Copacabana 2 - What was involved in our redesign.

Working hard on test refine due to our "eye opening" and useful feedback from our domus review had led us to an extensive overhaul of how the building functioned, its size, its form and the all important esd components that needed to become of high priority for the dwelling that was to remain off grid.

THE PLAN
The initial feedback we had received from Domus in regards to our plan was simple and rather clear - the dwelling was too large. Our 3d and physical models had communicated this quite clearly, and test and refine had allowed us to re-think our views on required space and shrink the dwelling without losing the character and life that we as a group had injected into it. The initial size had been developed on the basis of the 8 guests - this factor during domus was a key problem in our designs - leading us to creating dedicated spaces purely for them.
With redesign this was no longer the case - the removal of the mezzanine level and providing extensive storage space in slide out draws in a cavity in the studio to hold upto 4 beds per draw rendered the mezzanine useless and helped us double up the use of our studio in a minima-esque fashion. This alone would remove 58 square metres of space from our domus design.
The further re-structuring of our social / living and kitchen areas, along with the studio space would reduce our domus footprint by 41%. The private spaces (ie. the bedrooms) would remained unchanged - featuring enough space already for each individuals personal affects and bed etc.These rather straightforward and simple changes towards a more energy efficient dwelling can be greatly seen in significant size changes of the dwelling.
The redesign had led us to implement new ideas, develop new shading and solar access ideas - as well as water catchment ideas - such as the implementation of two water tanks being into the compacted earth wall for catchment and a further increase of thermal mass withing the social spaces.