John Ronan Architects

Chicago Illinois This project explores the issue of programmatic flexibility in the combination of a one hundred year-old masonry shell and its new interior construction, inserted like furniture, which might change many times over the life of the shell it inhabits. The existing coach house, untouched since it served horses and their coachmen, is flexible to support multiple programs: playroom, an office, a conference room, a media room, a party space, and a guest bedroom. Support requirements were subsumed into a series of furniture-like elements to preserve the existing character, enclosing space for toy storage, media equipment, coats, appliances, a fold-out bed and closet, and function is conditional upon inhabitation.