The Contemporary Guesthouse: Building in the Garden

by Susanna Sirefman

The recent trend of building a guesthouse or guest cottage on one's property offers the perfect solution to the houseguest dichotomy. After all, everyone enjoys entertaining visitors yet sharing one's own space with houseguests can be rather trying. The erection of a new self-contained building - designed just for company - accommodates everyone while maintaining privacy. Many of these innovative contemporary guesthouses are architectural gems. The small scale, limited program, and intimate nature of the guesthouse offers a rich testing ground for the architect and client. In particular, issues of domestic privacy and proximity offer a design challenge.
This book illustrates and critically describes contemporary private guesthouses from around the globe. Included projects - chosen from an international roster of contemporary architects - are presented within the context of the architect/client design process, so that the role the existing house, the guesthouse program, and the site play in the creation of the work are clear.

Hardcover

First published May 1, 2005