Bath House and its Environment

Positive and Negative effects of pocket forest around the site

• more kowahia and tui from flowers
• increases the drainage, with planting more trees which is good
• creates a safe habitat for native birds in a more dangerous urban environment

What happens to the soil? Having more biodiversity of plants- be specific with which trees and plants. kofhaimanukaukoukou tree. Specific planting encouraging the site. What insects and native/non native birds get drawn to the site? Rat traps for rats since its an urban environment. You want wild life in this environment. Get into big detail. Shadow sunlight, privacy, noise, smell, clever filtration systems. highlight these elements. social, economic, social (mauri, kaitiaki etc)

NZ Building Code

This week we were introduced to the New Zealand Building Code which we should pay very close attention to when developing our designs. We have to follow these guidelines correctly to ensure our designs are safe and fully accessible to the public. Since it is a bath house, we should pay extra close attention to the guidelines regarding the toilets and changing room/what we require of them. The plumbing and waste plans should be considered as well as the outlines for disabled toilets, wheelchair access and eating facilities.

We got given a printed template of the standard bathroom/toilet plan 1:100 scale for us to begin designing these areas without compromising on what is needed when following these guidelines.

The space we were given to design our bath house is fairly small so a bit of space/ number of toilets might need to be compromised. I have to create a few designs, playing around with the layout, to think what is the most space efficient bathroom design without compromising on the essentials.

MY BATHHOUSE + BATHROOM DESIGNS

Considering Disabled Entrance

In my bath house design, the entrance is on Mount street and since the design is on the the basement level, there is a 3 meter drop to consider from street level. This space is open to anyone so it has to be wheelchair accessible. A ramp has to be thought out for the entrance which will allow all public access.

The legal gradient measure for a wheel chair ramp is 1:12 therefore i will need to have 12 meters of ramp for every one meter drop. Considering the 3 meter drop, I would need a three tier ramp of 12 meters per run to make it safe and within the legal requirements.

I later realized that the fire exit in the bathhouse can be used as a disabled entrance/exit with the lifts in that room so these ramps won’t be necessary but it was interesting to think about.

Completed Group Model