Self and Design Evaluation

Introduction
The need to design and construct affordable housing in America is urgent. Twenty-five percent of all American households face severe housing problems. Among these are lack of sufficient funds for monthly payments, maintenance, and repairs; overcrowding, both within individual dwellings and in high-density multi-family developments; and structural deficiencies.
These 30 million households include not just the poorest individuals and those without jobs, but also teachers, librarians, firefighters, health-care workers, and many others who make significant contributions to our communities.
According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the generally accepted criteria of affordability is that a household pays no more than 30% of its annual income on housing. In many localities across America, an increasing number of families are earning less than 50% of the median income in their respective area, assuming they spend no more than 30% of their income for housing.
Research was conducted on the guidelines established for affordable housing. After sufficient information was collected, brainstorming for a single family home for a family of six including an aging set of grandparents began. Several floor plans were drawn and finalized, and one solution was chosen for further development. An architectural model was then constructed based off of the final floor plans. An understanding and aptitude for the process of architectural design, development of plans, and basic modeling techniques was demonstrated throughout the course of the project.

Solution Description
The chosen solution featured a three-bedroom house. A covered porch opens up into a foyer, compensated by a convenient closet. The entry from the garage into the house is a mudroom like the previous alternate solution. The kitchen features a small pantry and contains an opening in the wall to serve food and drinks to the gathering and dining room. The dining room is easily accessible from the kitchen. In the back of the house is the gathering room with an ample amount of space.
From the gathering room, a large hallway leads to the children’s bedroom and the master bedroom. The master bedroom’s main aspect is its large walk-in closet and bathroom. The best feature of this alternate solution is that the grandparent’s living quarters because they are located away from the rest of the family, giving them a feeling of living on their own. They can easily access the bathroom and have their own living room and miniature kitchen. The living room leads into a separate bedroom and overall gives the grandparents plenty of space. All in all, this solution has proved to be the most viable because of the interconnection of similar rooms and how the layout flows.

Discrepancies Between Original Design and Final Constructed Solution
The original design was further developed into an Auto-CAD drawing. The floor plan has several modifications in order to maximize the effective of the flow and use of space. The foyer has been made slightly smaller and a half bathroom has been added on the left side. A mechanical/storage room and a mudroom have been placed directly behind the garage. Also, a small pantry has been added near the kitchen. The dining room and living room have been sized down keeping in mind affordable housing. Also the wall that separates these two rooms no longer has a column in the center. The island in the kitchen is now more easily accessible to the dining room.
As for the living section of the house, one more bedroom has been added to allow the children to have separate rooms. A bathroom has been placed conveniently and has two doors so that both the children and grandparents can easily obtain entry. The master bedroom has been sized down slightly and now contains two smaller closets instead of one walk-in closet. The bathroom has also been rearranged in size and layout to allow more walking space. The shower and bathtub were combined to reduce space used as well. Finally the main feature of the house was left virtually the same. The grandparents’ room still features a living room, small kitchen, and a separate bedroom. Overall this design has proved to be very effective in making use of space and keeping related rooms near one another.

Successes and Failures (Design Flaws)
During the course of the project, I succeeded in many areas. My design notebook, including the floor plans, elevational plans, roof plan, landscape plan, and sectional detail were completed with preciseness and in an orderly fashion. The window, door, and room finish schedules were also completed thoroughly. All drawings were done to scale, and this carried through with the model as well. All of the pieces were cut out accurately and placed in the correct positions. All parts of the balsa wood construction are even and smooth. The roof receives the best comments, and I believe it is the strongest part of the model. Although the grass has a few square patches, the landscaping have a very realistic look and adds to the professionalism of the model.
After the survey was conducted, positive results were received in all areas. I believe that the only failure during all phases of the project was not placing in the 2008 Technology Student Association Architectural Model Competition. The only thing that I can take away from this is that in order to have the best model, more time must be dedicated to its construction, rather than the drawings of the chosen solution.
Although I would not consider them failures, a few design flaws in the procedure of construction and the actual construction of the preliminary model were present. I thought about all of the improvements I could make upon the first model and integrated them into the final model. Some of these flaws included using Elmer’s glue instead of hot glue, sanding down all surfaces to be smooth and even, and placing down balsa wood pieces more carefully in the correct positions. Other flaws can be seen in my original drawings, including door placement and door size. However, the flaws were easily corrected with the help of my mentor
Additional Learning
I am grateful that I had a mentor through out the process of the project. I have learned many things that I would not have necessarily learned until college. Whenever I had any problems, my mentor was easily accessible and helped me out through emails or meeting in person. Any flaws in my drawings were easily corrected. My mentor also shared his advice that I willingly implemented into my drawings, he explained how to do things that I was unsure about, and taught me the basics of architectural model construction. One of the most important things that I learned was attention to detail. My mentor told me that it is important to have an accurate and neat model more than anything.

Personal Improvements
Problem Solving Skills: This project highly increased my problem solving skills for obvious reasons. I was given rules and specifications to build an architectural model and had to abide by them throughout the design and construction of the architectural drawings and model. I believe that I succeeded in solving the problem to this competition. I designed a residential home that accommodated for a family of six including an aging set of grandparents and abided by the guidelines of affordable housing, by creating a one-story home and condensing space wherever possible.
Communication Skills through Drawing: My project entailed many architectural drawings using CAD software. I believe that I strengthened my communication skills through these CAD drawings when I shared them with my mentor, teachers, and peers. I was able to communicate with them my ideas by showing them what I had designed and then receiving feedback from them. I gathered their advice and incorporated it into the design if I felt necessary. My speaking and writing skills also improved through several formal and informal presentations discussing my project and also several technically written documents.
Organizational Skills: Throughout my life I have always been a very organized person. During this project, I harnessed this skill in order to be efficient as possible in my design and construction. Organizational skills also helped me to manage my time better. It was important to know the locations of all the materials that I used, and the procedure for model construction. Working in a station that was neat and had everything that I needed where I was working also helped.

Conclusion
Overall I have had great success with my project. With the help of mentor, teachers, and research I learned many new things about architecture, enhanced previous skills, and developed new skills. The architectural plans that I designed and the model that I constructed are accurate and have a professional appearance. I am glad that I chose this project because it is a great foreground for what I will be learning and doing when I attend the School of Architecture when I attend The New Jersey Institute of Technology this fall.