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Celestino Piralla, principal of CSCP Design, designer of the new office space and half of the team that occupies the space. Cornelia Stumpf of CSCP Consult, which offers public relations, marketing and creative design services for the design and building industries, is the other half. The two complement one another: Piralla does design work for Stumpf���s consulting side of the business, and Stumpf, in turn, takes care of public relations for Piralla. ���You would have had to create hallways where there were none,��� Piralla says, explaining why an addition would have been a poor choice. ���There is no circulation that would go all the way through in the existing house. ���We wanted to maintain a little separation between the living area and the work space, even though you cross only 20 ft. of yard and you���re in the office. When clients come in, they don���t have to come through the house,��� he adds. Second, joining the two structures was out of the question. Piralla discovered, because the property occupied a flood plain, the new structure would have to be elevated 6 ft., making a connection impractical and awkward. Design Strategy Modular, Not Prefab The design strategy for the free standing structure, to paraphrase National Historic Trust Guidelines, was not to replicate the original design of the existing structure but to ���sustain a sense of continuity in architectural language��� and achieve ���a balance between differentiation and compatibility, but weighted in the favor of the latter.��� ���There are strong horizontal lines that complement the look of the existing house, but mainly it���s more of a philosophical relationship than a visual one,��� says Piralla. ���The office space is based on a modular construction system,��� he continues. ���There was a lot of experimentation with this idea in the ���50s and ���60s, a leftover from the International Style idea that you can put a building in any context and it still serves a purpose. With the birth of postmodern architecture and great wealth of the ���80s, when people went in for bigger and bigger ideas, this kind of disappeared.��� The idea has regained some interest as a result of economic setbacks and people who are looking for more efficient and livable spaces for residential or work-related uses, Piralla says. While CSCP���s office is modular, it is not prefab ��� built someplace else and brought to the site ��� or modular prefab ��� where a company sells modules and ships them to the site for assembly. Rather, the modules were constructed on-site, Piralla explains. ���It worked out really well because we didn���t have to ship anything. All the steel was bought locally, and all the labor was subcontracted from local companies,��� he says. ���It���s pouring a little money back into the local economy.��� The design and layout of the structure were developed by Phoenix-based ASUL working with Piralla and based on the available modules developed by ASUL. The project was a ���both build��� option in which ASUL erected the steel frame, walls and roof, and the clients finalized the interior and exterior, including cladding and mechanicals using a local contractor. ASUL���s business model, according to its website, is to ���create a design and construction methodology allowing for the mass customization of homes. The result of these efforts is an adaptable system capable of producing custom modern homes priced at 25 to 50 percent less than the current market.��� In addition to FEMA requirements for raising the structure to comply with floodplain restrictions, the residential zoning of the property did not allow for in-law suites, ���so we couldn���t have a bathroom,��� Piralla recounts. ���We work with some interns and assistants, but they can just come to the house. That was just a minor inconvenience. Anyway, we didn���t want to spend extra money on plumbing [and a bathroom], which would take space away from the work space. It wasn���t a problem either way.��� One minor consideration, which as it turns out did not affect the addition, was a restriction of percentage of roof space allowed relative to the square footage of the lot. ���That dictates the maximum size of any addition or separate building, but the size [of our office] is perfect; we didn���t want The office provides room for an extensive design library and maintains separation between the living area and the work space. Clients don���t have to come through the house to reach the office. ForResidentialPros.com QR April 2013 21