Two Houses and a Courtyard

JAKUB RYNG PROJECT 4 TWO HOUSES AND A COURTYARD

CONTENTS PAGE Introduction

Katherine & Paul

Site Analysis

Inspiration+Early Development Design Development

Courtyard+Approach

Facade Development Materials Detailing Drawings

Perspectives

Context Plan

Ground+Floor Plans Elevations Sections

Sectional Perspective Model

Photos

1 2 4 6 8 10 11 12 14 16 17 18 22 25 27 28

INTRODUCTION The aim of this project is to design a house based around a shared 6x6m courtyard, with a tree in the middle. The building is meant to house a young family of two, the details and idiosyncrasies of which will be elaborated upon, to the extent where they will be helpful in making certain design decisions, but also allow for a more generic, holistic approach.

The building is to be constructed out of masonry and as usual, must stay true to the structural properties of the material.

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KATHERINE & PAUL DREAMS

LIFE

WORK

Katherine and Paul have been married for five years now. Though they don’t have any kids they consider themselves to be a family of four: the two of them and their two cats: Sasha and Boris. Both Katherine and Paul work from home, though their professional

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lives differ greatly. They both lead rather quiet lives.

Sometimes they do entertain some guests, but – to be frank – they would rather not. They like good wine, good art, good music. They are learned and sensitive enough to appreciate good architecture.

KATHERINE ROSALYN SMITH AGE: 29 OCCUPATION: SELF EMPLOYED ACCOUNTING CONSULTANT

PAUL EMMERSON SMITH AGE: 27 OCCUPATION: SHORT STORY CHILDREN BOOK WRITER, POET, FREELANCE JOURNALIST

Up above all other things is Paul’s studio.

This is where he creates and where has his nervous breakdowns; this where he writes and where he meditates when things are slow. This is his place of privacy and seclusion from society as well as a commanding tower, from which he can scrutinize the world below.

PAUL’S WORK

Paul’s Studio

0.20

8.30

This is where the “life” - the interaction between the Katherine and Paul happens.

This is where they sleep, eat, entertain...

This is where life flourishes, just as the leaves of the tree across the window.

FOOD PREPARATION

Kitchen/Dining Area Living Room Master Bedroom Ensuite Guest Bedroom Bathroom

12.50

11.40

Katherine’s work as an accounting consultant supports the household financially. She provides the strong foundations for the material existence and prosperity of the family, just like the trunk of the tree supports the crown above.

KATHERINE’S WORK

Entry hall Garage Katherine’s Office

5.60

0.10

WRITING SLEEPING

EATING SLEEPING ENTERTAINING

MEETING CLIENTS

Katherine and Paul own two beatiful cats Sasha and Boris.

It could be said that given the apparent divisions between them in terms of their professinal lives, the two cats serve as a bonding agent between the couple. Slow, languid, without a care in the world, Sasha and Boris seem to traverse all the divisions between spaces unifying them into one single home.

SASHA AGE: 6 BREED: RUSSIAN BLUE

VISUAL COMMUNICATION

ROOMS

VERTICAL CIRCULATION

AVG. HOURS SPENT PER DAY: PAUL

VERTICAL COMMUNICATION:

FUNCTION

AVG. HOURS SPENT PER DAY: KATHERINE

BORIS AGE: 4 BREED: RAGDOLL

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SITE ANALYSIS

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The building is most easily accessible through the north facade, which faces the road. It would also be possible to create a second entrance on the west facade.

NORTH FACADE Given the north facade’s proximity to the street, it shouldn’t house those rooms, which require a certain amount of calmess and quiet such as the bedroom or the living room.

RELATIONSHIP Because of the access paths to the park, running parallel to the site on both sides, the privacy of the building might be compromised, requiring specific design solutions.

The courtyard must be given special consideration with regards to how it affects the relationship between the two buildings.

PRIVACY The owners’ privacy is most compromised along these axes, prompting specific design solutions to minimize their exposure.

On the other hand the north and south facades of the building offer good private views of the surroundings, allowing for more extroverted design solutions.

SOUTH FACADE The southern facade opens to calm views of the park offering a quiet retreat from the busy street.

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INSPIRATION +EARLY DEVELOPMENT Louis Kahn Richards Medical Center, Philadelphia, USA (1961)

L3P Architekten 6 Family House, Regensberg, Switzerland (2008)

Louis Kahn ‘Towers, San Gimignano’. 1928. Watercolor and red pencil on paper. Collection, Williams College Museum of Art.

San Gimignano Cityscape Tuscany, Italy

Kahn’s use of masonry and precast concrete lends itself perfectly to create the monumental, soaring towers of the Richard’s Medical Labs. Crucial to the design philosophy is the structural honesty of the building, expressed in the exposed concrete beams as well as the clear division of spaces between the ‘served’ and ‘servant’ spaces.

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Kahn’s design for the Richard’s Labs is said to have been inspired by the medieval towers of the Tuscan city of San Gimignano. The patrician families of the town built around 72 towers (of which only 14 survive) to demonstrate their wealth and power.

This long and narrow house makes use of height to increase space. It is also quite interesting how in the front facade the three large window openings clearly mark each floor and frame the various activities taking place on them.

Masayoshi Takahashi House in Aoto , Tokyo, Japan (2011)

EXiT Studio Alpine Barn Restoration, Selva di Cadore, Italy (2010)

Ehrlich Architects 700 Palms Residence, Venice, USA (2009)

In this design Takahashi overcomes the restricted site size by erecting a vertical house based around a central spiral square staircase, which forms the spine of the building. All rooms are positioned on quarter- and half-floors based around it, forming an astounding sculptural feature inside.

Richard Cole Architecture Hilltop House, Sydney, Australia (2010)

In all three of the above designs the structural elements of the building are left exposed. More interestingly they all use a hybrid of timber and steel elements - something, which due to the contrasting nature of the two suits this brief rather well.

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The glass clad staircase is placed along the central axis of the courtyard, which coincides with the tree in the middle.

In this way, a close relationship between the staircase and the tree is established.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT 8

TWO TOWERS

PRIVACY/ EXPOSURE

The rooms are housed within two towers separated by a staircase.

There is a half-floor height difference between the them resulting in a varied internal landscape and an amplified consciousness of the verticality of the building for the occupants.

The glass clad staircase is directly exposed to the internal courtyard as well as the path walk to the west of the site. This sense of exposure induced in the occupants of the space should force them to seek privacy in the two towers, thus increasing the sense of verticality of space.

#3 To resolve the issue the living room is moved in place of the downstairs office, while the office takes place of the garage. In this way, the guest bathroom is directly beneath the ensuite also creating a double-height ceiling in the living room.

#1 Both the living room as well as the master bedroom are housed within the south tower, providing the two rooms with the necessary privacy and quiet.

#2 In an attempt to organise the layout of the services, the two bathrooms are stacked one on top of the other.

This however pushes the living room into the north tower, which under the circumstances is not ideal.

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SUMMER

Pinus sylvestris

This evergreen Scots Pine is placed in the centre of the 6x6 courtyard in line with the glass staircase of the house.

WINTER The two trees placed in the internal courtyard serve as an allegory of the respective lifestyles and life roles of Katherine and Paul. The central evergreen pine constitutes the strong and constant foundations of the couple’s lives - similarly to Katherine’s job.

The birch -like Paul - goes in cycles, losing its leaves every winter.

Betula pubescens

This decideous birch is placed offcenter, to the side of the taller Pine.

COURTYARD+ APPROACH KITCHEN /DINING

LIVING ROOM KATHERINE’S OFFICE

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KATHERINE’S OFFICE

At first, the design involved long vertical windows running all the way from the ground to the top end of the roof. This solution - although adding to the castle-like aesthetics of the building - were quite unpractical due to the small amount of light they would let into the house.

To account for the shortcomings of the tall-and-narrow window solution, a grid was set up in plan to organize the space and fenestration. Thus a more traditional facade with a certain degree of randomness with regards to the position of the openings was created.

FACADE DEVELOPMENT 2090 mm

The final opening dimensions employed constituted a compromise between the two previously explored solutions. Having changed the grid dimensions to decrease the spacing between the grid lines, the windows have become narrower. This solution maintains the sense of verticality suggested by the shape of the openings, while still admitting adequate levels of light into the building.

740 mm

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MATERIALS

Standing Seam Zinc Roofing System

Internal Perspective STAIRCASE

Ibstock Bricks Vitessa White 5101

Intumescent Paint RAL 8019 - Black Brown

Rustic Oak Flooring Beige Brown Satin Lacuer

Internal Perspective KITCHEN Solid Concrete Blocks Texture Fisnish

Concrete Floor Tiles

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215.9mm 65mm 215mm 102.5mm

The external leaf of the walls is constructed of standard-size bricks with the above-written dimensions.

The simple stretcher bond used in this design bears resemblance to the overall floor layout in the house, thus expressing the conceptual meaning of the design on a smaller scale.

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206.2mm

The steel beams used to support the timber floor each span a distance of 4100mm.

The mortar joints in the outer brick layer are weathered to shed water away from the walls.

In a direct reference to the lifestyle of Katherine and Paul, where one member of the family supports the other, the floors of the house are a hybrid of steel H-beams placed at 2000mm centres and slender timber members placed perpendicularly to the steel beams at 435mm centres. This structure is left exposed on almost all ceilings as a way of reminding the residents of the inherent pyramid of their lifestyle.

The steel beam bears directly on the concrete blocks of the cavity wall.

DETAILING 15

DRAWINGS ▲ External Perspective VIEW FROM THE STREET ► Internal Perspectives LIVING ROOM

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CONTEXT PLAN 1:200

meters 0

2

4

8

16

17

GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1:50

meters 0

ENTRY LOGGIA

18

0.5

1

2

4

KATHERINE’S OFFICE

STAIRCASE/ ENTRY HALL

LIVING ROOM

1ST AND 2ND FLOOR PLAN 1:50

KITCHEN AREA

meters 0

DINING AREA

1ST FLOOR

STAIRCASE

GUEST BATHROOM

0.5

1

2

4

FOOTBRIDGE WITH ACCESS TO BOOKSHELVES

2ND FLOOR

19

3RD AND 4TH FLOOR PLAN 1:50

meters 0

BALCONY

0.5

1

2

GUEST BEDROOM

3RD FLOOR

20

4

STORAGE SPACE

STAIRCASE

EN-SUITE

MASTER BEDROOM

4TH FLOOR

5TH AND 6TH FLOOR PLAN 1:50

BALCONY

PAUL’S WORKSPACE

5TH FLOOR

meters 0

STAIRCASE

0.5

1

2

4

OUTSIDE ROOF TERRACE

6TH FLOOR

21

NORTH ELEVATION 1:50

WEST ELEVATION 1:50

NORTH ELEVATION 1:50

LONG SECTION 1:50

SHORT SECTION 1:50

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