Datum House 02: Redux (Now Datum Civic)

I think I figured out the problem with this Datum House:  it's too small.  This design concept would operate much better on a large scale.  So I sketched out a couple quick sketches and whipped up a model of part of it.

It's the same techniques with the Gabion wall as the datum acting as a heat-sync.

I'm liking how it's looking.

Not sure about the columns though, might go with steel tube or some other type of column instead of the huge laminated wood columns. Thoughts?

Datum House 01

This I call the Datum House.  The concept originated from the house being oriented along a line that is a thermal mass wall.  This wall would be heated via the sun and the hearth to heat the house in the winter while being shaded in the summer to act as a cooling device.  All the other spaces would be placed along this datum according to normal criteria (i.e. orientation to the sun, adjacencies to other spaces, etc.). I tried to maximize South facing clerestories as well throughout the entire house to increase natural light and allow for natural ventilation in the summer.

The living room has an interesting envelope to it: the North wall is the concrete datum, with a full South facade of glazing that is shaded by cantilevered louvers  (this would  let in ample light year round yet the hot summer direct sun would be blocked and the low-angled winter sun would heat the datum wall), the roof has several feet of skylight with inlaid P.V. panels that not only block about 80% of the sunlight, but also create a checkered shading pattern on the floor, and of course generate electricity, the rest of the roof would be a green roof.

There is also a sun room (South and West wall and the roof is glazing) on the South West corner of the building. This again, would heat the datum and act very much like a greenhouse for growing plants and vegetables.

I am currently working on a more detailed scale and in SketchUp to progress this design.  It soon came to mind that there still needs to be sleeping quarters and bathrooms...ugh, whoops. :-P I am working on placing both bedrooms on the second floor but it I'm struggling with it... it kind of ruins the elegance of the simplicity of this design. 

I've got to figure out where to put the bedrooms...might just be a single story home.  I will post some more progress as I generate it.

Moving on...

You know, I don't want to waste your time "updating." blah blah, I'm in Seattle.  That's about it. Visit heatherandcorey.blogspot.com  to read up on Heather, Ernie, and I if you want to know more about our life, however, we do have some updating to do as we haven't written anything there for a while. Beside the point, that is not what I'm trying to do with this blog. With this page, I'm trying to show my design ideas to you and get some intriguing discussion going about such things.  So, lets try it...

Practice.

I have some catching up to do with the first couple blogs, a lot has happened and a lot hasn't happened that I was hoping would have by now.  I would like to get everyone up to speed with the past year or so.

It's now been almost a year and half since I finished school, and still no job in architecture.  So frustrating. I almost had a job; made it to the second interview and didn't get it (second place means nothing in this scenario). Apologies for any complaining.  Beside the point though; for me, architecture (being creative) takes a lot of practice, like playing an instrument.  If I am not practicing my craft I find that I begin to lose the ability.  Being out of school and not working within the field has made it very difficult to keep up with what skills I attained.  If I go long without drawing, using autoCAD, or simply thinking creatively, it takes much longer to do those things when I do.

There have been plenty of things I have done that are constructive to me marketing myself in the field. Such things include but are not limited to:

I've published my thesis book and portfolio online (let alone made an awesome portfolio); both of which are featured to the right.

Re-rendered several projects completed during school.

I am trying to continue with my thesis, expand it and eventually make it marketable, but that is a whole other blog.


Sketching is a very enjoyable thing to do, so I've been trying to draw more frequently.  I find it better to come up with a project to design and sketch out the ideas.  Sketching for me is more perspectives and details of how something might be built.  Just trying to think of new things. This is an example of one afternoon of sketching a quick house design trying to keep green design in mind (orientation, thermal mass, glazing facing South, etc.)

Still, I feel I am losing the battle.  Practice, that is my challenge.


I know this is rough everyone.  I have never kept a journal in my life, and I am still trying to figure out what I want to say.  Thanks for reading.

Hello, and welcome.

I am Corey and am excited to start this blog.  I am mostly going to be blogging about my thoughts on the built environment, the future, and sometimes about my life.  I hope you enjoy, and I would love any thoughts and/or suggestions (whichever is appropriate) regarding my posts.