What is the relationship of your ground floor level to surrounding grade?
The ground floor of my units sits even with the surrounding grade.
What are your exterior materials?
My exterior materials consist of glass, metal screen, and a main façade material, (either wood rain screen or brick)
Window and door openings
The stairs have glass enclosing them on three sides, meeting as cleanly as possible at the edges/corners. The “blocks” have big, steel framed windows that are slightly recessed due to the thickness of the wall façade material. (They get as big as 7′ tall and 10′ wide or so)
What is the feel of your interior?
I want the interior of the blocks to have the same “heavy” feel as the exterior materials, but still feel inviting and less rugged than the outside. I was thinking of either some kind of coated wood, or some kind of stone veneer.
Below I have attached a couple pictures of a project using sintered stone for the interior. Typically it is very smooth and comes in panels, but I think the texture of it is shown here is how I would want it in my project. It looks rough and earthy like a cave or something.
As for the stairs, they will have some form of metal or wood treads and risers, and the walls are glass, screened at certain parts.
Are you using (exposed) structure as a design element?
I think that exposed metal framing would be great for the stair. Not in the boxes though. I was looking at some examples and I think the X shaped bracing and skeleton of structure would compliment it well. It adds another layer to the stair, making it a bit more light and airy.
I’m not quite sure how the glass and screen situation is going to work though. I guessed and said they would sandwich the structure. Maybe the two layers have to be combined for the screen, I don’t know, although this way it actually adds some depth that I think would help the design in how it blurs the lines a little bit.
How well do walls and other elements align? What is the slope of your roof?
The lines of the building are typically offset with a few of them being flush with eachother. There are also a few cantilevers where the bathroom and bedroom hang over the second level.
What is your unique drawing?
My unique drawing is an exploded model of my stair, and block parts of the unit. It shows the contrast between the two and also a bit about how the stairs navigate the unit.
Wall sections
I do have a couple questions about my sections. I don’t really know how the stone or wood rain screen materials would connect to the framing. I also have the question about the screening and structure for the stairs, about how those interact and would work, although it seems like it could work how it is.
Hathaway Section - Spring 2020 
Hi Nate,
I think your design intent is clear and your schematic assemblies make sense. I have a couple questions:
– Other than the stairs how big are your cantilevers? Can we review in plan?
– You should be able to make this work with wood framing but the cantilevers and stair make it worth looking at closely in case some more robust structure is needed.
– Some of your windows are big, but not so big you couldn’t do them as a single piece of glass.
I think the exploded view of the stair and box is a great idea and essential to your presentation, BUT it might be your concept diagram not your technical drawing. Let’s discuss how much technical detail you could show and at what scale. If that drawing doesn’t work, a section view of some sort through the box, the stair, and hopefully the roof terrace and an upper space could be a great technical drawing that also reinforced your concept.
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