An Amsterdam couple had a simple ambition: to enlarge their two-bedroom apartment with an addition to accommodate working from home and starting a family. Their architect, however, had more ambitious plans.
Danny van Kessel warned his clients, Maarten and Lori Lens-FitzGerald, that an addition “would make the middle of the apartment too dark.” Instead, Mr. Van Kessel suggested a 377-square-foot structure that would be located in the apartment’s backyard.
The finished product looks fantastical, with mirrored walls, strange angles and grass-clad roof. But Mr. Van Kessel, co-owner of CC-Studio, insists the design was entirely driven by practicality. The mirrors are aligned to bounce light to the interior. The sloping façade was designed so that plants can be easily trained up the sides of the building.
Architect Patrick Bradley turned a shipping container into an office in Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Here, a conference room overlooks a river.
Photo: Bruno TamiozzoThe project, completed in 2011, was complicated from the start. There was no access to the backyard from the road—all materials had to be carried by hand through the apartment. So instead of a conventional foundation, the lightweight timber building “floats” on a 10-foot-deep layer of polystyrene, topped by a layer of concrete. This also helped keep the cost down to around $45,000.
Homeowners sticking close to home amid the pandemic may get a similar itch to enlarge their living space. And building in the backyard offers an alternative to adding on—with the extra benefit of being able to push architectural boundaries. Mr. Van Kessel finds that clients are generally more amenable to dramatic design when building an ancillary space. “It is their own private sanctuary, so it feels OK to go a bit more crazy,” he said.
In San Francisco, landscape architect Scott Lewis cleverly upgraded an existing wooden shed by smothering it in Hedera helix, or English ivy. To do this, he designed a galvanized steel grid with 18-inch square openings to surround the shed walls. A 3-inch gap between the grid and walls prevents the ivy from attaching to the wood. Around the structure is a stunning mix of iceberg roses, dwarf white deutzia, Veronica white wands and white western bleeding hearts.
A 377-square-foot structure behind a couple’s two-bedroom apartment in Amsterdam features mirrored walls, odd angles and vertical gardens.
Photo: John Lewis MarshallThe shed, located on a lot that measures just 25-feet wide, proves that backyards don’t have to be huge to accommodate extra living space. Its owner uses the circa 96-square-foot space as an art studio, but it could just as easily be an office.
According to Savills ’ Residential Global Market Sentiment Survey, published in May, the substantial increase in working from home will have a long-term impact on buyer priorities; some 75% of the international real-estate agents surveyed thought demand for home offices will increase.
The Amsterdam homeowner, Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, and his son in the backyard retreat.
Photo: John Lewis MarshallBefore the coronavirus crisis, properties with guesthouses, converted barns and other structures out back were “nice to have,” not “need to have,” said Christa FitzPatrick, a Darien, Conn.-based agent with Halstead Property. “It was just a bonus for most people.”
Now, however, a separate structure that can be used as an office will be much more of a selling point, she predicted. “A lot of employers have realized that they can have people working remotely, and a lot of people feel they need to have a separate workspace so they can focus on their work. I think they are now as valuable as space in the main living area, if not more so.”
Lindsay Cuthill, head of Savills’ country department in the U.K., has witnessed a similar shift. “We have noticed a very clear and determined group of people coming to us and saying: ‘We have been locked up in our existing property, and now we want more space,’ ” he said. “People are going to want home office space as part of that.”
English ivy covers a galvanized steel grid built to surround the walls of a 96-square-foot shed in San Francisco.
Photo: John SuttonHomes With Separate Retreats
From $48 million
In London’s Belgravia neighborhood, four newly built townhouses at the Chelsea Barracks development, above, come with studios that measure 553 square feet. Agent: Chelsea Barracks
$11.4 million
A four-bedroom apartment at The Draycott, a boutique development in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, includes a 183-square-foot glass-fronted pavilion in its backyard. Agent: Savills
Some people want more than just a modest home office. In Jackson Hole, Wyo., Eric Logan, principal architect at CLB Architects, was commissioned to design a modernist pavilion for two empty-nesters. The homeowners—who also have a traditional Western lodge on their 180-acre property—now mainly live in the pavilion and use the lodge when family or guests visit.
“It is a wildlife-viewing pavilion,” said Mr. Logan. “They have a bald eagle’s nest about 100 feet away. There are elk and bison in the area and they can sit and watch it.”
For zoning reasons, the pavilion is built on the same L-shape footprint as an unattractive 1970s house that once sat on the property. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom pavilion was completed in 2018 and measures 2,643 square feet, not including the garage. The structure features glass walls wrapped in bespoke oxidized steel mesh—which also offers an element of privacy to its occupants, Mr. Logan said, adding that construction costs for high-end projects in Jackson Hole typically range from $800 to $1,500 per square foot.
On the other side of the Atlantic architect Patrick Bradley wanted both a beautiful and a practical space for work. He had already built himself a house in the town of Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on his father’s 65-acre farm. Last year Mr. Bradley, director of Patrick Bradley Architects, added a separate office for his small practice.
In Jackson Hole, Wyo., a couple built a modernist pavilion behind their Western-style lodge, in part to view the wildlife.
Photo: Matthew Millman Photography
The pavilion spans 2,643 square feet, not including the garage.
Photo: Matthew Millman Photography“I didn’t want to disrupt any good ground, and the site I choose was all overgrown with gorse bushes and covered in rocks,” he said. “But it is also on the curve of a river, so it had the potential to be spectacular. I wanted to separate my architectural life from my house, and I also wanted something which would be inspiring and which would grab the landscape as much as possible.”
The structure is wrapped in bespoke oxidized steel mesh.
Photo: Matthew Millman PhotographyTo keep costs down to around $50,000, Mr. Bradley started with a 7-foot by 40-foot shipping container, bolted onto concrete foundations and dramatically cantilevered over the river. Each end has been replaced by a large window, and the interiors are fitted out in plywood. The structure has space for a meeting room, four work stations, a kitchen and a bathroom.
The corrugated metal exterior of the container has been sprayed with gold paint. Although the color was chosen to partly fit in with the surrounding gorse bushes, Mr. Bradley said he was also aiming for some wow factor. “It was built to be sculptural, but at the same time not to stand out,” he explained.
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