Wednesday 13 November 2013

Experiment 2 Submission

For this experiment we were required to get inspired by our chosen designer (Nicolas Schuybroek) and try and replicate some of their style or concepts into our house design for 5 Wyargine St, Mosman. For me this task was not easy to accomplish but after conducting a lot of research I finally figured our that my chosen designer or client almost uses larger grids and planes to divide spaces which I also applied when designing my house.

We then had to take this design that we developed and put together a Development Application for submission to Mosman council. We had to refer to the DA check-list and ensure that our set of documentation included everything listed in the DA check-list. We had to pay extra attention to council guidelines found in the DCP and design accordingly.

Some of the most important guidelines that needed to be considered were the FSR, Setbacks, building heights and overshadowing.

I'm overall pleased with what I have produced for this experiment and believe that my exposure to Lumion has also enhanced my skills in presenting my designs in a more professional and efficient way to my clients which I can utilise in future projects.

Below I have attached the deliverables for this experiment.

DA Form

Electronic copies of files

Development Application

Statement of Environmental Effects

Notification Plans

Thursday 17 October 2013

Progress Update

Last week I finalised my design brief and I was able to establish all the spaces that will be included in my proposed house as well as my design concept and inspiration that will influence my design. Throughout this
week I have been working on my design and I have established a double storey house that contains all the proposed spaces whilst also adhering to council guidelines and taking into consideration the sun orientation. 

I'm satisfied with this design or at least the initial progress that I have made on it during the week and will continue to refine it in the upcoming days and finalise it to begin preparing the set of plans required for a development application submission.

Things to consider when finalising the design is the total area of the proposed building including garages and outdoor areas and also ensuring that all other council guidelines have meet satisfied such as the overall height of the building, Below I have attached my ground floor plan, first floor plan and a concept internal view looking down the corridor of the house on ground level upon entry to the dwelling.

The details of the building such as materials and other details will be discussed once the building has been finalised.
Proposed Ground Floor Plan


Proposed First Floor Plan
Internal view upon entry looking down the corridor towards the kitchen


Friday 11 October 2013

My Final Brief

Design Concept
For this project, I aim to design a modern looking home that will be built using modern materials and techniques and that would mainly focus on open plan living and strong connections between the various spaces. Below I will discuss the spaces that will be included in my home design and will also discuss the characteristics of each space and justify my reasons to why I will be designing these spaces in the form that I'm proposing.

Building Form
The main form / shape of my building will be made up of vertical planes that will help define spaces with large openings to capture and frame the surrounding environment. The proposed design will also allow for lots of natural lighting and an open feel through the use of large windows, skylights and high ceilings. My design is inspired by the work that I have viewed by Nicolas Schuybroek who I selected as my chosen designer earlier in this semester.

Master Bedroom (35m2)
The master bedroom will also be adequately sized to fit a queen bed and also be large enough to contain a parent's retreat. The master bedroom will also contain a walk in robe and a large ensuite. My main focus with the master bedroom is to ensure that I have large openings to be able to invite some of the surrounding environment into the space but at the same time provide enough privacy.

Bedrooms x 3 (12m2 each)
The bedrooms in this house will each be reasonably sized to allow for a double bed and will also contain a large built in robe and a study nook. The arrangement and placement of these rooms will be mainly in one section of the home and best orientated based on the path of the sun around the proposed site.

Bathroom (8 m2) / Laundry (8m2)
These two spaces will be positioned around the bedrooms and will share a strong relationship. The reason to why I will be placing the bathroom and laundry side by side is to keep the building costs lower in terms of the plumbing. Also, the bathroom / laundry will mainly serve the 3 bedrooms as the master bedroom already contains an ensuite but the bathroom will also include a free standing shower and bath tub.

Study / Guest Bedroom (14m2)
A study room will be included in the design preferably in the front section of the house if it is a single storey and on the ground level if the design compliments a double storey house. This study will be accessible via a swing door rather than a wall opening to allow this room to be turned into a guest room if the client wishes to do so.

Studio / Workshop (20m2)
This area will act as a recreational space for the occupants to carry out art projects and allow the occupants to freely carry out their hobbies such as playing music and the like. One important factor to consider for this particular space is to ensure that adequate natural noise insulation is provided by separating this area from sleeping areas such as the bedrooms.

Formal Living (25m2)
The formal living will be a space that will be positioned upon the entry to the house that will be mainly used to entertain guests who the client would not want to take into the more private spaces in the house. The size of the formal living will be enough to allow for a comfortable seating arrangement and will include a fireplace.

Formal dining room (16m2)
The formal dining room will share a strong relationship to the formal living room in terms of location and orientation and it must also be of a reasonable size to allow for a large dining table.

Family / Kitchen / Dining (Great Room) (60m2)
These three spaces will be regarded as a single large space which I have also called a great room. My main focus with these spaces is to have an open plan living with limited partition walls to create a sociable experience for the client. In more detail, the person cooking the meals will be able to comfortably socialise with the person sitting down in the family area. the size of the great room will be generously designed to comfortably contain a family, kitchen and dining spaces. The kitchen will include a double wall oven, bowl sink, island benchtop with free standing range hood and a walk in pantry.

Play Area / Rumpus (25m2)
This space will most likely be an open space positioned near the 3 proposed bedrooms. The sole purpose of this space is to provide the children living in the home their own retreat area to carry out their own activities. The most important factor that I must consider is to ensure that the parents can still supervise the children in the play area whilst being in the great room.

Guest Wc (4m2)
A guest wc will be provided most likely sharing a strong relationship with the formal living and dining in terms of its positioning / location and orientation to primarily serve guests.

Double Garage (45m2)
The double garage will be large enough to comfortably store 2 cars and will also have an additional storage area that the client can utilise.

Private Open Space / Balconies & Porches (24m2)
Private open space such alfrescos / decks and balconies will be provided where possible whilst abiding by the floor space ratio allowable by council. A porch will also be provided upon the entry to the house to articulate the front facade of the house as per the council guidelines and allow the design of the house to have a grand entrance to add to the overall character of the proposed design.

Total building area = 312 m2 of 355.2 m2 or %87.83 of allowable building area out of 713 m2 site area.

Stage 1

As part of the second experiment for this subject, we were required to complete the first stage by putting together a site analysis plan, analysing site surroundings and finally evaluating the relevant planning controls that apply to our project and formatting it into a chart.

For the site analysis, I used the survey plan that was given to us and began to add the relevant information that is needed to make up a site analysis plan. A site analysis plan is an important element in the design process because it evaluates in detail the surrounding elements associated with the proposed site but most importantly exposes the existing site conditions and restrictions if any. Below is my site analysis plan.

This particular site is located in Mosman and is elevated and retained by a stone wall from the street level by 1-2 metres. There is also an existing double storey dwelling on the site as well as a single underground garage at the front of the site and a timber shed at the rear. This particular block is 713 m2 in size with the longer sides facing north and west. There are existing services such as water, electricity and sewer lines servicing the site which also has intermediate easterly views towards Port Jackson which can be utilised in the proposed design.

The natural slope of the site is towards the front boundary with an approximate 1.67 m drop between the highest point and lowest point across 44.5 metres which is equivalent to a gradient of 1:26.65. This particular site also has existing vegetation which must be considered for the proposed dwelling and dealt with appropriately if any of the vegetation encroaches on to the proposed dwelling.

The proposed design must also take into account the neighbouring dwellings and abide by relevant overshadowing regulations. The minimum distance for the front, side and rear setbacks must be taken from the shorter side of the boundaries.

The second part of this stage required us to extract all the relevant controls of the Mosman council's DCP and lay it out in a chart. I have attached my extracted planning controls below.


















Thursday 19 September 2013

Week 7

Part One:

- Nicolas Schuybroek would certainly pay extra attention to the details that would go into a home ensuring that particular elements throughout the home are regarded with the highest standards possible.
- Nicolas's main focus when designing a home would also be the organisation of spaces and quality of materials used.
- Nicolas was born and raised in Brussels.
- Nicolas Schuybroek has been educated in English, French and Dutch speaking schools which have enabled him to work in these three languages.
- Nicolas attains a bachelor of Architecture degree from St Luc, Brussels and a masters degree in Architecture from McGill University in Montreal.
- In my personal opinion and when looking at the work of Nicolas Schuybroek, I instantly observe the clever use of space in his Architecture and how each internal space is so exquisitely detailed in terms or furniture, tone and form.
- I also believe that Schuybroek's Architectural work focuses on long vertical planes that one can argue are purposely used to confine a certain area or section in a home that Nicolas would want the user to purposely observe when interacting with the spaces.
- Schuybroek also tends to only use shades of white and grey as his colours of choice for wall paint to allow the furniture that is placed in that particular space to contrast and stand out and become the main focus.
- I think that if Nicolas Schuybroek was to approach me and seek my services in designing a home, he would strictly focus on the relationship and organisation of the various spaces, Architectural style and quality of materials.

Part Two:

For this project, I aim to design a modern looking home that will be built using modern materials and techniques and that would mainly focus on open plan living and strong connections between the various spaces. Below I will discuss the spaces that will be included in my home design and will also discuss the characteristics of each space and justify my reasons to why I will be designing these spaces in the form that I'm proposing.

Building Form

The main form / shape of my building will be made up of vertical planes that will help define spaces with large openings to capture and frame the surrounding environment. My design is inspired by the work that I have viewed by Nicolas Schuybroek who I selected as my chosen designer earlier in this semester.

Formal Living (maybe)

The formal living will be a space that will be positioned upon the entry to the house that will be mainly used to entertain guests who the client would not want to take into the more private spaces in the house. The size of the formal living will be enough to allow for a comfortable seating arrangement.

Family / Kitchen / Dining (Great Room)

These three spaces will be regarded as a single large space which I have also called a great room. My main focus with these spaces is to have an open plan living with limited partition walls to create a sociable experience for the client. In more detail, the person cooking the meals will be able to comfortably socialise with the person sitting down in the family area. the size of the great room will be generously designed to comfortably contain a family, kitchen and dining spaces.

Bedrooms x 3

The bedrooms in this house will each be reasonably sized to allow for a double bed and will also contain a large built in robe and a study nook. The arrangement and placement of these rooms will be mainly in one section of the home and best orientated based on the path of the sun around the proposed site.

Master bed

The master bedroom will also be adequately sized to fit a queen bed and also be large enough to contain a parent's retreat. The master bedroom will also contain a walk in robe and a large ensuite. My main focus with the master bedroom is to ensure that I have large openings to be able to invite some of the surrounding environment into the space but at the same time provide enough privacy.

Bathroom / Laundry

These two spaces will be positioned around the bedrooms and will share a strong relationship. The reason to why I will be placing the bathroom and laundry side by side is to keep the building costs lower in terms of the plumbing. Also, the bathroom / laundry will mainly serve the 3 bedrooms as the master bedroom already contains an ensuite but the bathroom will also be reasonably positioned so it shares a connection to the great room.

Play Area / Rumpus

This space will most likely be an open space positioned near the 3 proposed bedrooms. The sole purpose of this space is to provide the children living in the home their own retreat area to carry out their own activities. The most important factor that I must consider is to ensure that the parents can still supervise the children in the play area whilst being in the great room.

Alfresco

The alfresco will be a large outdoor space that will contain separate areas for an outdoor lounge, dining table and BBQ facilities. The position of the alfresco will compliment the position of the great room and will also be orientated as per the sun path.

Porch

The porch or deck will be located at the entry of the proposed home and will also contain elements that will make up the facade of the home.

Below I have placed a few images conveying examples of the living spaces mentioned above.

Alfresco - http://www.dalealcock.com.au/blogs/sneak-peek-stoneleigh-display-home-opening/055-3/
Bathroom - http://www.realestate.com.au/home-ideas/results-bathrooms-modern/list-1
Great Room - http://www.home-designing.com/2012/07/living-rooms-with-great-views
Master Bedroom - http://www.interiordesigninspiration.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Modern-Bedroom-Interior-Design-101.jpg

Bel

Friday 6 September 2013

Experiment 1 Submission

As part of my submission process for experiment 1, I had to design a house based on 3 primitives and include a list of areas that would make up the house. We also had to adhere to a 250 m2 maximum floor space coverage and a total of 900 m3 in terms of the volume of the combined primitives. I decided that a box, pyramid and a wedge best represented my ideas and plans that I had in place for this house design. I also did not just want to create a double storey house for the sake of this experiment but I actually wanted to aim in creating a sustainable house using various techniques such as materials, roof top gardens and shading elements.

We then had to take our output such as floor plans, elevations, sections, etc and accumulate this material into a presentation board. My main focus with my presentation board was to allow the viewer to instantly feel the sense of sustainability through the use of colours and layout and also the design of my proposed house.

My final submission for this experiment can be viewed below.


All in all this first experiment has improved my skills based on many factors. I now have a better ability in the design side of things and  have experienced working with guidelines or restrictions such as the allowable floor space coverage and volumes. I have also challenged myself in designing a house that would meet certain demands which in this case is the demand for a sustainable design.

I have also improved my overall skills in using Sketchup and Photoshop and have developed new techniques that I will benefit from for future projects.

Friday 30 August 2013

Studio Exercise 3

For this week's studio we had to begin creating our own presentation board based on the materials that we gathered in the previous week. Throughout the tutorial I experimented with my layout and the placement of my images. After consulting my tutor we decided to change a few elements to create a better flow across the presentation board.

Above is a draft of my presentation board and how I would like to layout my material. I wanted to achieve a flowing layout without overdoing the colours or the style too much. I believe my main focus are the plans so I placed them in a prominent position across the board whilst placing photographs in the background to support my line work.