designing an ecofriendly home

My learning goal is to study architecture and the skills needed to design a house as well as how to make the replica of the design. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always enjoyed going on a stroll around my neighborhood or taking a bicycle around to look at the houses built there. To me there’s just something that piques my in terest about the way a building is designed. There are many factors that go into designing a house, or an office, or a hotel, etc. the flow of a certain building from room to room differs based on what the building’s intention is. I’ve always wanted to know what was go ing on inside the head of the person who designed all these build ings. No matter how ugly or how pretty a house is designed, the ar chitect will always have their own reasons as to why they made it this way. As time moved forward, so did the trend of how houses were built. When we look at houses, we can roughly guess when it was built by the style that it followed as each decade has their own unique style of designing houses.

Modern houses usually tend to look more futuristic and sleeker in design with flat roofs and many of the walls being made with glass, while many of the older houses usually don’t have too many windows and their roofs are usually made with ceramic tiles and are usually slanted diagonally forming the shape of a triangle. As I grew older, the style of houses grew with me and only intrigued me more. What influenced the choice of style and characteristics of a design based on their time-period as well as what influenced them to change. I also enjoy art and design classes and though I’m not very good at it, I like to spend my time sketching various things that I find interesting and learning about different tech niques and theories in the subject. If I have any freetime, I enjoy scrolling through social media and look at architectural designs from all over the world and analyze them or to find inspiration for sketching. All this has led me to choose this subject for my personal project.

Product Goal

I hope to learn new skills and ideas that I previously did not know about in terms of designing houses and buildings. My product goal is to design a house. Aside from that, I will also create a scaled-down replica of the model as my main product. However, the idea was for the house to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than regular houses.

Reflection

My research helped me alot in designing the house. When sketching the design of the house, I started with the floor plan first. I de cided to make a one story house that is larger than average and can accommodate the needs of a family of four, while also making the

rooms able to convert for other uses in case it needs to hold a larger family or even if there’s less than four people living in the house. I tried my best to follow the guidelines in designing a floor plan that I mentioned above. I was able to use my research sort of as a guideline when I needed to look back at the things that make a good house design.

I gained a lot of useful knowledge and information from various sources like google, youtube, and books. To make sure the infor mation that I gathered was the right one and was factual, I cross-checked multiple different sources on the same matter and avoided websites that can be edited by the public such as wikipedia. My research helped me alot in answering a lot of the questions I had be fore I started my project and at least I didn't go in blind. Many of the information that I gathered regarding the design aspect of the project could be used as a guideline while the other topics of research such as sustainability could be used to spread awareness of the many dangers that construction of buildings can pose towards the environment. I gained a lot of new knowledge regarding the topic of architecture along with its impacts on our environment even though I was practically walking into the project blind with no prior knowledge on the topic whatsoever.

However, the research I did was strictly from a secondary source on the internet as I was not able to collect any information on my own in the form of interviews and things like that. But I still cross-checked my sources to make sure all the information I gathered were correct and can actually be used. Overall I was able to answer any and all questions I had when starting this project and even further beyond that. Aside from helping with the project itself, my research also helped my use of the ATL skills as well. ATL skill is fundamental in the IB curriculum and this project itself has helped me as well.

Product Evaluation

My project was to build and replicate a house that I designed with the intention of being more environmentally friendly and sustainable. Before I began my personal project, there were expectations for me set by myself and other people as well. I had first drawn the floor plan of the house as a basis for my design and the replica, though I had completed that, the replica turned out to be of less quality than what was desired. I had somewhat underestimated the project from the beginning and thought that it wouldn’t be too hard. However, my own skills and abilities were not able to reach the quality that was needed.

The replica of the house looks plain with no details added to exterior, there were several mistakes in the shaping and cutting of the walls which lead to uneven measurements. The interior is also empty with no details added to the inside. It was my first time at tempting to create a replica for a house. I tried my best and struggled to meet my own expectations.

Upon starting this replica, I had plans to create the furniture as well to fill up the interior of the house, as well as some other ideas for detailing. However, due to the fact that I was nearing the submission date for the product, I had to rush the final outcome and it ended up not as good as I expected it to be.

Before creating this one, I had attempted to make a replica with a different material. In my research I had found several different types of materials that could be used to make small miniature replicas. The most durable one by far that I found was plywood. 3mm plywood is a common material used for making replicas. During my first attempt, I tried to cut the plywood into the desired shapes needed for the walls. However, due to plywood being a cluster of wooden shards stuck back together after shredding, it can be quite fragile and difficult to shape if not you are not experienced. This resulted in uneven and wavy cuts as well as the plywood breaking which would make it very difficult to stand up.

In order to find excellence in creating the replica, I decided to switch up and use a different material. For my second attempt I used duplex cardboard. This material was much easier to shape and cut into even sides. Although cardboard was much easier to use, I had to rush the product as I didn't have enough time to watch over all the little details.