Bringing the Outside In When Designing A Home

Home 8 on AIA Tour

Whether a home is nestled comfortably in a bucolic, rural setting, or expertly situated to make the best of an odd-shaped urban lot, the relationship between the outdoor environment and your home is important to us Midwesterners, who tend to take advantage of every opportunity to live outdoors when the weather is mild.

Several projects showcased on this year’s tour offer interesting ways to integrate the outdoors and the home, and also demonstrate how a well-designed home can maximize the views of one’s surroundings.

Home 5 on AIA Tour

Tim Alt, AIA, of ALTUS Architecture + Design, worked closely with the homeowners of Home #5 to create a series of living spaces that incorporated the heavily wooded lot on which the home sits, in order to blur the boundaries between the outdoors and inside the home. Cantilevered indoor spaces provide shelter for the outdoor areas beneath, and a bridge on the third floor connects a master suite wing to a peaceful outdoor space.

Home 8 on AIA Tour

At Home #8, the design team at Peterssen/Keller Architecture was challenged by an oddly shaped urban lot to provide a secluded residence that still allowed for beautiful views of the downtown Minneapolis skyline and Lake Calhoun. Three interconnecting pavilions offer privacy and interconnected outdoor and indoor spaces. Here, too, a cantilevered cube offers outdoor spaces underneath and an amazing balcony view from the second level.

Don’t miss this year’s 17 new and remodeled residential projects, open to the public from 10 am to 5 pm on September 17 and 18, 2016. Tickets are now on sale at homesbyarchitects.org.

The 2016 tour is supported by Hage Homes, Marvin Windows & Doors, Elevation Homes, Streeter & Associates, Warners’ Stellian, Lilu Interiors, Marvin Design Gallery by Shaw Stewart, Mattson Macdonald Young, Pella Windows and Doors, Alpine Hardwood, Cates Fine Homes, Erotas Building Corp., Fresh Energy, Full Swing Golf, Grateful Beds Garden Rehab & Design, Lucy Interior Design, Massmann Geothermal, Mercury Mosaics, Olin Construction, Orijin Stone, Otto Painting Design, Redpath Constable Interior Design, Roam Interiors, American Mortgage & Equity Consultants, Inc., Archistructures, Bunkers & Associates, Clay Squared to Infinity, Southview Design, Stephen Donnelly Company, Uber Built, and Midwest Home.

Presented by  AIA-Minnesota-Logo

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