Urban Lodge
This is our third project we have designed for our client Welhaus titled Urban Lodge.
It is specifically intended to provide a flexible living template enabling anything from apartment type - living in a house format to housing on an economical scale within a fun architectural package balancing style, economy, prefabrication and uniqueness.
The brief called for the footprint to be restricted to the smallest size comfortable. 75 square metres was chosen as the total floor area, split over 44 square metres and 31 square metres for the ground and mezzanine respectively.
The ground floor has a bedroom, an accessible hallway with alcove for cloaks and shoes, an accessible bathroom and laundry, kitchen and dining space. The mezzanine includes a living room loft and a generous landing that overlooks the kitchen and dining. The landing is intended to be used as a study or other similar use; to define it as a separate space its floor level is set slightly lower than the living room.
External form is a simple rectangle under a generously proportioned pitched roof. The eaves are purposefully low so that the two-storey structure does not prove complex in regards to district plan compliance. Consequently, low eaves allow the pitch of the roof to be steep which ensures a generous internal volume at mezzanine level without creating a building too tall. The low eaves also ensure that the external form is in proportion to its small footprint.
Double height spaces and natural light are employed to balance out the ‘compact' nature of the internal spaces with floor-to-eaves or floor-to-floor glazing on the north side leading to external decking, an extensive gable window on the west for internal drama as well as visual impact externally. The loft space is flooded with natural light from the rooflights and a delightful box window at floor level projects out of the building for dramatic effect.
The flexibility of the design is shown in the photos below, where the mezzanine is a bedroom instead of a living room with a walk-in-wardrobe at one end. A wall separating the bedroom from the landing has been inserted where normally there would be a visible structural portal. The bathroom has also been modified to have an alcove for a shower.
Timber products are a key requirement of our client and this has strongly informed material selection and construction details such as the creative application of the structural product used for the floor and roof panels to create balustrades or an enclosure around the kitchen. All structural elements such as the ridge beam and central support to the ridge beam (timber portal) are also timber constructions. Naturally, the exterior is clad in a sheet timber product.
The design provides high levels of insulation, high performance windows and doors, air-tight construction, prefabricated wall panels incorporating an internal services cavity and prefabricated CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) floor and roof panels.
It is specifically intended to provide a flexible living template enabling anything from apartment type - living in a house format to housing on an economical scale within a fun architectural package balancing style, economy, prefabrication and uniqueness.
The brief called for the footprint to be restricted to the smallest size comfortable. 75 square metres was chosen as the total floor area, split over 44 square metres and 31 square metres for the ground and mezzanine respectively.
The ground floor has a bedroom, an accessible hallway with alcove for cloaks and shoes, an accessible bathroom and laundry, kitchen and dining space. The mezzanine includes a living room loft and a generous landing that overlooks the kitchen and dining. The landing is intended to be used as a study or other similar use; to define it as a separate space its floor level is set slightly lower than the living room.
External form is a simple rectangle under a generously proportioned pitched roof. The eaves are purposefully low so that the two-storey structure does not prove complex in regards to district plan compliance. Consequently, low eaves allow the pitch of the roof to be steep which ensures a generous internal volume at mezzanine level without creating a building too tall. The low eaves also ensure that the external form is in proportion to its small footprint.
Double height spaces and natural light are employed to balance out the ‘compact' nature of the internal spaces with floor-to-eaves or floor-to-floor glazing on the north side leading to external decking, an extensive gable window on the west for internal drama as well as visual impact externally. The loft space is flooded with natural light from the rooflights and a delightful box window at floor level projects out of the building for dramatic effect.
The flexibility of the design is shown in the photos below, where the mezzanine is a bedroom instead of a living room with a walk-in-wardrobe at one end. A wall separating the bedroom from the landing has been inserted where normally there would be a visible structural portal. The bathroom has also been modified to have an alcove for a shower.
Timber products are a key requirement of our client and this has strongly informed material selection and construction details such as the creative application of the structural product used for the floor and roof panels to create balustrades or an enclosure around the kitchen. All structural elements such as the ridge beam and central support to the ridge beam (timber portal) are also timber constructions. Naturally, the exterior is clad in a sheet timber product.
The design provides high levels of insulation, high performance windows and doors, air-tight construction, prefabricated wall panels incorporating an internal services cavity and prefabricated CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) floor and roof panels.
Project Cost: NZD 200,001 - NZD 500,000
Country: New Zealand
Postcode: 8011
