Modern Manor House

[Andy_108 1]

Manor house

Over my time at work experience at an architects pratice i was given the task of creating a house to certain specifications. The house had to fit within a certain area, have a certain amount of room ( the whole interior has been modelled) and look good of course. The land was already pre made in CAD from a previous survey of a past site the company i am at have worked on. The land luckily was fairly easy to import as contours into google sketch up. The images that follow are probably the finished or near finished result. 

I haven't really done any kind of achitectural work in the past so designing this was quite a challenge. I research through various styles to get an idea of what is already out there. Then i put what i  had seen and tried to create something that was unique and original.....

You may think why am i puttin this up onto simtropolis when its a sketchup model..... however i am going to be converting it over to a .3DS file and then import it into GMax and hopefully have it in simcity soon! Tell me what you think and drop me a message!

ABOVE: The back of the house which has a very long garden which in real life this plot leads down to a river.

ABOVE: Another view of the back of the house

ABOVE: The front of the house with a more formal entrance section

ABOVE: A high angle image of the back of the house.

ABOVE: A high angle image of the front of the house.

Again please tell me what you think and drop me a message!

Also there is a poll on the house so please do vote

I'll try and convert the file and get it ready for simcity ASAP...

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull house

[Andy_108 1]

i'll try and get some more detailed images and better angles soon. The images above are quite rushed!

[oceanmariner 0]

Omg!  That is so awesome!  We have a severe shortage of expensive homes on the STEX.  I'm so excited for this to be released; it will go perfectly in my CJ, which is basically themed as a giant yacht club, haha!  I love all the windows, they make it look very modern and airy.  Keep it up, will be my favorite BAT!!!

[Jasoncw 11,839]

It sounds like a great opportunity you have there with that firm.

I don't really know anything more about your or the project than what's in this thread, so I'll just type what I notice.  I'm not saying you need to do these things, but here they are:

- Stairs don't really go at a 45 degree angle.  An easy way to make reasonable stairs would be to make the rise 6 inches, and the run 12 inches.  The stairs can be steeper than that, but I think that's good for stairs.  I wouldn't have steeper stairs out in the open though (like in your foyer), they might feel scary.

- Roofs generally aren't like that.  Your roof could be done how it is, but it would make more sense for there to be a normal flat roof with a parapet wall (the bit of the wall that sticks up past the roof).  I don't know exactly what the area around the site is like, but you probably won't be seeing the top of the roof (if you can see the roof it might be worth it if you think it's important).  The roof would be cheaper and the maintenance would be easier for the homeowners.  The roof might look more like this, with it sloping down towards some drains in the roof.

- If the back of the house is also the south side of the house, then I think you did a good job, with sunlight and that kind of stuff.  The second floor has those overhangs, but if you wanted to, you could turn them into light shelves, by making the tops of them white, and by lowering them a little bit.  The idea with these is that they block out the strong direct light, while bouncing ambeint light onto the ceiling of the room.

- The decks look like nice places to be, but I can imagine actually being there, and wanting to go from one deck to another, or down to the ground, without tracking through the house.  You have the opportunity to to connect the two decks, and add exterior stairs.  I like how the one deck doesn't have the wall, because that way it doesn't block the view, and because you can sit on the edge of the deck, but I think it might still be a good idea to put some railings in.

- Have you considered whether or not the windows will be able to open?  Do you know where the air conditioning unit will go?  Will there be a garage for cars, or a shed for all of the gardening equipment? 

- Is the garden existing, and is it expected that you keep it how it is, or is the garden something that you've designed?  Either way you should model the garden, especially if it's something that you've designed (and remember that the job of this model isn't to be realistic, the job is to communicate your ideas).  Even though you're not a gardener or a landscape architect or the homeowner, it's your job to consider the entire property (even more than that actually).  The outside should be designed with the same spirit as the inside.

- All together (without seeing the inside) this is really nice, do you plan on going to architecture school?

[Andy_108 1]

Thanks for the great check list some of these i will deffinatly consider and some i've already got done.

-The stairs that i have in place in the house are at a 28 degree angle. Large sized stands on the steps and a fairly gently rise (only 160mm rise) so they are fairly shallow. The width of the stair case i also took into consideration. Due to the fact it is a very posh upperclass style house the stair case is quite wide (1500mm). I really will try to get some shots inside for you!

-The roofs i think i will take another look at. I don't think i have taken the cooling of th house into much consideration until i got quite close to finishing my project. The vendilation i do have is: On the large back windows there are little window slits wich open up, the windows are tinted slightly to prevent to much light coming through, the tall thinner windows all open out on the upper square sections, The ceiling heights are a lot higher than ussual (3000mm) so there is more air circulation, The upper roof section that pops up through the top is actually largely hollow and is a ceiling space right from the bottom floor as there is a void in the center of the building. Again this helps with regulating the air and keeping the house a bit cooler. The main roof feature was designed like it is both for show ( the area this house if it was built is in a rich village and there are several other large properties) and to help again with cooling the house. I also believe that the roof of the building can completely change the charcteristics you get from a building and so when i went through various combinations i saw the house change its style dramatically. when i came to design it now how it is its appearance struck me as being very grand and was like a center piece and fitted quite well into the center of the building.

-The back windows are infact south-westly facing so they catch the morning sunshine well.Also the windows were designed to look down the incredible large garden that this plot has, as there is a river at the bottom. Just to let everyone know the company i'm working at actually made a house for this site and recreate the same task for me now as if it was a real project. so the whole position is a real life place which i am able to plan my design at (obviously not for real). I'll change the top colour of the sun shades.

-I agree the decks do need railings which i still haven't got round to doing and tommorrow is my last day at the company so i will really try to get that done and finished up on time. I tried linking the back and side decks but it just didn't seem to wotk that well on the small extruding section of the house on the ground floor. The steps are also a consideration i will take however i am short on time. If i do make them i will position them on the side of the extruding section on the ground floor.

-I haven't yet fully got the car and transportation storage sorted. I have started work today on an access road so i might also bring in a garage along with some outbuildings added on. Utillities, storage and gardening storage etc.

-The garden currently is populated mainly by grass and some large oak trees and isn't really a flower bedding/boarder kind of garden. Some flowers/bushes of some sort could be planted around the main part of the house though.

- Currently i am only 15 so achitecture either at a specialist school or at a university is still quite a long way off. I'm doing my first year of GCSE's and seems to be going well so i will continue on through to A-Levels and then hopefully a University or equvilant.

I'll try and get some more indoor screenshots soon! Also make some more improvements. also i may upload a Accurate CAD plan of my lower floor. It's pretty basic but i'm completely new to CAD and architectural pratices and all the regulations of what has to go into a house.

[Andy_108 1]

Whilst i'm on my last day at work experience i thought i would do some more CAD Plans of the house. Here are the ground floor plans so far:

[SimFox 800]

I'm a little bit perplexed how south-west facing window can catch morning sunshine... I mean on what planet??

All in all it is a good project. What I like about it in particular is the amount of though and reasoning that you put in. Good practice!

[Andy_108 1]

he he point out my mistakes i ment the building is south eastly facing! tut tut on my error

[ianpaschal 77]

Looking good.  You have a good grasp of what a house should look like, which sounds stupid but many beginning BATers don't seem to have taken the time to look carefully at the building's around them before they start.  The textures are far from done though I expect, and if they are, well then they need work.

I also really admire the thought you put into it though.  Like Simfox said, I really believe this is a good habit.  I have a very serious obsession with realism, and historical accuracy.  When I make an old Dutch brick rowhouse I think about who built it, were they a merchant, a shop keeper, etc., and that determines how it looks now, and what color bricks should I use? Well it doesn't really matter, it will look good no matter what color they are as long as I make sure the color I choose is one that was used on those houses.  When I make a train station, I think about how the building was planned in 1890, what changes were made after it was damaged in WWII, etc.  Putting thought and reason behind your BATs, along with what I said about honest to god looking at real life, will land you with the best BATs.  Also some technical skill may be involved , but those two will do wonders.

Very nice house.