The Ancillary Unit: Horizontally Separated Types

New Urban News Technical Page by Andres Duany, Michael Morrissey, and Patrick Pinnell

The previous Technical Page discussed the garage with respect to its use as parking, while arguing that its full potential lay as the principal domestic multi-use space. This consideration is not complete without exploration of the other auxiliary living or working spaces that a modern house may include. For the 21st Century, every dwelling, after all, will be to a lesser or greater extent a live-work unit.

Variously configured appendages and secondary buildings can enormously augment the flexibility, economics and durability of the main house. The house, loosely freestanding on its lot, is unique among residential building types for possible variety of configurations. This potential flexibility is underexploited, as in American practice it is almost always reduced by the mindless application of conventional setbacks. When liberated from such setback constraints, and bearing certain historic models in mind, the house can be returned to its social and functional apogee — which occurred in the 18th Century — as a compound flexibly accommodating a multi-generational family's evolution.