I just got the first layout from Maria, the Nicaraguan architect I hired.
She and her partner made several rough sketches and send me the one that made most sense in terms of the guidelines I gave.

[image]
I’ll give it a good look and send my feedback soon.

I interview two Nicaraguan architects over the phone. Roy sent me portfolios of both of their past work. Roy worked with both in the past and promised that past experience was very good with both.

I’ve interviewed people for many high tech positions in the past but never for an architect position. I’ve looked around the web for some advice on the matter and equipped with that and my own expectations I talked with both of them.

Both had good English and I was able to have a good conversation with both. After talking to both I decided to go with Mrs. Maria Huezo.I felt our communication was very good, and I felt that her relatively young company would be dedicated to the project and will be able to provide a good quality design in a timely fashion. She has just finished the design on another house in Rancho Santana and Roy said that she was very attentive and provided many excellent design documents.

Maria has already visited the lot prior to our conversation so I was able to describe to her my general direction. I’ve asked her to send me a contract and I promised to write down a “brief” of my expectations.

I’m playing around some more with the design to get a better feel for the size and possibilities.

In the following sketch the floor plan is not so different from the first draft. The southern part of the house (to the left) has three rooms and space for two bathrooms and two walk-in closets. The northern part has two large spaces, with the entry door located between them. One can be used for the kitchen while the other is large enough to host a master bedroom and a master walk-in closet.

The entry way opens into a public area under a Palapa roof. this section faces the ocean to the west (top of the image) and slightly to the south.

Floorplan sketch C – March 28 – 27-Aug-2010

The total area is about 170 square meters. Almost 70 meters are the external walk way and public area. It’s a bit smaller than I budgeted so I feel good about being able to use more size. Unfortunately the lot shape seem to be the restricting element right now, as only part of it can be comfortably built upon. Maybe I can come up with a different layout that will use the space better.

Here is how it can look in 3D when viewed from the cliff and the sea towards the East and how it can possibly look from further south. Each of the southern rooms has a door leading towards the western walk way. Each room should also have large windows towards the west, but I’m still not sure what size to make them.

I have to admit that I’m enjoying this process to much. When a “real” architect will come on board I’m sure he will have his own ideas. On the other hand playing around with my own designs gives me a better feeling about the different possibilities, sizes and layouts that can be used.

A good example for this is the western windows of the southern rooms, missing in the above sketches. If I make them too small, the view towards the ocean will be lost, but if I make them too large than it would spoil any sense of privacy in the rooms, since anyone walking on the walk way will be able to look into the rooms. It’s a good example of a design conflict that would have to be resolved somehow.

I’m starting to play around with different designs for the house. The lot sits on a cliff that faces the Pacific Ocean to the west, and I wan to ensure that most of the house faces that direction. Creating a north-south formation has an additional benefit of exposing a smaller footprint to the south, which should keep the house from warming too much.

I create a sketch with 4 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, a kitchen and a wide lounge. The ocean lies at the upper part of sketch (west). The slope of the cliff is turned a bit towards the south on it’s northern part, so I create a main area on the north (right) that faces slightly to the south. On the right is the main bedroom (a queen size bed is, in white, is added for scale) and space for bathroom, walk in closet and a possible additional small room. To the left is the kitchen area with an added utility room. Between them is the entry door the house that opens in to the wide rounded lounge. I assume it’s mostly floored, while the farther area (in brown) may be decked with wood. The lounge would have a Palapa roof above it for shade.

Floorplan 1 sketch A – March 26

Floorplan 1 sketch A – March 26 – 27-Aug-2010

The other part of the house is the simple north-south section that has three rooms a bathroom (on the leftmost part) and a shared bathroom (in light blue).All rooms open towards the west and share a connecting passage that leads to the lounge area. It’s not really a corridor as it’s completely open – just a wooden deck and

I have no idea how these two sections are connected, and whether it’s even possible, but I don’t want to get in to these details. The space in between might be used as a car park, or closed with walls.

A major reason for me to sketch this is to get a better feeling of the total size I can build, and how many rooms and at what size I can fit in. In this sketch the total area is about 170 meters, including the about 40 meters of wooden deck. It shows me that I can fit a reasonable amount of decant size rooms, and a comfortable lounge in my 200 meters limit.

It’s a very rough sketch, and I’m sure there are tons of things I don’t think about, but I’m more confident now that that it makes sense.

Here is a rough sketch of how it can look in 3D:

Plan 1 3D sketch

Plan 1 3D sketch

The triangular thing above the lounge should be a Palapa – the local type of thatched roof made of dried palm leaves. Here is a photo of a palapa roof I took on one of the islands in Lake Nicaragua:

Lake Nicaragua – 17-Feb-2010