Minima final posters

Design features - self sufficient

Walls: steel framing with timber
stud frame interior and cement
sheeting finish.
Insulation: all roofs, walls and
floors are properly insulated.

The house captures its own solar power via solar
panels and using a small but adequate wind turbine
made from a 55 gallon steel drum. Both these
systems feed into a series of batteries to store the
power when its isn’t being used. I have researched
this thouroughly and found a system including both
wind turbine and solar panels for approx. $200.

As evident in the North elevation to the right,
the two north facing walls have heating systems installed. This way the water collected, is heated by the sun for later use.

The waste system installed is typical of a saniflo
system. The waste in particular from the toilet
goes through a small machine that grinds the
waste into sludge so it uses less room and is
easier to remove. All waste is then directed
into the above ground septic like tank on the
South wall. This location makes the removal by
trucks much easier, it is a sealed tank so cannot
be gotten into easily if vandals try.

As the roof area is so small not enough water can be collected. So on top of this a small reverse osmosis system is intergrated. It is a series of hand pumps that suck the water up from the foreshore below and as it goes through each pump the water goes through a series of treatments to make the salt water drinkable. As it is a hand pump this requires no power and can be done completely manual. The water then goes from the pumps into the connected water tank on the East wall as indicated. The pumps will be located on the deck as they can be easily accessed when needed and can also reach the tank and the water.

Minima Design - Origami Compact.

The final minima product known as “origami compact” is the result of several designs visible on the process page. I liked the “L” shape for privacy but it was evident that the building was too large. The current design comprises of a main area of 2.9m x 2.7m which includes the sleeping area, the study, the cooking and eating area. This opens onto a small private deck over the water. Adjoining this room is the bathroom including shower and toilet (2m x 1.9). The house captures its own water, means of power and stores it own waste temporarily. Origami compact also impacts as little as possible to the site.

To the left is the final floor plans for my Minima Solution ( Origami Compact) the first is by day when the bed is folded away and the table is set up. The second is by night then the bed is folded down and the table is folded away under the bed.

The images, above right show the sections of these plans. The first by day the second by night.

Design development

Once i had my design layout i needed to focus more on the 3dimensional aspect and sectional imagery.
The sketches to the left indicate ideas that i explored including:

- a second roof for solar panels
- louvers opposite the double doors for cross ventillation
- eaves to protect against the sun
- skylights for max. natural lighting
- air flow between roofs for cooling

I also decided to create the house as an "origami house" this was to solve my demountable issue. What it means is that all the walls, roofs and floors fold flat and can be put onto a truck or the likes for transport. Then once at the site it can unfold and set up to become the house exterior. once set up all the furniture etc will be added to fill the house. This also saves energy and cost as well as space and the obvious, creating a demountable home. Images for this idea will be shown in the model area.

The re-designing of Minima.

The three designs to the left show my progress in an atempt to reduce the size of Minima.
The first 2 designs were smaller then the original Minima design but still did not reach the goal of half the size.

The third design however achieves this but slightly changes the floor plan layout of the "L" shape.

design and thumbnails

After measuring and size came the design.
my 3 designs in thumbnail representation are as seen to the left.

We had to name each and come up with 2 positives for each design.

Design 1: Rectalinear box on metal beams.
- Compact space
- all wet areas together
- bifold onto water for ventilation

Design 2: Caravan with expandable end.
- Reduce hallways with ‘L’ shape
- open plan (multiple uses)

Design 3: 2 storey Tetris
- stilts for ventilation around building

- deck to open area (appear bigger then it is)

From here, using our 3 designs and their positives we had to combine them to come up with a 4th design that would in theory be our Minima solution. below is my design. its positives are :
- bifold onto water for ventilation
- Reduce hallways with ‘L’ shape
- open plan (multiple uses)
- deck to open area (appear bigger then it is)
- Compact space
- North orientation for maximising sun usage.


It also had its negatives. The main 2 being:
- how do i make it demountable?
- can i make it smaller?
To imporve my design and the goal of Minima i had to find a way to make it demountable and reduce the size by half.

Introduction to Minima

To understand Minima we first had to analyse how the dimensions of the human body relate to design and how the objects of everyday use structure, define and order design.

we measured ourselves standing, reaching and sitting to try get a concept of the smallest space required to study or sleep would be.

We looked at perfect ratios and my head ratio was 7.8.

My navel to floor/ navel to head ratio was 5/8.8

My fingers to floor/fingers to head ratio was 5/7.2.

The perfect being 5/8.