Designing a New Orleans Shotgun - Part 1: Programming

I've always wanted to design a shotgun house, but I've never had a chance to pursue the opportunity. I still don't have the opportunity, but screw it - I'm going to design one anyway, and for fun I'll share the whole design process here.

If you're unfamiliar with what a Shotgun house is, it's unique to the New Orleans' area. It's a product of the narrow lots that the city was divided into, usually a standard of 30' x 120', but were often subdivided even narrower, some as thin as 10' wide. Basically, New Orleans housing is like a big trailer park, and Shotguns are the original trailer houses. The Crescent City was the home of the 'tiny house' movement before it was even a movement.

A certain number of styles developed, distinguishing the New Orleans' Shotgun house uniquely from other narrow lot shotguns, and are immediately recognizable as from New Orleans.

Photo by Francisco Anzola

The photo above is a great example of a 'typical' shotgun house. 3 full height openings, with heavy ornamentation and operable shutters, qoins on the side, coffered overhang, a double pitched canopy roof with an attic window, and the ridiculously narrow side yards. The only thing not New Orleans about this shotgun is that it's not painted in bright neon colors (the latest trend), and there's no Virgin Mary bathtub shrine in the front yard.

When I set out to design a shotgun, should I respect this heritage, or toss it out in favor of a 'modern' approach? Should I create an ego driven re-imagining of the New Orleans' identity, like the Make It Right program? Or should I attempt to mimic the existing architecture with modern materials and techniques?

There is no 'right' answer, unfortunately - but perhaps a 'correct' one can be reached. I both love and hate New Orleans, but I would rather focus on enhancing what I love about the city, rather than calling direct attention to a new residence with a sore-thumb approach, however 'beautiful' it may be, out of context. In this respect, what I design will 'fit in' within the existing architectural identity of the city, but I can certainly do so in new and interesting ways. However, this should be a the prime programming point:

1. Respect the Existing Architectural Identity of New Orleans

While it's tempting to play 'Starchitect' on any particular project - particularly on one that has no client, no budget, and no current path to reality - I believe the New Orleans' identity heralds a certain amount of respect. It's actually more of a challenge than it appears.

2. Design for Environmental Conditions

Next, we need to look at the site conditions and environment of New Orleans. It's hot and humid, 95% of the year. Termites don't just come from the ground - they swarm and will eat any wet wood. It rains, frequently and heavily.

The soil is total shit, and foundations usually need to be pile supported and designed against expansive conditions.

The city floods frequently - it's basically a big bowl with antiquated pumping technology and questionably built flood controls, with incompetent and corrupt management and maintenance practices. In other words, one shouldn't assume that the infrastructure will actually work when it's supposed to. With New Orleans - this is true on all levels of infrastructure - from flood control, to power & water supply, roads, mail, internet service, police protection.

Hurricanes hit the city occasionally, with high winds, heavy rains, and flooding. It's nice to be able to come home afterwards, so the house will need to be sturdy and protected.

3. Sustainable Design

Not in the current extremist religious/fashionista definition of the architectural term. I really hate the term 'sustainable', because it's (mostly) a marketing ploy to sell cheap materials at a premium and poorly conceived design ideas on the back of a purist ideology where leaches and parasites skim off the top to 'accredit' it. No, not this at all.

What I mean is built to last, with minimal, accessible, and inexpensive maintenance requirements. To take advantage of technology and conveniences to remove as much reliance on outside sources as possible (because they aren't reliable). To use time proven passive design techniques to avoid relying on high maintenance and energy intensive technology.

4. Incorporating Technological Advances

I love incorporating new technologies into design. I love the freedoms that they can bring: to design, in application, and of use. The problem is that many of them are expensive and untested, with too many unknown quantities, and they can introduce a high maintenance aspect for repair or replacement when they go bad, or wrong. I'll take that risk if the reward seems to outweigh the potential cost.

5. Universal Design

Getting older myself, I'll be using many Universal Design techniques to make sure the home is enjoyable for all ages, sizes, genders, lifestyles, insert endless stream of meaningless P.C. design buzzwords here

6. For Who? What's Inside?

For me, damnit. I want a place where I have a workshop for carpentry, a big kitchen and living area where I can cook for and feed lots of guests. I want a lot of outside area, so I can go outside and relax, smelling the rotting bags of crawfish shells and wafts of chemicals from upriver, but I don't want to interact too much with the neighbors, because they'll probably be as crazy as me.

I want my kids to be able to visit, along with extended family & friends when they want to hop to town. I want to be able to park my car (impossible), and I want the house to be secure against crime and drunkards (another tough one). So, it'll need a couple of bathrooms and bedrooms - whatever can be squeezed into the house. It'll have to be a 2-story shotgun, I think, for everything to fit.

Anyway, next post I'll start playing around with the front elevation.