Notes #10: Local Typology

After mocking up the site in Sketchup a few typologies of the local vicinity have become apparent. Within the area low to medium density residential buildings is predominant. The site has also some notable industrial buildings that break up the streetscape.

The use of Gabled roofing is something very common. This roofing doesn't extend much past the exterior wall, the overhand being determined by the fascia + gutter depth. Its something homogenous and typically irrespective of the building's context. If shelter is required, the verandah/patio/portico is used.

In tudor-style gable roofing, the irregular floor plate is expressed through variations and complexities in the ridge-line. The roof becomes a re-interpretation of the spatial arrangement. Marks of contextual efficiency are noted when the ridge-line continues to meet an external wall, though this condition rarely exists on the street facade.

When the above condition does exist on the street facade, care is taken with respective proportion, often associated with an extension of another parallel ridge-line.

Extension of the main ridge-line as in the above image is also common over the site, which can be seen as a typology of traditional housing.

Combination skillion and parapet roofing is more common to the industrial buildings of the site. However, when used in residential buildings, there is a greater consideration for the street-side facade, often broken up by a continuous facade entity like a verandah.

In combination eaves and parapet edged roofing, parapets along the street-side facade are used to break up continuous facades into the building's respective units. On any other facade they tend to be used to shield against uncomfortable neighbourhood conditions. In the example below the walling is used in two ways. It simplifies the building fabric whilst also addressing, rather bluntly, the neighbourhood condition. However, in most examples around the site, its merely a device for efficiency.

Symmetry is another typology common to the site. Large housing is mirrored around a central axis, however this axis is not directly or intently expressed in the facade. Expression comes through secondary devices, such as fencing and external privacy walls. The privacy wall aren't the best example of efficiency, however, symmetry seems to be a common sign of low-cost building in the neighbourhood, though this might have more to do with unit housing rather than symmetry.

There is a predominant use of verandahs around the site. In most cases they are separated from the roof line by a fascia and a few courses of brick line. Most address the street facade and serve as a large intermediary space between the exterior and the interior. This intermediary space is also present in the form of patio's and portico's, but their size is significantly smaller. The latter spaces are also more an extension of the house.

Extensions in the the garden are common and are marked by skillion roofing, resembling a verandah-esque structure attached to the main building.

Where possible, garages are positioned on the street facade, but it seems more efficient to group parking together for the surrounding units at the rear of the properties.

The priority in facades is first to consider the streetscape, then the garden, and then to address the neighbours, thus there isn't much consideration for the neighbouring facades. Fencing merely prioritises the streetscape.

Where a first floor exists, balconies are used for two purposes; to provide external access for the first floor (logically), and to shelter the ground floor. For this reason they are found on the street facade, above the entrance, and in most cases, are severely undersized for any kind of practical use.

Repetitive elements are common in more ways than one. Unit housing is highly repeditive in the region. Elements like the typologies mentioned before are strewn throughout the site, with little comparative difference between each occurence. Differentiation is not a priority.