about size. is it truly matters?

small is beautiful, but, oh well, the bigger the better.
whose side are you on?

:D

Final Rendition, a Small House

Creating designs from one competition to another is the path I choose to hone my design skills. Although winning is a rare occasion for me, design process is an enjoyable journey to go through.

This one is the design entry for Sayembara Rumah Mungil 2007, an annual competition held by Tabloid Rumah. This year is the third period of competition and the entries keep getting better by the year.

The design of this house basically focuses on how to gain optimum thermal comfort solution while also paying attention to function and aesthetics of the design.

The front façade is facing west, so in order to minimize the negative effect of sun light coming from that direction, the wall treated as a solid plane, with numerous variable small openings, still allowing light to come through. Behind the wall is a bathroom. (One of wacky idea of creating perverted architecture.)

On the side of this house with openings along the wall, it is possible to gain sunlight from this direction. To reduce direct sunlight, a set of sun shadings applied in front of the side facade.

Images explaining the thermal solution for this house design.

On the interior, a void provided at the center of the house, enabling the use of skylight to improve (again) day lighting and allowing the use of natural ventilation inside the house. With strategically located openings and an open plan concept applied in the interior, it is possible to let the house free running, meaning operating without any air conditioning equipments.

Aerial view, also showing skylight at the center of the house.

The program designed to separate public and private areas of a house, with the ground floor is all about getting together with families and friends, living room, kitchen, dining room, are all here in one setting of open plan, and arranged in a way that they surrounds an inner courtyard. The first floor is for private settings, with bedrooms for parents and children put at this level. The second floor contains a small workroom and a library, dedicated for the father, accessed through the main bedroom, with a balcony upfront.

Schematic program of the house.

Ground floor plan.

First floor plan.

Three living stories, a concept of function and program.

A common composition in traditional architecture (kepala, badan, kaki) translated into contemporary form design.

Small openings intruding the front facade, continued into the form of the front gate.

Dead tired for today, see you around...

Within The Box, A Facade Design

The first design I would like to show you is a façade design submitted to a design competition. In this design, I want to highlight how stairs no longer have to be hidden behind walls. Instead, it can be a focal point that attracts people to gather and spend their time in an open space provided on the second floor of this house. The movement of people also becomes a lively display that is attractive, especially when many of the owner’s friends coming to the house and attending a party, right?

The box-like form of this facade meant to display simplicity in the design. Instead making people focus on the house’s form, drawing people’s attention to what is happening inside the space, the void located on the second floor, is the initial idea.

Stairs as focal point in the design.

Within the Box.

For that competition, I submitted two entries, and the second one was simply about playing with forms. What I thought at that time was how to change the simple box design, as I made in the first design, into something less simple, more attractive and more chaotic. The answer I found was to hit the box with a hammer (Wham! Bam!), and, voila, that is the second design. Sometimes being playful is necessary to relieve the stress building up when you’re designing something.

The second design, Wham!, Bam!