Kinda like driving right past Jordan when it’s firing, I kept repeating to myself. I mean; you just don’t’ do that….

While I did miss out on some really good days on whistler, we thankfully didn’t blow it.

For a few years now I’ve been dying to do more NoBoarding. I’ve only tried it a few random times, but it’s right up my minimalist ally and after 25 odd years of strapping in, it’s nice to bring all back to the turn. What one soon discovers after trying different boards is that losing the leverage that bindings allow makes board design that much more impactful on the experience. A few mm in waist width, or taper, a subtle tweak in base contours, flex, rocker profile, weight, …all make a noticeable impact on the way the board will ride when you rely solely on gravity, your tactile senses and the density of the snowpack to determine your ride.

Ironically, I spend a fair amount of my professional time designing boards and bindings so, riding without an interface between the two, is my way of starting with a blank sheet of paper. My tabula rasa as it was.

So for a few days in February, I got to spend some quality time with an old friend while creating memories with some new ones. We had a quiver of boards to try out, a deep, stable snowpack, clear, cold weather and no crowds to race in the morning.

A warm thanks to Cholo, Jenna and Sean for their hospitality and generosity. And an extra thanks to Jenna for most of the photos you see here – talent and beauty is a scary combo, ain’t it?

So for the record, and with near certainty, i can say the this posting is not done out of guilt.  We’re actually getting shit done over here…

Lots of little details have been ticked off the list the past few weeks. Tyvec and rain-screening forced many of them to be addressed like grinding back excess metal flanges on some of the steel work, to capping some of the beams with wood nailing strips to accept siding material.  The thin vertical windows in the lower volume required a solid day of cutting and grinding 16 X 10 X 8” sections from the foundation walls. Would have been much easier to do this with the formwork, but it turned out to me more accurate this way. The position of the windows as well as their final dimensions changed a couple times since our pour, so in the end we’ll be happier with the detail.

I’ll save my rant on the gong-show of a window company I had to deal with the past 6 months for a separate posting, but suffice to say, we finally have the complete order and will be getting the main sliding section on the south wall in the next week or so.

The façade treatment for the upper volume has been a real back-and-forth since the early design stages. Arguments for costing, timeline and design cred, were endlessly discussed and even mocked up. In the end, we opted for a channel groove, BC-milled, cedar that while not custom, is an off-the-shelf item that is rarely used anymore. Even when it is, it’s usually installed horizontally. While “stock” was smart and cost effective, there was something about getting siding that we didn’t customize or re-design that bugged me.  I got over my design snobbery about half way through staining the 13-foot long sections knowing that, had we gone with our other choices, I’d be sniffing Cetol-1 for much longer than I did.

Here’s some shots of the big walls.

Seeing a bear this time of year in this area is not entirely rare, but it’s still kind of exciting. Seeing a mother and her cubs, cruising through the backyard towards you is a; “wake-up your dead-to-the-world asleep wife” type of moment.

The bears are usually coming by for two things: fruit that is in the over-ripe-to-rotting-stages, or garbage. Both are pretty abundant in the greenbelt that separates these lots. Our municipal-supplied bins have bear proof latches that sometimes get neglected by homeowners (guilty on occasion) and the bears know that if they knock over enough of bins, they’ll eventually hit the jackpot.

So as these three got closer to the house I grabbed my camera and ran to the office window. From there I could only see one of the cubs so i snapped a quick pic that fired off the flash that had been left on the night before. The cub I was trying to shoot was about 10 meters away of me standing just behind the office window. The mother, I soon realized, was about 1metre away to my left, knocking over the garbage cans just out of sight.

She didn’t like the flash.

Within a second or two the mother lunged in front of the window and swatted the glass, slapping her claws against the paper thin, 40yr-old, single-pane glass.

It didn’t break. It just left a muddy mark with a few claw marks drawn through it.

A minute of so later after I began breathing again, I managed to get a few pictures of them wandering off, away from the house, annoyed at both the flash and the stubbornly latched garbage bin.

And I am aware that “dabbling” is really not conducive to generating hype or traffic to your blog. In fact it’s probably quite annoying for anyone frequenting the blog trying to follow a story line, get regular news updates, or in this case, see our project develop day to day. All of which makes this blog very ineffective, in blog terms.

In a few more years, after the unwavering march towards establishing a web presence and utilizing every social media outlet available begins to waiver just enough to question it’s value, I’m hoping a few reports are done.

Maybe even a book by that guy that did Freaknomics.

One of these studies would be: in the world of bloggers/tweeters, which ones are most active (posting more than once a day) and of these, which ones are seriously active in a career.  And when I say seriously active, I mean full-time employed by a career outside of their blog. I’m guessing there would be very few. And of those few remaining, I would also venture to guess they either dislike their careers enough to blog during work hours, or are those hyper productive weirdo’s that can function on 3 hours of sleep a night.

Personally, I need at least 6.

Maybe I’m just realizing something that everyone else already knows. The only really productive people in the world that are blogging and tweeting are doing so because having an interactive fan base (like miss Gaga, for example) is crucial to their success. That, and they can delegate every other time-killing task in their life out to their publicists and mangers, freeing them up to let their fans know they are about to hop on a plane to watch the sunset at Joshua Tree.

I start thinking of my current professional heroes (it’s not Bob Hannah anymore):  Tadao Ando, Peter Zumthor, Naoto Fukasawa, Thom Mayne, Jonathan Ive…I haven’t checked (and I don’t have to, this is just a blog afterall) but I’m pretty sure these guys don’t blog.  Even a firm like BIG, which embrace very inventive ways of presenting their work, doesn’t bother with blogging. However, you’ll find completed work from all these individuals pasted into thousands of design and architecture blogs every day. – I know, because I waste valuable time perusing them regularly.

So I guess what I’m questioning out-loud is this; am i  “seriously active in my career” or am i just too damn busy?

A more upbeat post to follow (and possibly the answer to this question), once we get this siding up; I promise.

]]> http://thedesignaggregate.com/the-unblog/feed/ 0 http://thedesignaggregate.com/final-frames/ http://thedesignaggregate.com/final-frames/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:16:28 +0000 awarbs http://thedesignaggregate.com/?p=411 Last few images of the framed structure before windows get installed this week.

Framing finished up almost a month ago, but several key milestones have since been reached that don’t have the visual impact (or satisfaction) that tilting walls and swinging beams into place does. From now on, pretty much everything else is slow and expensive…

Here in BC it hasn’t rained for about 6 weeks.  After most of the property was scrapped, dug-up or covered in fill during the installation of services we’ve pretty much just left it alone. Much as it killed us to see everything turn to talcum powder and the winds literally picking up small dust tornados, laying topsoil and starting fresh turf this time of year was out of the question.  This would have required thousands of gallons of potable water being used during the driest months of the year making us not only look like “that neighbor” but leaving me in jeopardy of having my LEED accreditation revoked. So I plugged away at what I could while waiting for the windows to arrive.

The foundation was finally sealed and backfilled. Amazing what just a foot of fill around the base did to shrink the lower volume.  If it wasn’t for the dust factor I would’ve like to spend a couple days with one of Greg’s Bobcats and finish shaping the surrounding landscape ready for topsoil and the dozens of trees we have both already stashed and planned out.

A couple weeks ago I picked up the steel beams that will carry the stairs and re-framed those into place. Although the stairs will end up costing more (a lot more) than if I had framed them out of lumber; placing the beams into place reassured us that spending the extra design time and money doing steel, was the right decision. Steel allows for such smaller beam sizes than wood that the entire assembly will look (and be) suspended rather than anchored and overbuilt like another separate structure.  Now that they’re in place, any other way would have just looked wrong.

Roof’s all sealed up as well – along with the two skylights. So other than the sideways rain we hopefully won’t see until October, the building should stay relatively dry and protected. Will post some pics after the windows are installed but I wanted to get one last view of the framing out before Blueskin, Tyvec, rainscreeing, and eventually siding, changes it forever.

While these may not make it onto to stairporn.org, I figured I’d spent enough time designing and assembling them in SketchUp, that they deserved a post.

This was one of those things that was designed enough to know it would work, but never completely dialed in to the point I could get them fabricated. I knew it would take some head scratching and a bunch of hours on SketchUp to do a detailed assembly drawing and just knowing that was reason enough to procrastinate. But with services in place and the slab done, we needed the structural elements of these stairs in before moving forward with siding.

A few fixed points made it a challenge. The door location getting into the upper volume and the headroom needed over the cantilever dictated the steepest rise/run code would allow. I also refused to succumb to any posts at this stage, which meant the 3 beams carrying the two landings had to be engineered and placed as per the final design specs. The beams will be C-Channel steel – C8X11.5, the stringers C6X10.5 and the treads and landing an aluminum tread product from Amico.

I’ve heard a few people wonder about the reasoning for exterior stairs and for us it was twofold. Firstly, stairs eat up a lot of square footage – and with a project this size, it was important to maintain as much living space as possible.  Secondly, it adds both an interesting material contrast and a visual connection between the two, separate forms of the upper and lower volumes.

Their north-west location further adds to the effect that the more complex and connected view is only available from the back corner of the lot. From this odd angle one can see the stairs, the deck, the windows and a first glimpse into the interior.  Only then is there a visual explanation of what the building is all about.

Most of the time the structure is simply viewed as 2 disconnected and isolated forms stacked and shifted from one another.

One quick call to my excavator buddy and we decided it was time to get the services happening…

250 feet from the front lot line to the project meant a lot of earth was getting moved. Adding to the complexity was the location of the existing structure and the fact that hydro (electric) and cable lines would be splitting off at that point, getting tied into duel meter bases, then rejoining the trench, all the way to the back of the lot to the new building. That just explains the mess though. The biggest stress was whether or not we’d have enough elevation to avoid requiring a sump-pump for the sewage.

Ideally we’d like 1/4” per foot slope.

Code says, a minimum of 1/8” per foot.

Keep in mind, the lot is basically flat with a slight, natural rise where we’ve located the carriage house. While making up the site plan, I had to consider all this while being conscious of the 22ft roof-height restriction (from original grade) on the building itself.  Kind of put a ceiling (pun-intended) on how much I could fabricate “rise”.

Now that the slab has been poured and our sewer high-point is established, it was time to see if the calculations I made pre-permit stage held true. Luckily the main sewer line was about 5 feet below-grade at the front of the lot and not less. I needed every inch i could get.

So, after a nervous few minutes with the transom, a long tape measure and a calculator; we look to be in good shape. A little shy of the ideal ¼” per foot, but also little steeper than the minimum.  Just to be safe, we’re placing 3, one-way clean outs along the trench and will not be installing ultra-low flow toilets in the building as planned.

We’ll use a little more water per flush with dual-flush, but on the bright side, it opens up the design options – ultra low-flow units aren’t that cool looking.

The term pre-fab refers to many things and has had numerous false starts over the course of architecture’s history. From shipping containers, to fully pre-fabbed modules, to proprietary systems of manufacture;  prefab today is beginning to deliver on it’s promise of creating a smarter, more efficient building science. This video of the Loblolly house by  Kieran Timberlake, is just one approach –  a hybrid of pre-existing ideas – and a cool 15 minutes for those that like to geek out on this sort of stuff.

Actually it’s just been pissing rain for three weeks and the next few steps needed some dryness. Really. I’m ok about the contest. I mean it.

Today was the first sunny day in what felt like three weeks and seeing it coming I pounced on the opportunity to get our roofer working on sealing things up. That means I called him about 4 times over the past 2 days, ensuring I was at least twice as annoying as his next high maintenance client. And it worked.  By 8:30 am the truck was craning the material onto the roof and by 9:30 i was scrambling to get venting stacks organized and cut for plumbing, bathroom fan and stove fan. The later two could have been done out the side of the building, but we really want the facade to be left clean and uninterrupted. Getting this done right, while the roofer was here, is key to both the look we’re going for and a tight envelope.

We’ve now got the first layer of a double-torch-on membrane adhered to a bone-dry substrate. So; even if it rains tomorrow, it won’t mess up my slab prep in the garage, or fresh concrete. Running on this high, we’ve booked a pre-slab inspection first thing in the morning and concrete for 2pm.

How slow have things been on the site?

Slow enough for a dozen sparrows to consider my first floor joists a safe spot to start building nests.

Yes, I checked for babies before evicting them.

]]> http://thedesignaggregate.com/no-sparrows-were-killed/feed/ 2 http://thedesignaggregate.com/beautiful-losers/ http://thedesignaggregate.com/beautiful-losers/#comments Sat, 29 May 2010 21:21:26 +0000 awarbs http://thedesignaggregate.com/?p=333 Mark says we’re not losers, we’re just not winners.

The Backyard Cottage judging and party completed last Monday and while we didn’t’ win anything (sniff),  we did manage to get some eyes on our project, which really was the whole point.

More images and the winners after the break…

Unfortunately we haven’t seen all the entries so the only eye candy we have is from the winners. Aparently there were some other entries from BC, so we’ll try and track those down soon. Each of the mentioned designs below have addressed the building code and design criteria in an innovative, sustainable and creative way.

My favorite from these are the entries from HOMB Modular and Gist Architecture, but have a look yourself…

Overall Best in Show: Backyard Box by Blip Design

Best Design Execution: HOMB Modular

Runner Up Best Design Execution: Gist Architecture

Most Adaptable: Microhouse

Most Innovative: Baldwin West Design baldwinwest@comcast.net http://www.flickr.com/photos/44522187@N04/

Most Sustainable: Backyard Box by Blip Design

A big thanks to Mark and Brian at Method Homes for letting us get in the contest at the last minute and for all their hard work in promoting this whole segment of design/build.

To quote our design submittal narrative:

“This particular project, which is currently under construction in Squamish, B.C., was designed to address the requirements of the recently approved “Carriage Houses” in this district.  Similarly, the City of Vancouver, B.C. has recently passed approval for what they refer to as  “Laneway Homes”. These both share the intent of Seattle’s “Backyard Cottage” initiative – to increase urban density, to provide private living quarters for aging or extended family, and/or to act as mortgage helpers for property owners. Our design is intended to be easily adaptable to specific site requirements and building codes all over North America.”

(The original contents of this post have been removed by the moderator. Re: Shân.)

Still, it’s a shit-load of wood and this thing is way over-engineered.

Which leads me to a rant on housing prices in BC.

Yes they’re expensive. And yes, they far-exceed any reasonable affordability index.

But after diving into this project, it’s pretty clear that it’s not just speculation thats driven the prices up. Houses are way more expensive to build now than they where even ten years ago.  Sub-trades like plumbers, electricians and roofers make a better living out here than they do anywhere east of Calgary. And the fear of litigation and responsibility has driven the cost of permitting through the roof.  Between the geotech and structural engineers, the lawyers drafting up a flood covenant, and random money grabs at the municipality like the 2000$ “development fee” – each cheque I write comes attached with a well-crafted release letter, clearing the recipient of said cheque of any and all responsibility should anything go wrong with the structure or it’s inhabitants.  The over sized beams, etc. that are expensive to buy and install, cost an engineer nothing to spec out but save him (or her) any worry of litigation.

So the muni has passed the responsibility of the development (for which they charge a fee) onto a series of well-paid professionals that must sign off on elements of the build to which they won’t take responsibility for if anything goes wrong anyway.

So after half a dozen cheques and release letters signed; you’re on your own, pal.

If it’s any consolation; houses are a hell of a lot better built and more efficient than they where 10-20 years ago.

Anyway; It was interesting to see the living space take shape. Before the roof package was installed the space seamed small.  Uninterrupted views above your head force you to subconsciously fill in the space with imagined restrictions, making you feel closed-in and trapped. Much like the railing on a deck. Without one, you avoid going close to the edge, which makes it feel like a smaller space than it actually is.

Put the railing in, and it invites you out to the edge and therefore opens the space.

The roof framing did a similar thing.

The ceiling height feels good. The windows have now framed the views that we predicted we’d have and a sense of calming seclusion surrounds the space.

]]> http://thedesignaggregate.com/a-roof-shapes-a-view/feed/ 0 http://thedesignaggregate.com/oops/ http://thedesignaggregate.com/oops/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 18:31:20 +0000 awarbs http://thedesignaggregate.com/?p=286 Not sure if confessing a screw-up on your blog is the right thing to do, but since hardly anyone is reading this, I figured I’d take the opportunity to post on a slow couple days….

Let me attempt to make a short story, longer.

I gave the steel guys one wrong measurement, which shifted three brackets on the upper beam about 9 ½ feet from where they should have been.  The overall length and post locations where correct, which is why it took us until just before our roof package was getting delivered, to realize it.

So today, two of the guys from RS Steel came out to weld new brackets on the beam. Actually; just two brackets. The screw-up was close enough that when they where shifted back to the correct position, one of the brackets could be re-used.

We’re so eco….

]]> http://thedesignaggregate.com/oops/feed/ 2 http://thedesignaggregate.com/a-floating-box-appears/ http://thedesignaggregate.com/a-floating-box-appears/#comments Thu, 06 May 2010 21:05:51 +0000 awarbs http://thedesignaggregate.com/?p=263 Another quick post before I run to the city for Klondike Contracting’s grand opening of their new offices.  I’ve been doing the LEED consulting on this extensive renovation that will be pursuing Commercial Interiors certification. So; in a few minutes I’m off with Shân to shake hands, talk green building strategies and drink Burton and Eric’s beer.

The last few days Joel and Elliot have been super-productive.  I’m pretty jealous of them being out there during the funnest part of the build while I grind away at LEED submittal documentation for the Klondike project in my office.

After dropping the perimeter beams into place, the last of the TJI’s where hung into place and a few hours later the first floor was completely sheathed. Running on a framing high, we stayed on-site till about 7pm so we could get the North wall built and stood up.  I confess to playing hooky this day and had my tool belt on for a good 6 or 7 hours. The boys were relieved to have the site to themselves the next day, I’m sure…

Now with the east wall and portions of the south and west walls up, the effect of the floating box has really taken hold.  When it’s finished we’ve planned to use a slate grey fiber-cement panel (4X8) for the lower façade and naturally stained thin (1X2) cedar applied vertically for the upper. The goal is to visually make the lower volume less noticeable and allow the upper volume to appear like an unnaturally floating mass in the trees.

If that sounds like I’m reading too much into it, just be thankful I don’t’ have 4 years of architecture school theory-speak in my vocabulary.  I would have lost you on the home page.

more images after the break…

]]> http://thedesignaggregate.com/design-package/feed/ 2 http://thedesignaggregate.com/big-truck-small-driveway-no-flaggers-and-a-skeleton/ http://thedesignaggregate.com/big-truck-small-driveway-no-flaggers-and-a-skeleton/#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:06:19 +0000 awarbs http://thedesignaggregate.com/?p=173 Our steel arrived on a rainy Tuesday morning on the back of a 40’ long flatbed trailer.

The front of my driveway is about 4 meters wide.  There’s maybe 10’ of room between the main house and the property line. This is a tight configuration for concrete and lumber trucks that only the more confident drivers will even attempt. This flatbed was not getting anywhere with any driver…

So about 8 guys stood around in the pissing rain, smoking damp cigarettes and coming up with ways to get 2, 36’ long I-Beams off the trailer and into the backyard.

In the end, my neighbor across the street came to the rescue with his small flatbed truck and a trailer. The crane lifted the two beams onto this configuration and we simply drove it into the backyard. The process was only slightly delayed when a municipality truck pulled up and scolded me for not having proper flaggers on site to direct traffic – he had gotten complaints from a road crew up the street that had 4 flaggers on a tiny job, meanwhile we had beams swinging across the road by a massive crane truck, with nothing but a few rain soaked carpenters randomly waving to traffic.

The 40’ flatbed stayed out on the road and the crane followed my neighbor’s truck out back to the site.

That was pretty much the end of any drama. The crew from RS Steel got right to work setting the 4 posts and two beams that will carry the cantilevered upper volume and roof, into place.  The lower posts where bolted down to waiting piers and into the beam on top, while the upper post where on-site welded to avoid any brackets being visible. We also had the crane drop a few of the parallam beams into place while he was there.

The pics tell a better story than I do, so; enjoy…

Dropping the first post into place.

This beam defines and organizes the parallams that will carry the cantilevered volume.

The skies began to clear just as the second floor posts were getting dropped into place.

The second beam that carries the roof loads mimics the lower one, but with slightly smaller parallam pockets.

Anyway, Joel and Elliott have been on site about a week now and managed to pull off our pour on monday.  These guys know their shit, do quality work and are stoked to do something different than; well 99% of the building stock out there. Now i’m scrambling to keep them busy and the project moving forward at a good clip.

The pour went well. I was nervous about the concrete trucks squeezing past the main house where we have only about 10′ to the neighbour’s fence, but they got by without incident. Other than me barking at the guy we rented the vibrator off of when it shit the bed, things went pretty smooth.

There are two huge concrete pads  to pick up the two main point loads that carry both the cantilever and the roof overhang. Each one of these pads are 6′ X 6′ X 15″ with a 18″ X 16″ pier on top and gobble up almost a meter of concrete each. They’re WAY over engineered and are designed to almost float if the ground they sit on decides to lose it geo-integrety (yes, i just made that word up).  The rest of the foundation is pretty basic: 18″ X 8″ footings with an 8″ X 16″ wall, mono-poured. We calc’d the concrete accurately and i even had enough to anchor 15 steel fence posts along my southern property line that i had prepped a few days earlier.

Framing package is en route. We’ll see how the Rona drivers fare, eh?

This is Lower Insanity on Whistler, March 30, 2010 around 10am. Not likely to get much work done on the project for the next few days…

Is that a famous saying? it should be. My backyard looks like shit.

And i have a really big back yard…

The past couple days have been raining non-stop and everywhere a machine has driven on the site, is either a growing puddle, or 8″ of sticky mud. We’ve disrupted the natural drainage of the earth so much that the water can do nothing but pool on the disturbed topsoil. I feel a bit guilty about that. For thousands of years this ancient river bed has adequately drained whatever storm-water has fallen through it’s perfectly layered matrix of grasses, topsoil, roots and river-rock. Couple overzealous weeks with a chainsaw and a mid-sized excavator made short work of that though….jeees.

ah well. It is temporary (i tell myself) and this is March in the Pacific Northwest.

In a few months it will be re-topsoiled, replanted with native grasses and new fruit trees and i can forget all about this eco-shame i’m riddled with now.

And even better;  when i drive onto our street, i won’t have to cringe at all the mud i’m spreading around the neighbourhood.

Anyway. We (Shân and I) have been talking about what to do with this property pretty much since our first date. At first we focused on the main house; filling moleskins with sketches and floor plans, building models and arguing over window placements.

As we went down this path, the project grew to the point that we had drafted up an extensive renovation that would involve demolishing almost the entire upper floor and rebuilding it’s size, layout and roof, while (hopefully)  inflicting as minimal damage as possible to the newly created suite in the ground floor level.

At some point we heard about the code changes to our lot that allowed for secondary building and decided that would be a great way to build new (rather than renovate ), get the office and “work” out of our family zone and have a great place to escape to when we eventually rip the roof of the main house. About a year, or more, of planning, dozens of Sketch-up drawings and a couple models later, we finalized the plan (subject to minor changes of course – ha!) and applied for a building permit.

My wife and partner Shân is an accomplished interior designer and project manager. I am a wannabe architect, LEED AP and hack Sketch-up designer. Minimalist modernism drove the aesthetic and green building practices drove its orientation, layout and construction. Whether or not we target LEED for Homes certification is still up in the air, but regardless we will adhere to green building practices simply because it makes sense.

On the drawing board, still waiting on budget approval, is an intensive green roof  as well as rain-water collection for irrigation and flushing toilets. PV and solar hot water have been considered, but isn’t really feasible due to the amount of trees shading the roof. At least that’s the theory and it’s a bit expensive to see if we’re right.

If the neighbours clear-cut their back-yard, we’ll re-consider.

The tDA Bunker is our first realized, design/build project. - Well; maybe not realized quite yet, but we’re way past the point of return now, so…

The brief was directed by the inherent parameters created by site, building codes, budget and our own architectural tastes. Allowed on our 1/2 are lot are what the district of Squamish calls a Carriage Houses. This is a secondary, 2 story structure not exceeding 22 ft high with a foot print no larger than 650 square feet. Due to the “200 yr flood plain” (more on that later) the suite, or livable area, must be located on the second floor.

the goals from the outset where:

1: create a work/shop and office for tDA product design.

2: exercise our ability to design and build a site sensitive, energy efficient, healthy dwelling that adheres to our aesthetic.

3: have a secondary suite for out of town family, friends and weekend rentals ($).