Mayview House

The Mayview House was designed for two physicians seeking an urban oasis as a counterpoint to their intense professions. At the urban scale, the home acts as a sensitive infill structure within a dense neighborhood, where its butterfly roof form knits together the unique massing of the two immediate neighbors. At the building scale, spaces are organized, both physically and visually, around a private rear courtyard formed by the L-shaped footprint of the house and the retaining site walls. The two-story, street-facing leg of the “L” runs parallel to Mayview Road while the single-story, second leg is rotated to be parallel with the side property line, bringing definition to the courtyard and separating it from neighboring open spaces. The courtyard is activated by covered porches that ring its perimeter, at both the lower and upper levels, while layers of site walls, green screens, and plantings create privacy to the West and South. In addition to its contextual contributions, the butterfly roof form plays two other roles: harvesting rainfall for site irrigation via a single large downspout and buried cistern, while also being specifically oriented for a PV array to power the all-electric appliances, systems, and EV chargers in the home.