Screening keeps pests out of these diverse porches across the U.S., while thoughtful designs keep them visually appealing.
Enter screened-in porches. These examples how the diversity of designs as well as how they relate to the rest of their respective houses. Given that screened-in porches are ideal as additions, this latter aspect is particularly important, both architecturally and in terms of how the spaces flow from inside to screened-in exterior.
This house in Mazama, Washington, is accessed by a footbridge just visible at left. Balance Associates Architects placed indoor-outdoor spaces at either end of the house; you can see one in the foreground adjacent to a catwalk that heads into the woods.
The screened-in porch is on the left here, removed from the more public front and driveway.
The previous two designs could be seen as additive, meaning each porch is an extension of the rest of the house’s form. In this house, byFurman + Keil Architects, the screened-in porch is subtractive, since it sits under the roof it shares with the living spaces to the right and beyond.
To see it as subtractive, think of the plan as a rectangle and the porch as occupying one quadrant of it, instead of projecting beyond it on the end.
This house in Minnesota, designed by Yunker Associates Architecture, has one of the more daring screened-in porches. It projects from the main house and is propped up on stilts — what looks like two tree trunks.
What about strictly modern houses? Can screened-in porches work with them? Well, the front porch of Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House was screened in at one point. While Mies did not originally want the screens, they were built per his design, so they work well with the steel and glass house.
This house, by Steinbomer, Bramwell & Vrazel Architects, isn’t as orthodox in its modernity as the Farnsworth House, but it does beg the question of how to create a porch with such flat surfaces.
But in many cases the best way to design a screened-in porch for a modern box is to design it as a box itself. Such is the case with this ecofriendly vacation home in Illinois.
Here is a porch and rooftop deck addition. Hatch + Ulland Owen Architects departed from the yellow stucco with dark painted wood and a strongly horizontal design.
Of course, given the land and the desire, a separate screened-in building may even be in order. Sala Architects designed this structure, called the Loon’s Nest, for a family who wanted a refuge from the rain and bugs in addition to their nearby cabin.
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