The Brick House guest suite | Azevedo Design

August 11, 2015

What would you do with just 94 ft² (8.7 m²) of floor space? That is the floor area of this former mechanical room previously used to house the boilers for a commercial laundry in San Fransisco’s Mission District. With the mechanical equipment removed, most people would have looked at the minuscule space and seen no use for it other than storage. Architect Christi Azevedo decided the aged brick walls and wood beams had too much character for that, and turned it into a guest house instead.

The fully self-contained guest suite has a complete kitchen, a small sitting area, a bathroom and a sleeping space. To fit all that in, the architect raised the roof several feet, creating an interior volume 17′ (5.2 m) tall. She opened up the attic space by removing half the ceiling joists and inserted a steel and glass mezzanine on the shorter side of the building, reserving the higher side for a loft bedroom. The mezzanine contains the dressing area and a tiny bathroom just 42″ (1.07 m) square. The bathroom design saves space with a wall-hung toilet and utilizes a drain in the middle of the floor for showering.

Azevedo used light and transparency to expand the perceived space. A sandblasted glass door and window allow light into the bathroom, keeping it from feeling too confined. The steep ship’s ladder of a staircase has open risers while the loft landing is glass, allowing site lines from the living area up to the mezzanine. In the kitchen, translucent doors on the upper cabinets help to keep the ground floor just a teeny bit more open.

Custom furniture and built-ins make the most of the available space in the tiny home. The dining table is sized to stow under the ship’s ladder when not in use. Walnut cabinetry on the mezzanine level provides storage for clothes. Up in the loft, extra hidden storage was built into the headboard.