms, among many aspects), they are definitely important spaces (as one usually does have guests at some point in time). Strangely enough one aspect which reminds me in some ways of House VI and that the owner spoke of as needing to change is the lack of door between the master bathroom and the toilets.
There are many elements to this house that I personally adore. Despite the architect's objections, the main client (the female partner) insisted on having arches incorporated into the house. The front door creates an archway when open, there is one leading to the bathroom above the garage, and one between the second floor and a spiral staircase leading to the third floor. I love these arches and the personality they bring to the house. It makes the front door almost seems hobbit-like. I love the outdoor sleeping space built into the second floor of the porch and the view from the third floor. I also have a somewhat unexplainable admiration for spiral staircases. I'm not sure about the placement of the workout room, currently located above the garage. However, I definitely want a workout room if I ever get a chance to build my own house, though it would include a squat rack and bench press along with the treadmill and eliptical that this house has. I also love the inclusion of a urinal as well as a typical western seated toilet in the master bathroom. In my personal house I may include a squat toilet as well, especially after having read that the seated toilet is more troublesome on the bowels. Additionally an aspect that my boyfriend has commented on desiring is secret passageways through the house. Though this particular house does not have such elements it does have a closet and fridge hidden by certain elements, the closet blending in to the wall and the fridge into the cabinets. It also has crawl spaces above the garage, which my father mentioned playing in as a child. But this is speaking much more to a personal level.
Just to note this passage was written from ideas I have from only reading excerpts of the book. My ideas may change after reading the entirety of the book, we'll have to see.
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