A Mourning Dovecote / Schwartz and Architecture

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A traditional country 'dovecote' houses pigeons or doves, sometimes freestanding but often built into the ends of houses or barns. The architect researched the most advantageous height, orientation, proportion, and ventilation to encourage nesting doves –a process that informed both the shape of the exterior and interior space. The work also serves as a response to the proliferation of the 'modern farmhouse' style for new wine country homes –structures with the veneer of traditional farm buildings yet often out of scale with their surroundings, ill-sited, and ill-considered.Although hidden from the interior, twelve nesting boxes built into the angled exterior façade encourage the bird's co-habitation of the space as in traditional dovecote structures. A lower bird-watching window focuses on the doves as they ground-feed and serves as a convenient viewing spot for the owner's two Spinone Italiani bird-dogs.The roof 'feathers' are laser cut from sheet metal, carefully nested to ensure minimal waste in fabrication. Similarly, the offcuts from the cedar siding are used to create the laminated entry bridge to the dovecote studio space. The project can operate entirely off-grid with on-site renewable energy generation. As such, it can become an area of refuge in times of increasing environmental instability, such as wildfires and floodings. The solar array installed as part of this project scope produces enough energy to offset 100% of the annual fossil fuel use for the entire property.This highly personal and customized project became a site for exploration and play. The owner/architect followed every intuition about details that might contribute to the bespoke space, hoping to stay just this side of 'too-much.' What unites the disparate details of this addition is a sense of movement, craft, nature, and serenity.On a sustainability aspect, the project considers its impact on the whole surrounding ecosystem as well as its energy consumption very early on in the design process. Preservation of existing landscape, taking advantage of natural resources such as natural daylight and storm water are efficiently utilized throughout the project. Computational modeling and analysis were conducted to understand the quality and levels of natural light throughout the day and year, deciding the site, orientation, overhangs, openings, and programming of the structure. More conventionally, the project includes sustainable materials such as cork flooring, radiant heating, and solar panels.Text description provided by the architects.This 390 sq ft studio addition onto the owner/architect's existing home inSonoma, California, takes inspiration from the site's abundant pairs of Mourning Doves. The Mourning Dove, one of the most widespread of all North American birds suffering the impact of habitat loss, is typically monogamous yet is a prolific breeder, raising up to six broods a year. Both sexes take turns incubating –the male from morning to afternoon and the female the rest of the day and night. Appreciation of these qualities and the dove's historical associations with peace and calm made the idea of cohabitation with them a critical leitmotif –one made even more potent in a global pandemic.