
Personal Habitat
Spring 2024, Compositional Studies in Architecture with Steven Dwyer









With a limited size and a directive to create a personal space with a specific purpose, I designed this small home meant for musical performance. Placed on the coast of Camano Island, a location with personal significance to me, the approach to the habitat bridges the steep topography to the entrance on the second floor. Up a small staircase is the bed loft surrounded by windows. The entry balcony looks out over the first floor, and out of the skylights. Down the stairs to the main floor, a piano is the focal point of the living space. A small kitchen and breakfast nook are nestled in the back of the main floor. The main intention of this personal habitat is to make a creative space for making music and art, but secondary considerations of daylighting, functionality, and unified aesthetic are also very present in the form. I found inspiration from studying Bauhaus and De Stijl designs, as well as tiny homes. The design process began with iterative modeling to determine the general form, and then continued into digital modeling and rendering, with the occasional return to hand sketching to work out the details.