This project was given to Fourth Year Architecture Students at Arizona State University, located in Tempe, AZ, part of the larger Phoenix Metropolitan area.

From Studio Prospectus:

The fall studio for fourth year architecture students at ASU has always dealt with housing. Over the last fifty years the fundamental nature of housing, family, neighborhood, community and city have radically changed and continue to be redefined. This studio will examine those changes and their implications for the future, by investigating the difficult question: How de we dwell both individually and collectively today? This year the studio will maintain this focus, looking at this building type through the lens of "Prefab". (“Pre-fab" is defined as either modular units or a flat-pack system that can manufactured off-site and then be rapidly deployed on-site

Design Approach:

Flat-Pack System that includes two different types of steel framed panels. One that is solid, created from the steel frame and an insulated inlay, and another that is a system of motorized blinds set within the steel frame with the glass and its frame welded to the main steel frame. Panels are used both as structure and to enclose the dwelling. The roof is a system of steel beams that are partially assembled off-site and then completed on-site, with metal decking finishing off the roof enclosure.

Site: Suburan Setting, Multi-Family, Low-density.

The design allows for community interaction to happen at a level beyond that which is normally found in current suburban housing. When private patios are allowed to meld with the communal green area, a small and intimate neighborhood is achieved. While the paradigm has been to allow the front yards of houses to act as the public space, the use of these spaces has greatly diminished with the advent of air conditioned interior spaces. Daily life has switched to the interior of the house with the backyard acting as the exterior area for recreation and relaxation. This in turn has successfully cut off each individual residence from each other, resulting in a ghost town of suburban communities. My project eliminates the front yard altogether and allows the patios to focus in on the public space situated between residential dwellings. It is a natural progression and extension of the current lifestyle in today’s suburbs. The patios acting as a “backyard” do what the front porches of early 20th century houses once did. They become a place to relax, and recreate, while at the same time allow for neighborly interaction to occur. Homes are no longer autonomous dwellings floating in a sea streets and sidewalks. They are members of a larger unit linked together by a communal spine. If complete privacy is desired gates can be slid shut, and blinds made to conceal windows. If partial privacy is desired each system, gates and blinds, can be modulated to what ever degree of visual openness the resident wishes to achieve. The act of closing off one dwelling in no way affects the others, each is as separate as the individual that lives there, yet still belongs to the whole.

The idea of the steel framed panels is at the heart of my design. They are prefabricated and trucked in and erected on-site. I created two different types. One is a solid inlay that allows for plumbing and air ducts. The other is a window panel that utilized a motorized blind system built by ASCA Inc. The blind system rides inside a steel frame which is made of welded C channels. The frame is structural, meant to carry loads.

Each panel is 8 feet wide. I designed the floor plans on a 16 foot grid. There are two floorplans. A single-story and a two-story. The single story is approx. 1850sqft, and the two-story is approx. 2200sqft. They are each surrounded by a private patio with sliding, translucent gates that open onto a communal green zone that runs through the center of the development.

Two Story Floor Plans

An oblique of the two-story duplex.

Oblique of single story duplex

3-D Section Cut of two-story.

3-D Section Cut of single story

Elevation of two-story

Elevations of Single Story

The placement of the structures was a little backwards. Ordinarily, you have a site and design a building for that site. In this project, we were to design the dwellings and then find a site on which to place them. In this way we stay true to the idea of pre-fab type housing which is meant to be placed in a variety of sites. I chose a site located near a mountain range located south of Phoenix (aptly, if not boringly named South Mountain). My choice reflected the nature of my design. The area is suburban, low density, and located near a desert preserve. There is the potential to use the natural desert runoff after a rain and funnel that water down into the communal green zones.

The site plan is diagrammatic in nature.

View of communal green zone from patio of two-story dwelling unit. Gates are open.

View of communal zone with wash, single level units and mountains in background.

View from patio of dwelling unit. Closed translucent gate, with communal zone beyond.

View of single level duplex from communal zone.

Wash and Communal Zone

Two-story Patio with Spool

Living room of Single Story

Interior view of two-story looking toward kitchen

Beyond this, the studio also required construcion drawings at a 33% level of completion. I won't post those, I doubt anybody really wants to see boring AutoCAD drawings. :)

I look foward to your comments.

Like the overall design,...I like to see the "boring" ACAD drawings ;)
Renders were done with what software?

:clap:

Great project. I really like the renderings and the notion of prefab has always been of interest to me in it's relation to "green" design. I love seeing examples of it.

On another note, how do you like school down there at ASU? I am in the process of applying to the graduate school there since it's pretty highly ranked. Also, I've been to AZ a few times and I love it there! Currently, I'm in school up in Eastern Washington at WSU and its 19 degrees outside...

hello supamike, i saw this post earlier today with just the plans and sections and it didn't seem to lok very interesting, thia was all dispelled with your renderings they show off the project very well.

the renderings show of the quality and thought into construction and materials.

as it is a pre fab construction i think the cad dwgs are very important. also what is the idea behind the structural system.

if this is he desert i'm worried about the amount of galzing you have also how is the building heated and cooled?

and roof as well? it sort of looks like they have conc slab on top othe buildings??

the interiors look a lil spartan, mind you the picasso would be nice to have or is it a miro, where do the lighting fixtures go???

sorry about all of the q's just like to know details and people's thougts..

good posting and bets of luck with your studies...

ps what did you render the pics with??

The use of glass would seem at odds with a desert environment. Traditional use of adobe, mud brick, and more recently thick concrete walled structures has been the norm for a hot, arid climate. However, there are certain reasons that the use of glass actually makes sense here in the Sonoran desert. First of all, despite the prevailing view, it can get cold here. For instance today here in Phoenix, being winter in the northern hemisphere it will get to a low of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, or 0 Celsius, for everyone else in the world. So, if you wanted to make use of Passive Solar Heating, then a large south facing wall of glass would be ideal to make use of whatever solar heat can be captured. That being said, during the summer months it will reach highs well over 110 degrees Fahrenheit, or 43 Celsius, and so you’re going to want to protect yourself from that same sun.

Also, from an aesthetic point, the desert is very transparent. Without bushy trees and shrubs to get in the way, one can see for miles across valleys to mountain ranges in the distance. It just begs to be looked at.

In my project I have 4 foot (1.2 meters) over hangs. This shades the glass windows during the summer when the sun is at its highest angle in the sky, but allows for lower winter sun angles to penetrate into the interior. I also placed each structure short side facing east/west to minimize the amount of surface area that is exposed to the rising and setting sun. In more recent years glazing has gotten better at insulating against solar heat. An architect by the name of David Hovey has built several houses north of Phoenix with extensive glazing and steel. He utilizes large over hangs, and glass that blocks 99% of UV rays with an additional layer of mylar film that has energy conserving values equivalent to 80% of typical one inch insulated glass. So technology has been a real help in this area. Along with the translucent gates, which add some degree of sun shading, insulated glass, and the blind system I’m confidant that my design could withstand the Phoenician sun.

Other concerns are the insulation of the roof (although steel deck with concrete slab is used here), and insulation of the metal structure.

I would say that the biggest fault in my design is cost. Being made out of nothing but steel, these structures would be expensive. I chose all steel mainly for my education. I’ve never had the opportunity to build a steel structure and was interested in learning how steel is used and connected. But in reality, partial wood and steel would more then likely be used.


As far as ASU goes… I’m an undergraduate, and my experience has been great. It is a highly competitive atmosphere, and many of the studios are taught by well known and published architects. I’ve had the opportunity to travel with groups from the school, and the school is very modern in their architectural taste. From my perspective the graduate students appear to be step children. Currently, they are housed in studios that aren’t even part of the main college of architecture, and the three graduate students I know seem to be a little jaded by their experience. One told me that they teach more planning then architecture in their graduate level courses. But not being a graduate student I can’t really relate to you what the experience is like. My advice to you would be to travel down here and check it out for yourself. That’s what I’m doing. And no I’m not staying at ASU, I’m going else where for my graduate education.

All models were built in Sketchup and rendered in Artlantis R.

I agree with ousty's opening statements - your project was in danger of being boring from the plans and elevations - but as soon as I looked at the renders I was convinced it was great.

It appears to be well layed out, appropriate to its location and climate. I really like the sense of intimacy and place that you have infused into the design - both externally and internally.

My favourite shots are of the water feature (#17) and the first interior shot (#18). Excellent work indeed. :craqueur:

I think that you have done a great project here. Because it is so good, I am going to be extra hard on you! Here are some things that I noticed.

I don’t think that you took the idea of prefab far enough. The elements that make up your building would be “prefab” anyway. For example, your steel frames would already be fabricated off site and assembled later. In other words you have not really explored what prefab could be, and in my view is not a very innovative solution. My other comment related to prefab is one that you have already touched on, that is the cost of your units. While the number of units you are doing here may help the cost, these would be some very expensive homes in spite of being prefab. I think that one of the main goals is affordable units. It seems to me that you were assigned prefab, but you were never really that interested in it.(which I don't have a problem with) Tell me if I am wrong.

I don’t think that your single floor unit works very well. The “secondary living room” (space between the living room and dining room) seems like an afterthought. I think that the space could be nice, but in your plan the couch is even facing the solid wall instead of the courtyard space you created. I would also question the necessity of 2 ½ baths. In general, the unit could have been smaller and their could have been more of a difference between the one and two story units. (especially in area) I would like to have seen the entry have its own space, instead of it being at the junction of two corridor spaces. Why is the kitchen completely cut off visually from the beautiful glass wall in front of it. (i.e. why make me do dishes staring at a wall instead of the outside.) I think that your two story plan is working much better. I think you could have done better on the entry on that one as well, but all in all it works much better than the one story in my opinion. In general I think you could have provided more floor plan options and even panel options. Why not offer more variation; I think it would have made the neighborhood you created more interesting.

Speaking of the neighborhood….You wrote about passive solar and southern exposures then in your plan you faced half of the units to the north. You no longer have the advantages of all the glass that you had written about. However, the outdoor spaces and relationships between the units are beautiful.

I spend all of this time writing this, not because I want to nail you on this stuff, but because I think that you are a talented designer and you deserve to have as much input as possible. In school I always thought that the half-hour of ripping me apart in my crit was the greatest learning experience of the semester.

You really did a great job on this project!

Thanks for your comments. Some replies:

“I don’t think that you took the idea of prefab far enough.”

I suppose I could have done what many of my peers did and create modular boxes or even trying using storage containers as my bases for a pre-fab design, which is what I suppose most people think about when they think pre-fab. However, the prospectus called for a modular or flat-pack system. When I started the project my initial ideas were to have a kit of parts that could be used to create an infinite number of floor plans by simply using them in various combinations. In this way I’m not creating fixed boxes, but a more flexible system that could be designed to fit a particular situation. To me that seemed more pre-fab then anything they showed us during lectures. The floor plans I came up with are just what I designed, it doesn’t mean that’s the way the 8ft x 8ft panels will always be placed. It’s a system, which I found very innovative.

“I don’t think that your single floor unit works very well.”

I agree. I never really liked it as much as I like the two story floor plan. However, I did like the way that the foot print of the single story building embraced the patio. As far as the blocking of light and views by the kitchen cabinets goes, I think it’s the two story floor plan that has that issue. In the single family floor plan the kitchen blocks views of the driveway, but in the two-story floor plan the kitchen blocks views of the patio and common area. In retrospect I should have flipped it 90 degrees and placed it up against the common wall. Oh, and the area in the single family floor plan where the couches are facing the wall…that’s the media area and they are actually facing a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. :D

“You wrote about passive solar and southern exposures then in your plan you faced half of the units to the north. You no longer have the advantages of all the glass that you had written about.”

You’re correct. On the up side, this being Phoenix, they will at least always be cool.
Being duplexes I never could figure out how to make it so that every single house had southern exposure. Had I flipped the entire site plan 90 then they would have been getting incredibly intense sunshine in the mornings and the afternoons, which would have made them ovens in the summer time.


“While the number of units you are doing here may help the cost, these would be some very expensive homes in spite of being prefab. I think that one of the main goals is affordable units.”

Yes, I believe that’s one of the goals, the other is shear innovation. That is, creating something that can’t be done on site (without HUGE costs), but can be done in a factory, in mass, for relative savings. My personal goal on this project wasn’t to try and bring cost into the equation, but to improvise with building materials and see what I would come up with.

Oh and to everybody that keeps saying my plans and sections are boring, but my renderings are great. During my presentation I was praised for the plans and sections and criticized for my renderings (too detailed they told me). Go figure.