American practice Bunch Design has completed a colourful granny flat modelled on an oversized suit at the back of a home in Los Angeles, with sliding doors that enable it to become a single open space.
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), commonly known as "granny flats", were enabled by a 2016 change in state law to tackle California's housing shortage, and the local studio wanted to challenge the expectation of these buildings as something deferential to a main house.
The SMS ADU was built behind a house in LA
The 72-square-metre building, which has been shortlisted in the small interior category of Dezeen Awards 2021, was designed to create a bright and breezy alternative to the client's dark and compartmentalised existing home.
The concept by Bunch Design drew on an unusual reference: the huge, oversized suit worn by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne in the 1984 movie Stop Making Sense. This lends the project its name of SMS ADU or Stop Making Sense Accessory Dwelling Unit. Bunch Design added sliding doors to separate areas inside the dwelling
For the structure, the wide shoulder pads of Byrne's suit that caused it to hang from his body become a series of oversized triangular rafters from which the rest of the home "hangs". These features are emphasised by clerestory windows that angle outwards like broad shoulders.
"Byrne comically and awkwardly creates an inflated body mass around his skinny body," said the studio.
"We did not want the ...