San Rafael Addition

Asked to create a small addition into an expansive rear yard, the owners of this home wanted the addition to be architecturally unique and to make them feel “more connected” to their rear yard. In order to accomplish this, we took advantage of the limited program to extend the addition vertically rather than horizontally. This allowed for a courtyard arrangement to the addition. This approach gave more privacy to the new addition while minimizing the loss of light to the original existing home. An expansive deck was added at the same level as the existing floor plan to make the existing home feel larger while connecting the existing kitchen and dining room to the rear yard. The visual connection to the property from the large kitchen window was preserved by arranging the new addition to frame the view rather than block it.