In the early 1980s, a fresh approach to urban design swept the US. Called the New Urbanism, the philosophy advocated for communities that deprioritised cars and instead promoted walking, public transport and better access to civic services. Despite the benefits, the New Urbanism movement has gained a bad rap for adhering to somewhat superficial, traditional architectural styles. Take the Florida Panhandle community of Seaside, with its pastel façades, breezy porches, widow’s walks – and stringent homeowner’s association (HOA) rules.
When tasked with designing a home for her mum in nearby Santa Rosa Beach, architect Jennifer Bonner sought to rebel against convention. Through her award-winning firm MALL (short for Mass Architectural Loopty Loops or Maximum Arches with Limited Liability), Bonner often looks to challenge the orthodoxy of architectural tropes, especially in her native Southeastern United States. Imagining a home for her mother was a chance to revolt within the limitations of the HOA guidelines, which included a strict material palette and a requirement that homes have symmetrical street-facing façades and porches.
‘The architect in charge of the committee went so far as to hand me a sketch declaring “this is the only design we will accept”, Bonner recalls. ‘From that point forward, we placed all of our creative efforts toward the roofline and geometries on the sides of the house.’
Bonner’s mum, Kate, had one simple request: an exterior porch adjacent to her bedroom. ‘In a way, that exterior self-shaded space became the very heart of the project,' the architect says.
From the street, the two-storey, four-bedroom home follows the rules – to a degree. The architect responded to the porch and symmetry requirement by introducing two false fronts. One of these verandas is too narrow for residents to put chairs on and lounge, but is wide enough to serve as an entryway. From other angles, the home appears as two slightly offset gabled volumes.
When presented with the ‘traditional’ material palette required by the local architectural review committee, Bonner ‘hacked’ them. Corrugated metal, typically applied on roofs, for instance, was also used on the façade. But the biggest move comes from daring curvilinear eaves that drape over the façade like an asymmetrical haircut. Their undersides are painted in a soft shade of pink that evokes Florida sunsets. One shades Bonner's mum’s personal porch.
The house, though inspired by the silhouettes of dunes and the colour of the sky, has a fun-loving, cartoonish character. But Bonner wouldn’t have it any other way: ‘Cuteness shrinks the gap between object and person, through a sort of emoting,’ she says. ‘Cuteness is also a form of rebellion, where softness pushes back against hardness and humour distracts from restrictions.’
The approach carries across to the interiors, designed with designer Carol Mockbee, daughter of Samuel Mockbee, one of Bonner’s professors at the acclaimed programme Rural Studio. ‘I recently saw a shirt by a Detroit-based fashion label, Engineered by Dré, with big block letters reading ‘I only want to work with friends’, Bonner says. ‘Beyond friends, as designers from the South, there is a natural alliance between our two practices around ordinary materials.’
Mockbee calls her approach ‘subiconic’, a philosophy that focuses on authentic, intellectually integral and restrained interventions that might not be so obvious upon first encounter. She sought to channel the formal qualities of the home’s exterior in carefully placed interior build-outs and custom furnishings.
For instance, Mockbee introduced curved-edge white-oak accent walls as a nod to the roof’s curved articulations. Flat, graphic semi-circular forms also crop up as decorative elements: a bright indigo-blue, spherical headboard evoking the sunrise for example. Textural transitions and tonal shifts in the different collaged-together finishes were also carefully calibrated to evoke place. Terrazzo expresses the materiality of the nearby beach and ombré painted walls reflect the sky over its Gulf of Mexico waters.
‘The colours and patterns didn’t come from trying to force some concept onto the house. They came from actually being here and paying attention to what was there,’ Mockbee says. ‘Texture is what makes it all feel so real’ – more real than, say, neoclassical flourishes and white picket fences.