Appication-Cabin Design

To successful to bring the concept to a real house there will be a lot more to take care and work on.
Back to the project requirement,

• The Cabin itself is to incorporate all the necessary studio

and workplaces for your exemplar architect, as well as living accommodation.

• A space for living;
• A space for working;
• A space for reflecting;
• A space for dining;
• A space for preparing meals;
• A space for sleeping; and
• A space for abutting.

There is a challenge, to build a fully functional cabin, which includes living room, studio, reflecting room, dining room, kitchen, bedroom and so forth, with only 75 square meters internal enclosed space. In order to create a feeling of opening space in such a long narrow site, I used a split-level design to separate different spaces rather than using walls. This can provide more head rooms for the users. I design the cabin as 2 storey with a half opening bedroom and working space on the top. Joining the two levels with a ladder which from the lounge and a long narrow stair. The hanging stairs and the high ceiling walls as a feature to the interior.

Towards the North and West of the site, the landscape and the view can be another feature of this cabin. The lounge is at the front of the site, looking to the park and the golf course. To connect the outside endowment with the cabin, I used two large glass panels towards the North and the West, in a white surface concrete structure, which is learn from the Mobius House. Maximising the view, and minimise the noise from the road to the cabin. Five large concrete panels joint with North facing glass panel, to retain privacy to the lounge along with the pedestrian path of the park. By the two large glass panels, natural lightnings will be easily in to the house. The entrance is set at the middle of the cabin and covered with a short ledge stone wall, just to provide more privacy to the cabin. The studio and bed room set at the rear of the site, on the upper floor to retain quieter endowment and privacy to the users.

The reflecting place start from the upper floor of the long narrow stairs to the ground floor lounge. The wooden stairs platform and high raised panels is to create a feeling of individual space to the users, sitting on it and face the West can capture the view of the huge opening golf course, a nice private space to relax and read a book.

Application - Design Analysis

The project site is in a inner city, high density residential and commercial area of Brisbane.
Facing north with the Kulgun Park and west to a golf course. Next to the east is a high rise residential building, across the Maidstone st will be existing residential house.

The site origingal is part of the Kulgun park, with council recreation facilities.

Concept

The Mobius stripe.
At the beginning of my design process, I try to bring this key concept element of the Mobius House to my new design of the cabin house.  I prefer to use aluminium sheet to build a sketch model as a test of the mobius band.

From this concept model, I was looking for a chance to modify it into a architecture form. tested the model in different layer, angle and ground it from different faces. And I found out more layers and inner spaces that I might be able to use in the design project.

Testing of the idea.

a rough sketch ofthe model

Further and detail sketch

By analysing the model in different Gravity direction, the form is changing in between the different band and platform. I tried 3 different combination of surface.

Options of combinations

It can be MORE! I start questioning myself if I can use this combination of surface and spaces into m project design.
More test on the floor plan and elevation of the cabin with the Mobius cube concept



By adjusting the concept model in to a structure into the site, there is a possibility to continue the design of the cabin house. Connecting the areas inside the house and create the circulation, follow the requirement and the land use limit will be the final part of the design.

Further more

To test the mobius cube model is a joyful experience, and left me a lot of question about how to develop this concept model further and can it be useful in other design and how it will change just by expending the width and lenth of each band of the structure. how it change and transfoem by leveling them up and down.

Analysis - the MOBIUS HOUSE

Archetype Research - the MOBIUS HOUSE

GENERAL INFORMATION

Location: Het Gooi, Amsterdam, Holland

Architect: UNSTUDIO (Van Berkel and Bos)

“A house that would be acknowledged as a reference for the renovation of the architectural language.” Dutch architect Ben van Berkel requested to design a house for a young couple In 1993. The clients requested a building in which they both could live and work from home and therefore to spend more time with their children. They also looked for an intense relationship with the landscape, as their two distinctive professions, and needed separate studios for working, but the living space would be shared.  They desired complete isolation while they worked, but with the opportunity for natural encounters. (Stories of houses, 2006).

CONCEPT

The design team sought analogies for their conception of the program—a steady, continuous flow from activity to activity—and settled on the idea of the Mobius strip.  The Mobius strip is a mathematical model whose one continuous side appears to be two sides that twist around each other. 

In order to walk along a face of a Mobius band, it is expected to have more than one loop around the ring before coming back to the starting point. “Other" faces of the prismatic structure will be visited in the procedure. Such a structure may be built with a proper gathering of cubes.

MOBIUS HOUSE AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL FILTER

Site is located on Het Gooi a residential area near Amsterdam, a peninsula between two rivers encircled by beech trees and with a strip of grass in the middle (Wordpress, 2009). In order to complete a landscape of the area with the river, and get appropriate amounts of sunlight, Van Berkel placed Mobius House on top of the slope with a north-south orientation. Repeating large glass windows were adopted to create a feeling of outdoors, and therefore, clients can enjoy the view of the river from any of the two studios, major bed rooms and the public area within the house. The Mobius house design was shaped twisted belts are working as Mobius flat surfaces. These flat Mobius surfaces are treated as walls, ceilings, and floors that are interlinking inside spaces, with surrounding exterior, creating a spatial twist throughout the house.

Van Berkel and Bos said ‘Taking full advantage of its location, the house unfolds horizontally, allowing the occupants to take in the surrounding during their daily activities’ (Bradbury, 2009).

MOBIUS HOUSE AS A CONTAINER OF ACTIVITIES

Other than structure, circulation is another essence of the Mobius concept for the house design. As requested by the client, they both could live and work from home, needed separate studios for working, but the living space would be shared. Movement through this concrete loop traces the pattern of one's day activities. Arranged over in three levels, the loop includes two studies (one on either side of the house for the respective professions), three bedrooms, a meeting room and kitchen, storage and living room and a greenhouse on the top, all intertwined during a complex voyage in time. (Stories of houses, 2006).

A diagram was used during the design of the Mobius house to describe “the organization of two intertwining paths, which trace how two people can live together, yet apart, meeting at certain points, which become shared spaces.  The idea of two entities following their own paths while sharing certain moments, possibly also reversing roles at certain points, is extended to include the materialization of the building and its construction”. The program became about how the two people would move through the twenty-four hour day. (Jacobo, 2004).

MOBIUS HOUSE AS A DELIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE

The design of the Mobius house fully satisfy the clients’ expectation and living style, rational space arrangement that separates private areas from public spaces. Interpret the concept of the Mobius stripe, in the circulation and structure to form the spaces of the house. And as from the beginning of this page, the Mobius house is “A house that would be acknowledged as a reference for the renovation of the architectural language.”

The perception of movement is reinforced by the changing positions of the two main materials used for the house, glass and concrete, which overlap each other and switch places. As the loop turns inside out, the exterior concrete shell becomes interior furniture - such as tables and stairs - and the glass facades turn into inside partition walls. (Stories of houses, 2006).
The contortions and twists in the house go beyond the mathematical diagram. They refer to a movement that has moulded a new way of life as a consequence of using electronic devices at work. Ben van Berkel has managed to give an additional meaning to the diagram of the Möbius band, where its new symbolic value - characterised by the blurred limits between working and living - corresponds to the clients' way of life. (Stories of houses, 2006).

Reference:
 

Baunetz. N.d. Ben van Berkel/UN Studio. http://www.baunetz.de/talk/crystal/pdf/en/talk19.pdf (accessed March 12, 2011)

Pressg5. 2009. Mobius House. http://pressg5.net/zFactor/wp content/uploads/2009/03/mobius_house.pdf (accessed March 12, 2011)

Stories of Houses. 2006. Mobius House. http://storiesofhouses.blogspot.com/2006/09/mbius-house-in-amsterdam-by-ben-van.html (accessed March 12, 2011)

Wordpress. 2009. “Mobius House” Netherlands 1999. http://utasraymondlaikimho.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/mobius-house-netherlands-1999-ben-van-berkel-un-studio/(accessed March 12, 2011)

Archetype Research - the CANOE REACH RESIDENCE

GENERAL INFORMATION

Location: Yeronga, QLD Australia

Architect: Brian Steendyk'

CANOE REACH RESIDENCE AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL FILTER

• Site is located on a quiet section of the Brisbane River and offer the residence a stunning view of the natural environment surrounded.
• High rise parasol roof let the natural views of the river easily enter the living area, block most of the heat during the middle of the day, also encourage better ventilation and lighting.
• Office allows the residents to extend into nature by a floating structure.
• Orientation allows the house obtain the sunshine in late of the day with a stunning view.
• U-shaped plan facing toward the river allows for cross ventilation pass through the courtyard.
• The house follows original contours of the land. This allows the house with less obtrusion to the landscape
  
  

  
  

  

  CANOE REACH RESIDENCE AS A CONTAINER OF HUMAN ACTIVITIES

  ·         Steendyk focus on the large public space of canoe reach is for a large family can be clearly seen.

  ·         On the level of entry, effective zoning throughout the design with open public spaces such as the kitchen, laundry, service and living area. The courtyard as a central space links different areas.

  ·         Bedrooms are located on the second level protects the privacy but still capturing the surrounding views.

  ·         Open style courtyard in the center of the house encourages the family more often using this space on a daily basis.

  ·         User friendly can be seem form the house design, as Steendyk said, “Ability of good design to bring joy and a sense of quality to people’s live”. “I love to see products like the coat hanger used on an everyday basis.” (B, Parkes. 2007)

  

  
  

  
  

  CANOE REACH RESIDENCE AS A DELIGHTFUL EXPERIENCE

  ·         Journey starts from the street entering the house. Going down the hill a water feature reflecting the light on one side of the walkway. The lighting with a bright glow appearing at the far end from above the steps simulates a tunnel. Users would follow and find the source of the glow.

  ·         A use of warm colours textures and materials linked well from the house to the environment, enhance and worked well with the landscape.

  ·         Grass slopes gives better landscape view when cuts down the entry way.

  ·         From the entry to the court yard are a discovery tour, totally different feeling and unexpected view will be find out after the stairs.

  ·         Natural lighting broadly used in the house, enhance the delightful practice to the users.

  ·         Courtyard embraces the notion of an outdoor/ indoor area for the family to live in.

  

  

  
  

  References

  Australian Institute of Architects. Canoe Reach Residence.  http://www.architecture.com.au/awards_search?option=showaward&entryno=2008041485 (accessed 8 March 2010)

                     Steendyk, 2010. http://www.steendyk.com/mainpage.htm (Accessed 15/3/2011)

               Queensland Government. (2008). PLACEMAKERS: Contemporary Queensland Architects – Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane.

Archetype Research - the Marika Alderton House

Location: Yirrkala Community, Eastern Arnhem Land, NT, Australia.

Architect: Glenn Murcutt

A house as an environmental filter

• The Marika Alderton House is is open to fresh air with wood panel louver windows rather than glass windows, insulated from intense heat and protected from extreme climate in the Australia outback.
• Using simple materials such as plywood walls, tallow-wood shutters, and corrugated iron roofing, easy assemble, helped contain construction costs. 90 degrees open of all the wood panel louvers windows can be opened to  to maximize ventilation.
• Wide eaves create shading for the house.  pivoting tubes along the roof  and vertical fins enhance ventilation in the living space.
• Airflow through under the floor of the house by raisiing several metal pillars and numerous small gaps in the floorboards.

A house as a container of human activity

•  Glenn Murcutt combined his own creative vision with Aboriginal ideas, creating a unique and valuable bridge between cultures.
• Younger family members sleep in the centre of the house while elders sleep beside the western wall which is close to the outside.
• A large eastern open space designed for public activities is separated from the western private sleeping area.
• The large open layout allows kids to play around the house and also provide enough space for aboriginal activities.

A house as a delightful experience

•   Provide effective ventilation and insulation for the extrem climate housing.
•  Respect and understand the culture back ground of the users. Rational space arrangement that separates private areas from public spaces.
•   Use of environmentally friendly and economical materials, substainable design.
•   Low maintenance costs and energy saving.

Something more about Glenn Murcutt

Ideas of Glenn Mucutt

• Use Simple Materials
• Touch the Earth Lightly
• Follow the Sun
• Listen to the Wind

"Life is not about maximizing everything, it's about giving something back - like light, space, form, serenity, joy."

-Glenn Murcutt

Born:

1936 in London, England Primary Residence:
Sydney, Australia

Education:

Studied architecture at the University of New South Wales from 1956 to 1961

Awards:

Glenn Murcutt has won many important awards, including:

• 1992: Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
• 2002: Pritzker Prize
• 2009: American Institute of Architects Gold Medal

References:
Author Unknown, 2011. http://architecture.about.com/od/buildyourhous1/a/murcuttbuild.htm (Accessed 12/03/11)

DAB 310 The Acrchitectual Apprenticeship STUDIO 8

Week 1, picking 3 exemplar houses from a list of 45 national and international notable living designs. Constraints limited us to selecting 1 exemplar from the international list and the other 2 from the national. Researching all of the designs lead to my selection of: 

• International no. 14 : UN Studio [Van Berkel & Bos] - Mobius House, Het Gooi, Amsterdam, Holland 1998
• National no. 14: Glenn Murcutt - Marika-Alderton House, Yirrkala Community, Eastern Arnhem Land, NT, Australia 1994
• National no. 23: Steendyk – Canoe Reach Residence, Brisbane Queensland, Australia 2007  

Task:  research the 3 selected examplar houses with three main aspects of a house design in mind; a house is an environmental filter; a house is a container of human activities; and a house is a delightful experience.