My plans - L shaped house - Comments

sterling10

Hi all,

May as well try get some constructive news on our house design.

The people i have shown it too haven't really come back with any major changes. I would be interested to see what people here say.

Heating system will be oil condensing boiler, one of the stoves will have a back boiler and solar HWS.

the attic will just be one complete storage room, no real intention to turn them into anything else at the minute.

All comments welcome.

beyondpassive

Transition year are busy again. Must be a good deal going somewhere on the cottagey windows and who are these people going for a sunday walk around the bungalow? The kurvy corridor is great for if Micheal Scumacher comes round to stay. Who are these people proporting to be architects, It's no wonder people get 'de plannin' done for €1,500. Its sad that people put so little effort into design.

sterling10

So you don't like it then? ?

Is there much you'd change?

brdboard

sterling10 wrote: »

So you don't like it then? ?

Is there much you'd change?

Will the patio get any sun in the evenings?

Tefral

As a QS, i hate curved block or curved anything ha ha costs too much so id knock that on the head...

sydthebeat

i certainly wouldnt be as scathing as beyondpassive.

at least the orientation makes sense and the elevations are "safe" and vernacular. Very standard straight gable narrow plan form.

I like the triple orientated open plan kitchen space.. i like the southern aspect and double doors to the hall.... certainly wont feel "corridory"

some small comments

personally i think the curved hallway is overkill, doesnt fit with the vernacular plan, and is an expensive use of space. It makes no difference to the external elevations so personally i would hold the hallway on the south face. This will be allow maximum use of a bright orientation so id include some more 'to floor' windows.

is the whole of the plan going to be dormer over?

if you kept just the north L shape as dormer you could go up into the attic void with the kitchen / living ceiling and create vaulted ceilings.

Gallant_JJ

Sydthebeat, your an extremely interesting contributor and I enjoy reading your posts, but to say anything in the above drawings, either plans or elevations are vernacular is lunacy. Its really unfortunate that bungalow bliss of the '70s is now being considered vernacular.

sterling10

The curved hallway is definitely something we didn't think of, i know it looks nice in the drawing and its the first thing people comment on. How it works in practice i dont know. I have talked to someone who has a curved hallway, maybe not as long as this one, but he has no issues with it.

Would it cost much more for the curved hallway?

The vaulted ceiling is something we looked at too for the kitchen/living. there is plenty of storage space up there even for one side if we did put in the vaulted ceiling. My concern would be, would it cost much more to heat? It would be some massive room with a vaulted ceiling there also.

sydthebeat

gallant... i know where you are coming from with your comment but I would still argue that it has a lot of the elements of 'vernacular architecture' that planners refer to.. whether correctly or not...

its a long rectilinear plan
its a narrow single room form
fenestration is vertical in emphasis and is themed

some sympathetic treatment and consideration to the eaves and material selection would help.... but overall and compared to what we seen quite often being posted here, im comfortable enough to refer to this plan as having "vernacular" elements.

BryanF

sterling10 wrote: »

Heating system will be oil condensing boiler, one of the stoves will have a back boiler and solar HWS.

do your BER and PHPP - thats alot of external wall - how many of the major rooms have 2+ external sides

the attic will just be one complete storage room, no real intention to turn them into anything else at the minute.

will you be heating all of it?

All comments welcome.

the whole plan could be easily tightened up - i would suggest is you get this plan modelled, to help you see the wasted space - what's the floor area circa 200? there is at least 10% reduction in area available = better building spec & performance ..

sterling10

Have engaged my energy consultant on the BER but haven't got my results or spec back yet. But that's what i told him to include the oil condensing boiler, stove and solar. I havent engaged anyone for PHPP

Had not planned to heat upstairs as of yet, but maybe blank off the pipework going to the attic, so it it turned into a study/play room then it could be added at a later stage without much hassle.

sterling10

sydthebeat wrote: »

gallant... i know where you are coming from with your comment but I would still argue that it has a lot of the elements of 'vernacular architecture' that planners refer to.. whether correctly or not...

its a long rectilinear plan
its a narrow single room form
fenestration is vertical in emphasis and is themed

some sympathetic treatment and consideration to the eaves and material selection would help.... but overall and compared to what we seen quite often being posted here, im comfortable enough to refer to this plan as having "vernacular" elements.

Excuse my ignorance but is 'vernacular architecture' a good thing or a bad thing?

BryanF

sterling10 wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but is 'vernacular architecture' a good thing or a bad thing?

a good thing, the problem is that the last 30years of bungalow (even the good ones) did very little to help our opinions
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=77824714&postcount=33

sinnerboy

sterling10 wrote: »

So you don't like it then? ?

Is there much you'd change?

Opt for storey and half and get more ft2 into a smaller footprint
Flip to L to trap afternoon sun

Hire an actual Architect

ba

i would support sydthebeat here. it is unfortunate that 'vernacular' principles are not followed through and that typical 'homebond' eaves and barge details are drawn. such a simple element would really undermine the character of this house when built.

I would commend the client/designer for their modest scaling and would encourage metal/cast-iron gutters & downpipes, as neither are drawn here.

cranefly

four walls and a roof, sounds good to me, everything else is just bells and whistles, how far we have come up in the world since simple stone built cottages, and still we look for more out of houses, in the end you will probably decide to go into the attic,most of us in bungalows at some time or other try to go up, but why did we not pitch that roof just that little bit higher, dont make that mistake, it looks fine to me lad go with it.

No6

If you have any intention of ever using the attic as habitable space make sure your velux are sized and placed to allow them to be escape windows. Make the roof a bit higher too if this is a possibility, As noted above the curved corridor is a bit af a waste of space but having siad curves can be a nice feature in a building but not perhpas in a hallway!!

From an energy point of view the footprint is big resulting in a lot of external envelope, a two storey house is a bit more efficient. are you constrained height wise as your site, you could consider making one leg of the L stoery and 1/2 or dormer and reducing your ground floor footprint.

If this is the design for you do at least a DEAP assessment before it goes to planning as compliance with the current Part L is very difficult for one off houses and oil fired boilers may not work for compliance. A lot of ascpects need to be juggled around to get compliance in a cost effective manner for you.

sterling10

Never thought about all the external walls until you pointed that out just now! Crazy. Interesting.
I cant go story and 1/2 due to the nature of the site, its pretty elevated and I doubt they'll allow me to go any higher.

Got a few quotes back from timber frame companies, would you get a better insulated house with timberframe?

the_syco

sterling10 wrote: »

I cant go story and 1/2 due to the nature of the site, its pretty elevated and I doubt they'll allow me to go any higher.

I'd pop in ask whoever needs to be asked if it can be done; no use finding out down the road that you could have gone a few feet higher. Most bungalows that I've seen has had the attic converted to a playroom once the kids popped out.