647 Blue House. Baton Rouge, LA

1,500 SF single family home, 2 story structure on narrow deep lot

647Blue starts limited to a 17’ width and a historical context.  The prospective client wants to construct a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, and maintain a car-width drive and small rear garden.  The response to these constraints is a double shotgun, but in order to maintain the minimum dimension, the two shotguns must be stacked and slipped instead of adjacent and parallel.  The lower shotgun reaches towards the street with the traditional front porch.  The roof of this porch not only serves to mediate the privacy of the home to the publicity of the street but also begins to tie the two, stacked shotguns together.  Its pitch follows the angle of the interior stair and creates a cathedral ceiling in the living room.  As the upper shotgun slips back towards the rear of the site, two spaces are created: one side porch and one upper bedroom porch.  Inside the house, the upper shotgun reveals itself to the lower shotgun with windows that look down on the living space.  The slip creates spaces inside as well: storage under the stairs and a circulation path to the lower bedroom and bath.