In designing their own home, Melissa and Jacob Brillhart looked to the dogtrot house, a popular style of the Florida Cracker vernacular, which is characterized by a breezeway through the center. While they ended up enclosing the passageway to gain more square footage, they used a dogtrot diagram as the basic configuration.
Occasionally a house makes the rounds on the architecture & design blogs that stands out from all of the rest. Ever since I saw the Brillhart House, it has remained in my mind. Melding the American glass pavilion typology with tropical modern design, the structure is made predominantly of glass and steel.
Acordin to the Brillhart Architects: “The design for our house relies on a back to the basics approach (vernacular architecture)- specifically studying old architectural models that care about good form but are also good for something. Each design decision was organized around four central questions that challenge the culture for building big: what is necessary; how can we minimize our impact on the earth; how do we respect the context of the neighborhood; and what can we really build?”
The 1,500-square-foot house, which is lifted five feet off the ground and features 100 feet of continuous glass spanning the front and the back, is in concert with the outdoors and offers views of the lush landscape and catching the southeast winds through four sets of sliding glass doors and porches. Wood shutters along the front facade provide privacy as well as a striking visual effect, casting a pattern of crisscrossing shadows at certain times of the day. It’s luxurious without being ostentatious.
