Tuesday 12 May 2009

The Cohousing-housing

While the first two floors serve mostly public or community uses, community referring to the cohousing community, the upper floors contain the residential units and more intimate community programme. In total, this scheme provides 16 residential units. 5 3 bedroom units, 5 2 bedroom units, 3 1 bedroom units, and 3 studio apartments. In a quick rundown, floors 2-5(6) contain the following residential and cohousing units:
2nd floor: one 1 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one 2 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one cohousing guest room in the circulation corridor, one studio in the courtyard building, and a second 2 bedroom apartment in the courtyard building. In total 4 units.

3rd floor: one 2bedroom apartment in the street front building, one studio in the street front building, one cohousing guestroom in the circulation corridor and two 1 bedroom apartments in the courtyard building. In total, 4 units.

4th floor: one 3 bedroom apartment in the street front building, one cohousing guest room in the circulation corridor, one studio in the couryard building and one 2 bedroom apartment for a total of 3 units.

5th floor contains the entrance and mainfloors for 4 duplex units. Including the 6th floors contirbution to these units, the street front buidling contains two 3bedroom apartments, and the courtyard building contains one 3bedroom and one 2 bedroom. In the circulation corridor there are two office spaces.

The 6th floor is the place to have a little fun in terms of new construction. The roof line in it's essences is a simple A-line roof however it has been modified so much and so poorly to accomodate as much as was possible under the eaves that it most likely needs to be replace completely. My scheme proposes the maintainance of the original A line roof but with newely designed dormers to accomodate an expanded floor plan, or at least expanded headroom for the existing floor plan. It was decided that dormers could be modern as they cannot be seen from the street which means that the historical character of the building would not be compromised. For now the gables are just blocked out, but my imagination is working...

Tuesday 5 May 2009

The Adjusted First Floor

In an effort to remedy the two major issues i had with the last plan, the following plan evolved. The space occupied by the café on the second floor allows only enough room for toilets and the kitchen which alleviates the need for a secondary egress, which in turn allows for the day care centre to have a visual connection to the courtyard.

The visual connection was of great significance as it increases the number of monitored windows on the first floor. The windows on the stairwells are only monitored on an infrequent basis by people coming and going, leaving them frequently unmonitored. The windows in the guest suite are only monitored when there is someone using the suite and in which case it is mostly used in the evening, not throughout the day, likewise the two bedroom windows in the apartment only offer (in an average household) occasional monitoring. Now that the daycare occupies the 3 windows on the first floor in the building on the road, there is a better balance throughout the day. The daycare is used on a daily basis while the more private or intimate spaces in the evening.