NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE:
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGY

SECOND YEAR DESIGN.

PROJECT 1:
FIRST SEMESTER – 2023

HOUSE – A LOCAL HABITATION.

SLEEPING • EATING • LIVING

The first design project for the year is the design of a infill house on a site situated in the
suburb of central . It is a northeast facing site located in , in Central. Your client is a
young professional who has tasked your office with designing an innovative
contemporary house on this small site. The brief explicitly requires that you deal with
issues of green building, namely natural ventilation, shading, water collection, renewable
energy. The site requires that you have a thorough understanding of the existing context
(buildings) in terms of their scale, form, location (set back lines) etc. The Client indicated
that he wants the building structure to consist of at least two thirds lightweight
construction ,the rest would be masonry or concrete.

Criteria for evaluation

• Contextuality, this criteria will judge how successfully you integrated your design
into the scale and nature of the streetscape with respect to openings( balconies,
windows,entrance space) Appropriate interface with street, orientation and views.
• Conceptuality How successfully you could formulate an abstract applied
approach(concept) to the problem using the constraints and informants of site
,urban culture and climate to arrive at form. Stereotyped historical clichés will not
be successful.
• Structure, Tectonic How successful structure ,and connection are resolved and
articulated , tectonic. Understanding of how structure influences space and use.
• Materiality Attempt to describe space through light and shade, texture.
How well these aspects are presented via drawing and model.

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Houses – An introduction:

House design is not a simple matter ! In fact house design is a rather complex process,
and this is due to the many detailed issues which one has to deal with
when designing a personalized living space. A truly successful house design will
very efficiently and subtly address all the issues and create a space which is unique to
users and their requirements. As a result the design of a house is a challenging
exercise which many designers enjoy.

You will find many books dealing with the subject, and one of the architects
With considerable insight was Robert Woods Kennedy, his book “The House and the Art
of its Design.”

Spatial requirements:

Entrance hallway and guest toilet

Study
Open plan living and dining
Kitchen, scullery
Master bedroom, and en-suite bathroom
Guest Suite - bedroom and en-suite bathroom
Garage

Reading and Reference Texts

.
JOUBERT, O. (ed.) 2010. 10 years + 100 buildings Architecture in democratic South
Africa, Cape Town: Bell Roberts Publishing.

https://divisare.com/publications/narrow-urban-houses?page=2
https://divisare.com/african-houses

Progress and Crit stages

All hand in Dates and times as per Moodle submissions

Project Brief Hand out and discussion as per Moodle and Teams

Concept Site Analysis & Discussion:

Sketch Plan stage

Final Submission

Minimum hand-in Requirements:

• Plans – 1:100, and site plan, elevations 1:100.

• 2 Sections at 1:100, one detail section at 1:50 , a 3-dimensional model, 1:100 if
physical ,needs to show and interact with context even if digital .ie Streetviews.
• All Elevations and sections are to be rendered
• All sheets are to be in an A1 format and presented in a professional manner.
• Even though submitted digitally, plan for eventual printing.

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• You will be required to have some form of 3-dimensional presentation and
although this is not specificially required for the initial hand ins ,it is expected and
required for the final Portfolio hand in in June.

NOTE: NO LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED,

AND INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE
MARKED.

Street at top is Campbell and site is situated in Dollery Street which runs into Hunt, the
road at the bottom in valley is Russel Road.