Mixed-Use Row House Design
Through desktop research and tissue analysis, the students designed a new urban design framework for a portion of the informal settlement in the Denver area which would be developed over the rest of the precinct in different phases. Different building typologies were also allocated to the students within the urban design framework for their individual designs for the Denver area.
The individual concept was to design a mixed-use row house within Denver comprising of private and commercial spaces for its residents and stakeholders. By using informal settlement statistics from desktop research as a guideline in order to formulate a program for the amount of individuals that would inhabit the residential units at an affordable level as well as the type of building materials that are available within close proximity to the site.
The ground floor was designed with two programs. The street edge of the site comprises of four semi-retail edges which were pushed back from the public pavement to allow for an intermediate edge with low pedestrian traffic. The edge facing the communal garden contains a library, computer lab as well as a studying facility for the Denver neighbourhood. Sliding stacking doors exist in these areas to allow for a permeable edge. These doors could also be closed up in times where the community would have a boardroom meeting or if the individuals within the district would hold any form of exhibition. The boardroom would then be transformed into a store room for unused chairs and tables.
By providing the individual owners of each unit in the row house typology a base building, stack of drywalls and an instruction manual each individual can fit out their own unit using a clip-in system. The idea is to have holes drilled into the floor and ceiling of the base building at 200mm increments so that the drywalls could be assembled in this grid. The drywall would be clipped into the floor and locked in place in the ceiling using a latch. Individuals would also have the possibility of assembling their own micro-furniture systems if they wish, thus giving the resident the power of ownership within their home.
The materials used for the row house units are steel sheeting on the facades with paint on the ground floor area as well as the balconies for easy maintenance. Structural plastic lumber was used for the framed pathway between the communal garden and the communal library and study area as well as on the North-East facade. This wood-like looking material was chosen as it is an inexpensive lightweight fabric whose colour could be altered according to whatever specification an individual would like.
The obstacles faced within this project was the limitation of collecting important data on site and designing a compact unit that could cater for a large density of individuals within Denver. The students used online data that was collected by the previous year's UJ students and only visited the site once, therefore they could not collect as much necessary data as they could have if they immersed themselves within the context as they did in the previous projects. The spatial designs for the residential units were challenging but forced me to think of different ways to use a space for many activities. By sub-dividing the floor plans and researching micro-housing, in particular, aided in my design process and enabled me to allow more individuals to occupy a single row house over two floors than what I initially designed.
Professor Kendall's visit to the university also assisted me in this project as he taught us how to critically analyze an existing row house and how to transform it into an spatially efficient building using Open Building methods - what would be part of the base building structure and what would be the infill. Through this exercise as well as the Denver project, I feel that I have grown more into understanding how to design more effectively and efficiently than I did before starting this course.
The individual concept was to design a mixed-use row house within Denver comprising of private and commercial spaces for its residents and stakeholders. By using informal settlement statistics from desktop research as a guideline in order to formulate a program for the amount of individuals that would inhabit the residential units at an affordable level as well as the type of building materials that are available within close proximity to the site.
The ground floor was designed with two programs. The street edge of the site comprises of four semi-retail edges which were pushed back from the public pavement to allow for an intermediate edge with low pedestrian traffic. The edge facing the communal garden contains a library, computer lab as well as a studying facility for the Denver neighbourhood. Sliding stacking doors exist in these areas to allow for a permeable edge. These doors could also be closed up in times where the community would have a boardroom meeting or if the individuals within the district would hold any form of exhibition. The boardroom would then be transformed into a store room for unused chairs and tables.
By providing the individual owners of each unit in the row house typology a base building, stack of drywalls and an instruction manual each individual can fit out their own unit using a clip-in system. The idea is to have holes drilled into the floor and ceiling of the base building at 200mm increments so that the drywalls could be assembled in this grid. The drywall would be clipped into the floor and locked in place in the ceiling using a latch. Individuals would also have the possibility of assembling their own micro-furniture systems if they wish, thus giving the resident the power of ownership within their home.
The materials used for the row house units are steel sheeting on the facades with paint on the ground floor area as well as the balconies for easy maintenance. Structural plastic lumber was used for the framed pathway between the communal garden and the communal library and study area as well as on the North-East facade. This wood-like looking material was chosen as it is an inexpensive lightweight fabric whose colour could be altered according to whatever specification an individual would like.
Professor Kendall's visit to the university also assisted me in this project as he taught us how to critically analyze an existing row house and how to transform it into an spatially efficient building using Open Building methods - what would be part of the base building structure and what would be the infill. Through this exercise as well as the Denver project, I feel that I have grown more into understanding how to design more effectively and efficiently than I did before starting this course.
