Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. So it wasn’t stifled creativity or a love of working with his hands that spurred Alain Valdes, an intern architect at Gould Evans Affiliates in Tampa, to create this structure in his backyard. It was a much simpler motive. “I live in a bungalow, which has basically no storage space,” Valdes says, “so I didn’t have a place to put my tools or my lawn mower.”

Valdes, 30, completed the academic work for his M.Arch. at the University of Florida in 2000. He worked for a year at another Tampa firm, Alfonso Architects, before joining Gould Evans.

Despite this training, Valdes, like many architects, really only had design experience. That paid off, though, since he went through about 20 different designs, filling an entire notebook, before he decided on the final look of the shed. Even so, his practical experience was limited.

“I’d never built anything in my life,” Valdes says, “so it was a pretty good learning experience.” Not only for him, but for his father, too, who, without any building experience, was Valdes’s only help in constructing the shed. Still, the assistance was welcome—as Valdes says, “the weight of materials is something of a shocker.”

The shed is about 4 feet by 16 feet, since it was originally designed to be sheathed in standard-size plywood sheets. This length also shields Valdes’s backyard from an adjacent alley. The final facade is made of rough-sawn cypress. Valdes has since completed a deck and has plans for a new kitchen. “But that’s a way off,” he says.

By Kevin Lerner