Assignment #1

My first design was a mash up of ideas. I attempted to combine all my character’s personality and needs’ into this design. Through this process I found that personalities have inconsistencies and trying to satisfy all aspects of my character resulted in very cluttered and unorganised spaces. The minimalism that I was looking for wasn’t there.

For my second design I striped everything back and kept the obtuse feature wall. This strong element I found grounds the building and works well to guild movement, so I incorporated this with the decking. My character wants a very minimal simple relaxing space to live in and this is supported through the consistent neutral colour scheme throughout the 4 designs. I wanted a very simple glazed exterior. Glass door panels open you up with the landscape and makes sure that my client can keep a close eye on his daughter because he nearly lost her a few months ago. The bathroom and bedrooms wasn’t a high objective in my brief. My client is very attached to the outdoors and plans to spend most of his time outside, but wants sweeping vistas when he isn’t in the open air. The glass panels slide and move to open up to bring the landscape in.

With the 3^rd design, I was just upon completion and my 3dsmax file suddenly became corrupt and I had to start my design again. With my motivation compromised and time was at essence, I continued in the minimalistic direction due to the success of the 2^nd design… but failed. Elements are in correct proportions but this time but the spaces didn’t turn out like, “wow”.  It turned out boring. Too much glazing and is busy with the repetition of supporting elements.

My 4^th design seems just what I wanted when I sketched it out, but when actually designing it the slender 4m wide structure didn’t prove to be spatially practical. To fix this I pushed the 2 volumes closer together doubling the floor length in the middle. This allowed for a larger open plan living. I wanted this design to use minimal structural elements with the impression of a heavy supporting roof.

The tower. In all the designs the tower is a way to make sure that his daughter is playing safe without being in the room. In the 2^nd design the tower in placed in the center of the living room against the all but in the 4^th design the tower in connected to the dropped ceiling in the kitchen. The glass encases sides allow you to see down into the living area.

Out of the 4 designs I believe that the 2^nd and 4^th design are the most successful in their own way. The organic yet simple “jetty log” roof in design 2 creates an interesting spatial experience inside and out.  The 4^th design is simple but large on scale. The strong horizontal vectors give the impression of long jetties and the monumental staircase is a key feature of the design, linking the 2 floors.  

Design 4

Design 2