Mckee House

MCKEE HOUSE

burnaby, bc

2004

MCKEE HOUSE is located on a typical 35 ft wide x 130’ long suburban city lot on the south Burnaby area, with the south side overlooking Fraser River. It has a floor area of 2,400 sq ft, and was designed for a small family of 4 – a young professional couple with 2 small kids. Besides the space for themselves, they also require a separate suite and a shared garage for the grandmother, plus a temporary home office for the husband. There was a city requirement to preserve the full grown mature trees on the front yard and a 20’ width right of way for storm sewer access on the back

CONCEPT AND STRATEGY:

Located on a sloped lot from front to back and having a laneway on one side, the house responds to the site particularities such as topography and orientation, and the programmatic requirement. An attached garage access from the laneway was located on the front of the house for added convenience to the grandmother particularly. By this, we avoided to end up with a cut off living space at the back, and also leaving the backyard clear for a nice big garden – a request from the wife.

ACCESS/MAIN SUITE/SECONDARY SUITE:

Approaching from the city sidewalk, the main entry is accessible by a few steps down that follow the natural slope. Once inside, a 12 ft high vestibule houses TWO half flights of stair, one to the main sutie on lower level for the young family and the other to the secondary suite on upper level. Here the vestibule was intended to be a common shared space used by both suites. All the private bedrooms are located on the shared property line side that provides more privacy. The master bedroom is located on the south end with a large bay window, and the one large bedroom in the middle is for the kids, which will be subdivided to 2 smaller bedrooms when they grow a little bigger. The kitchen, living and dining space are all contained within one big rectilinear open space, flanking the lane way. A kitchen island separates the kitchen from the dining area which has a horizontal window that allows look out to the lane, but still maintain privacy. The living room, separated from the dining by a stair to the lower floor, is sunken a few steps down with full height windows overlooking the garden. A door within it opens to a wood deck. Natural sunlight floods the living space thru this window. The lower floor houses the recreation room, home office, utility room, third bathroom and crawl space, etc.. Similar in spatial organization, the upper floor is for the grandmother and accommodates a slightly smaller living space. This allows a deck in front of it. A prayer room was located on the north side with a walk out terrace screened by a row of cedar from the street.

EXTERIOR

The exterior of the main house is stucco with the laneway wall clad in a rain-screened wood siding. Corrugated metal siding clad the garage. Cedar soffit under overhang with metal fascia and aluminum storefront window complete the exterior material palette.

Working with a secondary suite requirement that is found in so many “Vancouver Special” house, we strive to create something moderm and unique both in expression and spatial experience. In addition, we hope the design will encourge the two generations living together under the same roof and yet having a particularity and privacy of their own.