Just a quick update to this post.
The owner of the new Manhut has sent along a couple of photos of his now completed shed. This version of the manhut has a radiant heat floor. By all accounts, it remains warm and cozy despite the frigid temperatures we’ve been experiencing lately.

Its interesting to read the various comments he’s generating on Facebook. It seems that people cannot wrap their head around the concept of  an “office” in a shed. With some diligent detailing, this manhut is every bit as efficient as any addition to the main house would have been. The bonus in this case is that the owner can take it with him, should he ever need to relocate. The exterior finish is the hard wearing Hardie Panel in the standard dark grey. The seams are finished with a standard galvanized sheet metal. The panels are capped with a mill finish corrugated sheet metal. What I love about this version of the Manhut (as opposed to mine) is the way the landing is articulated as a cantilever.

The first commissioned backyard studio is now in progress. The client, a video artist, is moving from his rented studio to a space closer to home…more accurately his back yard.
The original backyard studio has been completed for several years now. After being picked up by TreeHugger there has been an intense amount of interest in the general concept of a “man space” and the specific execution of my own solution. The “manhut” (a term coined by this designer’s wife…also a designer) was developed as a necessary addition to our limited urban residence. With the introduction of my daughter, any usable home office arrangement was pretty much abandoned. The startup phase of my business precluded the possibility of renting office space. Additionally, my protestant work ethic was nagging me to actually address the lack of domestic space with some type of creative solution. That same startup condition excluded any possibility for financing a reasonable addition to the existing house. After considering the absolutely bare minimum program for a work space, I soon realized that the bulk of my metier takes place in much less than 100 sq. ft. The modern design agency is a largely digital endeavor. For a one man operation, the accommodation of a large monitor, a simple computer and a reasonable task chair are the only real requirements. Adding 100 sq. ft to a house is a bit silly. Gazing at my largely vacant rear yard, it soon dawned on me that a simple garden shed is all that is really required. The obvious precedents of Steve Jobs starting Apple out of a garage and more classically, Thoreau’s cabin in the woods; set the plan in motion. An interesting loophole in the zoning bylaw; any project less that 100 sq.ft is not subject to a building permit application was the icing on the cake. (more…)