Shiland Street

The Shiland house is a collaborative design by five architects. The goal of this project was to build a small, unique, house on a less than desirable lot in the city limits and to make it affordable.

We found a building site in an old part of town that was 40' x 100' and was being use as a parking lot for the surrounding neighbors. It is fairly steep slope facing north with limited views. After meeting the setback requirements our structure could only be 24' wide. The solution is two and a half stories with the lower level being a tuck under garage, main level living space, and top level bedrooms. The neighborhood is primarily 100+ year old homes that are tall and narrow so our design fit well into its surroundings. We chose to do a solid concrete base around the entire house, even on the daylight side, to anchor it to the site. We accented the concrete with some horizontal relief bands. We used cement board siding in varied widths with a repetitive pattern. Corrugated galvanized metal was used on the porch roof and as siding on the top level as a modern architectural statement but also reminiscent of agricultural outbuildings we are all so familiar with here in Montana.

The interior spaces are small but inviting, cozy and full of charm. The big windows facing south off of the dining room allow for solar gain on the concrete floors and brighten up the whole house. The curved wall on the main floor draws you from one end of the house to the other and the coved lighting running the entire length of the curve provide a soft glow at night. The entire house is constructed using insulated structural panels. Six inches thick for walls and ten for the roof. Throughout the house old timber posts and beams, that were reclaimed from a demolished department of transportation building, found a new use as trusses, columns and headers. Prefinished bamboo flooring in the reading room and living room/kitchen area is separated by a poured in place concrete slab. The slab is 1 1/4" thick cast on top of wood decking. The slab is broken up into small squares and rectangles by 1 1/2" wide cherry wood strips fastened to the deck. The front door was salvaged from a store front in main street Bozeman. Sanded down, refinished and fitted with new insulated glass, it's over sized width (3'-4") makes a fine entrance. At the top of the stairs a whole house fan sits in the ceiling with a cupola above. The fan can be turned on with a switch to cool the house down on those hot august nights. Interior window in the upstairs bedrooms look down onto the main floor and allow south light in to the rooms. The result feels like the rooms have three exterior walls with windows in each. The master bedroom has a small deck that walks out over the living room below and has a trellis to provide shade from the western sun.