The design of this house expands beyond the parameters of its small city lot: the roof is cut out to incorporate the port window of the adjacent house. This neighborly gesture seemed to inspire the creation of a rooftop balcony where the roof was cut out, plus the port window became a feature of that balcony.
I had spotted this house from a Chicago 'L' platform. The house is a good reminder to consider the surrounding environment in the solutions we design. A classic example of this principle is removing the legs from a baby's highchair and instead clamping the high chair to a dining table.
Whether designing a house or a high chair, by leveraging the surrounding environment we can find inspiration, simplify our solution while adding features from its surroundings, and facilitate systems (such as community).