Winter room, summer room … it's useful all year

Sunset, Feb, 1988

Winter room, summer room . . . it's useful all year

Tucked into the southwest corner of an older house, this bright new room is as useful in July as it is in the dead of winter.

Designed for Jannie and David Spain by Seattle architect Greg Oaksen, it functions as a pleasant midpoint between house and garden in warm weather. In cool weather and drizzles, it's a spot to "take the air without the rain.' French doors open to the garden and to both kitchen and dining room, letting breezes stir stuffy air inside the house.

Complementing the architecture of the 1914 house, the 9- by 13-foot, 1 1/2-story solarium also incorporates a second-story master bedroom deck. Covered floor-level vents inside the addition and in the deck wall (small photo at left) can be opened to let cool outside air flow up through the addition and push out accumulated heat.

An existing brick patio set on a concrete pad forms the base for the addition. The patio was 8 inches below the house's floor level, but the owners chose to keep the drop to give the space a sense of definition and emphasize the transition. The brick floor holds and slowly releases solar heat; doors to the adjacent kitchen or dining room can be opened to draw that heat into the rest of the house.

Wide wooden steps lead to the garden on both exposed sides. Food and drink can be served buffet-style in the addition--away from wind and most insects.

Photo: Glazed shed roof merges with railing wall of roof deck (right). On deck (above), covered vents open to draw cooling draft up through openings at addition's floor level

Photo: A transition between house and garden, double-glazed addition was built atop brick patio off kitchen and dining room