The end.

Ok this should be my last post... a little bit sad really. My Cabin(as shown in the diagrams): Is an environmental filter:

• Has limited and specially placed windows. It is framing the views. The design decides what can/ can not be seen.
• The design is a reaction to the site. The corner of the cliff/ flat ground is the basis of it's form.
• My cabin is built close in to the side of the cliff, and is made of concrete walls. It is well protected from the elements.
• There are indoor outdoor elements to my cabin, as you have to pass outdoors from the study to the main house. The actual outdoor spaces are also sheltered from most sides, either underneath other parts of the building, or close in-between the sides of the cliff and the cabin.
  
  

Is a container of human activity:

• The different elements of my house are broken form each other like in Casa Tolo, but they are in smaller groups.
• The whole house is on one bent over path, with each place coming off this path.
• The indoor outdoor paths (from Casa Tolo) have been merged into one going in AND out.
  

Is a cause for delight:

• Influences from Esher have shaped my cabin into a game of illusion.
• My Cabin design should look natural (in an industrialized way)on the site, as if it had fallen from the cliff.
• My Cabin should reveal itself to the road as just the Esher-esque frontage. The layout/planning of the building is only revealed as you walk through the building.
  

Hopefully my Cabin has successfully achieved the above, and would be a place that Alvaro Leite Siza Vieria would enjoy living in.

Signing out,
El.
(DAB310 n7219326)

Site plan:

(click on image to see bigger copy)

3D Cabin.

External:

(Just looking through a bit of the cliff)

Internal:

I was just going to have the external view, but in light of my conversation with tiffany (and also having to explain it a few times to various people, I have included a view from the stairs that lead to nowhere. This is my reflection spot, looking out over the landscape. Hopefully this vignette gives a little more meaning to why i didn't just have the stairs infilled.

Forbidden CAD

I know we were not ment to be using CAD, but I was getting confused by my design in 3D views, so I did up an (ultra quick) SketchUp to understand the plans and sections. So here is the FORBIDDEN CAD:

These were part of my learning experience, and in the meeting on last friday Lindy told us to upload any models or CAD we had anyway, so enjoy :)

Section and space planning

Here is my critical section: (there was penciled in furniture to give an idea of the space planning, but it hasn't turned out when I've uploaded the blog, so underneath I have a mini colour coded section).

Red: Bath

Yellow: Bedroom

Pink: Living

Orange: Dining

Blue: Kitchen

Green: Reflection

Purple: Studio (on other side of wall).

Elevations.

Finally! These Elevations have been in progress for almost a week now. It feels quite good to have them uploaded.

Plans

After much deliberation, the plans for my Cabin:

Internal space planning.

These diagrams were the key steps in my process of figuring out the planning of the internal workings of my Cabin. (More for a house as a container of human activity)

My Cabin sketches...

I tried really hard to keep in the same style as Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira. I found this especially difficult - especially in relation to his sketches. They look simple because they are - his scribbles catch the essence of Casa Tolo, however trying to replicate someone else's sketches proved to be very very very difficult. The following two are my best attempts:

This first sketch was done in an attempt to figure out the internal/ and external stair workings. It was completed in the process of explaining the design to my house-mate.

The second image was the first attempt I had at converting my ideas into the style of my Architect.

Neither image looks particularly aesthetic, but both turned out to be pretty much the final design, and useful in explaining it as such.

The Architect's sketches

In our brief we are supposed to be basing our drawing style of that of the architect we are studying, so here are some of Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira's sketches:

(Sketch 01)

(Sketch 02)

(Sketch 03)

(Sketch 04)

References:

Guerra, F. (2009) Sketch 01 [Image]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/croquis-4/

Guerra, F. (2009) Sketch 02 [Image]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/croquis-1/

Guerra, F. (2009) Sketch 03 [Image]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/croquis-2/

Guerra, F. (2009) Sketch 04 [Image]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/croquis-3/

Blog stalking!

I have been blog-spot stalking! I admit it!

I found some really really good blogs on Casa Tolo through my searches, especially these two:

1.

This one has a short youtube video of Casa Tolo from a CAD program:

http://dab310-tolohouse.tumblr.com/

2.

This one I think isn't featuring Casa Tolo, but under the research I noticed a website I hadn't found on Casa Tolo (which is included underneath as well as through following the blog). The reference took me to a whole heap of sections and plans I hadn't come across and also to a few new photos!

http://tumblr.rpstry.com/

(and the linked web site)

http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/

There is some really good stuff out there in DAB310 world! Check these out!

Here is the exciting discoveries I have made through other DAB310ers:

I really love this image - the site just before construction, because at the moment I am working on the site plans, and that is all I have completely organized, so I feel like this is where my Cabin is up to at the moment.

(Guerra, 2009)

(Morgetha, 2010)

Reference:

Guerra, F. (2009) construccion1 [Image]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.archdaily.com/893/tolo-house-alvaro-leite-siza/construccion1/

Morgetha. (video creator) (2010). Tolo House by Alvaro Siza [streaming video recording]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mg4UJbJpZQ

The Architect.

Hello, just a little experiment on adding youtube videos!

here is a video for all of us out there:

(note the lyrics:

"I'm gonna go home and shut up for a year

And when the year is over I'll reappear

And have a solution" )

Reference

dEUS. (Artist) (2008). The Architect(from Vantage point) [streaming      video recording]. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2CFDsG_oxg

Task 3c

Task 3.1c

Beginning with the non-existing street frontage, Casa Tolo takes you on a journey throughout, only revealing itself in steps.

Task 3.2c

My Cabin aims to reveal itself from the inside out only.

You can only understand the geometry completely from the outside 2nd floor. All street views of the house only reveal the upside down staircase front with no clues to the internal organs.

Task 3b

Task 3.1b

Casa tolo (due to it's structure and material) seems very natural, as if it was part of the steep incline.

Task 3.2b

My cabin aims to feel as if has fallen off the cliff, and arrived in a pile at the bottom. Both reacting to site.

Task 3a: A house is a cause for delight.

Task 3.1a

Influences from Esher (see a house is a cause of delight).

Task 3.2a

Influences from Esher.

Task 2c

Task 2.1c
Casa Tolo has two interweaving paths of indoor / outdoor.

Task 2.2c

My cabin has just one path that passes through indoor and outdoor. This path is folded on top of itself as well (due to change in site).

Task 2a: A house is a container of human activity.

Task 2.1a

Casa tolo (internally) has modules all coming off the one hallway.

Task 2.2a

My cabin follows the same idea, except the hallway bends up on itself.

Task 2b

Task 2.1b

The bedrooms are all separated by stairs and by angle.

They are segregated from the rest of the house.

They are also small.

Shared space is encouraged more, but it would be easy to find your own 'alone' time.

Task 2.2b

The bedroom of my cabin is underneath the main living space.

It is only accessible from one route.

The stairs down to it are small and hooked. I have chosen to do this in an effort to make them feel more private.

Task 1c

Task 1.1c

Being partially buried and made of concrete, Casa Tolo has thermal advantages.

Task 1.2c

Being so close in to the edge of a cliff gives protection my cabin from weather.

Task 1b

Task 1.1b

Casa Tolo works on a different plane to that of a regular house. This distances it from the neighborhood.

1.2b

My cabin presents a street frontage that gives no clue as to shape from behind, and no windows to understand the internal. Privacy.

Task 1a: A house is an environmental filter.

Hello, as usual, early morning/ VERY late night posts of yesterday'swork. Conveniently this weeks tutorial followed exactly where i needed it to in my design process. We looked at our cabin according to the three concepts (delight/container/filter) and compared this to our exemplars to see how well we were linking our design with what we knew of the architect. We worked with diagramming to better understand this:

Task 1.1a

Casa Tolo flows down the site.

Task 1.2a

My Cabin's flow is all directed into the corner of the cliff.

Moving through delight into activity.

I decided to look at a house as a cause for delight next. This seemed to follow on. I did a few sketches but was still ending up with a pile of cubes that resembled some form of bent staircase (see the sketches posted on tuesday). I think this idea was ok, but I wanted something a bit more... delightful!

I decided to use the same process as for environmental filter. I went through my notes and my brainstorming and finally settled on a small thought-chain. ALSV (Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira) saying he had had influences from Esher as a child (see 'A house is a...' posted tuesday). I have always loved Esher's work, and I immediately began thinking about another of Esher's stair artworks:

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972): Relativity 1953 Lithograph

http://www.mcescher.com/

From here I started sketching. I had the image above in view and was still trying to leave the essence of Casa Tolo in my work, as well as trying to sketch like ALSV. (I know! multitasking!).

After sketching, re-sketching, showing to my housemates (and trying to explain with just the images), then re-sketching again i have come up with the following:

This first image was the first of my sketches that I felt resembled ALSV's style. It was the first, and so far is the best, but I needed to revert to a more geometrical lines view to try and explain the design to my housemate. (I was working on the principle that if someone studying Exercise science or Occupational therapy can understand my sketches then they should be easily deconstructed by my peers and tutor).

This next sketch was my effort at this. still a little drafty and having a few issues on the front wall, but certainly more readable.

The idea is that the studio is underneath. You leave the studio by the door shown in the middle bottom. You then follow around and up onto the next floor. This takes you underneath a reversed staircase and out onto a small platform, from there your only choice is into the door shown on the right. this leads to a staircase. There is nothing else on this floor. the staircase leads out on top of that 'block' from which point you enter the living/kitchen/bedroom space (as to be defined when I work on a house as a container of human activity next). Inside there is the staircase which is the revers side of the one above the first level. This leads down to a window. Leads to no where.

Hopefully I would like this design to finish up as a space from and for ALSV's inspiration.

This last image is of my VERY rough drafts of plans for the house. I have pretty much got down the exterior plans, and now just have to start focusing on a house as a container of human activity.

LIGHTNING BOLT MOMENT!!! +environmental filter.

If I had one of those light bulbs floating above my head like in a cartoon it would have just have blown a fuse from excitement!

I have an idea! What's more, I have an design which I actually feel like ALSV (Alvaro Leite Siza Vieira) would actually like to live in.

(WARNING... long narrative awaits!)

Walking to the bus stop with fellow Dab310er April, we were discussing this project and how we were planning to interpret our exemplar projects into a cabin for the architect. I have been playing with the idea of specifically choosing a site that is very different to that of Casa Tolo (see more below), and our conversation sparked an idea.

April has studied the High-gate hill house, and as such is another steep-site-designer in this instant. She was explaining her idea of a house half off a cliff.

(which sounds very good - see her blog: http://aprilsarchitecturalapprentice.blogspot.com/)

As a result of this conversation I spent my bus trip home thinking about levels and the site I needed desperately to hurry up and decide on. April's idea sparked the first thought:

How would ALSV's cabin interact with a cliff?

Casa tolo is on a steep site, and is sloped down over the whole site, it is of plain concrete, and other than the stairs, the feeling of an industrialized nature was what drew me to this exemplar. When I got home I started sketching (trying to use the same style of ALSV). At first I had the cabin perched on top of next to and half-way up a cliff, but when I drew my little pile of boxes at the base o the cliff I liked this the most. It looked (because I was drawing very small in the corner of a page), as if the house was just a pile of stones that had tumbled down and off the cliff. This was the first Idea.

Taking a step back I looked through my research and notes and tried to understand what ALSV's key elements were.

I think that just because ALSV built one house which staircases down an intense incline, this does not mean he would wish to live in a mirror image of this house (but in a Brisbane-ish context).

I think he would have an interesting site, and build the form of the cabin from the site.

Still playing with indoor/outdoor.

Still working with light.

Still leveled 3D shapes

Still separate components.

From studying Casa Tolo I believe his cabin should be a geometrical abnormality OF the site.

This was (for the moment) sort of looking at the house as an environmental filter, and having realized this i decided I'd stick with this ideal and try and figure out the next bits of my house by looking at the other two!

Southern Elevation and Site plan (of Casa Tolo)

Right, I think this is the final drawings from Casa Tolo! How exciting, after this I am developing the cabin for my architect.

Firstly I have a section and plan together, the section isn't a conventional one (so I may yet be told tomorrow that I do indeed have one drawing left), but Casa Tolo isn't exactly a conventional house.

I found these and re-drew them. I chose to use these two images together as they explain a little how the spaces within the house are organized the numbers correlate to the list below the image. I felt that this would do a better job of explaining the house than a detailed cut (through any part of the house) could. Hopefully you share my views. :)

1. Office

2. Kitchen

3. Living

4. Dinning

5. Bedroom

6. Dressing room

7. Laundry

8. Mechanical

9. Swimming pool

10. Parking

11. Entrance

[When to full size it is drawn at 1:100]

This second image is of the southern elevation:

The last image is of my site plan (any other DAB310ers out there feel free to copy and insert as your neighbors... you know what I mean *shifty eyes*). You may need to note it is at the scale 1:500. If I dropped to 1:200 it wouldn't fit on an A4 page (I know... painful!).

P.S.

References:

The first image is from this web site:

100 PROJECTOS. (2005) Blogue Da Turme E. Retrieved March 19,2010, from http://100projectos.blogspot.com/2008/01/casa-tlo.html

But also with a little help from google translator... ok a lot of help, the web site was in Portuguese and the image text was in italian. I don't think this is the original source of the image, but it correlates with the plans from the other sources I have found.

The 2nd and 3rd images were drafted off images from this text:

Yoshida, N. (Ed.) (2006). Living with nature.Architecture and

Urbanism, 426, 18.

The big picture.

Back to the plans again. This is the whole house ( the top of the hill is at the top of the page, and every thing drops down from there!)

Sketched ideas.

Finally got around to uploading some stuff last night, so now I felt I could upload these too. These are a few sketched basic ideas:

Rock Pile.
Level Two.

Corner of the verandah.

Around the Top of the Hill.

Geometry of a Cliff.

I'm not really 100% sure which option I will go with yet (yes yes, i know it is ONE WEEK till the due date). So far the Around the Hill and Corner of the verandah are my winners.

I like Around the Hill because it takes the site as the basis for it's form. I probably should show the plan view as well, but in the mean time you'll just have to stay guessing. Like Casa Tolo it works with indoors/outdoors, and sits as if it is part of the site.

(or it will when I'm finished with it *shakes fist*)

Corner of the verandah was an idea I had basing more on the indoor/outdoor working with designing to suit a climate. In a brisbane-ish climate the queenslander was built like it is for a reason... so how could I implement this into a design that i think would suit the Alvaro Liete Siza Vieira cabin.

I'm still not really sure, but I do have one more idea up my sleeve, which I think I like... I'm ust not exactly sure how to put it together... stay posted!

Also, still working on sketching like my Architect... his seemingly messy style is much harder to replicate than a hand drawn CAD plan.