House-in-a-House is a comprehensive interior reconstruction of a historic c.1900 Ann Arbor home, conceived as a new building carefully inserted within an existing shell. Rather than expanding outward, the project establishes clear interior boundaries from which new volumes emerge, preserving the home’s exterior character while fundamentally rethinking its spatial and environmental performance from the inside out.

Within the original envelope, the house is reorganized into three distinct yet interconnected volumes—live (spaces for entertaining and daily activities), restore (spaces for sleeping and relaxing), and perform (spaces for musical practice and performance). These volumes are stitched together visually and experientially, allowing for flow between them while maintaining the autonomy of each zone. 

At the center of this reorganization, a compact stair shaft becomes both connective tissue and environmental mediator. Tucked discreetly to the north side of the house, the stairwell draws daylight down through the darker north-facing interior, creating vertical continuity while allowing subtle audible communication between levels. By concentrating service spaces along this axis, such as utility rooms, storage, and laundry, the project frees the east, south, and west-facing volumes to remain open to the home’s existing fenestration—an essential strategy in a renovation where new openings were not permitted under historic regulations.

In House-in-a-House, light and sound are treated as primary design materials. New skylights introduce daylight deep into the interior, while floor plans arrange spaces to take advantage of existing apertures. As evening approaches, integrated LED lighting set into historic trim creates gentle and comfortable lighting paired with sconces, pendants, and task lighting. Acoustically, the house is constructed as a series of rooms within rooms. In the lower level, expanded and lowered to be used as a performance and practice space by a professional musician, the design employs double-stud walls, hat channels, and solid-core doors to establish acoustic isolation. Mineral wool insulation between all floors creates further separation between volumes, while multiple concrete slabs—integrated with radiant heating—serve as both thermal mass and acoustic barriers. 

Throughout the house, historic and contemporary elements are placed in deliberate adjacency. Original wood trim, doors, and windows were salvaged, restored, and reinstalled, now set alongside custom cherry cabinetry, modern casing profiles, and integrated LED up-lighting. Details such as a traditional picture rail reinterpreted as a lighting element, or the contrast between historic kitchen trim and modern millwork, reinforce this dialogue. The result is not a seamless blend, but a calibrated juxtaposition—one that allows each layer of the house’s evolution to remain legible, intentional, and composed.

The completed project transforms an aging structure into a high-performing, light-filled home that honors its past while enabling contemporary living. House-in-a-House is both preservation and reinvention: an old house built anew, volume by volume, from within.

This project was completed in collaboration with:

Kasey Vliet - Principal in Charge, Project Manager
Travis Williams - Design and Construction Management Support
Elpis Wong - Project Architect
Trevor Herman Hilker - Designer
Taylor Boes - Designer
George Crnkovich - Project Manager
Ron Cote - Lead Carpenter
Drew McDaniel - Lead Carpenter
Joel Masinde - Journeyperson Carpenter
Cody England - Journeyperson Carpenter
Benoit Lepottier - Apprentice Carpenter

Structural Consultant - SDI Structures

Construction Team: In Parallel Architects + Builders, LLC (general contracting, finished carpentry) Dexter Block, Ambient Construction, Mike Allen, Kuebler Furniture Works, Wolverine Moore Glass, Neighborhood Roofing, Livingston Gutter, Jetstream Mechanical, Kent Companies, Chelsea Plumbing, Del Zoppo Electric, Spink Insulation, Brunn Drywall, Richard Brothers Painting, Mark Walton, IronWoodStone Landscaping

Jane Messinger Photography - Finished Photography