Stop Making Sense ADU
Project: New Accessory Dwelling Unit
Year: 2021
How do you make something small feel big? That was the question we were asking ourselves when skinny David Byrne popped into our head and his awesome Big Suit from the seminal 1984 film Stop Making Sense. Similar to his suit which has an armature cleverly placed between his skinny frame and the suites flowing fabric, we decided to fatten up the trusses pulling the ceiling away from the top of wall creating a wrap around clerestory and an interior volume that feels inflated. Once you separate the skin from the frame its amazing at how loose everything feels, movement flows, light seeps through and the whole structure becomes more of a framework than a solid mass. The tiny 750 sf of this unit is not what you perceive. Instead large windows open up to courtyards and as all the blue sliding panels move the space is constantly reframed. Like the Big Suit the house is kinetic, flowing and full of life.