CABIN DESIGN

House as an Environmental Filter

The main sustainable design aspects of the proposed cabin can be related directly to St Lucia House, with similar elements being used. The idea was to create a zero-emission design that had no requirements for artificial heating or cooling, but instead harnessed the natural light and air flow of the site. As can be seen in the above floorplans and site plan, the natural landscape played a vital role in the design of the cabin, with the cabin itself only taking up a small portion of the designated site. The trees present in the plan are used not only to provide shade and protection to the cabin, but also to replicate the "Generic Gardens" that surrounds the site.The two glass walls of the lounge and studio can be completely opened, and accompanied by the high southern windows in the house, this achieves maximum cross ventilation. To enhance this, the design of the floor plan is shallow, with its maximum length being eight metres, and the floorplan contains minimal internal walls. The bottom floor of the house can be completely opened up, to increase air flow through the house and also to create a relationship between the cabin and the landscape. The thick 'border' the wraps around the top studio space is used to protect the spaces and northern deck from the direct western sun and is also used to frame the studio, as it is one of the most important elements of the cabin.

House as a Container for Human Activities

The cabin has been separated into two floors, with the entrance area having a direct interaction with the spaces on the first floor. The ground floor consists of the more open, public spaces, and the first floor has been designed as a "haven" for the architects, consisting of the master bedroom and studio space. The northern wall of the master bedroom that faces the studio is a louvered wall, and can be opened to allow for maximum cross ventilation and interaction between the two spaces. This louvered wall can also be closed to create a private space. As shown in the floorplans above, coming off the master bedroom is a private balcony which overlooks the Generic Gardens. The ground floor contains the kitchen, bathroom, dining space and lounge room in an open plan, with exception to the bathroom space. On this floor, there are minimal internal walls, and to create defined space the entrance area, bathroom and kitchen are placed on a platform that sits above the lounge room. This allows all areas to be open, yet there is an evident distinction between the living area and the kitchen.

House as a Delightful Experience
The design of the cabin was developed upon analysis of the surrounding landscape, as it played a vital role in the location and function of the spaces. To relate to St Lucia House, the main concept of the cabin was for it to possess large glass walls that allowed a direct relationship between the interior spaces and the landscape. To achieve this, both the studio space and main living area contain glass walls that are orientated due north and can be opened. At night the idea is that the illuminated "glass box" that is the cabin, will cast shadows into the front garden, transforming it from its usual day-time appearance. Due to the minimal interior walls of the cabin, each room has a view either into the front garden, or into the Generic Gardens at the south of the site.

PART C: DESIGN ANALYSIS

From the 3 ideas drawn up in the previous post, the final floor plan began to develop. Shown below is a rough sketch, to scale, of the desired cabin design.

Using this experimental floor plan, the design was analysed, considering the features of St Lucia house and the three main concepts: "A House as an Environmental Filter", "A House as a Container for Human Activities" and "A House as a Delightful Experience".

 A House as an Environmental Filter

 House as a Container for Human Activities

House as A Delightful Experience

Two elevations were then produced, and then the design elements were analysed, as shown below.

 

PART C: DESIGN PLANNING

Planning Diagrams

Shown below are the first planning stages of the proposed cabin design.  The first step was to analyse  the realtionships between the spaces, and what relationships were crucial for a functionable design. To achieve this, a matrix was used, which is shown below.

With these crucial and desirable relationships shown, rough bubble diagrams were then produced to get an understanding of how the spaces would interact, and also what spaces were definately needed in the cabin, and which ones could be joined to create a single space. The first bubble diagram produced is shown below, and displays the original restrictions of the design and the ideas generated of how to overcome these restrictions.

From this diagram, scale bubble diagrams were then produced that showed these spaces with the desired area of each. These diagrams slowly produced ideas the generated the original floor plans. These are shown below. 

Bubble Diagram 2

Bubble Diagram 3

Bubble Diagram 4

From these bubble diagrams, three original experimentation floorplans were drawn up, which are shown below.

Idea 1

Idea 2

Idea 3

PART C: DIAGRAMMING - CABIN

Below are the diagram exercises from tutorial 4. The diagrams are placed under their written description.

Environmental Filter

The utilise the natural environment for climatic purposes in the cabin design, the site should be a similar size to St Lucia house. The surrounding area will be used to represent the "Generic Gardens" and to maximise shade and protection in summer.

Similar to St Lucia, the floor plan of the cabin design should be open-plan with minimal internal walls to maximise cross ventilation. This will be achieved using similar concepts from St Lucia such as large nothern openings and high southern windows.

The floor plan of the cabin will be a shallow plan, imitating St Lucia house and maximising air flow and ventilation.

Container for Human Activities

Similarly  to St Lucia, how the space will be arranged to create separation between the living utilities/areas and the working areas, needs to be considered. The use of split levels could achieve this, but first the crucial and desirable relationships between the spaces needs to be analysed.

Just as the design of St Lucia does, the use of split levels to separate space in the proposed cabin could be beneficial. On the bottom level the public spaces would be placed, with the top level consisting of the bedroom and studio, becoming a private haven for the occupants.

The relationship between the cabin and the landscape is a vital factor for the design. As the cabin is located in the gardens, the landscape that surrounds the cabin should replicate these 'gardens'. To access the cabin, occupants should have to walk the full length of the site, through the landscape.

Delightful Experience

The main concept for the cabin design will be based around the front facade, which will be seen as a "glass box". Both the studio and the living room, which will be positioned so that they are aligned with each other, will be constructed from large glass windows. When illuminated at night, these two spaces will cast shadows over the landscape, transforming it and creating a delightful experience.

The plan of the cabin will be an open plan with minimal interior walls. This will allow for every room of the house to have a view into the front garden. Due to the decline at the back of the site, which slopes down towards the lookout, this view should also be harnessed by the interior spaces.

PART C: DIAGRAMMING - ST LUCIA

Below are the diagram exercises from tutorial 4. The diagrams are placed under their written description.

Environmental Filter

St Lucia House utilises the advantages of trees, using them as a climatic foil. The main Poinciana tree shades both the main living area and the outdoor areas, and also protects the house from direct sunlight in summer, while harnessing the direct sunlight in winter.

The shallow, one room thick plan allows from maximum cross ventilation through the house. This is achieved by high southern windows accompanied with large northern openings, and allows the house to have no artificial cooling or heating.

All rooms in St Lucia house are orientated due north, utilising the sun in winter and the shade in summer. For maximum cross ventilation and air flow through the house, the plan of the house was designed an an open-plan with minimal internal walls.

Container for Human Activities

The ground floor of St Lucia consists of two bedrooms (for the architects two sons) and a bathroom. This was done to give the teenagers their own space in the home. In comparison, the master was positioned about the living space and can either interact with the space or retreat for privacy.

St Lucia has 5 interlocking levels that provide both open spaces and private spaces within the home. These spaces connect and interact in different ways, depending on the use of the space. One example is the "private" office are which is accessible via an open walkway that runs above the main living space.

The landscape of the site plays a vital role in the design and the relationship to human activities. The entrace into the house is via a walkway that passes through the front garden, past the pool. The garden can also be accessed via the stairs from the eastern deck. Ultimately, the design of all spaces in the house and how they are used is related directly to the outdoor space.

Delightful Experience

The main central focus of St Lucia is the Poinciana tree that the house wraps around. At night, the silhouette of this tree creates an extraordinary sight against the "glass box" house behind. This creates the main 'delightful' experience of the house.

St Lucia is concerned with the natural environment, and one of the delightful experiences of this house is the views that the architect has achieved. This is most evident from the main living space and outside, but within the house there are distint lines of sight from each space to the other.

PART C: SITE ANALYSIS

After analysis of the given site and of St Lucia house, I decided that my exemplar houses and cabin would be located in Generic Gardens. This decision was made after considering a number of factors (which are shown in the map below), one of which being the orientation of St Luica house, as it was vital for all rooms to have an orientation of due north. I chose to place all three exemplars in the Generic Gardens because the relationship of St. Lucia House with the natural surroundings is one of the most important concepts in the design. This location also had advantages for the other exemplar houses, with Chicken Point Cabin being able to have a view across to Specific Stream and Parti Peak and C House having views to Parti Peak, the Falls and the Lookouts.

With a chosen location, the next step was to position the exemplar and cabin sites in Generic Gardens so that each house still retained its original landscape qualities. The first plan of the site arrangement is shown below. This plan was used more to show the size of the sites in relation to each other rather than the actual position, as in the first plan, C House and Chicken Point Cabin are not facing the correct orientation.

With the information provided from the site plan above, a second site plan was produced, as shown below. After analysis of the position of each house and how it relates to the surroundings and immediate neighbours, it was decided that the Exemplar houses would be placed on the North tip of Generic Gardens, and would be condensed together to replicate the original location of St Lucia House in Brisbane. This can be seen in the map below.

Below is a close up of the Exemplar house sites in Generic Gardens, which contains an analysis of the site. Factors highlighted in the below map include: views from the chosen sites, entries into the sites, the slope of the land and the orientation of the houses. From this, an experimental section of the gradient of the land (Section A-A) was able to be produced which gives a better understanding of the relationships between the immediate neighbours.

The next step was to place the Exemplar plans into the site, to show the relationships between the natural and built environment. This is shown in the site plan below. Simple views and access points was added to the map to explain the advantages of the chosen positions of the houses.

These plans were then used to create a scale slope of the land (Section A-A), which can be seen in the images below. The first image was produced straight off the original site plan provided, and was then redrawn to a larger scale for clarity. An original concept of the contours of the site is also included, however it was only drawn to show the gradient of the slope from the north to the south.

 To gain a better understanding of the slope from North to South, a variety of sections were drawn through the Exemplar houses and the Cabin site, and these can be seen below.

Shown below is the final contours of the chosen site.

After all of this analysis was completed, a diagram was then drawn to analyse the relationship between the proposed Cabin site and the surroundings. This was used as a planning diagram to outline restictions and advantages to the proposed cabin design and factors that need to be considered in the design process.

PART B ANALYSIS: SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

St Lucia house was designed in accordance with the natural environment, and has various design elements that result in the house being environmentally efficient. Some of these include the presence of the trees which act as a climatic foil, the large glass wall, high southern windows for cross ventilation, shallow one-room plan and minimal walls for maximum air flow and the orientation of the house which result in all rooms facing due north. These elements are shown and analysed in the floorplan and section below.

 First Floor - Analysis of Sustainable Elements

Section - Analysis of Sustainable Elements

PART B ANALYSIS: CLIMATE

Climatic factors played a vital role in the design and function of St Lucia House. As the house is an example of a zero-emission design that does not contain any artificial heating or cooling, St Lucia house was designed to effectively respond to the subtropical climate. The two sections below show elements of the design that have allowed the house to adapt to the climate and overall resulted in a sustainable design.

 

 

  Section - Climate Analysis

Section - Connection of Natural and Built Environment