Looking to do some further development on the Box with a Ribbon home design.  It's getting raised and doubled!

Is it me or does this sketch kind of remind you of the Star Wars Walker?

So, I present the Backyard Folly + Porch.  This, of course, was Bart's suggestion though we worked out the details together.  Brilliant, isn't it?  I can't believe the design didn't present itself sooner.  Of course one needs a covered porch.  How else can you enjoy the outdoors?  In Texas.  In the summer, no less! 

So that is it.  The Backyard Folly is finally out of my system.  Well, unless there is someone out there who would like us to build one!  And why not?  Just think how jealous the Jones' will be to see your fantastically unique, comfortably modern, backyard studio?....or workshop, or yoga room, or cabana....Compare that to their boring old shed.  Brilliant.  

Though much smaller than its predecessor, the concept remains the same:  the uncoiling of a snail's shell.  The exterior is clad in a weather tough armor of a paint-grip-aluminum shown here in gun-metal-gray though I'm imagining it could be as colorful as one's  garden.  I chose gray, of course, as I have yet to figure out how to grow anything in this Texas heat!

The interior is lined once again with tongue-and-groove cedar planks...or simply a stained pine siding.  Its simplicity is a welcome 'blank canvas' for any decoration or functional program to be housed within.  One could simply add furniture or create elaborate built in pieces to accommodate the most detailed or even the most mundane task.

The shell is infilled with an aluminum and glass storefront system. The glazing pattern is one which I seem to have carried  with me since my first years in architecture: random, shifting panes  with alternating colors + opacity.  Finally, in this rendition of the design, I've steered clear of needing a steel structure.  While the coil still has its angled walls, it can be easily built from standard stick framing.  After all, to refine means to simplify.  Oh, and one more thing: