Creating light-flooded interiors in a treehouse-like setting

Our client purchased a conventional post-WW II Cape Cod structure in a north Seattle neighborhood. With entry at street level, the house comprised dark interiors and a daylight basement that opened to a patio at the edge of a ravine. We were requested to use restraint in expanding on the existing building envelope; our task was to ‘open up’ the interiors. We connected the house to the site by creating proximity to the nearby treetops. We achieved the illusion of a treehouse. A shed dormer was lifted between two existing gable dormers allowing a tall wall of glass with views into the firs. We focused on transforming the dark interiors to a light-flooded space set against the majestic firs rising from the ravine. Interior walls were peeled back and the stair down removed and relocated to the southwest corner at the entry, where a new glass-wrapped corner allows light to flood the dark end of the lower level.