This 1950 square foot residence for a family of four was designed to fit an extraordinarily narrow lot in the Rockridge area of Oakland. The only real solution was to design a vertical house and accept the fact that the garage would be prominent feature on the front. The sunny part of the site was the street frontage; the north-facing backyard would mostly be in shade. It made the most sense to locate the front door at the side since there wasn’t much room to place the door at its traditional front location.
Noteworthy about this house are the stacked balconies and the trellis design, all visible at the front of the house. The balconies are placed in the sunniest part of the yard. Two color of stucco emphasize the interlocking of building parts. The trellises protect the house for solar gain and also animate the stucco walls with their shadows. The trellises are constructed out of humble pressure-treated lumber detailed with care. The chimney sports its own custom-made cap and provides a vertical counterpoint to the horizontals by the trellises.
Inside, the house is designed around a two-story volume with a skylight at top. The stair winds its way up to the bedroom areas while a single bridge connects the front of the second floor (the master bedroom area) with the rear (the two bedrooms), providing some measure of privacy between the two areas. The skylight animates the interior spaces and makes the narrow house feel much larger than it really is.
This modest house is a great example of how ordinary materials can be used to new and inventive purposes and uses. Modern homes do not need expensive materials to be such.

House appearance can be best described as California modern, California Contemporary Interior Designers, San Francisco modern,
Bay Area modern residential design architects, Sustainability and green design.

Credit to: Bonelli Windows & Doors