Urban Treehouse

Urban Treehouse is a 2,000-square-foot residence designed by Sparano Mooney Architecture and completed in 2025 in a densely populated neighborhood near downtown Salt Lake City. Developed for an urban context, the house was conceived as both a sanctuary and a space engaged with its community, reconciling privacy with openness on a compact site. The brief called for a primary suite, open-plan kitchen, dining and living areas, a guesthouse, and a small pool, with the objective to connect interior and outdoor living within a limited urban footprint. The design arranges a uniform, rectangular mass punctuated with voids to create outdoor rooms and integrate greenery, responding conceptually to the presence of a significant tree on site. These outdoor spaces and a carefully orchestrated sequence of transparency and screening maximize privacy without isolation. A focus on scale, proportion, and natural light shapes the spatial experience, while material choices emphasize continuity between inside and out. A heuristic design process involving sculptural studies from found wood informed the form and massing, resulting in a research-driven, contemporary approach to urban infill that reflects the owner's vision for city living.

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