Saturday, July 7, 2012

Shifted House.

Hi. 
So I finally have a minute to update this page.. I'm in the middle of summer session - doing a Public Interest Design program at UT.. but more on that later. 

Last semester, for my studio I worked on a competition for Habitat for Humanity. The deadline was 2 weeks after classes ended.. So I spent the semester hand drafting the same (more or less) floor plan and such over and over again, and then after final review drafted it all over again for the competition submission.  Here are a few drawings, and 2 of my submission boards. 




The house is called Shifted (aka wall house)  My professor made sure to tell me "every architect does a wall house at some point. this is yours."   great thanks.



The design of this house is mainly centered around a shift. The design process involved taking a regular form - the rectangular prism - carving a sloped roof to match contextual building typology, and then shifting the volume along the ridge axis. The two volumes created are then adhered together using a 3-foot thick wall element. Originally, the wall was intended to separate program - the two smaller bedrooms, with their shared, guest bath separated from the main living space and the master suite. As the project developed, however, the wall became more embedded into the spaces.

Each of the main spaces cling onto the wall by carving their own nook into it. The kitchen is completely contained within the wall, which anchors the dining and living spaces to it. In two of the bedrooms, the nook acts as a cavity for the bed to sit. This cavity could change purpose, however, and host a writing desk, vanity, shelves or be enclosed to contain a closet. In the master bathroom, the bathtub also sits within the wall to frame this element.