The best places may be those that speak to our memories and our dreams; those that preserve something we cherish from the past, but also take account of the way we live today. That idea – inspired by the elegant “mansion blocks” we saw in London – is the genesis for Mansion Flats in Beaufort, South Carolina. The Mansion Flats are designed as a single home, but comprise two units, one on each floor with an elevator to the upper residence. Based on traditional architectural forms, each offers a thoroughly modern living plan designed to be easy and efficient. It’s nice when life can be graceful and simple, too.

The classic English flat evolved in the early Twentieth Century from a simple apartment into a more elegant cousin known as the Mansion flat. It’s primary benefit was the marriage of convenient one-floor living with the warmth of a home.

Many of Savannah’s mansions were built on trust lots which featured more front feet than their row house counterparts on the North and South sides of the squares. Many of the large trust lot homes are duplexes and are typically split vertically to yield two townhouses. We looked at splitting this house type Horizontally to give us two Flats and avoid stairs. The floor plans for all three buildings are identical. The ground floor unit is accessed by either the front door or at a left rear entrance from the garage. The lower unit has a large side lawn and both flats have courtyards. The top floor unit has a spacious side porch with part of it screened in off the kitchen. It can be accessed from the side stairs or from the lift to the rear. The floor plans are nearly the same but the upper unit has a bonus area to the rear. Both units have courtyards and the lower unit has a side yard. The upper unit can be accessed via the lift or the side stairs. The lower unit has space for a lift to be added if Desired.

Follow the links below to learn more about the vision, design and team behind The Mansion Flats at Habersham:

♦ The Vision: The Mansion Flats
♦ The Architect: Brown Design Studio
♦ The Builder: Gooding Contractors
♦ The Devleoper: Winsong, LLC