When homeowners in Savannah, Georgia needed some additional space to add an office to their home, they knew they couldn’t alter their historic house. Rather than renovating their home to add a room, they called ASUL to create a one-of-a-kind modular backyard addition.

This 320 square foot structure sits in an otherwise-unused corner of the couple’s yard. It’s composed of a 16′ X 20′ interior and an 8′ X 20′ cantilevered, covered deck.

Huge glazed windows on the north and south sides let in plenty of natural light to create a work environment that is at once stimulating and comfortable.

The little structure’s arrangement on stilts makes it cute, but the higher elevation wasn’t a conscious design choice. When conducting a feasibility study for the structure, ASUL found that the yard was within a FEMA-regulated flood zone.

Thanks to the modular nature of ASUL’s structures, they were easily able to elevate the small home office. The elevation works well for the structure, giving it a fun, backyard-fort type feeling. It’s in keeping with the rest of the firm’s work, which is all focused on simple shapes and waste-saving manufacturing processes.

“To allow ASUL homes to be built anywhere, they must be custom engineered based on the design, location, and site. ASUL’s internal engineer sizes the steel members to the minimum requirements while making certain the calculations are sufficient. This means that the structure of the home is the most efficient and economical design possible.”

“Another advantage of the site-built process adopted by ASUL, is the reduction of material redundancies of the factory-built process. When modules are built in a factory and transported to the site, they must be structurally sound to meet the demands of transportation and craning into place. Once connected, there is significant material redundancy that is avoided by a more efficient structure. This is not only cheaper, but it is environmentally respectful.”