The ProHousing Project

Scenario Two
The Garage House

Remember the old garage house? The garage house was popular as a secondary residence earlier this century, especially in urban areas of small lot size. They make a lot of sense even today where they can provide a small income for the home owner and a modest-priced habitation for another person. A garage house can be best defined as a residence which is an accessory to a garage or barn, adjoining either adjacent to or above such a structure.

The garage houses in figures 8 & 9 are entirely built on the second floor of the garage area, and compare in size to a typical studio apartment. An interior stair serving the residence occupies some of the space inside the garage area. The living quarters occupy the entire gambrel roof. By using the space within the roof as the residence the apparent size of the entire structure is diminished so as not to overwhelm the scale of the host main house. Also, the gambrel-roofed building has a pleasant-looking and traditional appearance.


Fig. 8 - 16 x 20 Garage House (105 KB)



Fig. 9 - 20 x 20 Garage House (104 KB)


The garage house, a solution similar to the accessory house, offers the same win-win opportunity for the private sector home owner to collect rental income while providing a home for a low income individual. Recommendations for tax incentives for accessory dwellings also apply.

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