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Thrasher Works recently had the opportunity to put our design chops to the test for a local development: The Villas, a small group of custom built homes located on the hill overlooking the historic Belmont Hotel and skyline of downtown Dallas. I was brought in to assist in the tweaking of a design which had been presented to the design review board. It is a three story, 2-unit condo set on two lots. Unfortunately, while all the usual components of a contemporary design were present, the facade couldn't mask the fact that it was an awkwardly proportioned box which was out of scale to the neighborhood and severely lacking in a coherent facade organization. After a few attempts to save the design, we all came to the same conclusion: one must start from scratch. Of course, I won't show you where we started from, but what do you think of how it turned out?   I spent the weekend trying to design a backyard shop/office for myself and Bart. I came away feeling very uninspired and defeated. I guess I just wasn't feeling it. But let's face it, Bart won't be happy until every last corner of that yard is used for shop space. So, I switched gears. I still had a creative bug to kill and graphic design wasn't doing it. Hence, the Mustard House. I'm really trying to wrap my head around the tiny-house movement and have realized: it's a process. This is the first step. While I'm still tweaking the plans, it's shaped to have an open living/dining/kitchen area with two bedrooms in the back. So far it's coming in around 1,200 square feet. I'd like to whittle this down to 900 square feet...I guess you lose a bedroom? What do you think? Could you live in 900 square feet? What would be on your must-have list? 
Each of these concepts was geared around the back yard studio idea. We even had a client that wanted to develop one for his own backyard to operate as a shop & motorcycle garage. It never came to be because we couldn't get the construction budget right--still a point of contention between Bart and I as I think it could be easily scaled back and built out of wood framing. Which brings me to today.  I want to build the plainest, most simple of the follies as a backyard cabana. Or perhaps city park hangout. Or better yet, seating within a beer garden or truck yard setting with live music playing, cold beer, and twinkling garden lights. Can't you picture that? Speak up. I think we can make this happen!
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