The Perch | Nicole Blair

Dylan and Annie, a landscape designer and a hairstylist, wanted a flexible studio space for work and guests and to keep their backyard intact. They also didn't want to relocate during construction or to disrupt the mature landscape.

The Perch, a 660sf structure, is shaped to meet these needs, fitting just above the existing bungalow roofline and just below the City of Austin setback tent. Rooms have small footprints and vaulted ceilings for added volume, and the splitlevel form provides interstitial storage and mechanical space throughout. The Perch rests on four steel columns, three of which pierce through existing bungalow walls to help resist lateral forces. The steel frame was shop-built and craned into place in a single day, to minimally disturb the site.

Corrugated Corten siding was selected for its low maintenance and to match existing site elements. The open grate with expanded metal stair shares a landing with the bungalow and is barefoot (and paw) friendly while allowing light to pass through below.

From the front cantilevered room, you feel a slight movement when someone walks up the stair, providing a sense of awareness and connection back to its construction and a gentle reminder of wind and gravity. A steel coatrack welded to an exposed beam at the entry is designed to sway, echoing this motion.

Materials were selected for economy, durability, and efficiency, including off-the-shelf pre-finished T&G pine walls and ceilings (spanning from the exterior porch into the interior), off-the-shelf Boos butcher block countertops, IKEA cabinets (with custom painted fronts), and standard porcelain sockets and pendant lights the client already owned. Wood flooring is a remnant mix of pre-finished plain and rift sawn white oak, overage recycled from a larger project.

Structural steel throughout is left exposed and painted white. A hard-working beam in the kitchen supports an open shelf above the sink, carries the bedroom floor behind, allows the countertop to extend deep beyond the kitchen sink for added storage, and hides recessed countertop lighting.

Three pipes aligned behind the southeast column efficiently and stealthily carry power, water, gas and sewer lines to The Perch from the bungalow mechanical closet below, and a stack washer/dryer fits neatly behind closed doors in the hall storage.

While a February 2021 freeze claimed most of the site's flora towards the end of construction, reestablishment is underway. The Perch currently serves as a pandemic workspace for the hairstylist.

Structural Engineer: Structures PE

Photography: Casey Dunn

Website: https://caseydunn.net/