THE BLACK AND WHITE HOUSE WITH A TOUCH OF PINK

Winner of the 2021 Arlington Design AWARD.
The house is located on a main axis of communication between Washington DC and Arlington. It sits among all similar houses, built in the 1950’s, aligned on one side of the street. The clients, a young couple very interested in design, bought this house 8 years ago in “as-is “condition, within the optic to remodel one day as they love to live in Arlington.
The time came in 2019 to start the process. When we got together, I noticed that this house
needed everything, and we could not really “add” to it because of zoning restrictions. We
had to take advantage of what was there and reuse it to create new spaces. We
embraced the challenge because the real architectural sustainability is in the renovation
of the existing fabric, adding insulation and energy rated windows for a more efficient
envelope. We worked out a completely new floor plan in the existing footprint, reusing these same
bearing points with a new LVL beams structure for the 2 new roofs. One in the front, built as
a reverse dormer to give 12 foot ceiling height and a cathedral ceiling on the interior. A
second one larger and flat, in the back, to give 10 foot continuous ceiling height. Through the new tall front openings, we visually connected this now more “urban” house, to the vibrant and fast developing
neighborhood. A new character is given to this house by the insertion of the ship lap
cladded facade into the existing brick wall. A cut into the existing to mark the
intervention and to give a presence among the rhythm of the houses in the street. The 3
symmetrical front windows were mirrored in the back to frame the view to a future
beautiful, stepped garden. A skylight was added over the large kitchen island to mark the
heart of the new space. Now light flows from East to West into the open space and plays
geometrical shadows during the different hours of the day. The projecting window trims of
the long and narrow openings, the shiplap white siding of the façade insertion and the
porch streamlined design give a contemporary interpretation of vernacular elements and
materials to express what is happening on the interior of this transformed house.