Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Extra Research Found

Chicken Point Cabin

Firm: Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Link: 2004 AIA Honor Award

Where: Northern Idaho

We really like this cabin... despite its name... and we are not alone as it was granted with an honor award by the American Institute of Architects this year. This resembles no "cabin" we have ever seen, but with the elemental form and use of simple materials, the moniker seems very appropriate. The design is certainly bold, but we think that it fits nicely within its surroundings. And check out that view... we can conceive of no finer picture frame. Plus, we just want to play with that door.

Olson Kundig Architects idea for the Chicken Point Cabin was to create a lakeside shelter in the woods. This nifty little cabin features a large 30ft x 20ft window that opens to the surrounding landscape. They used unfinished low maintenance Materials like,concrete block, steel, concrete floors and plywood that would naturally age and acquire a patina that fits in with the natural setting – sleeps 10 people.


St. Lucia House

The St Lucia house project is presented here as architectural design research that investigates the improved design of a common and problematic building type, that proposes innovative and replicable responses to a broad range of significant issues in contemporary architectural practice and that demonstrates the succinct synthesis of these ideas in a single built work which is presented for expert testing and peer review. This project, designed collaboratively with Elizabeth Watson-Brown and built in 1997-98, is the most significant outcome of my architectural design research to date and has been recognized by significant awards and critical attention within the discipline of Architecture. The project is the culmination of earlier investigations into lightweight construction methods, passive climatic design for the coastal sub-tropics, critical regionalism, local and international modernism, small-lot housing, flexible intergenerational living arrangements, inside-outside space and spatial sequence in architecture, and has been used to exemplify and illustrate some of these arguments in subsequent research publications. The major claims that can be made for its significance are briefly summarized in the following broad areas:

The startling rise in the percentage of air-conditioned houses in South-East Queensland from 17% to 56% over the past decade, in an era of apparently rising environmental awareness, highlights the urgent need for architecture to make a significant contribution to environmental sustainability through the design of socially-desirable low-energy buildings which provide acceptable physiological comfort in our climate.

Most prevailing ‘environmental design’ models (including those encouraged by the Building Code of Australia) adopt a defensive attitude to climate, accepting air-conditioning use as inevitable and promoting defensive envelope design using insulation and a reduction in openings and infiltration to “conserve” energy in extreme situations. The St Lucia House is premised on the counter argument, that there is little energy to conserve if buildings are designed to be thermally comfortable without the use of air-conditioning. Passive solar gain can mitigate winter discomfort and efficient shading and ventilation can make above-average summer temperature peaks more tolerable. More importantly, the 10° annual average monthly maxima and minima thermal variations should be seen as not only tolerable, but as a positively pleasurable aspect of sub-tropical living if accommodated in the design of the building fabric and celebrated in planning for appropriate seasonal lifestyle.

The St. Lucia House employs generally well-established climatic design principles but the following major strategies are specifically emphasised in this design for environmental and polemical effect:

• Orientation & Form. A very shallow height/depth/length ratio gives due north orientation to every major room.

• Microclimate. Shade, transpiration and evaporation in the heavily treed northern court pre-cools summer breezes.

• Ventilation. The tall, one-room deep house has a 50% openable north wall and high southern openings to maximise cross-ventilation, venturi and convection effects. Internal spaces are designed as openly as possible to maximise air movement, supplemented only by occasional bedroom fan use.

• Solar Gain. The tall north window wall is fully shaded in summer and maximises winter sun penetration.

• Thermal Zoning. Lightweight upper storeys vent and cool rapidly in summer evenings, while earth-coupled lower rooms provide ‘retreat’ spaces using thermal lag effects.

• Appropriate Lifestyle. Outdoor summer living is promoted through easy interrelation of open living, kitchen, deck, barbeque, court and pool areas. Pool-side living spaces are designed for informal use in wet clothing.

Generational Independence. The strategy of a long, thin planning array that winds over five levels allows a very high degree of ‘social depth’ to maximise independence of parents, two sons, partners and friends. Six separate entrances allow flexibility and privacy of access and five discrete common spaces allow independent living for three social groupings within a 210m house.




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