Over the summer of 2006 the Modular Concept was development. During an initial design charrette the design shown above was created. The form was largely based on creating a large exterior space on the south side of the home. The three modules were divided based on function: sleeping, living, and kitchen/bath.
Problems:
- Entry: The majority of the design development was spent on the South Facade. This left the North Facade (a.k.a. the entrance) almost completely ignored.
- Circulation: The path of public traffic was difficult to arrange and organize with the staggered module layout.
-Space Usage: The kitchen layout was small and while we wanted to create an open floor plan the offset modules created awkward corners dividing the space.
-Surface-to-Volume Ratio: One of the first rules in energy efficient design is to minimize the surface-to-volume ratio. The original design was roughly 500 square feet yet had 12 corners.
These were the main issues with our original design. After attempting to work out these problems without success, the concept was kept but the layout was scraped. See the "ELEMENT Design Development" series of posts for more information on the current design.
