The first house concept designs from the architect

The first concept designs are now in!

Reproduced below is Neal-the-Architect's email, together with the initital designs.

"We have had a first go at distilling your briefing requirements and our conversations into something a bit more tangible.
Integral to this is a considered response to the qualities of place that make the site so special to you.
This is to get the conversation going, so don’t hold back with comments if you think something doesn’t fit with your thoughts.

SITE CONCEPT

The first drawing is very conceptual and seeks to convey an overall strategy for placing the house on the site and how you might move across and experience the landscape in which it is located.

Even though it is a bit blurry, I hope you can see (just)how movement is guided over and down between two wings of the house in order to capture a sense of living within the cliff face and moving between the rock formations.

The main idea is that the house is tucked into the hillside and almost becomes incidental in the experience of the landscape, with the roof forms the only sign of habitation from above.

FLOOR PLANS
The next 2 drawings are less abstract and are a first attempt at synthesizing the essential character of the site concept into something vaguely buildable; Consider them more as diagrams though, rather than a building.
Apart from thinking about whether the site strategy works for you, can you please also consider if the room relationships are generally ok.
The house is set on two levels, with the upper level forming an entry court containing a carport.
Passing by an open light court, a stair negotiates a crevice between two forms to reach a terrace on the lower level which leads to the front door.
The obvious downside to this strategy is that there is no continuous covered path from carport to the front door, but it does set up an intriguing entry sequence.
Entering from behind, the main living pavilion contains Lounge, Kitchen and Dining spaces and faces north-east. Studios and wet areas are tucked into the hillside either side of the light court, which can also be used as a contained cat run J.
The Bedroom faces down the site and is separated from The Android's studio by the walk-in-robe. Room sizes are not strictly accurate, but close enough to see if we are on the right track.

The design tries to deal with the bushfire management issues by placing defensive walls towards the likely fire fronts where possible.

We will need to discuss further where it might be best to consider fire-shutters or toughened glass windows.
Mindful of cost issues, now would be a good time to consider further the merits of negotiating with one builder against tendering to a number of builders.
I think it is important to get a better feel now for how the relative remoteness of the site and access difficulties might impact on likely costs before progressing the design too much further.
It would obviously be good to talk to you both together to go over the drawings. Can you consider how this can best be achieved and get back to me please.

Regards

NEAL MACKINTOSH

MANAGING DIRECTOR

JAWSARCHITECTS"

What do you think??!

Interlude: tristis tempora feles

The good ship Terra Nova (Viktoria and the Android's time machine, in case you hadn't guessed) has experienced a bout of mysterious illnesses which have struck down two of the ship's cats in as many weeks.
Poor Captain Greatpants...

...had rapid onset bladder blockage with some weird protein-matrix. He has been hospitalised this past week with a catheter stitched into place and an IV in his arm.

He was due to have the catheter removed today but, despite sporting a fashionable plastic Elizabethan collar, managed to pull it out himself during the night (no doubt trying to save his mum and dad the cost of yet another anaesthetic).

And Miss Daintyfeet...

... has had acute pancreatitis which required blood tests, antibiotics and pain relief. Fortunately, her added girth saved her as she lost half her body weight in two days.
Naturally, there is no known cause for either condition. Why would cats make anything simple for their human servants? So we have no idea what we can do to prevent any recurrence. The only thing we can do is remain vigilant, which is what saved their lives in the first place.
Which leaves Mistress Surly at the helm while the others recover....

We hope Captain Greatpants and Miss Daintyfeet are feeling better real soon.

The finalised building site

Last week, Neal-the-Architect sent us the latest survey report.
At 5:30pm on a Friday.
This is a little snapshot of the survey:

The whole survey represents only a very small part of our 57acres.

• The house site is a little to the north of the "Reference Gum" - a Tasmanian Blue Gum with a diametre of at over 60cm and about 30metres tall - the house will be cut into the small ledge you can see delinated by the survey lines
• The dog-legged straight lines show the gravel road 43.57metres and 38.26meters on either side of the surveyed plot
• Where the survey lines end is the edge of the cliff. It is much higher than our initial choice of building location, but still comprised of the same amazing Jurassic dolerite rock formations:

All this means that (all things going to plan) Neal-the-Architect has spent the past few days sketching out the initial schematic designs.

We are trying very hard to not pre-empt what the design will look like....

The second hurdle... still pleasing the experts

We are beginning to creep forward, inch by inch...which is still an improvement of 2 steps forward and 3 steps back.
Following on from Neal-the-Architect's second meeting with the bushfire consultant, we now have tentative agreement to let us build on the cliff. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Neal's friend Mark, who also attended the meeting with his experience in Tasmanian Fire Service in his armoury.
So what the bushfire consultant has said is that if we build to Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) 40 with clearing around the building envelop to the level of BAL-29, then we should be able to do it.
However, we noticed that his assessment was based on a building envelope of 400m2... and given that we are only looking at a building envelope one quarter that size, his estimate may be overconservative.
So... we are back to getting further land surveying done.
Once John has the results of the further land surveys, we will be able to finalise a building site.
When a building site is decided on.... Neal can actually start designing!!!!!
And THEN, once we have a basic design, Neal can take this back to the bushfire consultant a third time to confirm the appropriate clearance and construction requirements in line with the relevant BAL for a house of that size.
The Android is already looking frowny... he is concerned about his potential inability to envisage a finished building from initial designs...

Viktoria doesn't think the Android's visualisation capabilities are as limited as he thinks. Still... this could be the next phase of our own personal development on the journey...