Page 70 - ArchDC_Winter2017

ArchDC Winter 2017.qxp_Fall 2017 11/17/17 5:55 PM Page 68

Interior before renovation.
Courtesy of KUBE
Architecture

Staircase with screen. Photo © Paul Burk Photography

Kitchen of Mi Casita. Photo © Paul Burk Photography

Washingtonian Award elements with clean lines and bright colors that are
traditional to Puerto Rico.
Mi Casita Light-colored surfaces on the lower level convert the
Washington, DC space into a white box that maximizes available light and
acts as a backdrop for the newly inserted design elements.
KUBE Architecture A wooden screen in front of the open-riser stair, called a
mampara, helps to define the living area without completely
Steel Fabricators: Metal Specialties
closing it off from the open volume of the stairwell.
General Contractor: Metrix Construction
Although intended to evoke memories of Puerto
Rico, the newly inserted elements, with their black linear
While the Kalorama Row House project preserves
elements and colored volumes against a white background,
reminders of that residence’s own history, the project
are also reminiscent of the Dutch De Stijl movement, whose
known as Mi Casita is designed to evoke memories of
founding 100 years ago is being celebrated this year in
another place—Puerto Rico, where the client grew up.
The Netherlands and elsewhere.
Spanish for “My Little House” or “My Cottage,”
Mi Casita was previously covered in the Winter 2015
Mi Casita is a two-story row house near Lincoln Park in
issue of ARCHITECTUREDC. Following the hurricanes that
Washington’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The owner asked
devastated Puerto Rico this past summer, the memories
KUBE Architecture to design an interior renovation that
evoked by the design might now be more bittersweet—but
would be reminiscent of her island home. The design for
perhaps for the same reason, also more highly treasured.
the project, developed by Richard Loosle, a firm principal,
As Puerto Rico recovers from that disaster, hopefully
removed interior walls, installed generous rear windows
sooner rather than later, the context for those memories
and an enlarged skylight to bring in more daylight, and
may again be modified.
inserted an economical package of new interior design
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