vernon residence ⌉⌈ scope: addition & renovation / architect of record ⌉⌈ status: under construction ⌉⌈ location: brookfield, IL
this 1920’s single-family house is located in one of chicago`s densely-populated, west suburbs, on a corner-lot bounded by a street and alley. The client`s program was to renovate the kitchen at the main level, reconstruct the back-porch and associated staircase, and add the master-suite on the second level. Prior to the renovation plan, the house had poorly structured, poorly insulated, and inaccessible attic level with insufficient headroom space for the occupants to use.
the renovation / addition design concept took off from rooting the existing building along the new addition into the immediate physical context; visually and culturally. the use of materiality on the new attic level embracing the addition was profoundly derived from the dominant face brick facades around as well as the existing masonry wall on the first level. the use of a rustic-finish fiber cerement boards with vertical battens came to echo the extensive use of that material in the vicinity.
as for roof shape, it was a representation as well as transformation of two, opposing mono-slope roofs sweeping in opposite directions addressing the floating / sweeping status of the building, and managing the stormwater in a more careful manner that brings all rainfall onto the lot itself; without overflooding the adjacent streets network as well as neighboring properties.