This home, is situated on the edge of a forest preserve. John Ronan explores the relationship between site, material and program in a domestic environment. The site, urban on one side, falling away into a forest preserve on the other, yields a building of two characters: a low, more private “urban” façade in the front gives way to an all-glass two-story wall in the rear.

This house for a family of five explores spatial gradation from communal to private, in an urban domestic condition: children’s bedrooms on the third floor lead to a collective play space for the three children, which is connected to the communal family spaces on the ground floor via a stair, skylight and aluminum screen.



The skylight serves to bring light into the center of the home; the screen acts simultaneously as guardrail and light filter.