Biesland, The Netherlands

IMAGE OF VERNACULAR DUTCH HOUSES

CONCEPT :

- The concept takes attractive elements of vernacular design and combines them up with the benefits of modern , energy efficient design to create a contemporary vernacular architecture .

- The traditional polder landscape contains m any brick watermills ,vernacular villages & farmhouses .This is a typical Dutch landscape where fields are situated between long canals broken by small foot bridges with animals grazing in between .

- Many Dutch village houses have very steeply pitched roofs and low eaves , the upper storey residing within attic space.

- Farmhouses are much bigger with shallower pitched roof s often with a partial hip at the gable ends .

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE & MATERIALS :

- The design brief was to create a rural atmosphere and inspiration was taken from narrow streets of Amsterdam

- Bricks and blocks construction uses 150 – 200 mm cavities , filled with insulation .

- The homes are ventilated in each room by the means of Mechanical Extract Ventilation .

Four Horizon house and Lodge, New South Wales , Australia

DETAILS : CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE & MATERIALS :

- The area, in national park land, is off the grid, and the main house (above) was designed to reduce energy consumption to about one third of the average for the New South Wales district.

- The house maintains temperatures 9 degrees above outdoor levels on cool mornings and 10 degrees cooler in the hottest months

- The house has a large 'fly roof' over two heavy habitable modules and uses standard (inexpensive) architectural frames.

- The large roof provides good shade and collects rainwater for storage.

- The lodges too are thermally efficient, utilizing the doubleconstruction, arcing parasol roof, in which curved steel lattice trusses support a top roof of corrugated steel with another subroof of corrugated steel beneath.

- This leaves a 300mm gap for air to pass through, providing a cooling effect. Concrete slabs create thermal massing, as do ground-floor walls.

- The peak of the roof cuts out the most direct summer sun and a solar system provides electricity.

- Australian climate varies from arid to alpine to tropical zones .The temperature range in South Wales is between 4 – 24 C.

- It forms are drawn from the rural shed vernacular , but mostly from the idea of shade .

- The large roof on the house provides shade and rainwater collection .

- Another key consideration is cross ventilation , there is a central breezeway in the middle of the house usedas an outdoor room with roof , cross ventilation occurs continuously between the roofs

VERNACULAR TYPE :

- Australian vernacular / indigenous architecture are settlements linked to trees , rocks, caves & concepts of shelter

- Australian architecture refers to the agricultural building , as that seems to best represent a building suitable for Australian climates .

- System building and steel frames are quite traditional in Australian in context

CONTEMPORARY VERNACULAR TYPE :

- Simplicity and easy availability of the materials used inform a sophisticated contemporary vernacular design .

- The strength of shaded thermal mass and the double roof in the New South Wales environment provides an air conditioning free home in hot climate.

- Built with cheap and honest materials , these designs could be easily replacable .