Land use and building form
1. Create a housing design of prototypical character beyond the limitations imposed by the site but with the ability to join the immediate context. (There is insufficient information regarding the immediate surroundings of the competition site to suggest direct junctions, such as streets, with neighboring dwellings).
2. Give each house a street number, an identifiable main entrance on the first floor.
3. Clearly define public and private spaces, avoiding quasi-public internal corridors, stairways, and entry foyers.
4. Treat outdoor spaces in a positive manner, articulated with the same planning care as the internal spaces, avoiding residual and undefined land areas.
5. Use the houses themselves to define the outdoor spaces.
6. Accommodate the automobile in a controlled but welcoming way, providing a place for the automobile next to each house.
7. Develop a special space for young children to play; configure and treat the rest of the site for older children to play (street field hockey).
8. Address the houses towards the service road, giving this road a value beyond that of functional circulation.
9. Grow trees to define the space and create windbreaks.
10. Adjust slopes and curb chains to accommodate carriages, grocery carts and wheelchairs.
- CHARLESTON "SINGLE" HOUSE: the System places long, one-room wide houses at right angles to the off set, with a two or three-story piazza, off of which ail 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 set-back; ail the lot is rendered habitable, ail 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.
The house: the sky, the earth, the air, the light
1. Give each house a piece of floor and a piece of roof to occasion contact with the sky and the earth.
2. Create generic quality spaces within the house - front/back, attic/basement, light/dark, big/small, high/low.
3. Give each house a heart, to which all other spaces can be attached.
4. Allow cross ventilation not only through the entire house, but also through each room in the house.
5. Orient each house to make the most of daylight.
Edges: transition, sharing, growth, change
1. Create transitional spaces between public and private domains.
2. Define interior walls in different ways (low walls, louvers, solid walls . . .) allowing for variations in the degree of privacy within the house (for example, it can be adjusted in some places by opening or closing the louvers).
3. Design the exterior edge of the house with wide window sills (for plants and objects) and bay windows that in summer can be transformed into protected "sleeping porches".
4. Allow for different types of boundaries between neighbors (common sidewalk, 1.2m fence) to establish a basis of relationship between them without absolute definition.
5. Allow houses to grow and change, giving the possibility of subletting, and in general accommodating a variety of groups of inhabitants beyond the traditional family.
Construction: structure, materials, methods
1. Use construction techniques that can be undertaken by a variety of contractors.
2. Use materials and construction methods that help rather than hinder occupants wishing to redevelop economically.
Energy: air, heat, light
1. To reduce heat loss from homes:
a. Reduce exterior surface area relative to volume.
b. Keep the extent of glazed area between 10% and 15% of the floor area. Minimize glazed areas on the north side.
c. Reduce air leakage, properly seal joints around windows and doors and tape joints in the vapour barrier.
d. Insulate adequately: R = 3.5m2C/W for walls, R = 5.28m2C/W for roofs, and R = 2.11m2C/W for perimeter walls in basements.
e. Provide main entrance doors with storm doors and, where possible, vestibules.
f. Install a heat exchange ventilation system to provide controlled ventilation during the winter months.
g. Install only fireplaces with air circulators and outside air combustion with glass doors.
h. Use charcoal filter stove fans. Use low capacity furnaces (8790W). High capacity furnaces in well-insulated homes run infrequently and for short periods of time, reducing their efficiency. Provide all windows with double sealed glass.
2. Make maximum use of passive solar energy.
a. Provide all houses with large south-facing expanses of glass on the south side.
b. Provide the interior of the house with some thermal mass to store heat during the day and release it during the night, avoiding the large temperature swings that can occur in lighter framed construction.
3. Encourage cooling and shaded areas in the summer.
a. Allow "natural ventilation", the majority of windows could open.
b. Provide projections over many of the south side windows to protect them from the high summer sun.
c. Provide adequate ventilation in the attic spaces where possible.
d. Grow deciduous trees in the gardens along the south-facing wall to provide shade in the summer but admit sun in the winter.
e. Provide windows on the south side with opaque, reflective fabric (the fabric also provides some resistance to heat loss on winter nights).
4. Create sunny, protected outdoor microclimates.
a. Use evergreens and the houses themselves to ward off cold winter winds.
b. Shape the houses to get maximum sunlight on the first floor. Leafy trees and trellises would provide shade in the summer.
5. Light the houses with sunlight as much as possible.
a. Provide houses with adequate windows especially on the south side.
6. Allow the use of future methods of energy production and conservation.
a. Provide roof slopes to allow for future installation of solar heating panels, solar water heaters, or photovoltaic cells.
Structure Description
1. Floors:
- slab on grade
- wooden joists supported on load-bearing walls (beams in some places)
2. Walls :
- foundation wall of 25cm and 30cm concrete blocks,
- exterior wall in structural masonry (clay tiles) on the second floor and 14cm wood studs above. Insulation includes 76mm rigid insulation on the exterior of the lower wall and 15cm batt insulation above. Both parts of the exterior wall are covered with stucco on metal lath over building paper and fiberboard.
The party walls are composed of 20cm clay tiles. The tiles act as thermal mass inside the insulated envelope. The partitions are of the standard type made of 89mm wood studs.
3. Roofs:
- Quadruplex roofs are composed of rafters supported by wood beams at the ridge and at an intermediate point. The roofs of the row houses are composed of rafters supported by wooden beams that rest on the load-bearing party walls.
4. Miscellaneous:
- Overlapping fire separation between dwelling units is achieved with fire rated ceilings, and firestops placed along the division lines to prevent flame spread.
- Voids are located adjacent to stairwells in part to avoid framing problems around the stairwells.
(Unofficial automated translation)
This project was recognized by the jury, primarily for what they saw as its charm and flavour. Unlike the Ontario jury, who evaluated its counterpart submissions in that Regional Competition, they were not split on the question of its architectural expression, which they enjoyed. They found its invitation to additions and changes to be undertaken by its occupants especially commendable. They were split, however, on the question of the site plan. The extensive paved areas, providing for direct vehicular access to all units, raised concerns about the safety of children's play in the minds of some jurors. Others felt that the short, controlled length of the streets dealt adequately with this issue. But by the same token, some jurors objected to the long regular facade of the row housing group facing into the arterial road; only one found this an appropriate urban design. All jurors agreed on certain criticisms, however. The slope of the site, it was felt, was not adequately accounted for in the site plan. And the complexities of interlocked units- especially in the fourplexes - were found to be unsatisfactory.
(From jury comments)
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