CASE STUDY: AN ACCESSIBLE CUSTOM HOME PROMOTES A LIFETIME OF WELL-BEING

Photo: Tom Harris Architectural Photography

The perfect home for a family of five included many widows to the outdoor world.

When envisioning the perfect home for their family, Kiley and Jim agreed that accessibility was paramount— both access to the outdoors and access for their daughters, who have special needs and rely on their wheelchairs to get around. After purchasing a narrow lot in Downers Grove, Illinois, the couple reached out to Chicago-based firm Kuklinski + Rappe Architects to design a residence that would serve their daughters, their son, and their own various needs. Crafted to adapt to the family’s lifestyle over the years, the home will provide lifelong health and happiness.

It just so happened that the parameters that Kiley and Jim presented resonated with architect Scott Rappe. “They spoke about the future and the uncertainty around how their daughters would develop. So that, right away, keyed into an interest [at our practice] in looking at how homes are used over the long term,” he says. They approached the challenge of the site first: long and compressed, it suggested a floor plan that placed rooms on either side of a corridor in order to create accessible spaces. Rappe, however, discarded this idea: “This conventional approach, while pragmatic, would have produced a dull, lifeless house.”

Photo: Tom Harris Architectural Photography

A wall of windows along a hallway exposes the occupants to both natural light and views of the courtyard.

Instead, Rappe chose to lengthen the plan and carve out outdoor spaces from the home’s footprint, allowing interior spaces to look out onto serene, landscaped areas—hence the name Courtyard Residence. The solution provides privacy and natural light, and facilitates a better relationship with the dwelling. As Rappe explains, “The long, dark corridor of the conventional approach was instead transformed into a ‘cloister’ running along the main courtyard, which offers a contemplative experience, rather than just a distance to be traversed.”

In a home so permeable to the outdoors, the choice of windows and doors carried significant weight. For Rappe, selecting high-performing windows from a respected manufacturer was a no brainer. “They offered us thin sightlines, high insulation values, and a high degree of predictability and reliability,” Rappe says. Also crucial was the ability to accommodate the girls. “It was really important for us that all of our entrances were accessible,” Jim says. “The low-profile [sills] allowed us to both have great, open windows with terrific views, and wheel the girls in and out very easily across them.”

Photo: Tom Harris Architectural Photography

Clerestory windows as a source of nature views are especially important for this family’s needs.

The placement of the windows takes the girls into account as well. “[They] spend a lot of time on their backs because they can’t sit up naturally,” says Kiley, “so they’ll play on the floor and look up.” Thoughtfully positioned openings ensure that wherever they are, the girls have a view of the outdoors.

While the Courtyard Residence offers communal spaces for the family to gather, it also caters specifically to each member in other moments. An office sequestered near the front entry allows Jim to work without interruption. A centrally placed, professional-grade kitchen avails itself to Kiley, a chef and culinary educator. Their son, who is 13 years old, enjoys a private bedroom that connects to the family room, children’s courtyard, and backyard, and he can invite friends over to shoot hoops in the lower-level game room. Finally, aside from the accessible design of the house overall, their daughters have dedicated rooms that facilitate around-the-clock care.

Having a home that was designed for our needs was a big relief,” says Jim. “It’s not until you’re in an environment that has been designed around all of those needs that you just appreciate every little bit.”

CASE STUDY: A MODERN VIRGINIA FARMHOUSE FEATURES BOTH COMMUNITY AND GREEN VIEWS

Photo: Anice Hoechlander

The owner chose the site for both the close community and the abundance of protected green space all around.

Nestled in a rural hamlet in Virginia, this new farmhouse embraces its idyllic surroundings in a tight-knit community. The communal housing development is spread across 164 acres and includes distant mountain views, rolling fields, and a stream-fed lake. Of that land, 120 acres is designated as conservation easement, meaning it can only be used for agricultural purposes. On the remaining 44 acres lives an active group of neighbors who meet on a monthly basis to take care of the communal property, often regrouping to enjoy potluck meals together afterward.

“Our client was attracted to this [place] partly because of that sense of community,” says architect Greg Wiedemann of the Bethesda, Maryland–based practice Wiedemann Architects. “She’s very environmentally aware and is interested in the stewardship of the land.” After the client bought a 1-acre plot in the development, Wiedemann and project architect Felix Gonzalez designed her a house there that embraces the community spirit as well as the country scenery.

Photo: Anice Hoechlander

The abundance of contemporary windows brings in natural light and views, and the stone foundation siding harkens back to old-style farmhouses.

In drawings, the architects presented the house as a modern interpretation of a traditional clapboard farmhouse. The house’s gabled form and exterior materials palette, including a standing-seam metal roof and white clapboard siding, skews traditional. Dramatic window facades and a sharply defined screened porch underscore their modern approach and ensure the occupant and her guests will feel the healthy connection to nature.

By combining abundant windows with a narrow footprint, the architects sought to facilitate cross-ventilation as well as easy indoor/outdoor living no matter the season. “The thinness of the house allows the breezes to pass through, both in the main body of the house as well as the screened-in porch,” Wiedemann says. “It’s really about bringing inside and outside together.”

Expansive windows on both sides of the open living area bring the outside in. Swinging French doors flank the mahogany-wrapped fireplace and provide easy access to the screened porch.

The retired client desired to be able to live entirely on one level, so the architects arranged the main floor to host an open living/dining/kitchen area as well as her principle bedroom suite and the generous porch.

She and the designers talked about having a kitchen with no upper cabinets so she would see the sweep of the meadow beyond. In the kitchen and dining area, the architects opted for casement venting units in custom widths that look like inoperable windows but allow for ventilation.

The native stone on the foundation is similar to old Virginia farmhouses and continues the ties to the natural environment.

At the ground floor of the home, the team installed two guest rooms for the client’s visiting children as well as a one-bedroom apartment. In the apartment, picture windows with operable awning windows below provide cross ventilation.

The large screened porch is a favorite destination of the homeowner. It straddles the meadow and the mountains, and it’s directly accessible from the living area and the kitchen. The client can remain connected to nature via natural light, views, and ventilation day or night on her screened porch and deck.