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Renovation of a small house in Brooklyn.
slot house
An architect aspires to add to the community; more often than not by filling in the open gaps. This project chooses another approach: to cultivate what is there. The key decision was to keep a 60' maple and the opening in the street wall that it held. The little house behind was adapted to act as a canvas for both.
Slot incision reveals original brick and timber wall inside.
the first move

The first move was to cut a slot to allow the tree to be seen from inside. This revealed a cedar frame infilled with handmade brick underneath the sheetrock and vinyl siding. The slot became the spatial idea of the house, and is repeated to extend the house vertically and horizontally.

Facade as canvas.
an open, vertical 'loft'

The resulting interior is an open, vertical ‘loft’ that reveals the archaeology of the original structure. Program and construction are cautiously stripped to bare bones. Space is collected through establishing material and compositional families that quietly repeat from front curb to back deck.

Material families: Cedar planes and metal screens. Compositional elements: Vertically mounted standard hollow-core doors fold into table above.
launching noroof

The renovation of this small house, and the public accolade it received, reminded us that engaging community isn’t an issue of size or location. Big or small, each piece added to the places that we live and work is vital if it allows us contact with ordinary stuff in slightly extra- ordinary ways. The success of this project led to the official launch of noroof.

Upper floor: Seams of light touring the surfaces of the house. Kitchen and back deck visible to the right.
awards
  • AIA New York Chapter Architecture Merit Award 2007
  • Building Brooklyn Design Award 2006
  • AIA Housing Committee Design Award 2006
  • AIA Small Project Practitioners Citation 2006
View from top of stair, lit by skylight. Bed is visible below through grill.
project team
  • affiliates 
  • Gena and Ilyas Yakubov (contractors)—’Josh’ (steel worker)
  • photographer
  • Chuck Choi
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