27th September: To start the development off, zoning and schematic drawings are important to decide the best layout of the room. I was supposed to do 3 layouts and pick the best one out of the 3 but there were more than 4 rooms. I had drawn more than 5 schematic drawings and zoning as it was hard thinking of the best possible location. Planning the apartment was exhausting and it threw my head into a spiral as it clashed with what the client wanted and what sustainability had to offer in terms of designing the apartment.
My client wanted specific areas to have natural lighting in which she spends the most time; her bedroom and the kitchen. It was very demanding as the wet areas (kitchen, bathrooms) had to be connected together to prevent external damages from taking place if one of the pipes burst. Not to mention, the cost of connecting water pipes together is quite expensive. I decided to take a chance by pushing the toilets against the back wall and the kitchen towards the left side of the wall and connect them through a pipe. To avoid complications (pipe bursting), I noted that the water pressure should be decreased. This will not only make it safer for my client whose bedroom is in between the wet areas but also reduce cost. Reducing the cost means that it is energy efficient which uses lesser fossil fuels to be burnt to produce that amount of energy. I deemed this the best schematic drawing and zoning and started the rough furniture layout.
I was asked to make 2 layouts and choose the best one out of the two. With that, I started planning where the furniture should go. I was contemplating putting in carpets but it would only hinder the process as it was just a test to see which furniture would look best in that specific area. I would say I was pretty satisfied with how both layouts turned out. Some rooms were similar but the others were quite different. Both layouts had qualities I really enjoyed but ultimately, I had to decide what was best in terms of sustainability. I picked layout 2 as it seemed to maximise the most natural light coming in through the windows in the apartment. Living in the UK can be tricky as there are different seasons throughout the year. I also picked layout 2 because the traffic flow seemed better than layout 1.
With this, I started to sketch a room out. I only sketched one room during this time because I was very behind. My client wanted many rooms and it was hard planning them out as I had to think of the space too. Therefore, I only got 1 room done which is the living room. The sketch was not very well done as it was very rushed however, I did annotate the sketches thoroughly to make up for the sketch. With sustainability in mind, I annotated my ideas. For example, I even labelled that the lights must be LED lights to save energy. The lights are able to change colours to the colours of the rainbow. The reason this feature is added is because I wanted to give the client a different feel of the living room depending on the colour as she has mirrors. Not to mention, the living room will have plants in it. This is when the client can turn on the any light (red being the best and green the worst) so that the plants can absorb the light and produce oxygen through photosynthesis instead of producing carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) when night falls. I finished this before starting the technical drawings.
Overall, I knew I was behind on schedule. I felt like this was the most time-consuming and difficult process for me as I want to maximise sustainability as well as cater to the client’s need. I realise through this that it is very hard to do both but I believe in taking a longer time planning the layout of the room, the better the outcome.
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