The Living Room
CASE STUDY HOUSE
CIRCULATION
Model Scale: 3/32”=1’-0”
I used twine to emphasize circulation in important spaces. The barn has a linear composition, making its corridor the main source of circulation into all rooms. The living room is the heart of the house because it is hanging in the air, plunging headlong into nature. Moreover, the reason behind using a scaffold was to show the volume of the barn, as well as making it easier to see the circulation.
The Balancing Barn, Suffolk, United Kingdom
Analyzing the circulation, parti, poche, sightlines, and details of the Balancing Barn by Mvrdv through a series of model making, drawings, renderings, and Virtual Reality Experience.
December 2019
PARTI
Model Scale: 3/32”=1’-0”
The concept of The Balancing Barn is to intensify the “experience of nature” by pushing the barn halfway “over the edge”, making one half of the barn hang in mid-air. The parti model emphasizes the floating aspect of the house which is driven by the weight distribution. One half of the barn is lighter than the other. The model consists of a sliding mechanism that makes the barn slide from its traditional position to the floating one.
POCHÉ
Model Scale: 3/32”=1’-0”
The poche of the Balancing Barn is within its walls and the earth on which the barn is placed at. The model is separated into private and public zones. Poche is shown using the inverted solids and voids of the private zone. instead of showing the walls as solid, they are shown as empty pockets and the actual spaces are shown as masses.
SIGHTLINES
Model Scale: 3/32”=1’-0”
The Balancing Barn has a linear composition with windows/doors located on all exterior walls. This is a sightlines density model showing a section cut, looking at the longer wall where the sightlines are portrayed as extruded windows. Sightline density is depicted by the thickness of the windows. The living room vistas are made of thicker acrylic because that is where the most prominent sight lines occur.
DETAIL
Model Scale: 1/2”=1’-0”
The Balancing Barn is a unique house, both in its concept and structure. The barn has a triangular roof and has a gable ceiling, meaning, it consists of exposed structural beams, rafters, and columns in the interior. These elements not only act as structural support but also as a prominent design feature in the barn. This model focuses on the wall and ceiling structural elements located in the hallway since this is the main circulation route in this house.