A. Three Aggregated Studies

The three aggregated site plan studies in this section have been done without specific sites. In Sections 4.0 and 5.0, aggregated studies will be applied to specific sites in Section 230 and at the port. These examples may help for future unplanned sites, and they are good ways to describe how individual houses can combine to form streets and blocks and public spaces.

When you drop the individual house types into a setting that has common property lines and street frontages, it is easier to talk about how different types can be oriented to facilitate privacy at common property lines, or how to take advantage of longer off-site views.

There are four variants of these studies – three single family studies and one multi-family studies. This is the first of three studies without a specific setting. Studies in Sections 4.0 and 5.0 will start to use these three studies in specific settings.

The individual house types, at about 14 meters on a side, including walled inner yards, form the building blocks of these studies. Typically four lots form a small block and nine of these small blocks can fit in a hectare. The small blocks are separated by footpaths or alleys

The middle block can either be fully developed, providing the most building sites, or it can be used for common purposes like parking or utilities or open recreational space. Or it can be a small park or plaza. If the middle block is vacated for recreation, it is relatively easy to give every lot either street frontage or park or plaza frontage.

When the middle block is developed with four lots, greater care has to be taken to give interior lots frontage on small landscaped areas along one of the footpaths. This also has the effect of making the footpaths more varied and pleasant.

When the middle block is developed with parking, one of the footpaths is widened to form an alley. The 2011 Census cites car ownership of 30%, and so 10-12 spaces can be provided to accommodate this rate of ownership. Higher parking requirements just require the displacement of some additional public areas.

There are two things that are infinitely variable - the size and location of small public spaces along the footpaths, and the size of private lots. The four examples here are representative but not exhaustive descriptions of how lots and landscaped space can be arranged.

Landscaped areas are located and sized to give all interior lots frontage on mid-block green areas. Lots reflect the capacity to develop full lots, half lots, and double lots. In the extreme, four lots could be combined.

Then there is the question of how to match lots with house types and there is a logic to this, too. All 14 by 14 meters lots have secure inner gardens, but two other conditions should be addressed – privacy at common property lines and maximum exposure to green common areas or street frontages. Generally wings extend along exposures fronting on a landscaped open space, and along common property lines.

Smaller forty square meter houses work well on half lots, and family compounds for large households require more than two hundred square meters, and so they are generally on combined lots where property lines have been vacated. Increasing small or partial lots increases density. Combining lots decreases density. Vacating the middle block decreases density, and so one hectare block can reflect a range of block coverages and lots counts.

The benefits of larger lots are obvious, but the case for smaller lots rests in the very scarcity of land. Blocks like these would be used in parts of a master plan that are especially desirable –probably coinciding with public spaces or commercial precincts.

The shade in these blocks comes both from trees in the small public spaces and from trees in private gardens that overhang footpaths and can be seen over walls. One advantage of these smaller lots is that site development costs are lower, and what money there is for landscaping can be more concentrated. But each house should have at least one tree, over excavated to facilitate the growth of a root ball in the tough marl of the remediated site.

On the multi-family study, the amount of land is held constant while the larger, wider, stacked buildings increase the number of possible households that a single hectare might hold, without diminishing the quality of life. Multi-family houses decrease land costs per household, and the more efficient building envelopes of the multi-family buildings should decrease building costs.

The site planning of the multi-family provides secure courtyards shared by several households. All households face a green space. The courtyards are separated by mid-block footpaths and served by a mid-block alley. The layout of the buildings and the mix of one and two story buildings achieves high land coverages without the repetition of the port housing. There is a public loggia on the street. This could be flanked by housing or commercial use.

SECTION 3.A

The following sheets show a number of ways blocks of a single hectare can be organized with varying lot counts, lot sizes, and block density.

This sheet shows an American precedent that started out as a very abstract idea of how to survey and organize the country’s frontier territory. The Northwest Ordinance of 1785-1787 provided for townships six miles on a side, with thirty-six one square miles. Each township provided for a school on one square and allotted four squares to soldiers in the war for independence.

Each square mile is divisible into quarter sections of 160 acres, and each quarter section can be further divided into four parcels of 40 acres. These 40-acre parcels became the module of real-estate transactions, but they could be divided up even further. The government could sell these parcels or give them away as incentives to settle the territories.

The drawing on the left shows the original divisions of the township. The map on the right shows what happens to these neat divisions after several generations of transactions. In places the original grid is still recognizable, and in other places it has been obscured by the dividing or combining of plots of land. Likely some divisions were to sell land, but others were to divide plots for succeeding generations of a given family.

The hectare block studies on the following pages represent a much smaller scale than the units of a township provided by the Northwest Ordinance, and so the studies here are characterized more by the combining of small lots than by the division of large parcels, but there is the same possibility that the master plan’s original blocks can achieve the same complexity, flexibility, and variety as the township map in green. High density lots will do the best job of underwriting the cost of infrastructure, but if you wish to draw down density and increase lots sizes in places, especially on the edges of the master plan, blocks can respond to unforeseeable needs, and unforeseeable combinations of housing types.

Lots and blocks can be relatively open, or they can be walled for security. Large lots can provide for family compounds and small lots with small houses can provide for the least expensive housing on the island. Decisions about housing needs can be made over a period of time. And blocks can be developed over a period of time.

This second precedent is much closer in scale to the Nauru blocks. The basic unit, the ward, is about four to five hectares. Each ward is 675 feet on a side, or twice the width or length of a Nauru block. The ward was repeated over and over again to create a network of streets, lots and blocks that could expand from the river. The cemetery is the only significant departure from the pattern.

Despite the repetition, the wards are capable of accommodating remarkable variety, and they have adapted over time to larger buildings and modern programs, without a modification of the street layout. Savannah is one of the America’s most beautiful cities and its plan and layout are universally praised.

Each ward is centreed around a public square and there are two basic types of blocks. The smaller 60 foot trustee lots are variously described as commercial of civic and they typically have very high lot coverage. The larger blocks on the corners each have ten residential lots, 60 by 90 feet, with an alley down the middle.

The street system makes Savannah’s lots less flexible and variable than the parcels of the Northwest Ordinance on the previous page, but by substituting mid-block footpaths for some of the streets, the Nauru blocks have much more flexibility, and lower infrastructure costs.

The alternates on this page are more or less suitable for multi-family, live-work or mixed-use buildings. This block has three courtyard buildings 30 meters on a side, and 20 single family houses.

Figure 16 -

This is a single large courtyard building, two lots by six lots long, which is probably over scaled.

Courtyard buildings cut four corners off from the courtyard, so part of the courtyard buildings are vacated so that every apartment has garden views.

The master plan has several blocks facing main roads, with ‘L’ shaped multi-family or mixed use buildings along one edge of the hectare block, and another building facing a forecourt and overlooking the mid-block gardens.

This block shows live-work units with extra mid-block parking along the alley. A narrow green space separates the single family houses from the alley.

Figure 17 - With 32 lots there are four lots that face neither a street nor a park. One solution is to have small houses there with small park frontages.

Another way to provide all lots either street frontage or frontage on a small park, is to take these same 4 lots and combine them with perimeter lots, giving them street frontage.

The master plan shows a number of blocks with a larger setback along one side of the block. When these blocks are arranged in rows, they enhance the adjacent roads and either insulate houses from noise, or aggrandize an important road like a boulevard.

In the master plan there may be reason to thin the density of perimeter blocks where they meet the landscape or where they transition to blocks with fewer, larger lots. This block has 21 lots.

Figure 18 - This block has 16 lots that each combine two smaller 15 by 15 meter lots. Every lot has either street or park frontage and larger houses for larger households. Alternatively this could provide for larger outer yards.

This block has 8 lots but maintains the basic structure provided by the footpaths. Each group of four lots combines into a single larger lot and houses have secure inner yards, and larger outer yards that could accomodate smaller outbuildings.

This block has four lots. It eliminates some footpaths but keeps the common space midblock, and introduces even larger outer yards that could be used for livestock or agriculture.

This block has two lots and the footpath system is largely eliminated. Here the agricultural lots are still larger. The main houses, for the first time, are larger than the prototypes, and they are courtyard houses with an entry garden and outbuildings for relatives, and a porch that opens onto an outer yard. There is an opportunity to have small outbuildings on the far side of the agricultural plots that could be for family members or renters.

Figure 19 - A hectare block could also be organized as a large family compound with a range of possible houses. By way of illustrating one of many possible configurations, this plan shows a large lot and eight smaller lots of equal size. Like the land organized by the Northwest Ordinance, this could start out like a single large lot that gets subdivided into smaller more affordable parcels for extended family or for future generations. It could also have some combination of housing and agriculture. As lots get larger and the density is drawn down, the infrastructure gets more expensive. The family compound might be a kind of compromise.

Figure 20 - Several alternate site plans will be described on this and the following pages. The area being tested in one hectare, or 100 meters on a side. The drawing on the left shows the development parcels, and the public spaces and footpaths that divide the block. The footpaths divide the overall block into nine squares of four residential sites. The typical house lot is 200 square meters, but some lots have been reduced in size and the space given over to public landscaped areas. Some lots are shown re-combined.

The maximum capacity of these studies is 36 houses per hectare but this count and this density can be drawn down with the combination of lots. Subsequent studies vacate the centre square for public use. Perimeter lots all have street frontage. Interior lots have frontages on footpaths and the small public spaces. The house types are drawn from the Section 2.0. Types can rotate to maximize frontage on public spaces or to provide privacy from adjacent lots. Each lot has an inner yard that is secured by a wall.

Figure 24 - In this study the centre square has been re-claimed for alternate public uses – parking and utilities. There is still limited space left over for recreational use. The 2011 RON Census said that car ownership was at about 30% of Nauruan households. Perimeter lots would park right in front of the house. Interior lots can park mid-block. There is plenty of parking. This is the study that was further developed for the hectare north of the rugby field in Section 230.

SECTION 3.A

The Smart House is basically two or three wings or floors of 40 square meters each. The twobedroom alternate is roughly 80 square meters, and the four-bedroom, roughly 120 square meters. The houses in this plan are based on these multiples of 40 square meters, but there are smaller 40 square meters layouts, too.

The lots can vary widely but all the alternates converge on a combined house and secure inner yard of about 200 square meters or 14 meters on a side. While we are waiting for sites, the linear site plan looks at one way to aggregate the lots to form a double loaded street.

One block is a fairly tight double loaded street. The other block pulls houses back on one side so the experience of passing through this group of houses is varied. The bigger setback creates a public green space, and it creates a prominent site for a public building, though it could also be a multifamily building with a larger scale.

The lots could run deeper off the road with unwalled out yards that could be used for animals of agriculture. The length of a site plan like this could vary, depending on available parcels. The narrow double load part of the site plan requires about 40 meters. The wider portion requires about 55 meters, both excluding any unwalled out yards.

The configuration of house used on any given lot is partly a function of taking advantage of open space and longer views, or of using the house to create quieter gardens off the road. Houses are also aggregated to minimize repetition and to provide a varied street front from limited house types. So for example, frontage is a higher percentage of a lot along the green so more rooms can look onto a small park.

The linear site plan is comprised of detached housing of 40 to 120 square meters. The wings are as narrow as the wings of the Smart House at 3.6 to 4.0 meters, a single room wide. They would have great light and cross ventilation, but they don’t have the most efficient building envelopes.

The linear site plan is intended to be strung out along a street. This site plan is a block and intended to have streets on either side of it or along all four edges, as context may require, and it addresses entirely different problems. Like the houses of the linear site plan, the buildings in this site all have the same width or cross section, at about 7.5 meters. This additional width provides a lot more flexibility in the interior layout because plans can be two rooms deep, which allows for more possible arrangement of the rooms.

Generally, this housing has been designed to be less expensive than the single family houses. It requires less land. It has a more efficient building envelop. Whereas the two and four bedrooms in the linear site plan are around 80 and 120 square meters, these are 67 and 90 square meters for the same bedroom count, and so they are smaller and less expensive per square meter.

The buildings have a lower percentage of openings in the walls. More than half the building area is two stories, which is not necessarily an efficiency. Common walls reduce construction costs. Housing can be fee simple or rental apartments. There could be a mix of both. None of these efficiencies, however, would be worth it if the housing was mean. The site layout is guided by a few simple ideas. Site coverage is a little below 50%, which is pretty high.

All units can be secured as they all face onto courtyards. The mix of one and two story buildings and the different orientations of the ridges, is intended to maximize the variety of the grouping and to disguise the fundamental repetition that helps bring down the construction costs.

There are several porches in the plan, three of which face the central space, which is about 22 by 30 meters. These porches are public but separate from the secure housing. The green spaces of the plan are also distributed evenly throughout the plan, and they vary within a limited range from the major space to 11 meter lawns, 7.5 meter wide lawns and even 4 meter planting strips. The right of way is about 10.6 meters, and the pedestrian paths about 6 meters.

A site plan like this can work topside or as infill at higher elevations around the perimeter of the island. SECTION