Mother-in-Law Apartment

Mother-in-Law Apartment

Charlottesville, VA

Vertical Studio
Spring 2013
Time: 8 weeks
Instructor: Michael Benedikt

Located at Charlottesville, Virginia, the Ford Residence was designed by architect Edward Ford as his own house. The structural components of the building become major, visible features of its design. Within the uniform grid of the post-and-beam structure are a number of compositional centers defining views and circulation, and creating patterns of symmetry in plan and section.

The proposal is to build an additional single apartment to Ford Residence for the mother-in-law. The methodology is to analyze the geometry of the existing house both in plan and section and to continue the strategy on addition. The cladding material of the addition is consistent with th existing wood. But formally, the addition approaches the opposite way with one single and smooth move since the existing building is very structurally exposed.