Forest Gallery House
Fishers, IN
Forest Gallery House is a compound-style residence located in Hamilton County, Indiana. We’re very excited to report that ground-breaking appears to be on-track for summer/fall 2020!
Our clients purchased the property in 2019, and the plan is to demolish the existing home on the site and design + build a new residence from scratch. Interestingly, the new design program includes some unique features such as a freestanding pavilion for office/sauna/gym, a two-story master closet, a 6-8 car garage, and freestanding kennel. The site has acreage and is mostly wooded – an excellent canvas. To be sure, unique program features are exciting from a design standpoint, as they usually inspire unique architectural solutions. If the program includes some features we haven’t yet encountered, we’re definitely in!
Forest Gallery House
Project Info:
Clients: Private Owners
Architecture: HAUS | Architecture For Modern Lifestyles with J. Gauker Interiors and Client
Interior Design: HAUS with J. Gauker Interiors and Client
Builder/Construction Manager: WERK | Building Modern
Photography/Renderings: HAUS (except where noted otherwise)
Design Process:
Initial Site Visit
On the initial site visit (see photos below), we identified some important amenities to inform the design. By all means, the views to the west and southwest are beautiful. Albeit, privacy from the adjacent neighbor to the north-northeast is important. Also, existing topography will dictate best location for the new dedicated property access drive.
We also noticed that the existing site and drives were not easily maneuvered. So on the new design, we were sure to provide a robust turnaround adjacent to house, but also at the privacy gate to accommodate delivery trucks. This roundabout in conjunction with the existing garage structure (new kennel) has become a significant driver of the design concept.
Program
Client’s initial program suggested that we raze the existing house, but possibly keep the existing garage accessory structure and use it as a kennel. So while exploring site design concepts, we gravitated toward a scheme that worked to fully integrate this structure in the whole. In fact, the most preferred scheme created a series of connected pavilions radiating around a new access drive turnaround creating an architectural array.
Currently (December 2019), we are engaging basic construction documents to use in getting contractor pricing to help check and refine project scopes of work against the budget. At the same time, we are refining the interiors, site features, and high-performance design considerations into the design for a comprehensive solution.
Utilities (some decisions to finalize)
It appears that we have a choice to tie into municipal utilities or not (based on distances + zoning guidelines). So we have been in contact with respective contacts to evaluate the pros and cons of different options.
Plan Concept (to come)
Garage (6-8 car + basketball)
Please check back as we’ll be adding to the story!