Academic / 2022

Coach House

A four storey coach house documented at 1 to 100 with the level heights carried from a single datum, and reported through to its sustainability case and energy performance.

Project type: Four storey coach house, documentation and design report
Location: Calabogie, Ontario
Status: Academic
Area: Drawn at 1 to 100
Role: Group 9, ARCC 2202

A second year documentation exercise: measure a coach house and draw it properly. Four levels, everything at 1 to 100, with the level heights carried consistently across the elevations from a single datum so the drawings agree with each other.

The value of an exercise like this is not the building. It is learning that a set of drawings has to be internally consistent before it is worth anything, and that the discipline of a shared datum is what makes that possible.

The report went further than the drawings: the material choices argued rather than asserted, passive heating and cooling traced through the section, and the whole thing checked against an energy figure at the end. Drawing a building and defending how it performs are different skills, and the second one is the one that gets asked about.

Produced as Group 9 for ARCC 2202. The submission is the group’s shared work.

Rendered view of the coach house from the garden side, the timber clad upper storey cantilevering over the darker base

Corner view of the coach house showing the vertical timber cladding against the dark panelled end wall — The building rendered from the model. Two materials, a dark base and a timber upper storey, with the glazing gathered into vertical runs.

The coach house from the approach with the shed roof pitching back and a tree to one side — The building rendered from the model. Two materials, a dark base and a timber upper storey, with the glazing gathered into vertical runs.

The double height living space with the stair rising through it and the mezzanine edge above — The building rendered from the model. Two materials, a dark base and a timber upper storey, with the glazing gathered into vertical runs.

Bedroom with the bed set against full height glazing and light falling across the timber floor — Inside, where the section does the work. A double height room with the sleeping level looking into it.

The kitchen under the mezzanine soffit, looking through to the hall beyond — Inside, where the section does the work. A double height room with the sleeping level looking into it.

Revit model render of the timber post and beam frame standing on the blockwork base, every member drawn — Inside, where the section does the work. A double height room with the sleeping level looking into it.

Two cut-away massing studies of the coach house, the dark roof and timber cladding shown with the floors visible inside — The massing studies from the sustainability chapter, cut open so the section can be read against the argument for the materials.

Hand drawn plan studies on sketchbook paper with a perspective sketch of the double height space, and the initial SketchUp model cut open beside them — Where it started. Hand drawn plans and a section sketch, then the same idea built in SketchUp.

Energy, carbon dioxide and cost charts from the Climate Plus Beta model with the annual energy use intensity noted beneath — The energy case, which is what the sustainability argument had to stand on.

Photovoltaic generation calculated in the NREL PVWatts calculator, returning 4,873 kilowatt hours a year with the monthly breakdown — The energy case, which is what the sustainability argument had to stand on.

Drawings

Level 0 and Level 1 plans on a titled sheet at 1 to 100 — Plans, levels 0 and 1

Level 2 and Level 3 plans on a titled sheet at 1 to 100 — Plans, levels 2 and 3

The four elevations with the level heights carried across all of them from one datum — Elevations

Site plan with the contours drawn around the building footprint — Site plan

Long section through the double height space with the wall section drawn alongside it — Section and wall section

Timber framing axonometric with every stud, plate and rafter drawn individually above the floor slab — Timber framing