30X40 Design Workshop
Sketching Design Concepts - Outpost Project, Part 4 Join Eric in the studio as he turns a rough concept into a digital model and schematic floor plans. This is the process he uses for all my work. It begins as a mess and he iterates until it gets stronger and more coherent. The goal of the schematic design meeting is to settle on the architectural concept, choose a location on the site to locate the home and ideally a floor plan to move forward with.
| Length | 14:54 |
| Price | Free of charge |
| Subject | Architecture |
| Languages | English |
| Video Transcripts | English |
About the video
The architectural design concept is heavily influenced by the site and this remote place. We know we want to knit the home closely to the landform and given there’s a lot of elevation change and we have limited access to concrete and fill material we’ll be creating platforms and using decks to transition between the land and the home. By dividing the program spaces up into tiny cabins I can position each to react to the appropriate site force or feature that’s nearby. I know from meeting with local contractors that it’s difficult to bring concrete and fill material to the island so what I might normally do on the mainland to fit a building to the landform is going to be costly. So, I don’t really have the option to do much site work or to shape the site in any meaningful way so this is another reason for adopting this kind of a strategy. Each cabin will have to sit lightly on the land without access to a poured in place concrete foundation so we’ll likely be using piers.
I block out the spaces on the site plan very roughly at first. The early sketches are more diagrams than floor plans. I locate the major spaces and then sketch on top of the diagram adding more and more detail: doors, windows, hallways, fixtures, furniture and stairs. Each layer builds in more information. I’ll sketch the floor plans at a low level of resolution and then begin looking at the design in three dimensions.
For this meeting I’m building digital models in SketchUp as I’ll be traveling to the island for the meeting. Physical models will come later, but in both cases, models help me to study the spatial relationships more closely. The information I learn building the models feeds directly back in to the design of the plans. This back and forth is a typical part of the an architect’s design process.
Whether we’re designing a small outpost like this or an airport, architects follow similar steps. It’s an iterative process, you move between plan and section and model and each step informs the next.
As an architect you process a lot of information, evaluate all the constraints and opportunities and try to make something beautiful out it all. I think it’s hard to do much better than the natural environment surrounding this home – what’s there already – so really my job is to respect it by doing as little as possible.
Meet the instructors
Eric Reinholdt is a founder of Thirty by Forty Design Workshop which was established in June 2013 in a home he designed overlooking Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. In 2016, he designed and constructed the Long Studio to complement the Longhouse and serve as a full-scale model of his design principles and the latest in building science; this is the home for 30X40.
“My work celebrates humble materials, subtle contrasts and finely-crafted details. I have a strong interest in modern regionalist design, local materials and familiar building forms juxtaposed against modern, open floor plans. I employ a minimalist, Shaker-like palette of details inspired by the site and natural surroundings.”
Video syllabus
Sketching concepts
Constraints can shape the design solution
Program
Diagram first, refine later