Friendship | Plenum
The proposition of the Ranz Residence on friendship road seeks to develop programmatic and spatial opportunities in the cavity of a normative gable roof profile. The accentuation of the ridgeline enabled the necessary spatial clearances for the family to occupy what would typically be the attic or underutilized plenum zone.
The bedrooms are layered above the more public functions of the residence, e.g. kitchen, living room, dining zone, and sitting room. The removal of volumetric slices of the house generated varying spatial relations of the upstairs and downstairs along with the creation of smaller outdoor pockets at the periphery of the house.
The compression of habitable spaces into the “attic” zone also enabled a slim overall footprint and facilitated more intimate connections to varying functions within the residence. The transitional wedges of the gable roof profile to the first floor volume that are too low to occupy provided geometric opportunities for visual openings to below, seasonal storage, infrastructural compartments, a pull out bed, and shelving nooks.
Houston, Texas
2,700 sf Single Family Residence
2018 AIA Houston Design Award
2018 AIA Home Tour
Photography: Paul Hester