This project marks my first opportunity to independently choose between designing an interior space or an exterior deck. I selected the deck option to challenge my understanding of spatial organization and environmental context. This iteration represents my initial design exploration.
Hand Drawn Process Work
While going about this design, I decided to extend the deck giving another access point from the kitchen. This gave more space and created more circulation in the design to feel less trapped in 1 area (giving room for more people). Using slight curves on the edge of the deck smooths the jagged line of the house.
Light Design
Here is the lighting shown throughout the day. As you can see, there is plenty of light during the morning and midday but when it gets closer to night it gets almost no light from the sunset, I decided to go with outdoor string lights to lightly fill the headspace while providing light to the deck and its occupants.
First Iteration
At first, I wanted to fit as much as possible into this design. I quickly realized space was limited and I would have to rethink a lot of factors such as the grill, table and seating, as well as the orientation of the hot tub.
Further Developed
After a little more thought, I came to a design that gave more space to move around while keeping seating for multiple people. Realizing the door was higher than the deck itself, I created a short set of stairs. I also further developed the hot tub, removing the slope in favor of stairs, giving more depth to the hot tub itself.
Final Floor Plan
In the final plan, I cleaned up the design by adding more detail. Planters lining the walls to incorporate the nature of the surrounding area. I also kept the planter design lining the outside of the deck (half wall) but instead of plants I decided to add a fire feature separated with frosted glass.
