They Gave Their Little Minneapolis Cottage a Radiant Extension for $200K

Sometimes, interior designer Kotono Watanabe glances toward the sky and catches glimpses of perfect streaks of sunlight piercing through the clouds. "They’re little moments you only get to see here and there throughout the day," she says. "And you think, ‘Ooh, I like that.’"

A similar effect plays out in the 100-square-foot addition she and her husband, architect Austin Watanabe, designed for the 1925 Minneapolis cottage owned by friends Karoline Lange and Isaac Hase, except it’s not dependent on shifting clouds. The space’s signature feature is what they call a "scoop": a pop-up, shed-roofed clerestory window. "Every day is a bit different, and throughout the year it is, too," Kotono says of the quality of light.

The architectural element draws inspiration from the 1962 Edward Larrabee Barnes–designed Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (often simply called Haystack) in Maine, an enclave of cedar shingle-sided structures with similar clerestory windows. "For me, the scoop part is what makes the house really special," says Karoline, who recalls standing in the home’s previous kitchen, which was dark and cramped. "We knew that we wanted this seating area right here, and we were talking about how the sun travels throughout the day and how I would love to have light be part of the project."