Award-winning architect Jennifer Bonner from MALL has created a unique doll house-inspired family home, built on a narrow block of land. Dubbed Haus Gables, the contemporary two story home is built with 87 cross-laminated timber panels and measures just 18 ft (5.5 m) wide, a similar dimension to single-wide mobile homes.
The 2,200 sq ft (204 sq m) home is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and features an asymmetrical roofline, incorporating six gable roofs. The unusual design is a result of a long-term research project from Bonner, which uses the unique roofline to structure and organize the home's interior space and layout.
"A long-standing research project on roof typologies found in the American South informed this proof-of-concept," says Bonner. "Here, the roof plan establishes rooms, catwalks, and double height spaces in the interior by aligning these spaces to ridges and valleys in the roof above. In this case, the floorplan is a result of the roof."
Haus Gables is a two bedroom family home, featuring separate living and dining areas, stunning black marble modern kitchen, two bathrooms, upstairs bedrooms, a study, outdoor terrace and an underground garage, laundry and wet room.
The home was built using pre-cut cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels, which make up all exterior and interior walls, floors, and roofing. The use of the CLT technology allowed the home to be assembled onsite in just 14 days.
"Custom-cut, hoisted into place, and assembled in fourteen days' time, the CLT in Haus Gables enables a solid house that eschews stick frame construction," says Bonner. "Structurally inventive, the panels also promote a monolithic view of the material from the domestic interior."
The interior design boasts a mix of classic and non-traditional materials, including natural wood, marble and painted tile finishes in the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways. Other rooms feature bright colored vinyl flooring and side-walls and part of the home's exterior is clad in faux-bricks made of stucco. In addition, a collection of over 20 windows are scattered strategically throughout the home, allowing natural light and air to filter through.
"Haus Gables undertakes an old tradition of faux finishing in the American South, historically stemming from an inability to afford precious materials, and the subsequent desire to 'fake it'," says Bonner. "With the use of unconventional materials and an unusual roof design, Haus Gables is an exploration of new ways that form, spatial organization, and material might function in a home."
Earlier this year Jennifer Bonner was awarded the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, recognizing the outstanding and provocative work by young practitioners in North America.
Source: MALL via Metropolis
Pat Wilkinson