Although it’s just 924 square feet, Maria and Louis Gabriel’s Los Angeles back house, designed by Jason Kerwin of OKB, packs in a lot of program, including a family room on the ground floor and an office and a guest suite upstairs. The siding is by James Hardie and the stairs are painted in Celluloid by Dunn-Edwards.
The architect and owners were in sync on every aspect of the design, including the desire for shou sugi ban siding. “I had been interested in shou sugi ban for a long time,” Herrmann says. “These Japanese cypress boards have been charred, wire-brushed, stained, and oiled. We did a lot of testing to come up with the right dark grey color; it changes in the light.”
Designers Caroline and Sabri Farouki’s home in the Lower Garden District of New Orleans is only 12.6 feet wide in the front and even narrower in the back. The skinny, modern box contrasts with the neighborhood’s reigning mix of styles, but it aims to fit in even as it sticks out.
The butterfly roof adds a joyful kineticism to the exterior while creating practical angles ideal for solar panels and rainwater collection.
Phase One of the Community First! Village began in 2014 and resulted in a 27-acre development with 235 homes for people who formerly lacked housing, including one for Jesse Brown, pictured here.
Phase Two, currently underway, will culminate with 310 additional homes built on another 24 acres.