This small house was a study in what is meant by “cottage” when a client asks for a house that is cottagey or has the look and feel of a cottage. Extensive historical studies were made of the meaning of cottage and how that term has evolved over time and geographically.

The grid as an organizing device is re-visitied, distorted and reimagined as an overlay of grids both 2 and 3-dimensionally.

Although the cottage was designed and built for the President & CEO of a major Chicago area home furnishings store, the cottage was also too small to accommodate most of the furniture sold in the retailer’s home furnishing stores so much of the furniture is custom and/or built-in.

The cottage is located in Lakeside, Michigan along the shore of Lake Michigan. The cottage includes: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living, dining, laundry & home theater loft in a total interior of 900 square feet.

Lakeside Michigan zoning regulations required that the renovated cottage re-use the existing foundation and not go outside the existing cottage's 3 dimensional envelope.

Per Lakeside Michigan zoning regulations, the renovated cottage re-used the existing foundation. Earth around the foundation and the lower level concrete slab were temporarily removed to add a new interior & exterior drainage system.

The renovated cottage includes within its 900 square feet: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, living, dining, and a surround sound home theater loft. The cottage's interior is filled with custom built-in furniture made necessary by the smaller than average room sizes.

The lower level includes 2 bedrooms, bath, and laundry/mechanical/storage room. The two bedrooms each include custom queen size beds and built in armoire/dresser units. The lower level is half below and half above grade which allows for a walk out door and naturally lit bedrooms.

The first level includes 1 bedroom, bath, living space, dining space, and a not quite kitchen. The not quite kitchen is missing a cooktop/oven. The reason for the omission of a cooktop/oven was to meet the Townships requirement that only one house be built on each buildable lot. The cottage is technically not a house since it does not include a kitchen.

The second level/loft space include two custom L-shaped sofas, a surround sound home theater system, and retractable large screen television incorporated into a built-in cabinet system.

Although the cottage design was drawn 2-dimensionally and 3-dimensionally, the client preferred a physical model as a way of better understanding the proposed design. This ¼" = 1'-0" basswood model could be taken apart to reveal the detailed interior of each level and then reassembled to study the exterior of the renovated cottage in its entirety.

View of the cottage from ravine below w./outdoor shower & beach access boardwalk in foreground.

Cottage & outdoor shower close-up. Landscape stairs/treads/risers constructed of re-used tree trunks from trees replaced during construction.

This small cottage also revisits Palladio’s Villa Rotunda by asking whether all 4 sides of a house should be 100% equal and if not, what are the influences of north, south, east and west, views, privacy, lake, dune, ravine, nature, etc. that might require each side to be unique rather than equal.

Interior view of living and dining area with home theater loft above. The cottage was designed to be heated by the Tulikivi fireplace in foreground. Optional heating is supplied by a radiant heated stone floor on the lower level allowing heat to rise throughout the 3 cottages’ 3 levels. Since this is a second home, the winter home temperature is kept to just above freezing, but can be turned up remotely by phone or wifi so that the cottage’s temperature is livable by the time the family arrives from their full-time home in a suburb north of Chicago.

Smaller than average interior rooms necessitated custom built-in furniture throughout. Furniture and interior trim is solid douglas fir. Built-in furniture pieces were fabricated by a local cabinetmaker and installed by general contractor.

Side tables in foreground designed/fabricated by architect as gift to homeowner. Wood for tables was locally sourced. Wood and aluminum were finished with non-petroleum based tung oil and wax finishes.

Master bedroom built-in armoire & dresser. Solid douglas fir w./limestone top & stainless steel pulls.

Each piece of custom furniture was physically modeled at ¼" = 1'-0" and 1" = 1'-0" in order to give a better understanding of what each piece would look like and how each might function within the whole of the cottage.

The built-in queen sized bed with integral headboard and side tables is 1 ½" wider and 1 ½" longer than mattress. Box-spring and mattress are supported by wood slats located just above the floor below to keep mattress surface as low as possible to enhance the proportions of the room in relation to its furnishings.

Integral headboard and side-table close-up/detail. Solid douglas fir w./limestone top & stainless steel pulls.

The cottage's loft takes advantage of 360 degree views of Lake Michigan, sand dunes and its wooded site by via custom triangular windows to the east, west, north and south. Daytime views are maintained by housing a large flatscreen television inside a custom cabinet. At night at the click of a remote's button, the cottage's loft space transforms into a home theater space with surround sound speakers and stereo system.

The cottage's ceiling is made up of glue-laminated beams, custom metal beam connections and structural tongue & groove pine boards.