The Compact Home is our design for the Architectural Visualization course at Sheridan College. Tasked with picking an architectural competition to enter we chose to enter The Home Competition hosted by Arch Out Loud. The competition proposed the question “what do you believe will be the future of home?” Although there was free range to design without any limits on size, location and construction method, we chose to design a micro house with a simple yet effective floor layout.

The Compact Home utilizes every square metre of space effectively to reduce footprint and cost. The small footprint of the house means a reduced price in materials to build and in thermal management. We chose a contemporary style for our house to make it distinct against traditional housing. We chose two materials as our cladding, fibre cement panels, and wood panels. This creates an interesting visual, contrasting the cold neutral colour of the cement panel against the warm welcoming colour of the wood. This is our answer to the question proposed by Arch Out Loud.

The objective for this term was to create a mid-rise, mixed use, live-work urban infill, located at 1056 Queen
Street West. When first developing the design concept there were a lot of factors to take into consideration which
included - the program, the environment, zoning by-laws and social health. Although all of these have importance
we chose to put a higher priority on some over others. The two main design considerations that we focused on were
the environment and social health. The program and zoning considerations were both pretty straight forward when
it came to following, but it was the environment and social considerations that took some time to develop.
Intentions and Analysis

Design Concept and Organization
As previously stated our building is inspired by both the terraced landscaped farms and stepped pyramids.
With the main focus on the environment and social health. This is accomplished through the use of the landscaped
areas and the buildings opening and orientation. The organization of the building is quite simple with the ground
floor being more public space and the remaining four floors being the private residential space. For cladding we
chose to go with wood, natural stone, and glazing.

The topic of the project was to use an existing site by Ninth Line, Mississauga and create a community centre for nearby families in the area. What we came up with was "The Bird's Nest Community Centre". The community centre includes many outdoor ameneties such as a basketball court, four tennis courts, a soccer field, a trail, and a small pond. Inside the building itself, there other spaces for visitors. These include a library, a children's play area, a conference room, a theater room, a class room, and lounge rooms for visitors to rest, chat, or eat.

The design of the building, as well as its name, is derived from a egg. We came up with the idea of an egg being surrounded by a warm nest, thus the building was shaped like an egg and the site represented the nest. We wanted the building to have a playful nature to building to attract families to visit it and enjoy their time being there. We used wood materials all around the building to further support the building's connection with nature and giving the building an all around warm feeling that we hoped would leave the visitors feel at home

Pool Wall Section

Stair Plan & Detail