An ongoing client of ours who has been a housing advocate for many years asked us to design a second ADU for his 5,000 sf R2.5 zoned lot in North Portland. The lot is in a Historic District and the house is contributing (older than 1920) and the daylight basement has an existing ADU already.
Given the 5,000sf lots size and a desire to preserve the backyard for open space , planting and the existing garden , together with our client we decided that the best fit for a second ADU would be to go the route of a small structure or Tiny House (by code: 400sf max).
So far the design is for a 220sf with a sleeping loft ( loft sf does not count toward the max 400sf- via the “new” Tiny House IRC code). Given the small size the design requirements go up considerably, since there is not much “fudge factor left”. The design process became more of a highly intentional editing process akin to writing a “Haiku’ more than a sprawling Novel – or estate house! Hence the title Haiku House!
