A real estate agent approached me about designing a casita for his home in Orange County, CA. A casita - Spanish for"small house" - is basically a guest house with a bathroom and no kitchen. They often are used as a home office and are sometimes called a mother in-law suite.
This casita will serve as a home office, but the main design requirement is that it must match the house. The goal for any remodel or addition is to increase the value of a house and the surrounding community, but if a remodel is done poorly, it could have the opposite effect.
Lets start off with the palette - here is the existing house:
The northeast wing of the house contains the master bedroom behind some large windows garnished with plantation shutters.
The casita will be built off this wing, basically eliminating the windows. After some discussion, I convinced them to offset the casita so the windows will still allow light into the master bedroom, they will not be displaced due to construction, and it will provide a quaint little pathway to access the pool around the north side of the house, between the master bedroom windows and the casita.
They wanted a simple office space with a half bathroom, a closet, a mini fridge (of course), built in desk and shelving, as well as a space where clients can come in to sign real estate paperwork.
That is a lot to throw into a small room, but lets give it a shot.
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Initially I proposed a bay window as a variation on the simple box they were asking for. This would allow more light to enter and create a comfortable sitting area for clients. It also implies a separation of programs in the space between a lounge area and an office area, while both areas remain functional for both programs.
This configuration interested the client, however they didn't like the roof profile of the bay windows, citing that it didn't look enough like the existing profile.
They liked the bay window concept though and didn't want to abandon it all together.
What we came up with is a simplified version of the same layout. The bay window seating area would have the same roof line as the main house, except it would pop out from the front wall and give an added dynamic without disrupting the aesthetic of the building.
They also demanded a sliding glass door, citing it takes up less room. I don't necessarily agree with that concept, because instead of taking room space, it takes wall space, but it turned out to fit pretty well ... and they were pretty married to the idea of sliding glass doors, so who am I to argue.
Besides, they're the client, so it was a no-brainer. On to the more important details, like how big would you like the mini fridge to be? ... Just kidding.
Here's what I have come up with for the first draft. It is a solution that mirrors the materiality of the house, provides space for all necessary programs, creates an updated entrance dynamic for their walkway, and allows ample light to garnish the interior.
East perspective - perspective from the street (existing house not shown):
Plan:
South elevation:
I'm waiting to get feedback from the client. We'll see if they like it or not ... we're hoping they do. :-)
Feel free to leave your comments.
Designed and rendered in Autodesk Revit. Copyright 2013.
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