Michael Lu's Blog

What are common social behaviors that could help inform the re-design of the exurbs? Here, I consider five rudimentary human behaviors including ‘amusement’, ‘complacency’, ‘contempt’, inclusion’, and ‘exclusion’. These are not to be mistaken with innate qualities affecting individuals, but rather those expressed among/between groups of individuals.

Concept sketches for potential ranch house orientations.

I am experimenting with both Grasshopper and SketchUp for my video transformations as a means to show the “Ranch House Revisted” concepts that I am pursuing. This is a working title for the design I am going for.

Sketchup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lvwdzP5m64

Grasshopper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbPczo1bDAA

Here is a slideshow of some research Steve D. and I had been putting together on more recent variations of the Ranch House Typology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UC-ZCmmQec

I’ve had little luck so far with Grasshopper for what I want to show. Here is a short video using parametric design to shift walls and openings in SketchUp at 2 ft intervals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKx2k0SWdRI

Found below, a list of 20 house desires that I am using as a preliminary basis for design. These do not represent an exhaustive inventory of design criteria that will inform the project but rather a stepping stone toward defining the overall massing as we begin the first phase of House +.

Below are the first 20 iterations of the reinterpreted ‘Ranch House’ for the “Ex-Urbs”. Parametric modeling will follow.

As a frame for the “Womb” I am pursuing the idea of a cellular structure similar to that of a plant. The shell, which will consist of an inflatable recycled neoprene material, will stretch over the cellular substructure and then fill with water.

On the right, you see that I am thinking about what the structure of the dog house should be. Is it inflatable or a series of formed plates that fold into one another as shown in the video I posted yesterday. I feel as though in order to not lose the theme of the ‘WOMB’ I should go with the former system. 

On the left I am attemping to demonstrate the passive heating and cooling properties of the water filled structure. During the day, the water-filled shell absorbes the heat of the sun slowly while maintaining a cool interior. At night, the heat stored within the structure is slowly released into the interior to warm the dog.