PIXEL HOUSE: 3-storey Townhouse Remodel
Date: March 2023
Location: Tandang Sora, Quezon City
Schematic designs for a new home, to be built upon on a half-demolished townhouse unit. Though the design did not progress due to the clients' budget restrictions; it was an enlightening exercise on space allocation, tropical design and designing in 3D.
The client requested the following spaces:
Ground Floor:
- Carport (2 cars)
- Office w/ adjoining toilet
- Storage room
Second Floor:
- Living - Dining - Kitchen Area
- Laundry area
Third Floor
- Master Bedroom
- Master Toilet and Bath
- Walk-in Closet
- Entertainment Room
- Guest Room
The challenge was to fit all of these spaces inside a compact building footprint of 60 sqm.
An exterior corridor at the front serves as a transitional space from ground floor stairs to the main living area and provides a semi-"outdoor" space for clotheslines and condenser units.
The most challenging part was planning the stairs in this limited space. The owner had opted for an L-shaped staircase at the ground floor to have more space for storage. After playing around with many layouts on Sketchup, a U-shaped staircase was found to be the most space-saving for the upper floors, as it created the shortest corridor.
All this forced me to think of the house in 3D, while carefully considering the positioning and sizes of beams and columns, and the minimum headroom.
Two schemes for the third floor. Scheme 2 is more advantageous from a plumbing perspective, while scheme 1 has a more spacious entertainment room.
Breezeblocks and louvers serve a triple purpose of providing sun-shading, serving as a privacy screen, while allowing for natural ventilation. They also add a touch of personality to the plain rectangular form.
The roof is cutout at the rear corner, creating an air well to make use of the stack effect: cooler air enters from the second floor screen and hotter air is exits from the opening of the roof.
Scheme 1 makes use of a clerestory window to flood the stairwell with natural light. This is a better alternative to skylights as the light rays will not directly enter the house during noontime and cause solar heat gain. Scheme 2 has a larger balcony that allows the placement of a window to light the stairwell.
For deep lots with a narrow frontage, is it difficult for natural light to penetrate into the deeper parts of the house. This is addressed by locating windows around the air well. This lightwell also helps hanging laundry dry faster.
Sections show the lightwell, and the many clerestory awning windows that allow natural light to penetrate even the rear portion of the house.
