Virtually all of the architects I’ve spoke with insist that the houses they have designed are structural portraits of those who live inside the walls — and a lot of these portraits have names. “We usually go straight to the source and title the home by its road or location. But occasionally a project takes on a life of its own,” says architect Andrew Reeves. “The home almost names itself”

LineBox Studio

Title: Mini House
Location: Toronto

After a condemned drug laboratory, this modern home sits in a compact region of 566 square feet. However, the “mini” in its title isn’t so much about the home’s footprint as about the client’s lifestyle and design philosophy.

Reeves says that his client wanted a home which celebrated a pared-down lifetime, designed on a scale which was compact yet completely at home in this unique, eclectic area.

“The Mini House is more about minimalism and a rejection of excess. The home makes a statement: Bigger isn’t always better, and attaining loft-style dwelling is completely possible beyond the confines of a high-rise building or warehouse,” says Reeves.

All the client’s clothes and accessories fit neatly in plastic containers or on hangers in an exposed wardrobe.

Siemasko + Verbridge

Title: Buttered Toast
Location: North Shore, Massachusetts

Designer Jean Verbridge says old estates and unique projects usually already have names, but other houses make their handle based on the client’s personality or a unique element of the project’s details.

She reveals the meaning of “Buttered Toast”: “The title refers to the exterior colour of the home. Architect Thad Siemasko employed this term in discussions of what the outside colour should be, and it captured the vision of a hot and textural stucco finish quite superbly.”

Domiteaux + Baggett Architects

Title: Now House
Location: Johnson City, Texas

This home’s name once expressed an artist couple’s metaphysical belief that a home — and also one’s lifetime — ought to reflect the present and not the past or future.

“The home celebrated all of the stuff they loved doing in the time of the design and assemble waking up early and working on their art and entertaining friends in their home in one of the covered porches,” says architect Douglas Payne.

Domiteaux + Baggett Architects

Payne adds that the home’s identity has since shifted dramatically since the passing of one of the clients. “The home is actually available on the current market,” he says. “However, I think it’s still a gorgeous means of honoring the lives of my clients as they wanted it recorded in that moment in time”

Site lines architecture inc..

Title: Stealth House
Location: Panorama, British Columbia, Canada

Architect Steven Cross allow his Customers, Dave and Dorris Penner, title their home. The Penners liken their home to a creature lying on its stomach against the stone. “In the outside, the black home hides itself instead of sticking out. The home is a little like Darth Vader: mysterious and dark, with a huge character,” says Dave.

Site lines architecture inc..

Dorris points out that the interiors have a stealth quality, also. Everywhere you turn within the home, there is a surprise awaiting; rooms, cabinets and transitions from 1 distance to the next surprise in the way they connect into the landscape.

Andrea Swan – Swan Architecture

Title: Clean Space
Location: Minneapolis

Architect Andrea Swan first called this special project “Refuge,” but her client insisted distilling its title into the most important factor of the distance: its cleanliness.

“My client was in a dire circumstance. She was allergic to her own house and needed to sleep in her covered porch, which isn’t a comfortable thing to do in Midwestern winters,” says Swan. “So she turned to me for aid in developing a room which was clear enough for her to remain in — at least long enough for her to find a fantastic night’s sleep”

Andrea Swan – Swan Architecture

Swan and her team created an allergen-free room over the client’s garage, a test laboratory that ordered the redesign of the rest of the home and involved doctors and an electromagnetic field expert from Germany as well.

“I’m glad that she can sleep in her own bed and lounge in her own space — these are matters that she previously could not do in her own home,” says Swan. “Now that I think of it, ‘Clean Room’ seems like the simplest, most fitting name to your own distance.”

Hufft Projects

Title: Modern With a Side of Ranch
Location: Kansas City, Missouri

This contemporary renovation lives up to its title by identifying the cedar-clad modern addition from the present midcentury ranch home. On the other hand, the interior reflects a stronger taste for modern design and decor, so inside isn’t too much of a mixed salad.

Inform us Has your home merited a title of its own? Share it below.

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