A+M Guesthouse & Music Studio

private, Sardis MS United States

Building Area (sf): 1,235 sf

Completion: May 2023

Architect of Record:

archimania

• Owner/Client:
• General Contractor: Harold Murphy Builder
• Electrical: Fowler Engineering, LLC - structural
• Engineering:
  
• Other:
  
• Photography:
  firm
  

The project program is spare but intentional. A space for living and entertaining; making and recording music; and sleeping and hosting guests.

Several years ago, the firm designed a straight-forward and intentional retirement home for a couple in rural Mississippi. Building on that project and its intentionality, the design team crafted a similarly contemporary, yet rugged, guesthouse and recording studio for this client. Sited in a cattle pasture in rural Mississippi, this guesthouse is a space for writing, recording and entertaining.

Appreciating the simple agrarian structures of the region, the pool house is simple and clean, yet tough and durable. The linear bar forms the primary body of the house, to match the same language as the main house, with its proportions intentionally exaggerated to create a long line when viewed from a distance. However, contrasting the bright, galvalume structure adjacent to it, this guesthouse expresses itself with bronze metal panels and two scales of corrugation and staining seam. The simple form of the gable speaks to the agrarian and utilitarian architectural context, while reimagining its form with a void over the main entry that creates a second-floor balcony.

The linear organization of the interior spaces allows the inhabitants to maintain a visual connection to the pastoral landscape from any room in the house, aided by large full height windows throughout. Clad in bronze metal, the house creates a contrast with the bright galvalume cladding of the main house. There are two porches for enjoying the landscape, one above the main entry accessed by a spiral staircase, and one screened porch on the rear of the guesthouse.