Land Use and Built Form
-To create a housing pattern which has prototypical characteristics beyond the limitations of the particular site but also has the capacity to make connections with its immediate context, (information about the immediate surroundings of the competition site was insufficient to propose direct connections such as streets to the adjacent housing).
-To provide every house with a street address, an identifiable front door at ground level.
-To provide a clear definition of public and private spaces, avoiding quasi-public interior corridors, stairs or "streets in the air."
-To treat outdoor space in a positive way articulated with the same planning care as interior space, avoiding residual, undefined areas of land.
-To use the houses themselves as a way of defining outdoor space.
Intentions and Statements
Charleston "Single" House: the system places long, one-room wide houses at right angles to the offset, with a two or three-story piazza, off which all rooms open, and which runs along the narrow garden. The windows of the house next door pick up air from this same garden but no valuable space is wasted on setback; all the lot is rendered habitable, all the rooms have natural through ventilation and adjacent space on a shaded piazza, and every house has a garden. Entrance is generally right off the street, often highly elaborated to celebrate the passage from the public sidewalk outdoors to the private realm (still outdoors) which begins just inside the door.
Charles Moore, Southerness
-To accommodate the automobile in a controlled but welcoming way, providing a place for the car beside each house.
-To provide a special play space in the park for very young children and to treat the remainder of the site so that it accommodates older children's play (ball, hockey. . .).
-To address houses onto collector road no. 1, giving the road a value beyond that of simply functional circulation (a major problem of suburbs).
-To plant trees which can define space and create windbreaks.
-To adjust contours and make curbs to accommodate prams, grocery carts and wheelchairs.
-To place a public street along the park rather than fronting or backing houses directly onto it.
The House: Earth, Sky, Light, Air
-To provide every house with a piece of ground and a piece of roof, opportunities for contact with earth and sky (with the exception of the lower three-bedroom units in the row-housing capable of being adapted for use by a family with a handicapped member).
-To provide places of generic quality within the house -front/back, attic/basement, light/dark, big/small, high/low.
-To provide a focus or heart for each house to which all other spaces can relate in various ways.
-To provide the opportunity for cross-ventilation not only within the house as a whole but for each room within the house.
-To orient each house to maximize day lighting conditions.
Edges: Transition, Sharing, Growth, Change
-To provide transition places between public and private domains.
-To define interior walls in different ways (low walls, shutters, full walls . . . ) providing varying degrees of privacy and publicness within the house (which in places can be adjusted by, for example, opening and closing shutters).
-To provide on the exterior edge generous window sills (for plants and objects) and bay window situations which in summer can become in effect screened "sleeping porches."
-To provide varying conditions for boundaries between neighbours (shared walk, 1200 mm fence .. .) which set up frameworks for relationships between neighbours without defining them absolutely.
-To provide the opportunity for houses to grow and change, allowing the possibility of subletting; generally accommodating varieties of occupancy beyond simply the nuclear family.
Construction: Structure, Materials, Methods
-To use construction techniques capable of being undertaken by a variety of contractors.
-To use materials and methods of construction which facilitate rather than hinder the occupants from making alterations economically.
Energy: Heat, Light, Air
1. To minimize heat loss from the houses:
-minimize the exterior surface-to-volume ratio.
-minimize leakage, have adequate sealing around doors and windows, tape joints in vapour barrier.
-provide adequate insulation, 3.5 m2 °C/W for walls, 5.3 m2 °C/W for roofs and 2.1 m2 °C/W for perimeter basement walls.
-provide storm doors and where possible vestibules at main entry doors.
-provide air to air heat exchanger for controlled ventilation during winter months.
-install only heat-reclaiming fireplaces with outside combustion air source and glass covered hearth opening.
-use ductless rangehood with charcoal filter.
-provide low capacity furnace (8 790 watt). Oversize furnaces in well-insulated houses cause infrequent short cycle operation reducing overall efficiency.
-provide double-glazed units for all windows.
2. To maximize use of passive solar energy:
-provide extensive southern exposure for all houses with large areas of glass on south wall.
-provide some thermal mass within the house to store the heat built up during the day for release during the cold night, avoiding the considerable swings in temperature which can occur in structures that are entirely lightweight.
-use a heating system that takes advantage of the heat gain from the sun. A hot-air system would collect the warm air at the top and redistribute it.
-maintain glass to floor area ratios at 10-15 per cent. Minimize glass areas on north walls.
3. To allow for cooling and shade in the summer:
-provide the opportunity for natural ventilation; the majority of windows would be openable.
-provide overhangs for many south-facing windows to shield them from the high summer sun.
-provide adequately ventilated attic spaces where possible.
-plant deciduous tree in gardens along south-facing walls to provide summer shading while allowing in winter sun.
-provide light reflective opaque roll shades on south-facing windows (the roll shade also provides some resistance to heat loss on winter nights).
4. To create sunny sheltered exterior microclimates.
-to use coniferous trees and the houses themselves as windbreaks against the cold winter wind.
-to arrange the houses in such a way as to get maximum sunlight to the ground level. Deciduous tree and trellises would be used for summer shading.
5. To light the houses with natural light as much as possible:
-provide adequate windows especially on the south faces of the houses.
6. To allow for future methods of energy production and conservation:
-provide roof slopes to allow for the possible retrofit of solar heating panels, solar domestic hot water heaters or possible photovoltaic cells.
Structural Description
1. Floors slab on grade
-wood joists spanning between bearing walls (beams in places). Row houses have precast concrete hollow slab units supported on cross walls which in turn act as shear walls.
2. Walls foundation walls are 250 mm and 300 mm concrete block.
-Exterior walls are 150 mm engineered masonry (clay tile) for the first floor with 140 mm wood stud wall above. The lower wall has 76 mm rigid insulation on the outside while the upper wall has 150 mm batt insulation. Both upper and lower walls are covered in stucco with wire lath over building paper and fibre-board.
-Bearing walls are 200 mm clay tile. The clay tile acts as thermal mass within the insulated skin.
-Partition walls are 89 mm standard stud walls for fourplex dwellings and metal stud walls for row housing.
3. Roofs roofs of the fourplex units are rafters supported on wood beams at ridge and quarter points. Roofs of row houses are roof rafters supported on wood beams spanning between load bearing party walls.
4. Other fire separation between units where they overlap is provided by fire-rated ceilings with blocking along division lines to prevent flame spread.
Voids are located opposite stairs in part to avoid the problem of framing around the stair.
Balconies on the row houses are supported on steel outriggers anchored into the cross walls.
Bay window floor units in the row housing is made of a cranked torsionally rigid steel beam fixed into the masonry cross walls.
(From competitor's text)
This submission was recognized primarily for the clarity and orderliness of its vehicular access system. Direct routes, simple to understand, led to every unit. At the same time that it acknowledged this quality as a virtue, however, the jury regretted that the arrangement necessitated the paving of so much of the site to the extent that the competitor suggested children's play occur in the park on the adjacent parcel of land! The unit planning in the fourplex units was judged to be acceptable except for the placement of the larger unit above the smaller one, and the problem of overlook between the two. The unit planning of the stacked row house block was found tortuous and overcomplicated, resulting in the necessity for excessive numbers of staircases. The architectural expression of the project was rather controversial. Most jurors recognized that the design's invitation to its occupants to add to, or elaborate, the building form was an asset. Some jurors found the rather traditional general appearance of the building forms objectionable; others defended them.
(From jury report)
8 scanned / 4 viewable
- Site Plan
- Plan
- Elevation
- Axonometric Drawing
