Six Gable Roofs Cap This Brilliantly Bizarre Atlanta Home

One of only a few residences in the U.S. made of cross-laminated timber (CLT), Haus Gables experiments with angular spaces and playful, faux finishes.

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Kathryn M.

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Designed and developed by award-winning architectural designer Jennifer Bonner, Haus Gables is a riotous exploration of how new forms, spatial organization, and materials can function in a home. The recently completed residential project features a cluster of six gable roofs, combined to form one single abode. While the residence’s unconventional, asymmetric exterior boasts incredible curbside appeal, it’s the playful, innovative interior that truly makes this residence one for the books.

Located in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, Haus Gables is the latest residential project by architectural designer Jennifer Bonner.

Encompassing 2,200 square feet, the home challenges traditional domestic interiors through materiality, color, and form.

Seeking to challenge notions of the domestic interior through materiality, color, and form, Bonner—who leads art and architecture studio MALL—used the home’s roof plan as a way to organize its overall design.

A cluster of six gable roofs combined to form a single abode, the single-family home is organized by the roof plan.

"The underbelly of the gable roofs creates an airy, lofty space filled with ample natural light in what is actually a small building footprint," Bonner says. Resting on a 24-foot wide plot, the house is actually the same size as a single-wide mobile home, with a width of 18 feet.

Attempting to rework spatial paradigms of the past, the award-winning architect establishes the rooms, catwalks, and double-height spaces in the interior by aligning those spaces to ridges and valleys in the roof above.

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Along with the roof, all exterior and interior walls and floors have been made from solid CLT panels, a material that is widely used overseas in construction, but is new to the U.S. market.

The 2,200-square-foot abode is one of only two home in the country made of cross-laminated timber (CLT), an exceptionally strong wood material produced by gluing together layers of lumber that alternate in direction. Structurally inventive, the panels also promote a monolithic view of the material from the home's interior.

A look at one of the spacious, contemporary bedrooms.

"When building a house entirely out of CLT, I wanted to offset the image of a wooden interior with faux finishes," Bonner explains. Reworking the old tradition of faux-finishing in the American South, the architect used a more contemporary technique of color blocking, currently found in pop culture. Noting the contrasting materials, she adds: "These fake materials are colorful, bold, and deceiving."