LOCATION: Seattle, Washington
ARCHITECT: Paul Hayden Kirk
OWNERS: Mr. and Mrs. S. Blair Kirk COST FACTS:$10,500 in 1950.825 square feet at $12.75 per square foot.
MATERIALS: Frame, post and beam construction. Exterior, vertical fir siding. Interiors: plywood walls; fir ceilings; asphalt tile floors.
PLAN FACTS:For this young couple the architect designed a minimum house, but succeeded in giving it a sense of much greater space than its 825 square feet. One thing he did to achieve this was to lift the main living space high in the air and give it two walls of glass. Also, to free space, he placed kitchen and bath in the middle of the plan.
Storage closets on three sides of the bath form the partitions between rooms. On one side of this "core" is the living-dining space, with folding screen and built-in drawers and cabinets separating it from the kitchen.
On the other side is the bedroom and utility room (which opens from the kitchen but is separated from it by cabinet and counter space). Below this well-organized block of living areas, is a ground-floor level built into the hillside.
At present it contains the furnace and laundry equipment; but at some future time it may be converted into additional bedrooms. This lower level opens to a garden court, protected overhead by the overhang above.
ECONOMIES:Use of central mechanical core in place of fixed partitions; no fixed doors.