The clients for this house in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Seattle, have a child, a big dog, a large dining room table and a growing collection of art. They wanted to build economically, responsibly and creatively. The resulting 1,940 square-foot house is a big rectangular box that has been folded in two places on the ground floor to respond to the particularities of the site. It was built with advanced framing techniques, has a radiant concrete floor, rain-screen walls and uses many renewable and recyclable materials.

The house is simply a shed, with abundant wall space for art and plenty of shelves for books. Activities revolve around a double-height living space and an open-riser stair. A garage door allows activities to flow outside in good weather.
Livability and durability were of paramount importance. The exterior rain-screen walls are clad in cedar slats where they can be touched and enjoyed - corrugated metal provides a maintenance-free exterior elsewhere.