Noah Helms: Architectural Design I
Pavel Vladychenko, Wikimedia commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
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In the first project, we were tasked with creating a backyard cottage. The cottage was classified as an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) which meant that it had to be able to support a person living inside of it. An additional requirement of this project was the reflection of a craft. Each person received a craftsman that was supposed to be represented in the design of the cottage. The craft I was given was leather. Thinking about leather and it's qualities was going to be a necessity in order to create a cohesive design.
Cottage Investigation
I started my investigation in this project by getting an in-depth understanding of backyard cottages. I discovered that many of these cottages had multi use areas. The living room was combined with the bedroom and dining room. The kitchen and bathrooms were almost always the smallest in the cottage, and sometimes it didn't even have a kitchen.
Concept Design
Deeper into this project, we were asked to create designs for our first generation of cottages. In total, we made 6 different designs. The very first design I made was a rectangle with a sloped roof. After reviewing this design, it didn't reflect the aspects of leatherworking that I wanted to show. My next step was to research design techniques to imitate the malleability and flexibility of leather.
Concept 01- A simple rectangular box with a classic sloped roof on top.
Concept 02- A T-shaped cottage with an intersecting slanted roof.
Concept 03- A semi-circle with a smaller semi-circle cut out of it. This design evolved to include two intersecting semi-circles
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Schematic design
My schematic design takes inspiration from several different aspects in the leatherworking process. On one hand, it takes inspiration from a stitch that is used to bring together the different parts of leather into something beautiful, just like the open central portion of the cottage pulls in the rest of the aspects of the house. On the other, it also resembles a round knife that is often used by leatherworkers to precisely cut or shave off some unwanted thickness. One thing I wanted to shave off in my final design was the ginormous, picturesque windows
Final Design
The final design I had thought of consisted of a single building with room for an offshoot from the driveway and a garden in the back. I utilized few large rectangular windows on the building and instead opted for smaller, more detailed windows. The entrance of the house leads into a foyer where you can choose one of the four ways to go. The bedroom and workshop were on opposite areas of the house to keep business away from casual. The bathroom is to the left of the entrance and is quite large for being an ADU. The cooking space and social space have been merged together to allow for ease of use. If someone living here wanted to have people over, they could have a meal, a conversation, or both. The below photos are the elevations, floorplan, site plan, and final model.
Project 02: Bridge house
For our second project, we were tasked with creating a house for a master craftsman on top of a steel truss bridge. To be more specific, Old Alton bridge in Denton county. This historic site provided an unusual challenge, that being that a house wasn't supposed to be built on it. I came up with 3 designs to start off with, four triangles wrapping around the bridge, a coil around the bridge, and a set of hashtags framing the bridge.
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4 triangles wrapped around and spanning the length of the bridge
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a coil with a tunnel from the end to the entrance
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6 hashtags arranged in a cube shape around the bridge
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Schematic design
In the end, I went with the coil design, but I knew that the curvature would pose extreme challenges when creating a model. the first step was simplifying the design into an M shaped building. This allowed for a better use of space along with an easier time creating future models. The slants going up and down would house angled elevators to allow for ease of transport.
Final Design
For my last iteration of this design, I closed the gaps between the buildings and made the slanted parts completely vertical. I also switched out the elevators for spiral stairs (which I would later come to regret). I made the workspace extremely large to allow for machinery or large finished products. The guest bedroom is small, leaving enough room for a queen-sized bed, and the guest bath is roomy for a toilet and sink. I utilized an open-concept kitchen to not impede the dining area or the hallway to the stairs. The private bed and bath are extremely large, allowing for anything to fit in. Further on, there is the lounge area with a dry bar to relax in after a long day. nearly every building has multiple windows in it, except for the entrance which doesn't have any. This design speaks of the disconnected part of crafting. The very beginning when ideas are chaotic, and working on them seems very different from plan to plan. In the end however, they all come together into one cohesive product.
