I recently had dinner with my friends Jodi and Ben in their absolutely stunning home. I designed their home with them and MKD and it was completed in the past year. While most of it was built in a factory as 5 modules plus 2 roof modules, it was custom designed specifically to their site, their family and their lives. The home has copper walls that create an ordering hierarchy of the different parts of the house, allowing spaces to fluidly open to one another, yet at the same time, have a sense of separation. This is key with a family of 4, plus all their friends.
The house was also designed in some ways as a theatre as well. Jodi is an actor, playwright and director and is co-founder of dramamamas. The center space was designed to feel simultaneously cozy with their family, but also comfortably hold a large group of people and allow for performances. The center space has two walls of accordian glass doors so it can open to both the back pool/yard area, as well as open to the front garden, allowing for much flexibility in usage as well as organic collaboration with the outdoors.
The high windows wash the ceiling with light, creating a space that does not require artificial lighting during the day. The copper walls in each side help shade from the sun to avoid hotspots and glare. The high windows also allow hot air to go up and out on summer days.
So much of this house is about feeling like you are in the garden, even when you are inside the house. So the landscape design was critical. Jodi + Ben chose to have Glen Haney design and build their outdoor spaces. While Glen has been a very successful CEO, President, Advisor and Board Member of such companies as Dataquest, Xerox, Sterling Networks and iRise for over 30 years, he now balances his advisory roles with his role as designer. His green creations in this project were visually stunning, as well as tasty, as dinner included many delectible treats from their edible garden in the back yard.
Glen was also the landscape designer for his own house that we designed together. He has quite the touch for blending interior and exterior spaces beautifully and creates the best backdrops for the unscripted play of our lives.