This $25K Kit-of-Parts Backyard Office Promises More Space in a Snap
Nick and Tecia needed more room. In April of 2022, Tecia was a full-time student studying clinical social work, while Nick was working as an auditor from their property in Paso Robles, California, four days a week. On top of it all, two of their three children were being homeschooled. Finding privacy could feel like a tall order.
The ethos behind Rööm stems from designer Timon Phillips’s three years of solo backpacking through Europe and Asia. "I always liked to make a little sanctuary space where I could recharge. But you can’t be acquiring a bunch of things. When it was time to go, I could take it apart and then pack it together and drop it into the next place," he says. "I like things that can come apart and be put together again, but in a fun way, right?"
When Tecia began her internship, she started making post-grad plans to develop a therapy practice, which, to comply with laws surrounding patient privacy, would call for a space outside their home. So she and Nick started looking at stand-alone units to add to their property for telehealth sessions. "We started by looking at your standard prefab shed without a finished interior or anything like that," says Nick. "We found a couple that we kind of liked, but then we started asking about pricing and it was just too expensive for what we felt like we were getting."
It takes a team of two to three people and one- to two-week’s time to assemble a Rööm.
The couple were searching Craigslist for something better when they encountered a rendering of a small ADU with a "Japandi" aesthetic. A phone call led to a site visit with the advertising architect, Timon Phillips, and soon after the couple became the first owners of his ADU design, known as Rööm. "After we met Timon, it didn’t take more than five or ten minutes for my wife to be like, ‘Yeah, let's do it,’" recounts Nick.
Phillip’s unit is inspired by the clever use of small spaces and the wood application found in Finnish design and the the simplicity, craftsmanship, and clean lines rooted in Japanese joinery.
The unit Nick and Tecia purchased is the first product from Phillips’s company, Hut Design + Build, founded in San Luis Obispo in 2017. According to Phillips, it’s a modular timber system that allows owners to create a customizable ADU that can expand, shrink, or be relocated as needed.
In its most pared-down version, Rööm is a nine-by-nine-foot timber frame sizable enough to accommodate a simple office setup with a desk and chair. It can be expanded in four- or eight-foot sections, so owners can build at their respective pace and budget. "It’s kind of like adult Legos," says Nick. Hut’s baseline model costs $25,000, which includes windows, a door, electrical outlets, lighting, and the ground screw foundation piers. Nick and Tecia’s model, which is nine-by-thirteen-feet with a four-foot porch, retails for $35,000.
Each of the three operable windows in Nick and Tecia’s Rööm measures four-by-four feet.
The company works with owners to orient their unit, select the number of windows, and pick a door system. Owners can add personality by selecting materials for the interchangeable wall and floor grid panels. For their new space, Nick and Tecia chose a Cor-Ten steel facade, plywood walls, generous steel-framed windows, and hardwood floors. The facade’s Cor-Ten panels are "pulled off" the structure to enhance ventilation to the unit’s timber frame, which is critical in Paso Robles, where moisture can build up and temperatures regularly reach more than 100 degrees in the summer. The three large windows open for a breeze. The roof is durable and low maintenance in galvanized metal.
Rööm is designed as a kit of parts that is carefully labeled for assembly, future expansions, and potential relocations.
For Nick and Tecia, through discussions with Phillips about their needs, what started as an 81-square-foot plan became 117 square feet with a porch and an expanded interior to accommodate Tecia’s yoga practice, which she incorporates into therapy sessions. When she isn’t working, she’ll sometimes use the space as a classroom for her kids.
The structure is anchored using ground screws—which enhances its scalability and mobility—a method that’s more common in cold, European countries. Nick, a long-time Californian, appreciates that the screws, unlike a concrete slab foundation, won’t crack in the event of an earthquake.
Hut’s standard Rööm model incorporates hemp and wood fiber insulation, and timber harvested from areas ravaged by wildfires. A ground screw foundation, a popular option in Europe, is meant to make it easier to move the structure, if needed. "What sustainability means to me is what’s left behind," Phillips explains.
The "Japandi" aesthetic that initially caught Nick and Tecia’s eye stems from Phillip’s travels, education, and work experience. He spent a portion of his architecture studies at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland. Later in his career he worked for five years at East Wind (Higashi Kaze) Inc., a California design/build firm specializing in traditional Japanese timber-frame residences.
If a Rööm owner is moving and wants to take it with them, the company offers a relocation service, although Phillips says disassembling and assembling the structure is simple enough that handy owners can do it themselves. For now, Nick and Tecia are staying put. If or when they need more space, all they have to do is add another Rööm.
Published
Last Updated
Stay up to Date on the Latest in Prefab Homes
From cozy cottages to large family houses, see how prefab continues to redefine the future of construction, building, and design.