Any residential architecture firm who is surviving this recession knows that the name of the game is remodeling. New home starts are simply non-existent, especially in the $1,000,000 to $2,500,000 price range. However, many clients are making the choice to remodel the home they own now, or to buy a bargain during the slump in housing prices, and remodel it.
This client had originally planned to design and build a new 7500 s.f. home on his property, but when the recession struck, he reevaluated his budget and priorities and asked TKP Architects to consider adding a major addition to the existing guest house on the property, instead of starting from scratch. The resulting design saved several hundred thousand dollars, reused nearly all the existing construction of the guest house (a very green choice!), and allowed the family of four to continue living in the guest house until the addition was completed, then moves them to the addition while the guesthouse is lightly remodeled to be consistent with the rest of the new home. The resulting home is only slightly smaller than the originally planned new design, but will use fewer resources, will disturb less land, can be built faster, and will cost significantly less. This is a win-win for all.
The challenge for the architect was to integrate the guest house into a new home and make the resulting composite feel seamless while keeping as much of the guest house intact as possible. These photos were taken during construction, but you can begin to see the integration of the new addition with the existing building. Can you tell where the exisiting house stops and the new addition begins?
