The Z-house is located in a suburban setting in Cary, North Carolina. The design for this house takes cues from the bungalow houses and other humble traditional single-family building parameters of the neighborhood. This residence scheme was strongly impacted by two elements: the site’s setbacks and the owners’ life-style.

The owners required two separate living suites designed as a single-family typology.  Both suites had to have their own independent kitchen, dining area, bedrooms, and bathrooms. As a solution, we separated these areas into two house wings and interconnected them by a common area which covers the main entry to the house and the living room area. The site, a very narrow and acute angular area, pushed the program to respond as a “Z” scheme.

 The program includes 2,000 SF of heated area. The user accesses the house through the Main Living Area. This zone has a vestibule, living room and a half bathroom. Both North and South Wings of the house contain a kitchen, dining area, laundry closet, bedroom, and its own bathrooms. There is a two-car carport area that houses the vehicles, utility closet and mechanical closet for the house.