We knew from the start that we wanted to invert the traditional home configuration by moving the common areas on to the upper level and bedrooms to the ground level. Looking back this was a significant design feature which we should have included in our building program but we did discuss it at length with our architects in our kickoff meeting.

We've spent summers renting beach houses on Fire Island, a barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island, New York, and many of them had this inverted floor plan to preserve their views. Over the years, we've equated this design to the beach, vacation and relaxation and we wanted our house in Long Branch to have the same feeling.

The Fire Island Pines community is steeped with significant modernist architecture. An example of such a house with an inverted plan is the "tree house" on 529 Sail Walk from Horace Gifford.

Horace Grifford "tree house" [source: vipfireislandpines.com]

Beside getting the beach-vibe that we wanted, we didn't fully appreciate how this feature would benefit the overall design of the house for our specific site until we spent a little more time working through the design schematics.

Better Light and Views

It’s no surprise that the top floor has better views and more natural light than the lower floors especially in denser urban neighborhoods, but with a height limit of 30 feet in the City of Long Branch and our desire to raise the house as much as possible for resiliency, we're only able to take advantage of these benefits by using a modern home design.

Northwest View of Prior Approved Colonial Home	Northwest View of Our Modern Home

Under these site conditions, using a more traditional home design would result in the top floor being awkwardly tucked under a pitch roof and even with the occasional dormers, as in the prior owner's approved colonial design, it only allows for modest windows with limited usable floor space and restricted views and daylight. This upper floor would at best accommodate dimly lit bedrooms, odd shaped storage areas and a narrow staircase. In comparison, the clean lines and flat roofs of modernist buildings allow for maximum use of the square footage and for full height windows to capture the views and plentiful daylight on the top floor.  This makes the upper space the most desirable living space in terms of airiness, light, views and privacy, and as such, better suited for the common living areas where you spend the majority of the time.

Access to the Outdoors

For our property, although counter intuitive, placing the entertaining areas on the top floor actually creates a better connection to the outdoors and easier access to outdoor living. If we subtract out the footprint of the house, driveway, front yard setbacks, and privacy hedges, we're not left with much usable private outdoor space on the property. When all is said and done, we're lucky to have a 6 foot wide strip of grass in the back of the house where we could put lawn chairs but no decking or patio because that will further increase the lot coverage. Having the living and dining room on the upper level allows easy access to a gracious terrace and roof deck which more than doubles the amount of usable outdoor space.

Usable Private Outdoor Space

Warmer Days, Cooler Nights

Another benefit of this arrangement is that we like it a little cooler at night for sleeping relative to the daytime temperature. A passive house theoretically should maintain a pretty consistent temperature throughout the house, but hot air does rise so I would expect that it'll take less energy to keep the bedrooms cooler on the ground floor.

Given the site restrictions we were working with and the benefits previously mentioned, pushing the common areas up to the top of the house makes sense from an experience perspective but, as you can guess, this shift is not without it's drawbacks and has some lifestyle implications.

Hauling Groceries and Garbage

The first concern with a top floor common area that comes to mind is getting the groceries from the car to the kitchen and the reverse action of taking out the garbage and recycleables to the trash bins. Throw in a large Costco run, grabbing the mail on the way up, picking up packages left on the door step, and navigating a few flights of steps could feel like a segment out of an obstacle course from American Ninja Warrior. We thought about putting in an elevator or dumbwaiter but the costs, space limitations and passive house requirements made that impractical.

Age in Place

This leads us to a related concern which is the ability of the house to age in place. Planning ahead, we wanted the option to live in this house safely and comfortably for as long as we're able to regardless of our age. The ideal home for this would be a ranch with single floor living but we knew that wouldn't be possible with this property.  The stairs again are the primary concern here but we've configured it with a straight run so if necessary a chair lift could be easily installed. Personally, I'm hoping with advances in robotics and technology that wearable exoskeletons that the one in this article would be readily available and affordable when we need it.

Location of Private Space

With the public area upstairs, there is also the issue of the private areas being located closer to the entry of the house. To address this, our design designates a stair circulation column immediately to the right of the front entrance as you walking in so that visitors are directed conveniently and efficiently up the stairs to the top floor common area. Visual and spacial cues such as a double height entry foyer, higher ceilings in the common area and lower ceilings in the private areas also draws the guests' attention away from the bedrooms and up to the living room.

Inverting the public and private spaces of a house is an effective and inspiring solution to our challenging site conditions. Granted, the flipped plan isn’t for everyone, and it's not without it's drawbacks; for us, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.