Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: A Modern Home on Solid Ground in Minnesota
This contemporary house features a small footprint, marine-grade siding and lovely park views
Architect Christian Dean was helping a couple remodel their single-story rambler across from a park when a surveyor discovered that the home had been built on a swamp and was tilting across its foundation. They also learned that in the 1950s, the builder had dug a trench around the rambler and built it on a bed of sand. More than 50 years later, the house “was slipping off its sandy perch,” Dean recalls. So he started over. After inserting piers and 60 galvanized steel pilings into the ground, and securing them in stable soil, he designed this compact modern structure with a slim footprint that, as the homeowners told him, “is a small house that lives large.”
One of the design drivers for the house was the park across the street, which Dean frames with large commercial-grade windows that have a thin profile. The first floor’s open plan includes a living room off the main entrance, with a central stairway leading to the second level. The concrete walls were poured with a stratification that gives them warmth and texture.
The living room, off the main entrance, faces east toward the park. The stairs leading to the second level have open wood treads and are separated from the living area by a steel cable “screen” to maintain a sense of openness. “The stair, which is black-painted steel, is a central feature of the house,” Dean says, “so it’s crafted to be expressive.”
The galley-style kitchen is at the back of the staircase, with the dining area adjacent to it. The black beams, white cabinetry, concrete walls and oak floor provide contrast that Dean says adds oomph: “Tough industrial materials juxtaposed with warm materials keep the project vibrant.” The glass tile backsplash accents the contrasting white and black.
The kitchen island has a wood base with an engineered-quartz top. The clients requested that the stovetop be located in the island with the vent hood overhead in order to be able to visit with family or guests at the island or in the dining room while cooking. Dean tucked a desk area on one side of the kitchen.
The kitchen island has a wood base with an engineered-quartz top. The clients requested that the stovetop be located in the island with the vent hood overhead in order to be able to visit with family or guests at the island or in the dining room while cooking. Dean tucked a desk area on one side of the kitchen.
From the front entrance and living room, the homeowners can see through the dining room to the backyard via floor-to-ceiling commercial aluminum windows and sliding doors that, once again, were “specified for their slim shadow line,” Dean says.
In the dining room, the variegated coloring and textures of the concrete walls provide a museum-quality backdrop for a series of black-and-white photographs. The wood-burning stove helps separate the living and dining areas, and provides a focal point and warm glow to the open floor plan.
Off the dining room, broad cedar steps lead to the patio, backyard and a detached garage clad in cement-fiber HardiePanel. “The kitchen, dining room and outdoor patio, which is furnished like an outdoor living room, were really designed to all work together as extensions of each other,” Dean says. The architect extended the house’s concrete massing out along the patio to give the outdoor space privacy. A pantry and mudroom, which walk up to the kitchen from the garage level, provide additional space. Three bedrooms are located in the upper level of the house.
Dean put the bathrooms upstairs above the kitchen to maximize electrical and plumbing efficiencies. This master bath slips around the stair to further “maximize the space and the utility,” Dean says. “We had to be very creative about getting two bathrooms in the house while working in the stairs. Everything is really fitted together.”
Upstairs, the client wanted to introduce a bit more color, albeit subtle. In this bathroom, the walnut cabinets and floor of charcoal Mosa tile are accented with watery blue tile that, once again, reinforces the home’s boatlike plan.
Upstairs, the client wanted to introduce a bit more color, albeit subtle. In this bathroom, the walnut cabinets and floor of charcoal Mosa tile are accented with watery blue tile that, once again, reinforces the home’s boatlike plan.
The client once likened the house to the sort of indoor-outdoor living enjoyed in California. Even in winter, the family enjoys plentiful light in the house from windows on the east and west ends. The warm wood floors and open plan invite an easy, casual lifestyle.
“This project is one of the more compact houses we’ve designed,” Dean says, “and the client was really supportive of not overbuilding. It has the spirit of an industrial loft project, but … it’s a single-family home. It’s small, but it really works.”
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“This project is one of the more compact houses we’ve designed,” Dean says, “and the client was really supportive of not overbuilding. It has the spirit of an industrial loft project, but … it’s a single-family home. It’s small, but it really works.”
Browse more homes by style: Apartments | Barn Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Floating Homes | Guesthouses | Homes Around the World | Lofts | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Small Homes | Townhouses | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | Vacation Homes
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their two children
Location: Edina, Minnesota
Size: 2,000 square feet (186 square meters)
Designer: Christian Dean Architecture
Dean likes to use boat analogies when talking about the house, which floats on its site with little of the foundation articulated because of the pilings anchoring the house. “We sometimes describe the house as boatlike,” he says, “as it’s extremely compact, has compartments for everything and isn’t overbuilt — which is what the clients requested.”
Moreover, the house’s second level is clad in marine-grade plywood with a rich brown veneer. Bays (trimmed in black metal and marine-grade plywood) projecting from the kitchen and living room “animate the simple form,” Dean says, and make the slim footprint more generous. The main level is a concrete thermal-mass structure.