Aaron Baird wanted to live in a glass house. As a fervent plant owner working as a software designer, Baird’s wish was to build a home entirely filled with light. He would settle, though, for as many windows as was legally allowable. That limit, however, would turn out to be lower than expected.
“He wanted a big, glass house for his plants and a rooftop patio, but we immediately had to face city building codes and zoning issues,” says architect Pamela Úbeda, principal of Coast + Beam Architecture, who first saw Baird’s sketches and the examples from Australia that captured his vision.
The short story: You can’t have a glass house.
Homes are allowed minimal glazing on a side yard, due to fire code. The further your home sits from your neighbour’s — typically three to 10 feet — the more windows you can have. With the housing density surrounding Baird’s purchased lot, however, he could expect minimal windows on every neighbouring side.
Úbeda came up with a plan.
“We needed to open up that south side, so the plan was to create a courtyard,” she says. “That’s really what created the shape of the house, and that’s how I got Aaron his greenhouse.”
