Creative House Design for A Deep and Narrow Lot

A few months ago, a client approached me with a unique challenge: designing a house on an unusual lot. The site was distinctive due to its narrow 6-meter frontage and a depth of 45 meters. The client wanted to build a secondary house for his children, who were studying in a different city. Initially, he envisioned a two-story house but later decided on a single-story design.

The client's space requirements were specific. He needed a two-car garage, four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, and a servants' quarters. Incorporating these elements into the design required careful planning. Given the elongated shape of the lot, we had to use firewalls on both sides to maximize the available space.

One of the primary challenges was arranging the rooms to ensure adequate natural light and ventilation. This was critical for creating a comfortable living environment despite the narrow frontage. Additionally, we had to address the plumbing and drainage needs, considering the long depth of the site. The slope required for proper drainage and plumbing posed a significant challenge, necessitating precise elevation planning for the floors.

The site’s 45-meter depth meant that we had to carefully design the floor elevations to meet the minimum slope requirements for plumbing. Ensuring that the drainage system functioned efficiently while maintaining a seamless design was a complex task.

Check out the video to see how we successfully solved these design challenges and created a functional and aesthetically pleasing home on this unique lot.   

Modern Duplex Design: Spacious Living for the Family

As an architect, I'm constantly striving to design homes that seamlessly blend contemporary aesthetics with functional living spaces. This two-story duplex exemplifies that philosophy, offering a spacious and well-appointed environment for families.

16 Must Watch Design Shows about Architecture

1. Grand Designs

Grand Designs is a British television series produced by Boundless and broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

The program has been presented by Kevin McCloud since it first aired in April 1999, and more than 200 episodes have been broadcast in twenty series.

2. Grand Designs New Zealand

Grand Designs New Zealand is a New Zealand television series on TV3. It is based on the British television series Grand Designs, and it is presented by the architect Chris Moller. It began airing in New Zealand on 4 October 2015

Unique Home Designs: Adaptive Reuse

A lot of creative design solutions come from re-purposed old buildings. The design constraints of the existing structure often result in innovative solutions. Whether it's a freight container, a barn or a silo creative designers come up with inspiring ideas. They design unique structures that meet the needs of their client.

Back when I was still a student, I always wanted to redesign an old warehouse into a modern home. I've had a lot of sketches and concepts to visualize how they're going to come out. I've always wanted to redesign old abandoned buildings and make them useful again.

 Images courtesy of SeARCH

Architect: SeARCH

Farmyard to Residential Building

Amazing Future Homes

I was browsing through Forbes for some interesting article about investments and found this interesting article about future homes. This was the last place I thought I could find architecture and design related articles but the slides really caught my interest.

Tornado-Proof Home Designed by Ted Givens of 10Design

Old Structures Converted into Exceptional Homes

I've always enjoyed designing. Since I was in college, I've always preferred to create designs from scratch.  I wanted to explore different possibilities without any constraints. One advantage of being a student is that there are no limitations.

We have always been given the freedom to express our creativity. Our school encouraged us to explore new designs. After becoming an architect, reality has crept in. Restrictions and budgets have always been present in almost all projects. In order to accomplish my projects, I had to adjust to reality.

Barn to House adaptive reuse Designed by: Bjarne Mastenbroek (SeARCH)

New Althea and Fiona Bungalow Design

In the past few months, I have been trying to work out the design of the bungalow units for phase two for our subdivision project. We have tried various schemes that would match the concepts of our previous houses and have finally come up with these two designs.

Althea - (Single Detach Bungalow)

Fiona - (Duplex Bungalow)

Although we haven't started selling these units yet, I am hopeful that these units will be salable since there were a lot of inquiries on bungalow units on our phase one. For more information on this subdivision project kindly visit our Facebook page at  https://www.facebook.com/HaciendaSanAgustin or our website http://hsasubdivision.com/

Slim Homes

Every time I have a design problem, I always see an opportunity to explore new solutions to the problem. Since land prices are getting higher, I've been exploring the possibilities of designing a house on a thin piece of land. Building a house on a thin piece of land would also lower the cost of building a house, making it attractive to buyers looking for affordable homes.

Although construction costs are a top priority in this design challenge, I also have to make sure that the comfort of the house is not sacrificed. Design is another aspect to consider, and having the constraints of building on a slim lot will make things more difficult. So, in order to draw inspiration from this challenge, I did some research on modern slim houses on the net and found a few unique and practical slim houses.

Slim House In Tokyo by Mizuishi Architect

Slim House in Toronto by Drew Mandel

Slim House in San Francisco By Architect Craig Steely 

Slim House in Seatle

Slim House in Toronto By Donald Chong