Kirkland
Residence
Location: Kirkland, WA
Size:
2,817 SF
Cost: $170/SF
Completed: 1998
Photography: James Frederick Housel
The Kirkland Avenue Residence incorporates a great winged roof enclosing and sheltering the upper floor family gathering spaces: living, dining, and cooking areas. Traditional cooking and dining is critical to the two sets of parents and children sharing the upper floor space and the openness and varied ceiling heights provided under the great roof were carefully designed to provide a shared gathering room.
A central atrium open to all three stories connects and combines entries from north (street) and south (gardens), circulation space, and a twenty-foot-high climbing wall. The upper floor takes advantage of water and territorial views across Kirkland, the middle level benefits from direct connections to the large rear yard, landscaping, and a storm water mitigating “rain garden”, allowing private outdoor access and terraces for the older generation using the home.
The large open kitchen for multiple cooks was placed at the west end of the house under clerestory windows. This critical space is the focus, shared by two generations of family and opens to sitting and eating/gathering places tucked under the lower central roof.
Natural light limits the need to light the interior during the day and responds to the Pacific Northwest gray skies and long rainy winters.
The open gracious interiors celebrate, and the ample privacy facilitates the multiple generations sharing a relatively small home.
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