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Location: Sonoma, California
Project size: 1,200 square feet

Program: Dilapidated farm structures—legally protected from outright demolition—dot rural Sonoma County. In a state of constant decay, “these relics have their own strange elegance,” says architect Neal Schwartz, founder of San Francisco–based studio S^A. “Once steeply sloped roofs now droop and peel apart, allowing in unexpected streams of light and revealing internal framing.” Taking cues from these low-slung buildings, S^A has designed a compact accessory dwelling unit in the heart of California wine country.

Design Solution: The clients commissioned this 1,200-square-foot ADU for a 6-acre site with a large house and several smaller outbuildings already on it. Given the context, looking to the region’s agricultural vernacular as a jumping-off point seemed an obvious choice to the architects. Relative to the property’s existing structures, S^A lowered the roofline of the ADU and tucked it into a grove of trees, lessening its visual impact on the landscape. From a nearby road, the unit appears relatively conventional—but, from other angles, the roof and its flared eaves offer up a lighter and more pavilion-like character.

Photo © Bruce Damonte

An overhang, built of exposed timbers, announces the ADU’s entrance, which leads to a vestibule. Running perpendicular to the axis of entry, a long, linear skylight cleaves the interior space in two and introduces ample natural light. The ADU is neither an unconsidered “modern farmhouse,” a stylistic trope that has proliferated throughout Sonoma County in recent years, nor does it directly emulate the ruins of a barn. “We hope it feels alive—complete, but always in process,” Schwartz adds.

Additional Information
Completion date: June 2022
Site size: 6 acres
Total construction cost: Withheld
Client/Owner: Withheld

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Photos © Bruce Damonte

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Images courtesy S^A|Schwartz and Architecture, click to enlarge