This design for this addition to the suburban Copenhagen residence of Todd Verwers and Mette Krebs Petersen focused on respecting the massing, materiality, and scale of their existing, architecturally-significant house from 1965.  The addition structure integrates holistically with the streamlined horizontality and character of the brick house, and provides an elegant space for the storage and display of Todd’s 1987 Lotus Esprit, along with flexible, integrated storage space contiguous with the structure behind the garage space.

The addition punches through the rear of an existing carport, and is virtually undetectable from the street.  The structure presents in the large rear yard as a simple, black volume, the height of which flushes with the horizonal lines and visual flow of the existing house. Further, the structure forms a protected space for the family garden.

To comply with a code-required setback along the side property line, and to introduce daylight into the garage space, the wood-framed portion of the addition is pulled away from the masonry walls of the house proper and clad in mat black panels.  This honestly articulates the addition as being of newer date, and in harmonious dialog with the elegant architecture of the mid-century house.

Advantage is made of the sloping terrain behind the house to create additional height inside the integrated storage room, which is accessed from the lower level of the rear yard.

Todd Verwers enjoyed building much of this project himself.

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Photography

Todd Verwers

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