‘Guest’ Quarters

Creative Space Architecture

26m2

$67,000

creativespace.co.nz

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The Project

Originally envisioned as providing a little extra space for guest accommodation, this project ultimately turned into a fully functional living quarters for the owner. Andre Laurent, director of Creative Space Architecture Ltd and the owner of this project, described how he gravitated out of his main home and towards this smaller space built on his property, with its high ceilings and warm interiors.

The ‘Guest’ quarters are built within one bay of a larger four-bay shed, which at the time was being constructed on the property for the storage of farm equipment. The shape and size of the dwelling are for the most part determined by this larger shed. Each bay of the shed provided 26m2 of floor space, therefore the design challenge was how to utilize 26m2 in the most efficient, simple, and comfortable way possible. This gave rise to the idea of essentially dividing the space into two: one section of the house contains a loft bedroom, bathroom and wardrobe; the other section is an open living and office space with high ceilings. The space does not include a kitchen and a laundry, given that it was originally designed for guest accommodation (and adding a kitchen would have caused it to be classified as a secondary dwelling, attracting additional council fees). Andre notes that with another $50,000 - $60,000 it would be quite feasible to add a couple bedrooms and a kitchenette to make a similar but complete compact home.

The interior space is lined with plywood and the exterior is long run iron. The framing of the walls have been oversized so that more insulation would fit in them and consequently the building has very high insulation values relative to the insulation values required in the New Zealand building code. There is a little heat pump inside that can be used when needed, and the climate can be easily adjusted given the small space. The bathroom contains a tiled walk-in shower, and the built-in wardrobe is made of solid wood.

Low Cost

The key reasons this project is low cost are that it is small and simple. Creative Space believes that design complexity is a key strategy that designers have to manage costs - the more complicated a shape, the more complicated a building and therefore the higher the cost. This can be seen in the ‘Guest’ quarters in the four straight walls, simple sloping ceiling, and single-level floor. Efficient use of space is another strategy, such as through the use of loft bedrooms like the one in this dwelling (Andre notes that in his experience loft spaces provide very good value for money).

The small size of the dwelling kept down material and labour costs, although the main materials of plywood and long run iron are already relatively low cost. More than 90% of the costs were in the materials and labour, which was carried out by a professional builder. Some finishing touches were completed by Andre.

About Creative Space Architecture

Prior to establishing Creative Space in 2003, Andre Laurent was a building contractor for about 10 years. During this time he found that many of his building contracts were set up for failure with average plans that contained next to no detail. These projects were therefore impossible to accurately price or program. When he started Creative Space Architecture, he set out to provide deadly accurate plans, details and specifications that would facilitate successful builds. He notes that ‘as it turns out no building contractor or client every regretted investing in quality.’

One of Creative Space’s philosophies is keeping things small so that more money can be put towards performance and higher quality specifications. As part of this they get a huge buzz from designing small but comfortable, high performing compact homes. They note that building and renovating is never going to be less expensive, therefore we should be looking to provide creative solutions to give people everything they want, just in a smaller package.