Lantern Studio Wellesley, MA
Lantern Studio Wellesley, MA

Rooftop Garden Creative Retreat

Flavin Architects conceived a creative retreat built of steel, wood, and concrete. The structure is situated in the garden behind a Dutch Colonial home in Wellesley, MA. While it is visible from the street, the setback respects the suburban context, where houses host their accessory garages behind primary dwellings. The three-story, free-standing garden building offers a sanctuary from the busy day-to-day life of the home. The structural steel frame of the building is left exposed. A mahogany screen drapes the street-facing side of the structure, creating privacy for the client and catching the dappled light that filters through the surrounding trees.

Working from the idea that our creative endeavors require calming spaces with minimal distraction, we conceived of each level of the building as a place where the client can exercise their creative interests. The lowest level, set into the sloping site, contains a garage workshop for the repair of vintage Vespa scooters. An enclosed writer’s retreat is located beside an open-air veranda on the middle floor. The rooftop hosts a garden of raised vegetable planters, which surround a dining table where the family enjoys meals on summer evenings.

exterior 3-story garage studio steel structure with wood screen
glowing 3-story garage studio steel structure with wood screen
exterior of 3-story garage and studio with rock ledge in foreground
open-air veranda and rooftop with privacy wood screen
3-story studio garage structure with rooftop garden open-air veranda home office corten steel planter
To call Flavin Architects’ three-story steel-frame structure with mahogany slat screens a "garage" would be misleading. While there’s room for parking and a Vespa workshop behind the double-wide red door on the ground floor, the spaces above feel and function more like a country retreat. "The clients wanted something innovative to complement their traditional Dutch Colonial," says Flavin, principal of Flavin Architects. "A bit like a garden folly."

A boulder in front, tipped up just so, lends the aura of a Zen garden. Sunlight streams through the screens, leaving rhythmic patterns on the stucco walls of the covered porch. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the air-conditioned study frame the wooded view and allow the couple to see through to the side yard beyond. On top, flowers and vegetables thrive in wood and aluminum planters.
"GARAGE SCALE," DWELL MAGAZINE, 2020
exposed steel structure rooftop garden and open-air veranda with wood screen
home office interior with forest view through large windows
furnished open-air veranda with privacy wood screen
3-story garden folley studio garage accessory building with vintage vespa
detail of privacy wood screen with wood handrail
steel cable guardrail on exterior studio stair
3-story backyard home office studio rooftop open-air veranda glowing at dusk
rooftop farm to table dining setup
hand drawing sketch of 3-story studio garage
dappled lighting through privacy wood screen
cad drawing floor plan 3-story studio and garage

Credits

General Contractor

Brookes + Hill Custom Builders

Landscape Architect

Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture

Landscape Contractor

Landscape America

Structural Engineer

Webb Structural Services

Structural Steel

Kelley Welding

Technology Design

System7

Millwork

Kelton Woodwork

Photo Stylist

Sierra Baskind, Ennis Inc

Photographer

Peter Vanderwarker Photography

Nat Rea Photography

Awards + Publications

Architecture Citation Award, Residential Design Magazine, 2020

"Inside the Box," Interiors Boston, 2020

"Garage Scale," Dwell Magazine, 2020

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