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| Site Plan |
For lack of a more poetic name, I call my new house design, "Pool House." The central feature of this design is a lap pool embedded on the basement floor, which is illuminated for full length of the pool by natural light through a skylight at 2 feet above the ground level. I finished the design using Revit 2013 a long while ago, though I encountered some difficulties, apparently having to do with Revit 2013, in rendering it as I normally would do. I had thought that my powerful new iMax desktop would let me zip through the rendering process but that did not happen, unfortunately. There were several reasons for it, not the least of which was that I have less time now to try it get it to work.
In this design there are basically three interlocking volumes forming an elongated rectangular block with the long sides facing south and north, intended to fit into a not uncommon lot shape in most US cities or suburbs. The middle and tallest volume is 3-story high, one below ground and two above, while the two smaller and shorter volumes are located at the front (west) and back (east) ends. Let me walk you through the floor plans -
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| Basement plan |
The basement consists of an open space for exercise and entertainment with a kitchenette and the staircase on the north side and a lap pool on the south side lit by skylight. There is a mechanical and storage room directly below the garage, and a bath/changing room opens to the pool.
The ground floor consists of the main living, dining, and cooking areas in the middle with an open stairwell on the north side illuminated by skylights on the roof. The garage is located in the west end while the vestibule and a guest suite is off to the north/east end. The living room and guest bedroom open out to a terrace in the back. A utility room is situated between the kitchen and garage.
The second floor contains the main bedroom suite, two offices, and another bathroom. The office facing west has a roof deck above the garage. The bedroom in the back opens out to a balcony facing south.
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| Ground Floor plan |
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| Second Floor plan |
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| West Elevation |
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| East Elevation |
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| South Elevation |
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| North Elevation |
The following are some section cuts, both longitudinally and transversely, and some semi-rendered interior perspectives -
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| Living area |
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| Dining area |
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| Kitchen |
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| From Kitchen looking toward Living area |
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| Guest Bath |
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| Laundry Room |
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| 2nd Floor Hallway |
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| West facing Office |
Next are some rendered images; they are supposed to look more life-like, however, they take forever to do and the results are not necessarily more appealing -
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| Driveway |
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| Back Terrace |
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| Skylight to Basement Pool on the south side |
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| Basement |
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| Roof Deck |
I haven't had the chance to do some walk-through movies like I did in the past--my German class has been keeping me very busy. I hope to do them over the Thanksgiving break though. As you may have noticed, the plantings in these images are mostly in the fall colors of red and gold. They are, of course, stock photos incorporated into Autodesk's 3D rendering library and a far cry from the burst of autumnal colors that are daily transforming our landscape.
