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The gate is part of a second-floor bedroom extension and leads to the top of the tree. The mesh covering on the window next to the hanging egg chair has become a habitat for birds.
Photo: Michael Moran
In 2010, Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem purchased a Carroll Gardens two-family home built in the 1930s. They live in a two-story duplex on the ground floor and rent out the third floor. But the architect couple, who co-founded the firm MODU in 2012 and which won the Rome Prize in 2017, had always wanted to extend the house. The question is how they will do this.
“This project has been in our studio for a while,” Hoang admits. It took them several years to come up with a plan to create more space through zoning logistics, until the solution materialized in what they called “Mini Tower One,” an addition slightly taller than the original building. Architecture, like a building that extends to the back. Stylish backpack.
“This whole idea started during COVID,” Rotem said as we stood in the living room where the back wall of the house once stood. The idea was to create an extension that would enlarge each floor of the building while enabling an indoor-outdoor experience. “It’s a birch tree,” Huang points out later, “and you can see it in relation to some of the windows—the branches are about five to ten feet away—and the idea is that each level has a different relationship to the tree. experience of.”
Large glass doors that serve as an extension next to the second-floor bedroom fold back to allow the room to be fully opened (the floors and furniture are weatherproof).
Downstairs, next to the living room, is another open room; when used as a guest room, the curtains can be drawn. Mirrors are used cleverly within the space. “We’re trying to mark the new with the old and balance the light inside,” Hoang said.
It gives the feeling of being in a very elegant treehouse. The birds love it too.
The rear extension is covered with mesh and perforated metal panels. It is located behind and one level above the original building.
Photo: Michael Moran
An outdoor teak table serves as a desk.
Photo: Michael Moran
This space off the living room on the first floor doubles as a guest room.
Photo: Michael Moran
“This is an experiment,” Phu Hoang said as we looked down at a tree growing out of the cement floor at the base of the spiral staircase. “The idea was to try and develop things on a lower level. That was a pit that was cast into the slab, a pit that went into the soil. Hopefully the tree would survive, but the idea was that we could turn it into a Great space.”
Photo: Michael Moran
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