While at Square Feet Studio, Holden worked closely with Kate and Andy Lee on a small addition to their home to accommodate their growing family and an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to house Andy’s professional photography studio. The house addition focused on creating a new dining room, achieved by enclosing an existing covered porch and constructing a flexible patio deck with integrated seating. Meanwhile, the placement of the 750-square-foot ADU was strategically positioned to frame the backyard, forming a courtyard ideal for both supervising playing children and entertaining guests. The walls of the house addition and ADU, when facing each other, are intentionally porous, with generous operable doors and windows allowing seamless flow from outside to inside of either building.

The shape of the ADU emerged from a play between the massing restrictions provided by the Atlanta Zoning Ordinance and the specific needs of the studio, where Andy, widely known for his food photography, would be shooting chef portraits and cookbooks. A simple rectangle with an assymetric roof gable, the interior spaces feature a double-height volume bathed in ambient northern light adjacent a photogenic kitchen nestled under an editing loft, from which views to the kids’ play area are provided via a single corner window. Clad in unfinished cypress, the exterior is left to to be marked by the passage of years and seasons in its ever-silvering patina.