Flute House // The Think Shop Architects

913, South Main Street, Royal Oak, MI, United States

Project Status: Built

Year: 2012

Text description provided by the architects.

Finding relevance in the eclectic crowds of downtown Royal Oak is not an easy task for a boutique commercial/residential space. The design intent is twofold: create an exciting space for display and sale of flutes while also creating a contemporary residential loft for living and entertaining guests.

Located just south of downtown in Royal Oak, Mich., the Flute House makes no subtle statement for its owners.

The challenge of combining the adaptive reuse of an auto mechanics garage and a new residential addition resulted in a formal language that the Flute House embodies, transcending local tendencies and asks questions about materiality and construction. The addition sits perched above an existing structure that the client uses to house their sheet music business and retail flute sales.

Standing 18 inches proud of the existing structure, the residential component seeks the expansion of prefabricated construction techniques as they relate to the growing digital platform in a design and fabrication process. Structurally insulated panel systems, precast concrete planking, and steel are intended to provide a more efficient method of construction.Ultimately the entire confab is covered in a monolithic skin of red polyuria.