A Residence

INTRODUCTION

The House is located at Las Pinas, Pulang Lupa. The owner wants to redesign the house that will be safe from flooding. Instead of having the kitchen, Dining, and Living areas ar the ground floor of the house, the owner preferred to place these where it shall be more secure. However, these shall pose problems in terms of the lot size and the orientation of the site.

DESIGN CONSIDERATION

The lot. The lot area is just 38.5 sq.m. So we need to maximize every space that will be used. The ground floor will be used as car garage and a pocket garden. The second floor will be used as kitchen, Dining, and Living areas with addition of a powder room. The third floor will consist of two bedrooms with T&B, and a roof deck above that will serve as a gathering / activity area and a laundry area.

The orientation of the site. The front of the lot is in the south orientation which is not a good site to build in. As an architect, one has to think of a way to make the house habitable and efficient despite the bad orientation. As used in sustainable architecture, using of balconies as sun shades and placing plants in it adds cooler ventilation and provides shade as well. adding horizontal louvers as permanent sun shades against the south side sun orientation with a full height window using louvered windows shall also provide the shade that it needs against the afternoon sun.

                          
                                              Exterior - Right side view

                           
                                                Exterior - Left side view

                            
                          Second floor - Living, Dining, and Kitchen areas

                             
                                         Third floor - Masters bedroom

                             
                                              Third floor - Bedroom 1

DESIGN PROCESS

1

The lot

2

Incorporating setbacks

3

Puting building envelope. The full height of the house showing the ground floor as car garage, second floor as Living, Dining, and kitchen areas, third floor as two bedrooms with T&B, and the roof deck as activity and laundry areas.

4

Putting balconies as part of shading technique and will serve as garden too.

5

Putting horizontal louvers for permanent sun shades.

SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES

Providing shadings to south side sun orientation. So we provide balconies with plants to provide cool air and shadings against south orientation, to add some effective shadings we put horizontal louvers to maximize the sun shades. The window that we used is louver windows, also known as Jalousie window. It helps to make the structure energy efficient because the 100% of air can pass through it, a very good fenestration.

Also we provide a rain water tank storage to recycle usage of rain water for flushing the toilets and for watering of plants.

MATERIALS

Louver windows use as main fenestration in the house to allow 100% of air pass through the house.
Aluminum Steel louvers for sun shadings in south side sun orientation
Plain plaster on CHB wall painted in Elastomeric white paint finish (for exterior), Semi gloss paint finish (for interior)
Fiber Cement board in wood plank in paint finish (for exterior and interior ceiling)
LED recessed lighting used inside and outside the house