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Optical illusions

GREY CRAWFORD The copper backsplash plays off the dimensions of the windows.

SOMETIMES, YOU JUST need to make a clean start. That was the conclusion at which Somerville architect Paul Lukez and his clients had arrived when they decided to raze a 1960s split-entry ranch in a Boston suburb and replace it with a new contemporary-style house.

The "teardown" phenomenon that has infiltrated many established neighborhoods, especially those where property values have skyrocketed, has been much maligned. Preservationists, community groups, neighbors, and even the press decry the practice, often rightly so. When a venerable old farmhouse or a classic little Cape is crushed so that a big box of a house can take its place, few, other than the homeowner and the builder, see it as an improvement.

Mindful of this, Lukez's clients did not go lightly down the road to demolition. They had lived in their raised ranch for eight years, five as a childless couple before they considered expansion in 1997. With the addition of two children, now 4 and 6, the family definitely needed more space, but they did not want to expand in a way that would make their house seem out of step with its neighbors. They reviewed renovation options with Lukez, even taking one plan to the bidding stage. However, in the end, the house's inadequacies seemed insurmountable.

"The split-level floor plan was just so limiting," says the homeowner. "Plus, building from scratch was so much cheaper than renovating."

Their property is located in a quiet wooded subdivision of mostly 1960s houses similar to the one they had bought, and they wanted their new house to look as if it belonged. "Paul really tried to work on something that would fit into the neighborhood, yet still meet our goals," says the homeowner.

Those goals included not just more space, but more space in which the family could interact. They also wanted the house to relate better to the backyard, which is bordered by conservation land.

The project presented the architect with this design conundrum: How could he make the inside of the house seem larger to its inhabitants, while making the outside of the house seem smaller to its neighbors?

To maintain a scale in tune with the surrounding houses, Lukez kept the front of the house at its original 50-foot length. To this he added a full two stories and, at the rear, hidden from the street, a 24-by-18-foot wing.

The challenge, says Lukez, was to make a compact (3,000 square feet) house look and live spacious when both the footprint and the budget were relatively tight. Among his solutions were multifunctional rooms, a floor plan that allows for views from room to room, the almost total elimination of hallways, and a basic language of patterns and materials that creates a unifying motif. Nothing is random, yet nothing is predictable.

The house so successfully meets ws Continued on Page 73 the challenge that Sarah Susanka included it in her book Creating the Not So Big House (The Taunton Press, 2000), in which she writes, "[Lukez] designed a house that is a wonderful example of what is so special about building Not So Big. . . . The longer you look at this house, the more there is to see, both inside and out."

"The house is a series of boxes or volumes that come together in an interesting way," says Lukez in a modest interpretation of his design. "I used a series of 4- and 8-foot dimensions, modules that conform to standards of construction." Practically, that helped to keep costs down; aesthetically, it allowed for the repeated use of a basic grid based on multiples of four.

For example, windows and trim are 4-feet wide, and each window contains a pattern of mullions based on a 4-inch module. Whether the windows are used singly or paired to create an 8-foot module, the mathematical relationship of the mullion pattern is the same. By using the grid consistently, Lukez gave the house a unity of design and purpose.

To visually break down the volume of the facade, he used materials with varying textures. For the front of the house, he used 6-inch tongue-and-groove paneling, 4-inch clapboards, and a vertical cedar siding. For the sides of the house, Lukez used a pattern of rectangular cp9.5MDO cp10.5plywood panels, while the walls framing the courtyard are clapboards and 4-foot horizontal rectangles of acid-washed copper. The total picture is both soothing and fascinating. You turn each corner anticipating another wonderful surprise.

Inside the house, the pattern of four continues giving the interior a calm sophistication. "You rarely need to look at your program," as Lukez puts it. "You know what house you are in."

Take the kitchen: Following Lukez's principles for making not-so-big space read large, it overlooks the family room, gaining views to the backyard and side courtyard. But the room also has views to the dining and living areas, where unusual corner windows afford plenty of light and yet another view to the yard. The large center island, where the family can prepare and share a meal, organizes the space and makes the room seem equally efficient and spacious.

Still, the main attraction is the dramatic backsplash behind the professional-style cook top. Mounted next to the double windows on the back wall, it consists of two copper panels, one the same size as a single window and one the size of a window minus its 4-inch mullioned panel. "They are offset from each other to create visual interest," says Lukez. Finished with an acid wash, the panels hang like abstract art.

The living room is small but intriguing thanks to a tall corner window well that allows light to stream to the back of the room, a front corner window that fills the space with morning light, and double doors that overlook the courtyard.

Living room flows into dining area, which, in turn, leads to the family room. To get more ceiling height in this multipurpose room, Lukez went down, not up, by ending the foundation at ground level. "Sinking" the room gave it a sense of drama, and the sleek fireplace takes center stage. Here, the architect gave his modular base an offbeat interpretation. If the backsplash in the kitchen is an abstract canvas, the fireplace, its surround, mantel, and bookcase come together as a modern sculpture.

Dropping the room to ground level also put it on the same level as the courtyard, which makes for an easy flow of traffic in and out of the house when the weather encourages outdoor living.

There is also art in Lukez's staircase, which is framed by a slatted cherry wood screen designed by the architect. It delineates the house's private spaces on the second floor from the public rooms on the first. Yet it maintains an open, airy sensibility and allows interesting plays of light to filter through. In another visual ploy to make the first floor more open and, thus, seem more spacious, Lukez continued the stairway and screen to the basement, placing the door to utility and storage spaces at the bottom. "Most houses have that door at the top of the stairs," says Lukez. "Having it below makes the space seem bigger."

The staircase nestles in an alcove in the front part of the house. A double window topped by a triangle of glass that follows the shape of the gable end above allows light to pour into the stair landing and the second-floor hallway. "The stair volume was placed in relationship to a tree in the front yard," says Lukez, so that when you look through the 8-foot window, you see leaves and branches rather than the street or other houses.

The master suite is at the top of the stairs and includes a small (6 by 8 feet), well-composed home office fitted with custom furnishings designed by Lukez. Set at the back of the bedroom, it has an inviting view of the yard that makes it feel almost like a treehouse retreat. Down the hall, to the right, two children's bedrooms share a common play area. To the left is a guest room.

Outside, in what some might consider a retro move, Lukez designed the garage as a separate, unattached structure. "This is another way to keep the exterior volume small," he says, "and it allows you to use the building to create a courtyardlike feeling."

In many ways, the not-so-big house is based on old-fashioned ideas. Most of our Colonial ancestors, after all, knew nothing but multipurpose rooms, designed with utility in mind. To this basic concept, architects like Lukez add the qualities of consistency, comfort, and beauty. Now that's something for the ages.