Saturday, April 19, 2014

Awesome Re-Purposed Quonset Huts!

Adaptive re-use architectural projects have come into their own in recent years, but they are by no means new. People have been adapting existing spaces to their own purposes since cave dwelling days.
Green building trends have brought adaptive re-use to the forefront of design, and made it hip, trendy, and even mainstream. One favorite building for adaptive re-use is the humble WWII era Quonset hut.

(This post is participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Q is for Quonset. See the link in the sidebar.)

The Quonset hut was seen as an answer to the post WWII housing crunch. This old Popular Science cover illustrates how Quonset huts could be adapted to fill the housing gap.


One old Quonset hut, that had previously been adapted to use as a home, has recently been given a contemporary remodel, as shown below.


You can see from the "before" picture below that the home has undergone a dramatic change!


This view into the library from the kitchen shows the original bones of the Quonset hut structure, as well as a new addition.


The dining room manages to have a traditional vibe while staying true to it's original architecture.


This WWII Quonset hut was preserved as part of a mixed-use development in Santa Monica. The patina of the exterior of the building was preserved, while the interior was completely remodeled.

Killefer Flammang Architects

The architect owners of this made-over Quonset hut used corrugated metal in their kitchen to reference the exterior of their home.


Quonset huts were adapted to lots of different uses, including restaurants, churches, dry cleaners, studios, primary residences and vacation homes.


Architect Darwin McCredie rescued a dilapidated old Quonset hut in Ojai and turned it into a bright spacious abode.

What do you think about adaptive re-use projects? Could a made over Quonset hut be your next dream home?