Building Forward

When it comes to designing homes suited to our hot, humid, coastal climate, Creole cottages and American townhouses are just the tip of the spear. As these three cutting-edge residential projects show, modern materials and innovative design solutions provide many other creative solutions for putting a cool, comfortable roof over your head.

Indoors and Out

The Scissor House (Baton Rouge, La.) by +one design & construction

+one design & construction’s client wasn’t looking for a lot of interior living space when she asked the firm to design a contemporary home for a wooded lot in Baton Rouge’s Zeeland Gardens neighborhood. But she did want to be able to comfortably entertain large groups at various times of the year. So the firm, which has offices in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Las Vegas, created two longitudinal, metal-clad forms that intersect the narrow lot, creating multiple outdoor rooms accessible by large sliding glass panels from the main living areas. Shaded by large, mature trees, the Scissor House’s orientation provides the owner with access to a comfortable outdoor living environment, whatever the weather, at any time of year. 

With its essential living spaces all situated on the first floor, the Scissor House is also designed so the owner will be able to comfortably spend her later years here. Upstairs is reserved for guest accommodations; covered outdoor spaces give occupants birds-eye views on the tree canopy. 

(225) 383-0664 | plus1dc.com

Porch Perfect

BSL 2 (Bay St. Louis, Miss.) by Emery McClure Architecture

When they were asked to design a Gulf-side second home, to be built three hundred feet from the water in Bay St. Louis’s historic district, Lafayette-based architects Ursula Emery McClure and Michael McClure proceeded with three goals in mind. 1: Create a small house efficient in space and low in maintenance. 2: Maximize outdoor living areas. 3: Design it to be open to cooling breezes when occupied, and tightly closed against the inevitable Gulf storms when not. The clients wanted a house that could be easily boarded up as part of its design. No off-the-shelf hurricane shutters; they wanted lots of glass, and they wanted the house to look inviting even when unoccupied or closed for a storm. The architects’ solution: use shutters to protect not just the building’s windows, but its doors and porches, too. The colorful, heavy-duty shutters—some as large as the walls they protect—are mounted on galvanized, barn sliding door hardware, making them capable of withstanding both the corrosive effects of sea air, and the battering winds of a hurricane. Because they move in tracks, the shutters allow the house to be constantly adapted to weather conditions: closed for storm or absence; partially open to block sun or enhance privacy; or slid all the way back to open the house completely.

Another innovation: A third of this house is open-air porch. Front and back porches create deep shaded spaces on the south-facing (i.e. hottest) face of the house, capturing cooling Gulf breezes which are drawn in through the porches by fans mounted high on opposite walls. Hot air is drawn up into the porch cathedral ceiling, where it exits through attic vents. This modification of a typical southern porch enhances the natural stack cooling effect, and keeps the porch pleasant on even the hottest summer days. 

(337) 356-7415 | emerymcclure.com

Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Oak Ridge House (Jackson, Miss.) by Duvall Decker Architects

When Jackson, Mississippi, architects Anne Marie and Roy Decker—who are partners in life as well as in the firm Duvall Decker Architects—set out to build a home to replace the classic Southern bungalow they had lived in for eighteen years, they wanted to create a place that balanced snugness and security with openness. “We got to experiment with a house that was as much about exposure as enclosure,” said Anne Marie of the project, which won the American Institute of Architects’ National Housing Award in 2016. 

“In many ways the house is a response to the bungalow. There were things about it that we learned, like that if you could look out to the north from a glassy area, you were always looking onto dappled light, because the sunshine was always coming from behind you. But the house was very internal. It didn’t force the family to interact much.” The Deckers tuned their new home toward the light, shaping it to draw the outdoors in and to lure the family out of private spaces and into public ones. The design centers around a tall, courtyard-like living space that runs north/south. Morning sun flooding through east-facing floor-to-ceiling glass turns the room into a vessel of light. More large, shaded windows answer on the western wall, affording an unimpeded view from street through to backyard if the family chooses. Westward-facing canopies and mature trees shield the home from the fierce afternoon summer sun, and drapes can be closed when envelopment is called for. By contrast, the long southern wing is modestly scaled for sleeping, washing and dressing. When the drapes or shades are pulled each space serves as sanctuary—comfortable, secure and enclosed. 

(601) 713-1128 | duvalldecker.com