Scope: A new custom home (unbuilt)
Awards:
2013 Merit Award - AIA Cincinnati Design Awards
2013 Merit Award - CRAN Awards
Description:
The design of the Country Line Residence focused on creating a lifelong home for a newly-single mother of three, with an unusual set of programmatic challenges. These challenges stemmed from the specialized needs of a teenage son with a severe form of autism. The mother insisted on creating a home that would meet the needs of caring for her son without sacrificing a sense of normalcy for her two younger children.
The challenges of the project centered around three main concerns:
Control - A sophisticated division of space was necessary to allow for a constantly evolving range of accessibility that varied per user, per day, and per location. ‘Lock down’ or security points had to be incorporated while maintaining a sense that this project is foremost a ‘home.’
Therapy - Therapeutic activities are required daily for the son with autism, but even more so as a vital bonding experience for the family at-large. These spaces needed to be as much a part of the house as a kitchen would be to a more conventional residence.
Scale - The unique program greatly affected the size of the house. The design had to continually address maintaining a residential scale as the program expanded.
