For the uninitiated, it might not be obvious why a deaf person would need a special type of house. Think about this, though: How do you know when someone is at your door? How do you know that someone is calling you on the phone? How does your child in another room get your attention? How does your smoke detector let you know if there is a fire in the house? For deaf people, all of these signals must be conveyed visually, rather than aurally. A house that works for deaf people is one that is tailored for visual communication. Architect Robert Nichols, who is deaf, shows how it’s done in this whole-house remodel, which he designed for his own family.
The original house was a garden-variety ranch in a residential neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Nichols added a dramatic second-floor library and art studio with a bold, angular profile. Nichols’ plan left the existing first-floor bedrooms as they were, but swept out interior partitions to open unobstructed sightlines between the kitchen and the living and dining areas. To permit visual communication between floors, he replaced an existing closed stairway with a wide, open-riser stair with an open steel railing. Toward the same end, the second-floor library and a bridge from the library to the art studio enjoy complete visual access to the kitchen and living room. The art studio, though more private, has an interior window that opens—via a pivoting panel—to the kitchen below.
Nichols’ architecture office, which has its own entrance at the street side of the building, shares the lower level with a large playroom. The spaces are distinctly separate, in the interest of getting work done, but they share southerly views of the backyard and pool area. As at the upper levels, clear sightlines—within and between spaces, indoors and out—make it easy for a family that uses sign language to stay in touch. The house includes a full array of visual signaling devices, including a doorbell wired to flash selected interior light fixtures and text telephones that light up to signal incoming calls. But most important is what this house doesn’t do: It doesn’t put walls between two people who want to talk to each other.
Project Credits:
Builder: Renovations Unlimited, Washington, D.C.; Architect: Nichols Design Associates, Washington; Living space: 5,200 square feet; Site: .25 acre; Construction cost: $140 a square foot; Photographer: Hoachlander Davis Photography.
Resources:
Dishwasher/oven/refrigerator: KitchenAid; Exterior siding: Dryvit; Fireplace: Regency; Kitchen cabinets/trimwork: Tedd Wood Inc., Kitchen plumbing fixtures: Blanco and Franke; Patio doors/skylights/windows: Pozzi; Security system: Homesafe Security; Vent hood: Miele.
