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

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.