Welcome to How They Did It. Here we take a closer look at a particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the details of how it became a reality.

Architect Wakako Tokunaga was already a seasoned renovator in 2020 when the pandemic hit. In 2016, she renovated her single-story 1950s brick home in Tacoma Park, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. She enlarged it to accommodate her growing family of five and their daily needs by adding a second story. So when she needed to adapt her way of working to what she describes as “the rapid changes the world faced in 2020,” she decided to design and build an addition to the back of the property rather than sign an expensive and lengthy commercial lease.

Wakako, who founded her architecture firm WAK TOK architects in 2007, carefully determined the size of the studio based on the dimensions of the neighboring house, and wanted to avoid blocking the sun on her property or obstructing the view. She also considered the relationship of her studio to the garden, which is filled with native plants that she and her family had personally planted. She sought the right balance that would allow her team to work together while leaving plenty of green space and seclusion in the garden.

A key element of the studio was its ability to open to the outdoors, making it feel more expansive and larger than its 350 square meters. Wakako wanted to create “a space that opens completely, like an open-air pavilion, and connects seamlessly to the terrace and garden.”

Two of the studio’s four sides open to the garden with sliding doors on tracks. Being able to open the doors creates what Wakako describes as an “extended outdoor space,” an oasis that allows for indoor-outdoor living—while still being close to her children, who have been in school via Zoom. The studio’s other two walls are solid and solid: The back wall is the house’s original exterior facade, and the other wall runs parallel to the neighboring property and adjacent fence. The original exterior brick wall was exposed and painted a dark gray shade with milk paint, which “makes the new space feel more like an extension of the exterior facade,” Wakako says.

The other solid wall serves as a storage and work space and is completely clad in plywood on the inside. Like the rest of the extension, the wall is made up of a 1.20m wide module to accommodate plywood panels. The module is repeated across the entire wall and is only interrupted where it meets the original exterior wall, where it leads to a sink under a window.

To accommodate the many books, material samples and artwork Wakako wanted to display, she transformed the plywood wall into a wall of shelves with an integrated desk. A rail system with movable brackets was attached to the 4-foot module of plywood panels, the flexibility of which allows her to move and rearrange the shelves as needed. At the lowest level, at waist height, a deeper shelf creates a long work area that provides space for other members of her team or, during the pandemic, her children at school nearby.

This is how they did it: Individual modular shelves

• A 4-foot grid was used throughout the structure to work with plywood panels and multiple sliding door dimensions, maximizing efficiency and minimizing material waste.

• Natural and non-toxic materials were used, both to protect the health of the space and to reduce harmful waste. Sustainably sourced pine paneling, plywood and concrete were used on walls, ceilings and floors, along with natural pine tar, hemp oil and milk paint finishes.

• The deck is made from fast-growing local black locust, which is naturally rot and insect resistant. The outer shell is insulated well beyond the required insulation to increase thermal comfort and reduce energy consumption.

• The shelves followed the same 4-foot grid as the rest of the room’s construction.

• The aluminum profile rails for the shelving wall are embedded in the plywood wall and hold the support modules, which can be moved up and down on the rails as needed. The plywood shelves are placed on these supports and can be easily removed, added or adjusted.

• The minimalist design required virtually everything to be concealed, including light switches, electrical outlets, mechanical grilles, smoke detectors, curtain tracks and insect screens, etc., which required a higher level of precision, advance planning and attention to detail. What seems simple is harder to build – so Wakako chose her construction team carefully.

Today, the studio continues to be used in a multifunctional and dynamic way. Although her children are back in school, the space is still used daily as an architecture studio, hosting team and client meetings, as well as occasional community and social gatherings – and, she notes, perhaps even a future community art space!