Part 2 – Swanson Residence, Alberta

Posted on: April 8th, 2009 | 20 Comments

Part 2 – Swanson Residence, Calgary (PDF) | Part 2 – Swanson Residence, Calgary (JPEG)

  • ersie

    I’m a bit frustrated – and I know my prejudices are showing as I say this – but I am just stuck on the fact that the south side is not used very well in this design. I would love to flip the design over to move the garage to the north side and take it from there. At the very least, I wanted to open the family room to the southern exposure, but that requires a significant amount of work including moving the bathroom and doing something drastic with the side entrance. So I choose a minimally invasive redesign, by using glass panels integrated in millwork in the mudroom. I’ve also tried to open up the mudroom (two young hockey players in the house!). I don’t have a picture of the coat closet I have in mind, but the idea is that the thing is only as tall as necessary to accomodate winter jackets. A window can then be fitted above it to allow light into the family room. Shoes and bags can go under or on the bench on the south side, under the window. On the family room side, the back of the wall can accomodate more shelves or a flat screen TV.

    Apart from that, I can’t come up with a solution I care for that is very different from what Louis has already suggested. I’ve decided to leave the kitchen in its current location, but reorganized it a little.

    I also decided against the double-sided fireplace because the placement wasn’t optimal. However, I’m attaching a photo of what I mean. This house is one designed by our architect (www.walker.ch). FYI, it’s a Minergie certified house, so it’s very energy efficient (I’ve been writing a little about this if anyone here is interested: our-minergie-house.blogspot.com).

    One thing that I didn’t try to integrate is a piano, I don’t know how much of an issue that might be.

    [img]1_phpThumb.jpg[/img][img]1_phpThumb-1.jpg[/img]

  • John Brown

    Ersie,
    Thank you for sharing your frustrations about orientation. It points to one of the essential problems with cookie cutter houses – that the same house design was, and continues to be, stamped out across a subdivision without any regard for solar orientation or lot configuration. When energy was cheap and abundant this may not have been a concern but now it is becoming a bigger problem.

    One of the goals of Slow Home is to raise awareness about issues like this so that people will start making wiser choices when purchasing a home (and not buy one that faces the wrong direction).

    However, dealing with these less than ideal situations is one of the facts of life when one works with existing buildings. One tries to work with what one has and I respect your decision to not make the drastic intervention on the south side because of cost. Despite your frustration you did not lose sight of the forest for the trees.

    I really like your work in the back mudroom. It combines a functional approach to increased storage needs with a clever strategy for bringing “borrowed” light into the family room from the south.

    Other than that I have two questions about the main floor. First, do you think the entry needs to be more defined as somewhat separate from the main living area? Second, what did you intend for the space between the kitchen and the stair to the family room? Is there a stair down to the garden there?

  • Paul

    Not sure what happened but, I tried to send this yesterday and it got hung up in cyber something (awaiting moderation). Maybe it was the file size of the images. Anyways…

    I like the solutions and agree, the room sizes work well. Well suited for a family of 4. I also like in particular, the expansion of the front “step/porch” shown on Louis’ version.

    John,
    In keeping with your description of how the homeowners wish to have a home that has an open, “loft” feel, I have included two images. The idea would be to work with the existing roof framing but raise the ceiling in between each truss/rafter. A little finicky to create and subject to costing. Maybe it would only be considered for certain areas like the kitchen or dining area.

    (The finish in the images may not be applicable but they demonstrate the concept.)

    Images from
    http://planforward.typepad.com/

    [img]imagea.jpg[/img][img]imageb.jpg[/img]

  • Louis Pereira

    John – Well done as usual.

    i had a ‘Desk’ in the same location but with a different furniture arrangement and views to the television on the opposite side of the family room. This allows you to do some evening work on the laptop and to catch up on watching the late news. i also like how you’ve nudged the Desk slightly into the family room to minimise any conflict with foot traffic along the main circulation from the Front Entry to the back. This would be one of my favourite and most used spots in the house.

    I also like Ersie’s ‘Locker Room’ concept off the side entry.

  • John Brown

    Louis,
    A locker room is a good way to describe Ersi’s mudroom. Anyone with active kids would appreciate that kind of robust layout.

  • ersie

    Hi John,

    Regarding the entry: on considering your comment that the front door probably wouldn’t get used too much, my feeling was that there wasn’t a great need to define that area as being separate. Just a console table behind the sofa, that sort of thing, would be sufficient IMO. On the other hand, my decision to place the back ‘wall’ of the kitchen where I did was driven by the desire to provide a little privacy to the residents. My personal feeling is that having the dining area in the middle is a little too ‘exposed’. Plus, it’s also in the middle of circulation. To me, it makes sense to have the kitchen there, so both the dining-room and the family room can be equally accessed. I do appreciate that this results in limited pantry space, but it’s a compromise I would make.

    2. Yes, I wanted to connect the kitchen to the garden. Cook-outs and such would be more easily served that way. There probably needs to be a couple more stairs to get to the right level though. From the start, I read that opening as a door though now I realize that it’s actually a window.

  • John Brown

    Paul,
    Sorry for not being clear about the stairs. I see that there was a mistake in the drawing. They are actually supposed to be right beside the stair to the family room(running along the inside of the garage wall under the closet).

    I like the images you sent for the ceiling detail. Two comments: If this was a new build roof then the finishes and construction would probably be high enough quality to expose the rafters. I would be a bit worried about leaving a fifty year roof structure open. Second, there would have to be a layer of insulation somewhere in the roof structure. This could be incorporated above the rafters in a new build. More difficult to do in an older house.

  • ersie

    One question I keep forgetting to ask: Why is the flue pipe from the basement in the middle of the house instead of being along one of the exterior walls? I missed the explanation somewhere.

    Locker room? Yikes, I would hope the implementation would be a wee bit classier :-)

  • John Brown

    Ersie,

    Thanks for the clarification. I might propose a slightly larger piece of built in furniture behind the sofa to obstruct the view of the front door from the living room. For me it isn’t just an issue for people entering the house. If I am in the living room I would prefer not to see the front door even if it is closed.

    I appreciate your rationale for the kitchen location. There is a trade off in storage but having the kitchen facing the garden and in between the family room and dining area would be nice. I would suggest including a more substantial deck right off the kitchen rather than the stairs in order to increase that connection to the outside.

  • John Brown

    Ersie,
    I meant the “locker room” comment in the best sense of the word. How could it not be beautiful with the glass sliding door and all of that light. Now if we could just add a ventilation fan for all of that sports equipment we would really be somewhere…

    In terms of the flue, in older houses they are typically located near the center of the house for two reasons. The first is to minimize the length of the duct runs in the floor. The second is because of the typical pitched roof and the fire code requirement to keep the chimney several feet above the highest point of the roof structure. Having the flue in the middle reduces the unsupported length of the chimney above the roof line.

  • Louis Pereira

    This is in response to some discussion surrounding the stairs leading to the basement. The existing plan may in fact be a layout like the attached…

    [img]090408a.jpg[/img]

  • John Brown

    I think it is this way actually…

    [img]phpThumb_generated_thumbnail.jpeg[/img]

  • Louis Pereira

    Really?!?…i sense a friendly wager comin’ on!

  • John Brown

    Louis,
    Both options have inconsistencies. Maybe that was why it was omitted from these concept plans. I will check with the actual drawings and report back. Now I am intrigued as well!

  • Paul

    Gentlemen,
    My money is on under the closet. I will even wager that the bottom of the closet is sloped for headroom.

  • James Scott

    Locker room, eh!

    Two in soccer, two in hockey, fencing, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, yoga, rowing…for an active family this could be a valuable home storage concept. Thanks for the great idea.

  • John Brown

    James,
    You sound like you really have your hands full. We actually did a project several years back where we created a ‘sports mudroom’ storage unit based on the dimensions of the locker stations used by the NHL. It was a big hit because it kept everything off the floor.

  • ersie

    John: Thanks for explaining the location of the flue. Makes sense about the ductwork and the unsupported chimney height. I’ve been in Switzerland for only a few years, yet I seem to have forgotten about forced-air heating. The recently common mode here is underfloor heating (think FLW updated) and it’s delicious. Installation costs are more of course, but I have a feeling that operating costs would be lower to achieve about the same level of comfort.

    I like the idea of a deck off the kitchen area. A terraced deck (for lack of a better phrase), so that it doesn’t just hulk over the rest of the garden.

    It was also interesting to read your opinion on the visibility of the front door. I can totally see your point.

  • John Brown

    Ersie,
    The other good thing about underfloor heating, at least here, is that it usually runs with some kind of water, or glycol based system that can fairly easily be heated with solar power. It is much more difficult to convert a forced air system to photo-voltaics.

  • ersie

    John: Great point, it’s the same here as well. We also hope to have a solar collector system integrated with the house warm-water and heating systems.