Precedent Studies - Baker House, MIT

MIT Baker House Dormitory
Massachusetts, USA

Architects: Alvar Aalto

Precedent Studies - Student Housing, France

Student Housing
Epinay, France

Architects: Emmanuel Combarel Dominique Marrec(ECDM)

•Residence for students of 150 housing for 170 residents, 19 housing for researchers or invited professors and housing for women in distresses.
•the project foresees guards accommodation, private study rooms, laundry, space out relaxation internal and outer, gardens were fitted out with fruit trees
•A redevelopment to revitalise the commercial/industrial area.
•Low rise building to maintain bulk and scale of its surrounding context.

This student housing project comprised of two room types. A one bedroom apartment and apartments for long term residence(students, researchers and teachers)

Like the previous precedent studies the floor plan follows a similar layout of; an en-suite, living/bedroom, kitchenette.

In the more long term apartment the living and bedroom are separated. This allows for a more private life and to creates a homely feeling of having a separate functions carried out in difference spaces.

Each apartment opens onto an outdoor area. This is used for growing fruit trees, socialising and just enjoying the outdoor space.

The bulk and scale of this project allowed me to analysis how the apartments and public areas relate to each other and the street. The obvious difference to my scheme is the size of the project.

Precedent Studies - Up to 35 Competition

Up to 35 Competition - Student accommodation
Athens, Greece
Architects Parasite Studios

CONCEPT

•The student’s life consists of a mixture of private life, together with the need for individual seclusion for learning and public life, with public interaction and dynamic relations.

•The student’s housing units are designed as a mix of private and public areas

•The mix of private areas and public areas is essential for informal learning, facilitating the interchange of creative ideas in a free and non-academic environment, thereby boosting individual evolution and a free exposure of ideas.

•The spatial solution for housing this complex relational network was to provide a large empty living space, which is both interior and exterior, consisting of common student spaces, interior courts and roof terraces, which becomes the guideline for organizing the entire building.

•Each module comprises a common space for six students and three bedrooms.

•Every space is endowed with all the necessary equipment's and is dimensioned in order to allow easy access for people with disabilities in every module of the building.

•The bedrooms are each configured for two persons, containing study areas within the same space.

•The living room wall, which supports the inner stair plays a double role as structural and functional element. This wall contains deposit spaces for living and bedroom areas, a library and a small cooking area.

•The green spaces are linked in between in order to form a continuous environment, doubled by a raised network of pedestrian pathways.

•Materials and colours to reflect the lightness of Greek architecture.

Precedent Studies - The Canada Hotel, Melbourne

North Elevation

The Canada Hotel, Melbounre
Architect: Hayball

• Student accommodation – 219 one bedroom apartments.
• 13 levels integrated with the historic Canada hotel.
• Façade comprised of stacked geometric panels with the flare of the “Melbourne school of architecture”
• Prefab construction to control cost.

Concrete curtain façade and truss-deck flooring.

Pre-finished surfaces to limit onsite painting etc.

• Retail and café tenancies are located on the ground floor.
• Locate context makes up the colour/pattern of the interior and external balconies

North Elevation Detail - Facade & Old vs New

North Elevation & Floor Plans

The Canada Hotel redevelopment is a student accommodation project that provides one bedroom apartments on the site of the historic Canada Hotel. 

Whilst the new building brings to life the old hotel, its form and construction honours the historic hotel by being set back from Swanston Street. 

The entry to the building is marked by a dark fissure that is seemingly carved between the new and existing structures. An undulating, blackened ceiling completes the cave-like experience and escorts entrants to the reception and lift lobby.

When looking at the plans the ground floor is very public with off street retail outlets, foyer, car parking, services. Unlike the upper floors where its is primarily apartments. 

Each individual rooms have the same layout of; A en-suite, sleeping/living area separated by a partition wall. Each room had cupboard and storage space, desks and a kitchenette.

Each apartment opens on to a corridor with vertical circulation(as expected) There is no common area or meeting points on any of the floors. This prompts me to believe that social interaction is carried out on the ground floor and/or outside the building.

Precedent Studies

Upon further reflection from the S1 conceptual design review. I took a step back to define my programs for the individual(user) and the centre itself.
This lead to a more defined analysis into the layout of rooms and how that relate to common areas.


I looked at a number of different youth hostels and  student housing projects from here in Australia and from around the world. These precedent studies I focused on the rooms and how they relate to each other and the building itself, mainly circulation and communal areas.

Student Hostel, Glockengasse, Salzburg, Austria

Peter Edner & Gunter Eckerstorfer.

Stair case and detail.

Reflection from the mentioned precedent studies.

From each of the precedent studies I analysed I noticed that the room layouts all had a similar pattern of, entering, cupboard/kitchen space, living and sleeping areas with an en-suite off that.

precedent analysis and my bedroom diagrams

From my S1 research into the spacial requirements were very similar to those of the precedent studies.

Spacial requirements

Back In The Game With A Statement

Mission/Objectives:

•Have Fun!
•Go back to the main reason I decided to do a homeless centre
•Explore and test concepts to the end!
•Update blog regularly
•Update literature review
•To achieve a project that explores the role of architecture and the community to help combat homelessness.
•Present a coherent architectural/professional project.
•Control and manage my own time & discipline.

Program:

•Review 2 (27-08-10)
–Developed Concepts – Plans, sections, elevations.
–Technologies, services and material selection.
–+ Review 1.
•Submission (03-09-10)
–Review 1 & 2
–Concepts and Schematic diagrams of use.
–Models.
–3D Images.
•Review 3 (24-09-10)
–Details!
–Sectional Details of materials, structure and environmental performance.
–Detail Sectional model(concept)
•Final Submission (04-11-10)
–Hopefully not fail!
–Complete all above plus some!
•Plans, Elevations, Sections, Eco-performance diagrams, Structure diagrams, Urban/landscape plan, Internal and external views, physical and soft models, sectional model.
•Portfolio – Presentation Blog – Informal reflection documentation of semesters work.

Individual Program

Centres Program

Semester 1

In semester 1 we explored areas of: 1. Self directed written, visual and verbal investigation, 2. The study of buildings and architects, 3. Site location, analysis and response, 4. conceptual/interpretation of design solutions for a preliminary design.

My topic for my masters project is to create a development of a safe, secure and friendly community where the homeless youth of inner city Sydney can find shelter, affordable accommodation and onsite support for a more independent life.

The concept was to have a development that responded to the existing street scape, local business and surround support facilities around the inner city. The internal design was for a flexible space where groups and individuals can be housed. Further reflection highlighted the concerns of privacy, cultural differences and the general ergonomics of the layout.

Comments from final crit:
1. Deeper analysis into internal layouts of student, hotel, hostel and social housing design.
2. Woolloomooloo planning issues set by council and history.
3. Security and how social housing is planned for a safe environment for users and community.
4. Test and question entry point.
5. Zoning of functions.
6. Question user interaction.
7. Use of materials. Why? Colours? textures?

Shadows - June

Concept fly over

Portfolio - Research/Concepts

Open publication - Free publishing - More youth