Recent posts
Mobile Environmental Laboratory
This year (for the Fall semester), instead of teaching, Scott has been asked to design the University’s new mobile environmental laboratory. Woodbury University has embarked on a new program at the San Diego Campus that more closely integrates the traditional architecture curriculum of design with environmental systems, environmental controls, systems integration, and the core physics prerequisites that has in-turn required a new on-campus environmental laboratory facility. Without the physical space to devote to this new lab function, and because the lab function bridges several courses and types of coursework, mobile environmental lab carts were envisioned that could be moved into classrooms or studios as needed. Three mobile labs are being fabricated to provide learning opportunities for students in small groups of no more than four.
Second Dwelling Unit
The Second Dwelling Unit (SDU) project has been submitted for building permit. The design has been refined to better address solar energy control and heat transfer, to provide greater privacy, improved massing and proportion, and to enhance constructability.
The above images are rendered for the two annual Solstices at solar noon to show the shadow, and therefore solar control, that allows solar access in the Winter when it is desired and solar rejection in the Summer when it is not.
Coffee Table
The design of furnishings has always been an important part of the complete environments we aspire to create in which individuals and groups have an opportunity to live rich and rewarding lives. As with everything we do here at O.A.W., our goal is protect and preserve precious natural resources by using recycled, recyclable, re-purposed, and/or low-environmental-impact materials in all of our designs in order construct more sustainable environments.
Identity Crisis
The public identity of a business must BOTH remain stable to display strength and confidence AND evolve to reflect changes within the company and externally in society; continually reconnecting client and provider. O.A.W. was founded in-part by a desire to provide architecture and environmental design services with a more flexible, open, and nimble approach. To this end, the graphics deployed to represent the firm are in constant evolution responding to all we’ve learned through our continued curiosity and expanding experience.
The firm logo has evolved over the last few years (as previously described in this post); and, incremental refinement of our logo continues today.
Solar Garage
Electricity. We all need (a lot of) it. Where does it come from? According to this linked article 45% of the electricity generated in the US comes from burning coal; with natural gas and nuclear at about half that each. Other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar only account for less than 4% (as of 2009). Yet, each standard lot in San Diego (5,000 square feet) receives on average throughout the year up to 2,325kWh (kilowatt-hour) of sun energy per day normal to a flat surface (calculated with data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – NREL). Coupled with average efficiency of photovoltaic collectors today at just 8% across all types (newer technology is approaching a theoretical efficiency of 29%) results in potential electricity generation per standard lot of 186kWh, which equals 67,890kWh per year. The average electricity consumption per household of three residents per year in 2004 for the San Diego Gas & Electric service area was 6,000kWh per year (rounded from The California Statewide Residential Appliance Saturation Study of 2004). Based on this rough data and calculation each standard lot containing a single family residence in San Diego receives 11-times the energy needed in the form of sunlight per year to provide the electrical power needs of the household.
This is not suggesting covering each lot completely with photovoltaics or that this is a broad-based solution to satisfy all of our energy needs. However, 455 square feet of solar panels would be sufficient to provide all the electricity needed for many households (assuming lower-cost low-efficiency panels and on-site storage ability) without requiring new transmission lines or new centralized electricity generation facilities – and reduce our dependence on foreign supplies of raw fuel.
What is a solar garage?
Beach House
A beach house built in the mid-1980s on a narrow and steep lot directly above the beach is in desperate need of a facelift. This project consists of reconsidering the exterior in a Cape Cod / “Hamptons” residential style while only minimally adding building area to bring the significantly asymmetrical front elevation into compliance with the more symmetrical style of choice.
Spanish Revival
O.A.W. has been asked to design a new “modern Spanish Revival” residence based around an exterior courtyard exposed to the South for solar access. The initial concepts for this project include utilizing the whole site for indoor/outdoor living and separating uses within the residence depending on their status on the “Public-Private” continuum.
Accessory Dwelling Units
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) – formerly-known as “Granny Flats” – are secondary dwelling units on “single-family” zoned lots. ADUs are an opportunity to provide much-needed smaller housing units in built-out neighborhoods with minimal physical changes to the public’s experience from the street (ADUs are typically built to the rear of properties) and with minimal cost while traditionally providing opportunities for families to “age in place” and take care of one another while offering much-desired independence. Unfortunately, the City of San Diego has all but outlawed ADUs on single dwelling unit zoned property (Municipal Code Section 141.0302(b) “Companion Unit”) even after State law recognized their importance in housing the ever-growing (and ever-aging) California population (Assembly Bill 1866 passed in 2003 amended a previous ADU law by requiring local communities to allow ADUs as a property right). Fortunately, the County of San Diego has adopted a Second Dwelling Unit (SDU) ordinance allowing ADUs in certain circumstances.
Though O.A.W. has been interested in ADUs as a viable solution to ever-evolving housing needs for years, we have not had the opportunity to work on one – until this year. This project is a traditional ADU with an extended family living on the same property with mom moving from the main house the SDU and son and his family moving into the main house (where he grew up). Limited to 30% of the existing main house’s living area, this 608 square foot SDU is designed to provide for gracious, comfortable, and affordable living.
New Website Design
At long last, version 2.0 is up and running. This new streamlined design will permit more frequent posts without concern for the fussy layout of the previous version 1.5. Please check back soon as we resurrect the Demystification series!
Oh, yeah. Let us know what you think of the new design. We may not be able to respond immediately (the SPAM is ridiculous), but any comments are much appreciated.
New Graphics
We have been busy this year expanding our expertise with some in-house projects. In this post, new office signage that also serves to reduce morning solar heat gain and to minimize distractions from the busy sidewalk and street while still embracing the openness of the storefront windows.
Fall Equinox
It’s 2:18 PM PDT – Happy Fall Equinox, also known as: Alban Elfed, Autumn Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Cornucopia, Feast of Avilon, Festival of Dionysus, Harvest Home, Harvest Tide, Mabon, Night of the Hunter, Second Harvest Festival, Wine Harvest, Witch’s Thanksgiving, and the first day of autumn among other names. Welcome Fall.
ArchiCAD Helps Create Home for Urban Arts
Graphisoft, maker of ArchiCAD, the preferred B.I.M. software application of Open Architecture Workshop, has published an article coinciding with the release of ArchiCAD 13 and their new website and marketing campaign, highlighting our work with Sushi – A Center for the Urban Arts:
San Diego architect, Scott Glazebrook, is using Building Information Technology (BIM) to create a cutting-edge performance “laboratory” for creative exploration for a local performing arts group…
Please read more here.
De•mys•ti•fi•ca•tion
Demystification. Thus begins a new regular series in this blog to demystify what it is we architects do and why and how we do it.
Re:Visioning the Transitional
What does one call immediately post-WWII residential architecture other than “transitional”? These houses no longer exhibit traits of Craftsman-style, Queen Anne, American Four-Square, or any number of other architectural styles thriving prior to WWII; but yet they often retain some of the bungalow sensibilities of these previous genres. They are not Modernist, Ranch-style, or Mid-Century, either. They were borne out of the period of the birth of modern suburbia and growth of manufactured housing. New efficiencies in housing design and construction, the burgeoning middle class of Americans, and an influx of “new” workers lead to a rapid outward expansion of American cities as the economy and culture rebounded from years of war. This new way of building and housing was being explored coast to coast, and efficiency did not leave much time for aesthetics or planning. These structures are today time capsules representing the values of the period; not necessarily of art or architecture, but of expediency and optimism looking to a bright future.
Here is a typical San Diego version of a transitional-style residence in an older suburban development that rapidly developed immediately following the end of the war (note: within each pairing of images in this post the second image is a brief GIF animation that may take a second to load).
Where did my summer go?
That’s what we all used to ask before school started again in the Fall. Summer always seemed to loom large in the wide-eyes of our youth at the end of the school year – little did we remember or prepare for. After college we realized what “real” life is like, with each Summer passing faster and faster year after year; and the brief Summer vacation becoming more and more precious (unless of course one never leaves academia or returns to teach).
Aural Sushi
We just found this link to a KPBS Radio interview with Anne Marie Welsh by Tom Fudge. Thought you might like it (< 5 minutes).
“…gorgeous new space…”
“…big industrial space…made quite elegant…”
“…malleable space…”
Logic Gates
Capitalism OR Environmentalism. Why?
Logic gates are key components of a digital circuit. A logic gate helps to define a logical sequence of actions that take place under given circumstances with primary operators “and”, “or”, and “not”, plus their inverses. The typical logic gate will generate one output of either “true” or “false” with two inputs separated by an operator in the logic sequence.
Selling Short
Some have sold Building Information Modeling (B.I.M.) as a panacea tool to solve all the embedded and inherent problems perceived in the architectural profession: to streamline a firm’s productivity, to reduce errors and omissions, to better coordinate the work of the design team, to create more thorough visualizations of a project, among many other promises of such applications. Architects have in turn passed this vision on to our clients, our consultants, and to the general public; some of who now believe we have the option of just pressing the “reglet” button to automatically remove (or add) all the necessary and desired reglets in a project on a whim. The same is presumed true for walls, windows, flashing, and every commonly and uncommonly known building component. While this may in part be true (assuming you have very strict layering and can turn-off a “reglet” layer and the parametric objects “heal” themselves), what is missing from the equation is what happens then. Was the deleted reglet separating dissimilar materials to protect from differential expansion and contraction, was it part of the weather-resistant building envelope, was it an aesthetic device, or all of the above?
What’s next?
We all know the economy has slowed down. It effects us all in different ways. Here at Open Architecture Workshop we are creating ways to keep our brains stimulated, our hearts fulfilled, and hopefully generate some alternative income streams along the way as we transit this recession.
Furnishing design is at the core of the founding of O.A.W. with our goal to produce holistic design solutions that enhance dwelling at all scales and with all senses; and now that we have a little time on our hands we have an extraordinary occasion to explore design at a slightly smaller scale. One previous furnishing project already posted here was a custom bathroom mirror. While designed specifically for the Re:House, it was intended to be a production-worthy design. Future plans include posting design documents under Creative Commons licensing to permit anybody to build their own. This is also the case with the new range of furnishings in design by O.A.W.
A Chula Vista Residence Remodel
Many of the design opportunities presented by Re:House were repeated in the Chula Vista Residence Remodel (C.V.R.R.). First and foremost was another investigation into how to incorporate a more contemporary living mode into a traditional Craftsman-style house. In the case of the C.V.R.R., the desire to enhance access to daylight and to visually enlarge the size of the existing spaces without the budget for a true addition led to creating a more open plan in the interior “public” spaces through both selective demolition and interjection; contrasting to the solution for Re:House to open-up the private and semi-private spaces while keeping the public spaces more traditional.
Creative Commons