Communitecture’s Initial Design Options
Patrick from Communitecture presented two design concepts this afternoon. Concept 1, the “open plan” ran the stairs up the side to provide more space in the central living area. Option 2 ran the stairs up the middle, forming a sort of “divider” space between the living and sleeping areas. It also facilitated the placement of the office.
Here’s both designs:
In the end, option one actually felt a little confined. I didn’t like the idea of entering the living area through the kitchen, and felt that the kitchen actually fractured the space more than the other design. What I like about the “mid stair” design is that you enter the living space and the first thing you see is the couch/living room area. I also felt there were some better design options with how you could handle the stairs - by using the space above the stairs as “open” space, you can make the volume of the interior living area feel larger. Int he other design, the stairs would be hidden behind a wall, negating that opportunity.
One of the challenges of the split roof design is that you have one side of the house with a low ceiling, and another side of the house with a high ceiling. This means that the options for the placement of the staircase is dictated somewhat by the roof line. Stairs need headroom, so they must land on the “high” side of the building.
Another “problem” with option 2 was the orientation of the bathroom and bedroom. By heaving the bedroom on the north (low) side of the building, you’d lose the natural light from southern-facing windows. In addition, the bathroom - the one area that doesn’t really need high ceilings, it placed on the side with the high ceilings. We discussed this and decided to see if we could flip-flop the bath and bedroom.
Another issue we discussed was the placement of the fireplace and entertaining area. We decided to use the west staircase wall (which might be rough-faced brick) as our backdrop for the fireplace. The texture of the brick would provide a nice contrast to the smooth surface of the fireplace. It’s also fire-resistant, which is an added bonus.
Dining and kitchen areas were discussed and we ultimately decided to try putting a “u” or island in the dining area. We really like our current kitchen bar, and even though it will breakup the space, it’s too important to forgo. I also think there’s some merit in delineating the kitchen space from the rest of the living area.