Brief: House in Westdene: Main Event: Architecture

Purse: ZAR4,680.00
Deadline: 31 August 2020 at 13h CAT
Budget: ZAR150,000.00
Site: Second Avenue, Westdene. (ERF1/122)

Re-design the interior and exterior spaces on this 496m2 site (improve inter-interior and interior-exterior relationships, enhance entertainment space and add: a workshop with storage, two small parking spaces and a small bathroom).

The clients are two sisters in their late thirties. One is an engineer and a (motor) bike enthusiast, who collects and restores motorbikes and bicycles. This hobby means mechanical components are often scattered around the house to the annoyance of the other is in corporate communications. She is less hands-on than her DIY sister, but is very sporty and outdoorsy relative to her peers. Both sisters enjoy mountain biking, hiking, camping and entertaining (braaiing).

The clients hope that your design will help keep what is different about their personalities apart to lessen confrontation and reverse what is bad in some alterations that were executed by previous owners in the houses’ seventy-year life.
 
The project is being undertaken due to the client’s both receiving promotions and tax rebates. They would like to invest in their property (allow both to have their own space when desired while still having access to the other’s company) and fix pet peeves (roof leaks, poor interior configuration, etc) before ‘they waste the money on something less meaningful’.

Around 30% of the budget should be allocated to maintenance (general fixing and updating of the existing house). The sisters are open to experimental materials and methodologies but do not wish to ‘stand out’ or have something that is impractical. Due to them intending to sell the house eventually (five or so years), they do not want the interventions to be too quirky but they should not be boring either. The sisters would like the entire project to be completed within a year and they are prepared to move out of the house for the construction phase.

Requirements
·       Re-programme and re-configure the second lounge so that it can be actively used. At present it is a leftover space that is used for circulation and storage.
·       Re-configure the existing bathroom. At present the whb obstructs circulation and there is insufficient privacy.
·       Re-design the kitchen and add a wood burning stove (presently the island is out of scale, its sub structure prevents comfortable seating and it obstructs movement).
·       Allow the main bedroom to open onto the garden.
·       Re-design the entertainment space so that there is a better relationship with the Peperboomtree, the food preparation and cooking space and the seating space.
·       Add a new bathroom so each sister has her own one. It should have a wc, whb, a shower and ideally a bath.
·       Build a new workshop that is lockable and separate from the main house and lettable cottage (or has noise dampening built-in). The workshop should accommodate motorbike and bicycle repairs and should allow for motorbike, bicycle and motorbike clothing and accessories washing (a garden tap, floor to fall with a fitted grease trap). It should be approximately 10m².
·       A lockable storage space that is attached to the workshop to store tools, helmets, motor bike gear and two motor bikes, approximately 10m².
·       Design a rain-water collection system. The water storage tanks can be on, below or above ground.
·       Add two parking bays for guests. At present cars are parked in tandem.