Final Habitat Review

These are the final drawings from my habitat review, i reverted to a more elegant plan which was a little longer than previous drawings...i also pulled the troublesome cantilever back over the first floor so its not as drastic, it still gives a dramatic effect but i think its better that it sits more on the ground foor block.

The main issue that came up in the review is that i may have over complicated the form by skewing the top floor instead of just placing it directly over the ground floor...and i agree, it would have made more sense structurally and in the internal layouts etc. However i do believe i could have made the structure in my proposed plans work...the structure was questioned and rightly so because it was a little dodgy but i definitely think looking back at it that i could have made the structure work! anyways i was happy with the review it was purdy good and i was reasonably happy with my final proposal cudda done some things different maybe but sure anyway..everythings a lesson!

Habitat Concept

Ive decide on a curved plan, which kinda matches the curves of the site with the 1st storey cantilevered over the water. The curve i think adds drama to the plan which ties in well with the concept, its also sensitive to the site i think. Anyway its a work in progress

Our new client is TOM CRUISE!!!

Act 1 Scene1

intro-monday morning in a small cold architect studio, one of the partners jimmy is sitting at his desk clasping a cup of coffee the other partner david arrives



DAVID: Morning jim

JIMMY: its freaking freezing

DAVID: yeh it is (pause) so i got a phone call off a client today for the loch tay site and turns out that its Tom Cruise, i thought it was a hoax at first but then he was telling me that he got my number off somebody when he was staying in Ireland with Michael jackson.

JIMMY: (laughs) ohh ye thats strange, cos i got a phonecall from the wicked witch of the frikkin west!

DAVID: Jim i am comletely serious, we have work to do he's flying today he wants us to take him up to the site tomorrow.

JIMMY: ha!



David slaps a letter from mr cruise on jimmys desk, jimmy is taken aback.



Jimmy: so ehhhh whats the story, whats the brief?

David: well you know the site, its up at loch tay

Jimmy: yep, bit small for a hollywood actor, but secluded i guess!

David: Yeh it is but he was telling me that him and his wife katie are finished with all that, theyve made their buck is what he said, anyway he wants to settle down quietly and have more time for his kid. He basically said he wants a modest enough place, something comfortable not too small or big.

Jimmy: so have you made a brief for it yet.

David: Yeah, yeah ive got it in my notebook here, basically weve got living, dining, kitchen, master bed, childs bed..with maybe a playroom, the kids kind of an introvert he mentioned. Then just a bathroom and i suggested an en-suite for the master bed.

Jimmy: Thats it?

David: Well yeah, thats the basics. now he also mentioned a few extra requirements, his wife is getting back into teaching, apparently shes already looked at working in the local primary school, so anyway she would like a reading room, office type area, somewhere quiet but light. Then he said that hes looking to take up music, he mentioned a piano but he said he doesnt want a seperate room for it he wants it to be in the living space, he wants music to be a family thing i guess. He also mentioned he likes to garden and his little girl loves animals and playing outdoors, in his words he wants to be self sufficient, so the external spaces are quite important. He also mentioned he'd like a spacious dining and living that they will be having guests often, and i suggested he add a guest bedroom as the area's kind of out of the way, and thats more or less it really.

Jimmy: huh, cool thats it! so what is he doing himself, just retiring, giving up acting??

David: Yeah he said he just wants to stay at home with the kid! weird huh?

Jimmy: yeh kinda, what about all that scientology stuff.

David (laughs) i dunno, i didnt really wanna ask, but he never asked us to design a little alter or anything.

Jimmy: (laughs)...lets go get some coffee.....





FIN!

up to the highlands...kinda

Welcome to Loch tay!

The road trip and visit to the crannog at loch tay was purdy interesting, its nice to see a bit of scotland while im here.

The actual site for our building was a little dissapointing to me to be honest, i thought it was going to be more isolated and surrounded by woodlands...i warmed to it quickly enough though and its actually quite a unique site. The overall landscape is spectacular, my most immediate thought about my habitat for this site was that it has to be respectful to the landscape, it should add too and not take away from the landscape.

So from that i came up with the idea that the habitat would be purely responsive to the site, this should keep the design focused on a harmonious solution. The responses would be to the natural landscape so a form that lends to the landscape, using indigenous materials for the building, a harmony between the building the site and the water etc.

The next response then is historical and cultural, so a response to the crannogs that would have dotted the loch and their construction methods, materials etc and also a response to the local community for examlpe all the houses on the lake shore have entrances that are open from the road so you can see into your neighbours house from the road. This suggests to me a tight and secure community.

The next response is a more personal one. Its my own senses and experiences from the site so obviously the visual impact of the landscape, the connection to the water was something i was drawn too, i also was really drawn to the woodlands beside the site and the small little beach. This felt like a naturally created space to me and something that should connect to the internal spaces of the habitat. I also thought of this poem when i was walking home one night. Its a W.B. Yeats poem called the lake isle of innisfree which is very fitting in itself. Its about the poet wanting to move out to the wilderness and build a small cabin for himself and be self sufficient and one with nature. The specific quote i thought of which encapsulated my experience of the place is this "Lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore" its a really well constructed line poetry wise but its also just really simple it kind of captured the serenity of the site to me which is something i want to enhance in my project and not disturb!

Analysis of precedent

Flatz Haus-Baumschlager & Eberle

Ive never heard of Baumschlager or Eberle before, but i liked the building i was assigned. I don't usually like concrete (i'm more of a timber guy) but the way they used the concrete was very cool. Its a really neat and tidy building with kind of very crisp lines or something, its cool. Its set in Lichtenstein at the very foot of the alps. It looks like an amazing setting, somewhere nice to visit maybe.

The building reminded me a little of Mies van Der Rohe at first, it had a very intimate use of materials, the concrete is board marked which is quite a skill to pour and all the finishes are perfect. The internal spaces seem to be broken up with planes suggesting passages to the occupant, similarly to van Der Rohe's pavilion. As i studied it more i found it less like van Der Rohe's and more something of its own.

I also found in this project that i love making models, doing models all day is great fun, except plaster models, they're nothing but a hassle and a pain. we decided to do one to simulate the structure for the huge cantilever but it needed to be quite large scale and was just not feasible to do a model of so we took a smaller section and it kinda didn't really work either, we got some results like some nice patterns of the timber and i guess we know now how difficult and how much of a skill it is to pour the concrete in this way.

I am a door

The door project was really good for getting to know more people in the class. I suppose that if you make new friends while working on a project it means that your working very well as a team. We did work very efficiently, i have done some building surveys before so it was nothing new to me but we measured and drew up the door very quick, we all split into teams of three. One group measured the actual door, another the stonework and another measured the stairs while another group did a photo survey so it was very efficient. We worked individually on rendering the door, we each did two a1 sheets. It was pretty good fun to just be able to colour and pencil draw all day. The finished product then was a great success, all the pieces matched, the patchwork effect of individual renderings looked quite well and we were done on time, happy owvih!!!

Inspiring place

I chose an electrical power station as my inspiring place mainly because i was looking for something a little different. The first thing that drew me to it was the fungal formations of the generators sitting in the middle of a housing estate. I found it strange that something which was used for a purpose which seems so un-natural and fabricated could have forms which seemed derived from nature. The most intruguing aspect i found was the emmense sense of power which was contained there. If there had not been any danger signs the place would have seemed no more intimidating than the residential area that surrounded it, however there was a sense of potential destruction about the silent beacons.

From the crit i learned that my presentation should have been bolder to denote the theme of power, i also should have used more expressive images.

Beach Party

At home in Wexford we live near the beach, we spend all of our summer on the beach. I found the beach in Dundee incredibly beautiful and a little homely. I think this tied in well with the brief of designing a shelter. We all have an inherent instinct to find a place of safety, comfort and shelter no matter where we are.

As a group we made a decision to remain in the forest and build some sort of wigwam structure in a suitable location. The location we chose was a circle of trees surrounding a dip in the landscape, this gave some natural shelter and the circular formation of the trees would provide a natural plan which we could use to wall off an area of shelter. We tried to put up a wigwam but we really should have brought a shovel because there was no way that three large logs were going to stand up by just being propped against each other! Anyway, we did manage to wall off the circle and create quite a sheltered space using branches with foliage still on them, ferns and grasses etc. I think we judged its success by the fact that we were able to have a nice sheltered picnic in our area at the end of the day.