Celebrate The J.H. Minassian & Co Showroom Opening!!

and the winner is...

Congratulations to Will of Bright.Bazaar!! 

If you haven't checked out his blog, you should!

Thanks to everyone who entered! 

Have a great weekend...

Luxury Interior Design Ideas

MODERN AND STYLISH STAIRS

LUXURY INTERIOR DESIGN

Bedroom complete with non-hand clothes furniture is not very attractive place for recreation. There's just something chaotic about it.

LUXURY SOFA DESIGN

Filling your room with modern bedroom, no matter what style, make your bedroom into a place of comfort and relaxation. Eliminating the non-furniture and replace it with modern bedroom furniture set will make your calls.

INTERIOR DESIGN DECORATION IDEAS

MODERN LIVIN ROOM DESIGN

Aside from the bed, dresser and night stand, your modern bedroom set is not complete without a practical and attractive armoire. Whether you choose white or black laminate furniture with brass accents, white wicker, and beautiful colored grain, timber, your modern bedroom furniture will be well worth the expense as you begin to feel the benefits of a serene retreat in your own home .

Living Montessori Academy

We're designing a new playground for Living Montessori Academy. Here's a quick look

Design development of the new Passive House prototype

This is a continuation of previous discussion of the thermal envelope design per the Passive House Planning Package.  The initial design studies were boxes, for simplicity and for efficient use of the narrow site.  But does the passive house need to look boxy?  Of course not.  But its deviation from boxiness should be a result of spatial motives, and should not compromise performance.  There are certain view and volume vectors that the site welcomes: forward, back, and up, in particular.  Returning to the organic analogy, this creature will define itself relative to these: a two-faced being (we'll call her/him Janice/Janus), greeting neighbors on the street and the family in the back yard, and with great eyes to Jove above and south.  (I don't really have a Roman thing going, but it turns out that Janus is also the patron of concrete, which warms an architect's heart.)  The north side is the back, minimally punctured, a big blanket-wall, which folds to become roof above.

All these ideas are tumbling together in the sketchbook, of which this is probably about the sixth page:

Ideas about the south windows in the front living room turning the corner to open up the space; the house takes on an asymmetry that expresses its purpose and brings drama (p. 7-ish):

The entry sequence works with the compression of the site and sets up a big moment of light and space once the front door opens. I go into SketchUp to create the model, and here's a section of that space:

You can see how that north wall is receiving a lot of light (heat) and bouncing it back into the house; this shot is 12:30 on January 12.  I also inserted some furniture into the model to test the spaces--the rooms are small, the house is small, but it still accommodates what we need (model shot in Spring):

To get a sense of the front composition, quantitatively determined by PHPP, and qualitatively determined by spatial and light qualities, I render it (using Podium, a SketchUp plug-in):

The odd zigzag in the front window is light falling on the interior stair.  Here's an overview from the northwest:

The idea of the balconies is that they have a "green screen" growing wall for climbing plants--really grounding the house.  The siding is cedar, in a rainscreen application, with steel copings and north wall/roof cladding.  The green roof helps manage water, mitigates the heat island effect, extends the life of the roof, and saves energy.  This is a quick study, and I feel it needs development in the porch elements especially, but overall I'm satisfied with a dynamic and expressive composition thoroughly based on performance.  There is much to discuss with the cladding concepts, water management, site development, etc...some other time.

Our next step would be to move into ArchiCad, our "virtual building" program that is an integrated 3d parametric model with 2d document creation, where we generate all plans, details, schedules, etc.

PHPP as a design tool - part 2

This is the follow-up to my first post.  In PHPP I decided my first objective would be to analyze the thermal shell: overall building orientation, window, roof, and wall R-values, surface-to-volume ratio, window areas, window shading, etc., which all feed into a calculation of Specific Space Heat Demand.  We're aiming for 4.75 kBTU/(ft2yr), the maximum SSHD to make passive house certification.  I've been working on the 21st c. version of the bungalow, an urban house that is right-sized, reasonably affordable, and delightful.  I wanted to know if I could also make it a Passive House.

Before I get into details, though, let me state that I haven't been through the PH Consultant training class; they haven't been offered in the Midwest since I became aware of them.  The software, while complex, is fairly intuitive, at least to the extent I'm into it. At this point I'm looking mostly at space heating and not overall energy use (electrical loads haven't been considered, for instance), but it's enough to turn up some interesting insights.

I started with a few assumptions: approximately R-48 walls, R-60 roof, R-40 foundation, and triple-pane fiberglass windows and doors.  Really high performance stuff by current US standards, but typical for Passive House.  It's assumed that the house would have less than the maximum permissible .6 air changes per hour when pressurized to 50 Pascals (equivalent of having a 20 mph wind blowing on all sides of the house).  Through earlier planning and energy analysis I arrived at a scheme with bedrooms in the lower level (floor 3' below grade), and living spaces above (about 6' above grade).  It has a full-width front living room with side entry like many bungalows.  Here's an overview of the volume from the northwest (remember the visual design elements will emerge from or alongside the analysis--not starting with visual preconceptions):

 Note the "green garage" in the back!

Then I loaded up the south side with windows, put in generous east and west sliding doors for access to porches and yards, and ran the calculations.  Here's the basic box from the west (like most Oak Park lots, ours runs E-W):

Strangely, when I ran the calculations on this without context or shading, I came up with 4.74 kBTU/(ft2yr), just barely making the Specific Space Heating Demand (SSHD).  So I added context (which blocked out much of the solar gain)...

...and it jumped to 6.66 kBTU/(ft2yr).  These images are from Oct. 15, about the beginning of heating season.  That shadow on the south wall climbs for 2 months!  I tried pumping up the insulation to crazy amounts, and couldn't get the SSHD to come close.  That sunlight is just plain necessary.  So what do you do on an urban lot with a neighbor to your south?  You need a different shape.  I was worried that adding a clerestory for sunlight would throw off my surface-to-volume ratio, but it was about my only option with this footprint:

Just loaded that south clerestory face entirely with windows.  To my surprise, the SSHD came down to 4.68 kBTU/(ft2yr), even better than the single story house without neighbors.  It was evident that adding the "right" volume could be a good thing.  Before I added the clerestory, the house was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths.  In the east portion of the clerestory I put a family/guest room, which gives some flexibility to the function of the house.  The clerestory also provides a dynamic spatial experience at the entry/stair volume, in which you approach from the shaded north, then enter into space, light, and view to the sky, an underrated and guaranteed view.

The following image shows a general outline of porch and basic overhangs (to provide shelter from summer overheating and rain/snow, and to provide spatial continuity of interior to exterior):

When I look at the basic mass, I see continuity of scale with the gable-roof neighbors.  This house can't be gable-roofed and perform as it needs to.  The low-slope (almost flat) roof allows green roof, though, which has a host of benefits.  In the next post I'll show development of the basic mass into something of architectural merit.

Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday March 21, 2010

Welcome to my Spiritual & Inspirational Sunday post. For over twenty-five years I have collected various spiritual and inspirational quotes and messages. My hope is that when you read these, you will pause and reflect. Perhaps you will share this post with a friend who just so happens to be in need of reading what I am sharing today.

A friend of mine sent me this email forward last year.  Though it was written about a woman, I believe it also applies to men.

Who Am I?

What makes me weak?   My fears.

What makes me whole?  My God.

What keeps me standing?  My faith.

What makes me compassionate? My selflessness.

What makes me honest? My integrity.

What sustains my mind?  My quest for knowledge.

What teaches me lessons?  My mistakes.

What lift’s my head high? My pride, not arrogance.

What it I can’t go on?  Not an option.

What makes me victorious? My courage to climb.

What makes me competent? My confidence.

What makes me sensual? My insatiable essence.

What makes me beautiful?  My everything.

What makes me a woman?  My heart.

Who says I need love? I do.

What empowers me?  My God & Me.

Who am I? I am a proud strong woman!

Unknown

As I read this I am reminded that with my faith in God and in myself I am truly a proud strong woman!  Blessings.  …susan