Teacher Roommate House: Final Proposal

Specifications:

• 4 Bedrooms
• 2 Full bathrooms
• 2043 sq. ft. (nominal)
• 1820 sq. ft. (habitable)

Design Goals:

• Simple symmetrical plan
• Large shared living space that opens to the outside
• Use materials found or produced locally in Haiti
• Passive ventilation for all rooms
• Apartment layout

The final design of the Teacher Roommate House is designed to demand interaction.  The occupants for this house are envisioned as being teachers that work at the (School) up the road.

The layout of the floor plan mimics a dormitory style plan where the bedrooms surround a large open living space.  Included in this living space are the kitchen, dining and gathering spaces. Wicker panels built into the exterior walls of the living space open up to covered porches giving the space a public feel. Oftentimes in Haiti, visitors are only invited onto the porch and not into the houses.

Each end of the house is a two-bedroom module able to sleep up to four people. Bathrooms and storage spaces serve as buffer areas between the two bedrooms and the bathrooms are extruded to allow.  Vent block windows in all the rooms allow cross ventilation of all spaces.

The roofing design on the house gives hierarchy to the spaces.  The largest hip roof is over the primary living space, while smaller hip roofs are over the secondary bedroom spaces.  A flat roof covers the tertiary restroom and circulation spaces.

 The exterior design of the house has a rhythm to it.  The bedrooms and living space each have exterior walls that extend up past the ceiling line of the house.  Along the exterior there is a horizontal shading plane that helps with sun shading on the exterior of the house.  Pilasters along the exterior walls assist in holding up the cantilevered roof as well as add a visual sense of rhythm.

 

Lastly, the house was designed to be a representation of its occupants.   Its formal appearance shows strength with a hint of monumentality.  This aspect was included in the design to give importance to the teachers and make them important in society.

Open & Versatile: Young Professional Patriate House

Click here for PDF's of Drawings

Specifications

• 2 bedroom (optional addition)

• 2 full bath

• 1,128 sq. ft.

Programmatic Goals

• seperate the master bedroom and the guest bedroom

• design an easily modifiable floor plan for future expansion of a third bedroom

• connect the entrance and the back of the house

• create simplicity and efficiency

Design Intentions

• passive ventilation is a primary concern

• take advantage of simple technology and energy efficiency

• meet the needs and expectations of the occupant

• design spaces and furniture that are interactive and dynamic

• provide security

 

The second proposal for Team LLBen (Lauren Heile, Lauren Metts, & Ben Cross) is the Young Professional Patriate House. The home is designed to meet the needs of the occupant, implement passive and energy efficient design methods, and to create a comfortable dwelling.

The layout of the floor plan connects the front of the house to the back of the house. With two tri-fold doors on both the front and back, the living room is capable of being opened completely to create one large “exterior covered space” while still keeping privacy to the bedrooms. We want guests to be able to enjoy the mountainous views on the back side of the house without having to navigate through private spaces.

The importance of privacy is taken well into consideration. One of our most important and more challenging goals was to separate the master bedroom from the guest bedroom(s). The challenge in separating the bedrooms is that we were forced to create two full baths and it was difficult not to waste precious space just for a hallway. The bedrooms are located on either side of the living room. These spaces are separated by a sliding door for extra privacy.

One other key intention for the design of this home was to make the living conditions inside the home as comfortable as possible. We learned on our trip to Haiti that the Haitian people like the interior of the home to be cool in temperature and dark. Considering the normal day of a Haitian, there is always plenty of sun and they are always outside. The home is an escape from the heat and the light. As far as light as considered, the fenestration has plenty of cover from the overhang of the eaves to prevent direct sunlight from entering. The clerestory from the monitor roof allows enough indirect light to keep the living room a space where tasks can be accomplished. The bedrooms will be darker, making them a place of rest and relaxation.

The monitor roof not only provides indirect lighting for the living room, but it is also the key to our passive ventilation system. Cool air from floor will rise, but it will eventually be heated by the solar heat gain from the metal roof. If the air were to be trapped, the house would heat up like a car with closed windows on a sunny day. With this design, the fenestration on the perimeter of the house, as well as the openings on either end of the living room, allows the cool breeze from outside to flush out the warm air inside (from SHG) through the clerestory of the monitor roof. This system works very well in tropical climates. In order to get optimum performance, we supplemented this system with a 10' diameter fan from Big Ass Fans®. They're energy efficient fans and they make a big difference in the performance of the system.

House for Expatriate Retiree

Our team designed a house for expatriate couple returning to Haiti for retirement. Our main concept was to create a tranquil home to live in while implementing diffused lighting, ventilation and local materials. Our concept directly influenced our decision of where to build the house on the site. We chose to place it on a lot on the west side of the site overlooking the river and surrounded by forest. 

We seperated the public and private space of the house and kept a strong connection to the porches of the house. We focused on the connection between the interior and exterior of the house. Since Haitians spend most of their time outdoors we tried to find ways to bring nature inside. The main living area of the house is closed off by a local bamboo system that allows views to the outside as well as light and ventilation throughout. We also used ventblock and louvered windows to increase good ventilation in the house. Our design also features a simple rainwater collection system for the residents use. 

Ex-Patriot Retiree's Home

Street View

Being tasked with creating a home for a retiree returning to Haiti from the states gave us a long list of criteria that helped shape this preliminary design of this home. Our main driver was DENSITY VS OPENNESS, meaning that we wanted all of the social spaces (kitchen, dining, living and porch) to be adjacent and zoned to one side of the home, while the private spaces (bedroom and bathrooms) would be located on the other end of the home in a densely packed zone.

Floor PlanWe felt that we could best express a sense of openness in the social spaces by opening up the walls with either vent block, or glass doors. In this way, we hope that the entire west side of the home would become a living room for entertaining and a space for enjoying the beautiful weather of Fond-Des-Blancs.

New Plan and SectionAfter reviewing this iteration, we decided we could open up the home even more if we allowed the wall of doors to fold up on each other and collapse to the sides. This would allow the living and dining to spill onto the porch, making it usable all year long. We chose to let the butterfly roof dictate our "wet" spaces by placing the kitchen and both bathrooms adjacent to the point where rainwater would be collected. This also creates a clear datum that emphasizes the separation of social and private, or even, openness vs dense.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The sun's not quite up

But I got the notion

That the morning has begun

Because of all the commotion

People pass my house

More than a few

The roosters call out

“Cock-a-doodle-doo”

In a hurry

People are on their way

To trade, sell, and buy

Cause' it's market day

 

This particular Friday

The market has a crowd

Selling goods with a megaphone

can be quite loud

I came to get poultry

then be on my way

I didn't have enough money

I could not pay

I bargained and bartered

That's all I could do

But the rooster laughed out

“Cock-a-doodle-doo”

The trade was no good

I was not a winner

I guess it's plantains

For tonights dinner

On my way home

I took the path

There were boys in the river

Taking a bath

Their mothers were near

Washing their clothes

In this river

Anything goes

There was also a rooster

I told it to shoo!

But it just mocked me

“Cock-a-doodle-doo”

Finally back home

I'm dying of thirst

In order to cook

We'll need water first

Back down to the river

With jug in hand

Not sure what's for dinner

Still needed a plan

I fill up my jug

With water from the spring

Then I see that same rooster

It's so annoying

It follows me back

All the way to my house

I didn't notice because

It was as quiet as a mouse

What to have for dinner

I still had no clue

But then I got an idea

“Cock-a-doodle-doo”

I prepare to cook

Grab some plates and a bowl

Then head outside

With plenty of charcoal

I started cooking the food

No time to stop

Then grabbed the rooster

“Cock-a-doodle-CHOP!”

The meal was delicious

We cleaned our plates

I was exhausted

And sleep could not wait

We get ready for bed

But it's hard without light

Looking forward to the morning

And a long restful night

I finally went to bed

But then I woke up at two

“You've gotta be kidding me”

“COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO”