Andrew Duong
​
Architectural Design I - 2021 

​

Word Project​

The word project was the first step of this whole process of the class opening up their minds of finding how they are described with one word. The project first started with a grid that eventually gained basic geometrical shapes like circles, and triangles, and in the end we had them inked out of hung outside of the classroom wall. For my personal experience, it was fun seeing how I can think of ideas that inevitably describe me using one word.

Bubble Diagram

The bubble diagrams were a part of the thinking process of what I want my tiny house to look like and even after all of these designs that I came up with I didn't use any of them except for certain ideas and how I can use them to my benefit. Some of these designs do feature things I don't like such as hallways in some of these, and even having a second floor wasn't something I wanted. For instance hallways are just a huge waste of space that you could use for more room space and I wanted my house to be more open.

Floor Plans

          My initial floor plan (Slide 2) was the same design used in the bubble diagram and was later updated after some constructive criticism after presentations. I stamped those suggestions in my mind and put them into my updated design (Slide 1). Some of then suggestions that I received were things like making it more open and having an area where you could be under the trees. For furniture I had a built in couch in the living room with a coffee table that can fold up into a dining table. In the kitchen and the bathroom I had one pluming wall that includes where all water based appliances would go. Just a side note I did make a very last minute decision to switch the stove and refrigerator.

Elevations

My elevations are showing how my house would look in a 2D scale and it shows where windows and doors are. With my initial elevations (3rd Slide) I had a very basic design that wasn't appealing in most ways especially with the different walls not matching the other walls. So with my updated designs I fixed all of that and had windows flow over to different walls that would look very appealing in a perspective. Also for the windows I decided to have big window walls face towards certain viewpoints so in the morning you're going to wake up and see the huge landscape of Moosehead Lake, and sitting down on the couch in the inside will have you in the trees making you feel like you're in nature

Roof Plan/Site Plan

My roof plan there to show how the house and the surrounding area would look on a map but also showing the property line, building line, and the main attraction, the house. With my original design (Top) I had the house very close to the edge of the property line, but when I found out about the building line I knew at that very moment, something had to be done. What I did was move my house to the center to obey architectural laws in Maine, my one downside to this was that I wanted my house to be all on one contour line so I wouldn't need to put the house on stilts, but after all of that the counter lines were switched to 1 foot instead of 10 feet. At first I was worried that the roof would interfere with the trees, but after a little research I came to the conclusion that I could put my house under the trees.

Site Analysis

The Site Analysis was where we first started with the process of thie Tiny House project with us finding a location related to parts of our thumbprint, where I found was a nice neighborhood in Maine called, Rockwood. After finding my location I did a lot of research to determine where air currents go, where the sun shines, and where certain viewpoints are. Views including the Moosehead Lake looking through the southside of the house, and Mount Kineo to the north of the house.

Model Building

Model building was probably the most interesting part of the project as we got to make full decisions on what we did and we had to think thoroughly on what kind of events happen in your location so for me I needed something that can have 109 inches worth of snow per year slide off the roof somehow, my simple decision was making a shed roof out of fiber glass. But with the full model it shows how big the house is and how tall it's going to be, for me it was 10' tall with an initial base of 20' by 20'.