Creative Japan Inspired Loft - Unique Floor-Plan - Integrate Nature - Modern and CompactBlind

in Architectural Design held by Liam Savage
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Description:
My uncle was an architect and designed a house for my wife and I, but he died before we were able to finish the plans. I have worked to carry the designs forward on paper, but need someone to take what was started and finish it. There is a lot of room for creativity and originality. It is one of my life goals to finish this design and build this home to honor his memory.

An introduction to Liam and Patti Savage, how we live and what we care about to help inform your design decisions and approach are as follows:
- The house is only for two people my wife and I, we won't have children or grow a large family, but we do host and have friends over, so the space is supposed to feel open.
- The kitchen should be social and includes a flat-top grill so I can cook for lots of people quickly and easily while staying a part of the conversation.
- The home is intentionally small, we can only occupy a little space at a time, so we never want to be so far that we can't carry a conversation easily.
- The space should invite nature in. We love Japanese gardens and traditional Japanese homes that sometimes have a tree in the very center of the house, or whole walls that can open up to blur the border between nature and the home.
- We love the colors of nature and the seasons and want the garden to feel alive and artistic, to include a tree or two, some form of water feature and rock garden.
- We love our jobs and work from home often, so having the lofted offices gives us a way to work overlooking nature and close to one another, with the ability to transform and close the spaces to take two separate calls at the same time or open things up and work together. Work and life are not separated because we are entrepreneurial and passionate, which is why having the office be able to be open and central to the rest of the living area upstairs would enable one of us to be working and talking with the other in the kitchen, bedroom, or living room.
- I am an artist and love to paint large abstract murals on wooden panel boards that show the grain, so the use of too much wood elsewhere might clash. The walls should be durable and flexible to allow me to change things easily. Drywall is difficult to preserve as I move or rearrange my paintings.
- I love the idea of hidden storage, stairs, deeper walls with embedded features, so things like TV's, my guitars or my wife's violin can be displayed or hidden.
- We want to emphasize the layers of the house, so you'll see things like a wood burning stove with a wood closet that can be accessed inside and outside, or a dumb-waiter to take coffee from the kitchen to the offices, or a laundry shoot that can takes the clothes from the bedroom upstairs to the laundry room downstairs.
- I nurture bonsai trees and grow herbs for cooking, so a greenhouse to grow our own vegetables attached to the kitchen would be amazing.
- We also have extended family and friends who visit, so having a detached guest house off the central garden would be very helpful.
- The Japanese garden in the center should be the focal point of the home, creating a sense of tranquility and seclusion, even if we live somewhere more urban or residential. The main living area and open kitchen, workshop and guest rooms can all face the center garden. The bedroom upstairs overlooks the living area and out into the garden, the offices upstairs and small balcony put you right there as well.
- We also designed a secret stair to the secret basement for storage, an extra guest room or video gaming room.
-Also, if you're familiar with Japanese Onsens, it's basically a hot spring or jacuzzi, they call it a bathhouse, we wanted to add something like that as well off the garden, perhaps elevated so it could see the trees, but others in the garden couldn't see up into it.
- Lastly, I love to build and need a space to paint, so a workshop also off the main garden would be ideal.

Description of Attachment Pages_
- Page 1 - The Third and last iteration of the floor plan Roger Savage designed.
- Page 2 - My attempt to incorporate Japanese styling to the back wall, garden facing portion of the house on the first floor.
- Page 3 - My attempt to carry the same lines up to the offices on the second floor loft.
- Page 4 - My attempt to redesign the entryway to have a Japanese shoe removal area and coat rack.
- Page 5 - The Second iteration on the floor plan given some feedback.
- Page 6 - The First version of the floor plan. you can ignore the part about horses, my wife used to ride, but we wouldn't have horses in the future.
- Page 7-11 - The first set of elevations.

Design Inspiration:
If you want to see some examples of Japanese design:
-alts-design.com/works/house/%e5%af%ba%e5%ba%84%e3%81%ae%e5%ae%b6/
-www.naturespace.co.jp/works/
-www.keijidesign.com/works_category/architecture/
Wants:
The Challenges:
- All I have currently is a floor plan, and that is hand-drawn, and needs some additional creativity to bring the outdoors in more, possibly arrange the spaces described above to be more cohesive.
- I've added things since our trip to japan, like incorporating sliding Shoji screens and tatami mat flooring, but I don't know how to design them very well.
- With the elevations, helping to plan how the windows work to open the space is another thing I don't know how to approach.
- The roofline and roofing is also a challenge for me, the initial plan was framed, but I think it is moving in a more modern direction, but I don't know how to plan that.
- We don't have a location or plot fixed, so it has to be designed assuming a general flat piece of land with no real views to capture or restriction on orientation that we can adjust to later when we do buy the property.
-I am proficient with Adobe Illustrator, if I could have floor plans as Illustrator files that would be helpful.
-Since we don't know where we will build it yet, maybe use the building codes you're most familiar with, I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida which is known for hurricanes and could potentially see us building here.
Don't Wants:
I don't want you to feel restricted, I've said a lot of things about why the initial floor plan was made as it is, and you are free to keep elements you like or components together because my uncle was a really good draftsman and did these plans by hand, so don't feel like you have to start from scratch. But do also feel free to change things, I want you to feel freedom to express yourself and focus on the WHY behind his plans, rather than WHAT he actually drew, you have the freedom to be creative.

Entries

= Buyer's Rating
5th Winner
#23 Layout Plans & Rendering Modification by Leo_CAD
6th Winner
#40 Printable Pdf Binder by m2o_io
7th Winner
#42 REVISED FLOOR PLANS by AshwaniBhalla
8th Winner
#32 savage remodeled by P3N
9th Winner
#14 Japan Inspired Loft by bilalk1
#7 Savage Loft Layouts - 3 by Leo_CAD
#20 Test_05 by olarum
Download Files
#24 3D Exterior Visualisation by Kems Studio
#22 Landscape & Interior Rendering by Leo_CAD
#19 Test_04 by olarum
#18 Exterior Rendering by Leo_CAD
#17 Compact house by AshwaniBhalla
#43 REVISED FLOOR PLANS by AshwaniBhalla
#11 Elevation Changes by Jim81
#21 3D Exterior Views by Kems Studio
#2 1ST PASS - PRELIMINARY FOR REVIEW by Jim81
#39 Guest House Front and Rear Elevations by m2o_io
#38 Rear and Right Elevations by m2o_io
#6 Floor Plan Rev. 2 by Jim81
#37 Front and Left Exterior Elevations by m2o_io
#36 Main Floor Plan by m2o_io
#35 Savage Loft Exterior Elevations by m2o_io
#34 Savage Loft Front and Left Exterior Elevations by m2o_io
#33 Savage Loft 2nd Floor and Safe Room Floor Plans by m2o_io
#31 Floor-Plan - Integrate Nature - Modern and Compact by Mahdaoui Houcin
#30 Interior Rendering - WorkShop (Front & Rear) by Leo_CAD
#28 basement floorplan by m2o_io
#27 floorplan by m2o_io
#5 Revisions by Jim81
#10 Savage Loft Building Plan sketches by thirumaravans
#9 Elevation by Jim81

Discussion

Showing last 20 comments - View All

derrickarbiol

Designer

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 02:24:07 +0000
Thank you very much Liam.

Liam Savage

Buyer

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 14:17:08 +0000
Hi @Derrickarbiol,
Sorry for the confusion, that note is not from the original design, it&;s in my handwriting. When I measure according to the original scale note, 1/4" = 1&; it comes out to the 40x36 1440 sf. Thank you!

derrickarbiol

Designer

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 05:11:49 +0000
Hello Liam, Just want to clearify 40x36 is 1440 sf but in the PDF plan you have uploaded in page 6 the area was note at 692 sf for the main floor. Also in the 1st page there is a not on bottom right 22x30 which is 660. So which area do we follow the 1440 or 692?

Thank you.

Leo_CAD

Designer

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 12:17:52 +0000
I mean, from the level height of Bath, Bridge, Balcony 8&; of Front Elevation Liam.

Leo_CAD

Designer

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 12:12:11 +0000
Hi Liam! I just took the right scale based on your Uncle&;s dimension.

Liam Savage

Buyer

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 18:20:21 +0000
Hi Jim! I may have been measuring to a different point, like the tip of one of the windows or something, so you can preserve the original scale. Thank you for checking!

Jim81

Designer

Fri, 28 Aug 2020 17:40:51 +0000
Hello Liam, at 42&;x40 feet, that puts the first floor at 1500 S.F. I&;ve scaled your uncle&;s plan and it measures 42&;x36&;. Are you wanting to increase the plan to 40&; deep ?

Liam Savage

Buyer

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 01:52:10 +0000
Hi Jim81! Thanks so much! I really appreciate the affirmation for his skill! I totally agree, and that&;s part of why I mentioned in the brief you can totally just add onto the original floor plan, no need to reinvent if it works well. Regarding the three four plans, Savage Loft 3 is the most recent one and my favorite, Savage Loft 2 and 1 are the prior iterations that we built on with feedback. He only did the full elevations for Savage Loft 1 and we were going to finish the floor plan before he drew more elevations for it, but we never got to that point. So excited to be working with you and others to bring it all to completion! Thanks for taking the time to look at it! I really appreciate it!

Jim81

Designer

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:17:36 +0000
Liam, first off, your uncle was a very talented and artistic designer. That being said, he provided 3 different floor plans for this design. Is there anyone in particular that you liked the most ?

Liam Savage

Buyer

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 22:55:32 +0000
@ecooco, Ah! I&;m so sorry I misunderstood! That makes a lot of sense, and I totally agree. Thank you for being willing to create the 3D model, I really look forward to seeing your work! I hope this project is enjoyable, I know it&;s really exciting for me, at least. Thank you again for your work and contribution.
Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:15:07 +0000
Thanks Liam. I like this project, it is special, unique and a great challenge. My intention with previous message about importance of using 3D modeling and high resolution rendering to come up with unique design and satisfied solution for you. So I will compete by providing you 3D model and exterior and interior renderings. Have a successful day.

Liam Savage

Buyer

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 14:46:14 +0000
Hi @Manuel, Sorry about that! I don&;t have control over how this site handles downloads, but I can give you a dropbox link, Try this, it&;s the same file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/floda0wyf74ji8i/Savage%20Loft%20Competition.pdf?dl=0
Wed, 26 Aug 2020 14:35:16 +0000
Hi, I can&;t download the attachment

Liam Savage

Buyer

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 14:12:06 +0000
Hi @Luis.Herrmann! Germany is beautiful, I was just in Frankfurt and visited the Königssee in September of last year.

I would love it if you would help! Metric is fine for me, and please recommend the materials you think are best, I trust your wisdom and experience by far over mine.
As for 2-D and 3-D, I would like digital floor plans, and 3D renderings if possible, or at least 2-D Elevations of what it would look like from the sides. It needs some thought into how the windows would be placed. I hope this is a fun project for you, I really appreciate you taking the time to think about it with me
Wed, 26 Aug 2020 10:17:18 +0000
Hi Liam
I Saw your contest and am pretty Interested in giving you some Design Help I am a Carpenter from germany.
I have some questions before i start planing.
You prefer measurements in feet or would you accept the metric system also because for me to work with the metric system is a lot easier.
would you like to prefer ecological Materials for your House because thats what i would like to to recommend you.
Would you like to have the plans as 2D Drawings in Pdf or do you whant a 3D Rendering?
For an Answer i would be happy it would help me to start working on your Project.
Greetings Luis

Liam Savage

Buyer

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:41:46 +0000
Hi Ecooco, I&;m sorry I don&;t have any renderings like that, all that I have is the hand-drawn floor plan before my uncle past away. I did do some research into Japanese style and found these firms in Japan with work that is similar that might help, they have projects that involved nature, lofted spaces, and shoji screen doors, tatami floors etc., I hope that helps. If it&;s not enough to go on for you, I totally understand and appreciate you taking the time to look at the project.

-alts-design.com/works/house/%e5%af%ba%e5%ba%84%e3%81%ae%e5%ae%b6/
-www.naturespace.co.jp/works/
-www.keijidesign.com/works_category/architecture/
Tue, 25 Aug 2020 19:34:16 +0000
Hi Liam
As per your conceptual description and taking into account Japanese design style it is not enough to provide only drawings into requested project. So if you want present your vision successfully you need to use more than one design tools showing high resolutions renderings of interior and exterior.

Leo_CAD

Designer

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 22:00:58 +0000
Thank you Liam.

Liam Savage

Buyer

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 15:12:33 +0000
Hi Leor1, rendered perspectives would be ideal. I apologize for the confusion! I was asking to have the floor plans specifically exported to illustrator as well.

The dimensions of the footprint for the main home in drawing for the final iteration Savage Loft is 42&; wide x 40&; deep. But the property including the garden and detached buildings could be any size.

Leo_CAD

Designer

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 22:33:47 +0000
Would you be able to give the dimensions of the floor plan?

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