1-Storey garden house
Designer: AngelikaThurau
Perspective drawing
Site plan
Ground floor-plan
Elevations
Sections
Explanatory Report
1. Choice of building type
2. Organisation of house
3. Description of house
4. Construction
1. Choice of building type
After all initial considerations concerning this design I decided to design a one-storey house with garden area.
2. Organisation of house
Functional groups:
2.1 Representative (semi-public) area
2.2 Sleeping area (private)
2.3 Important functional rooms
This also requires:
2.1 A vestibule, entrance hall, cloakroom, WC/showerroom and sitting room
2.2 A family room with a main dining area, a kitchen with a snack corner, utility room
2.3 Children’s bedroom, master bedroom including bathrooms
2.4. Multi-purpose room, garden tool room, storage room, rubbish storage area
The basic concept for a house with a garden area originated from these functional groups with particular consideration paid to the geographical orientation. It was only after the design of this basic concept that attentions were focused on the type of construction, the HEBEL aerated concrete wall panels with a 60 cm modular grid (refer to 1.4 Construction)
Description of house
The house has two points of entrance:
A side entrance through the multi-purpose room whose initial purpose is the collection of dirt and other debris from children entering the house who, after replacing their toys, bicycles etc. enter in to the hallway with the cloakroom and WC/shower room, before they can actually enter the other areas of the house.
If one enters the house from the main front entrance the individual’s view is focused on the sitting room (“Gute Stube”) in order that visitors are able to orientate themselves with ease. Cloakroom, WC/shower room are arranged in such a way that they can be used from both points of entry in to the house.
The living area of the house is located to the right of the entrance hall: The first object to come into view is the warm, inviting tiled stove that, while providing an optical division between the family room and kitchen, also connects the two physically due to the fact that it (the oven) can be used from both sides.
The family room (and largest room) within the entire house is the central point of activity for the family. It is the meeting point for all family members. It provides them with the opportunity to conduct group activities.
Looking from the kitchen outwards, there is a view to both the pedestrian and cycle path as well as to the garden, which is particularly important for keeping an eye on children while working in the kitchen.
The utility room is connected to the kitchen for several practical reasons (e.g. simultaneous housework activities).
The storage room was originally intended to contain the stairway to the cellar. The cellar design has, however, become sidelined in the course of design planning. Now, the multi-purpose room can primarily be used for hobbies and other creative activities, or for the storage of toys as with the use of the family room.
The private area of the house can be accessed from the family room. In doing so, every family member has the possibility to withdraw to their own area. The children’s rooms are to be divided along the wardrobe wall and, consequently, can be connected to form one much larger room should the need arise. These should be oriented towards the garden (the rear children’s room facing south/west should be a peaceful room) and, like the sitting room and multi-purpose room, should have a direct connection to the garden.
The parents’ private area should begin with an own mini hallway, from which both bedroom and bathroom can be reached. It would be possible at a later date to rent out this unit given the small amount of effort required to do so and its situation to the front side of the house with a separate access point.
1.4 Construction
The organisation of the house is reflected in the construction: The individual areas are defined by the supporting walls which in turn creates a cross-wall construction. It is of central importance here to consider the cross bracing of the bulkheads and their connection through a circular beam. The difficulties involved here were the required room sizes as well as to coordinate the situation of the rooms and the necessary statics, especially when not all rooms are to be braced with an additional horizontal high beam (in the sitting room, family room, children’s rooms and master bedroom, the roof pitch remains visible for internal, architectural design reasons).
The roof form was determined to be a sloping roof (~ 15°), that traces back to the cross-wall construction. All roof ridges and cullies flow in the direction of the cross-walls. When choosing the roof surface material, efforts to keep in line with current ecological building trends were made, and so a green covering of a roof was chosen.