Collection by Aileen Kwun
Tiny, Modern Pavilions
Each of these airy, open structures embraces the outdoors with a respect for its surrounding landscape, and a modest footprint to boot.
Stubb and her family moved to their home, located on 2.25 acres just north of Baltimore, in 2001. "The outdoors here are a big playground," she says. "We had always wanted to build something for the girls that looked natural." In the summer of 2008, they finally materialized their wish with the 128-square-foot "tree house" that they designed themselves. Drafting the plans came naturally: Laurie is the principal of Place Architecture, Inc. and her husband, Peter, is an architect at a firm that focuses on institutional projects.Photograph courtesy of Laurie Stubb.
When the Zimmerman family settled in Seattle, Washington, in the late 1990s they bought a 1,100-square-foot Craftsman built in the 1920s. Fast-forward to today. Not wanting to leave their beloved neighborhood, but hurting for space, they enlisted the help of local design-build firm Ninebark to create a separate living area. Working from sketches that the residents had from their uncle, Gary Schoemaker, an architect in New York, Ninebark realized a refined structure that serves as a playroom, office, and guesthouse for visitors, complete with a kitchenette and full bathroom.