Lantern Studio

Lantern Studio
© Nat Rea
Lantern Studio
© Nat Rea

Lantern Studio 

Flavin Architects

LANDSCAPE
Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture

MANUFACTURERS
Autodesk, Bona, Lutron, Benjamin Moore, Bison, Feeney, Garaga, Henry Company, Kemper System, Loewen, Mitsubishi Electric, Rab Lighting, Tnemec, Eaton/cooper Lighting Solutions, Global Industrial, Hinkley, Jesco Lighting Group, Penofin, Semco Southeastern Metals, Trimble

ENGINEERING
Webb Structural Services

CONTRACTOR
Brookes + Hill Custom Builders

LEAD ARCHITECTS
Colin Flavin, Howard Raley

LANDSCAPE INSTALLER
Landscape America, Wrentham

CLIENTS
Kathy Kelly, Ed Kelly

STRUCTURAL STEEL
Kelley Welding Inc, Fitchburg Ma

PHOTO STYLIST
Sierra Baskind, Ennis Inc

AREA
2608 Ft²

YEAR
2019

LOCATION
Wellesley, United States

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

The Lantern Studio is set beside a traditional Dutch Colonial home in Wellesley. While still being visible from the street, the setback respects the context of traditional houses, and established pattern of accessory garages being located behind the primary dwelling.

Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker

The building is placed behind a spectacular glacial erratic boulder and becomes the focal point of the backyard entrance.

Low grasses are planted around the boulder, in keeping with the manicured gardens typical of the neighborhood.

Lantern Studio
© Nat Rea
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker

The landscape to the rear is left raw and wild, with rock outcroppings that nature can overtake in time.

The building is designed to engage the client’s passions for gardening, entertaining and antique Vespa scooters. The ground floor is a Vespa repair shop and garage.

Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker

The middle floor houses a home office and veranda, and the upper floor allows for outdoor dining surrounded by a vegetable garden in raised planters.

A concrete box clad in stucco encloses the lower garage workshop and forms the plinth for the exposed steel frame structure of the upper two floors of the building.

The six perimeter steel columns provide a column-free interior for the middle floor and extend an additional 8 feet above the roof deck to define the edges of the building.

Lantern Studio
© Nat Rea
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Nat Rea

An assembly of Ipe deck tiles over pedestals bring the traditional warmth of wood to both the open-air veranda and roof deck.

The east and west elevations of the steel frame are draped with a curtain of slender mahogany strips, that screen the nearby busy road from the veranda and roof deck.

Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker

The appearance of the building changes throughout the day; the wood screens are back lit in the morning sun and front lit in the afternoon with dappled light filtered through the adjacent tree canopies. At night the wood screens glow like a lantern.


Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker
Lantern Studio
© Peter Vanderwarker


Lantern Studio
Lower level floor plan
Lantern Studio
Site plan


Lantern Studio
First floor plan
Lantern Studio
Upper level floor plan