The 3rd-year student team began, like most, by carefully studying their client, which included interviewing Ophelia and documenting her home and property and reflecting on the way she lived. From this the team gleaned the project’s focus: how can a one-bedroom 20K Home be modified to also include a quarter bedroom, fondly dubbed a nook, for short or long-term guests.

After examining each 20K Product Line Home, the students chose to adapt the original 20K Joanne’s Home design by adding 24 inches of space to the bedroom and bathroom, increasing the width of the home from 26 feet to 28 feet. They gained the space by converting part of Joanne’s spacious front porch, pinching 5 feet of interior space out of the generous 15-foot-deep exterior porch. The resultant porch still seemed deep enough, and the additional 150 square feet of inhabitable space created room for a sleeping nook and for the back door to be located in the bedroom, supporting private access for two residents.