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The sustainable reimagination of an existing 1950’s ranch house in the Hathaway Park neighborhood of San Jose. 100% electrically powered, the home also employs passive heating and cooling design features such as operable north facing skylights that provide natural daylight year-round and release hot air when the temperature rises.
The layout provides 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms within the existing footprint. By locating a Great Room in the center, flanked by a Primary Bedroom Suite on one side and two Guest Bedrooms and two Bathrooms on the other, the need for corridors was eliminated.
The original gabled roof was reframed at a sharper pitch and the ceiling over the Great Room was vaulted to gain volume and light at the central and public portion of the house.
To create a sense of “entry”, and maintain privacy, a freestanding wooden screen with angled slats shields the Living Room from the Front Door. A built-in bench, sits opposite the screen and built-in cabinets for efficient storage line three sides of the Great Room.
The new Entry Porch, with a privacy screen of wooden slats, adds a dynamic feature along the street to distinguish the home from the identical one-story gabled structures commonplace in the neighborhood. In the evening, with the ceiling up-lit, the Entry Porch acts as a glowing lantern for the street.
Structural Engineer: Hom-Pisano
Photography: Vittoria Zupicich