“The American Foursquare is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian and other Revival styles popular throughout the last half of the 19th century, the American Foursquare was plain, often incorporating handcrafted "honest" woodwork (unless purchased from a mail-order catalog).

The hallmarks of the style include a basically square, boxy design, two-and-one-half stories high, usually with four large, boxy rooms to a floor, a center dormer, and a large front porch with wide stairs. The boxy shape provides a maximum amount of interior room space, to use a small city lot to best advantage. Other common features included a hipped roof, arched entries between common rooms, built-in cabinetry, and Craftsman-style woodwork.

A typical design would be as follows: first floor, from front to back, on one side, the living room and dining room; while on the other side, the entry room or foyer, stairway and kitchen. Sometimes a bathroom was also included. Second floor, front to back, on one side, bedroom, bathroom and bedroom; while on the other side, bedroom, stairway and bedroom. The bedrooms had a slightly longer dimension along the front and back of the house with side-by-side closets between the bedrooms. This gave a very efficient layout, with a bedroom in each corner and a centralized bathroom and stairway. The top floor was generally just a big open space with one to four dormers. The basement generally contained a large natural convection furnace or boiler.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Foursquare

The project adapts a traditional American Foursquare for the modern needs of a young family that accommodates growing family, connects the house to the outdoors, and is affordable and sustainable without constructing a new addition. Spaces in the house that do not function well or are of low value are “subtracted.” Service program is consolidated in a central core, creating a more functional space and increasing storage, and freeing up the exterior wall in order to create new windows and  increasing natural daylight levels.  

The structural systems of the house are maintained through these interventions allowing construction costs to be minimized. Each room now has a unique shape in contrast to the original house which featured disconnected, orthogonal rooms. Materials are used strategically to bring focus to the cores and denote circulation elements. The kitchen and dining room are combined into one space, doubling counter space and kitchen storage; and a new glass sliding wall opens to a back deck; the half bath is right sized and a mud room is added. In the living room a reading nook is added, new windows increase connection to the southern back yard, and a built in desk is added on the north wall. On the second floor, the existing half and full bathrooms are turned into a master bath and larger full bath, closet space is increased, and skylights are added to bring in more natural light. In the guest and kid’s bedroom storage and the beds are built into the wall so that the rooms can have more usable space during the daytime. A new wrap-around porch connects the exterior of the house, bringing clarity to the form of the house, providing space for outdoor enjoyment and entertainment, and shading the expansive glass windows from southern solar heat gain in summer months.