Yalova Ecological Sod House

Imprint

Project: Yalova Ecological Sod House

Customer:

Team:

City: Yalova

Metering: 300 m²

---

Solutions

---

Services

A Turkish family lived in Australia for years, decided to realize the natural life culture they gained in that continent in their own lands at a mountain village in Yalova. The plan is building a duplex sod house near the only (pear) tree on the long hillside having a little pond and ending with a coppice forest at the bottom of the ramp (as yet). From the design point of view, there were two basic points that direct the architectural team. Fist one was the expectations that would form the house’s plan view due to the daily life customs and agricultural activities. And the other one was the subjects about the scenarios, responses and additions due to the product/space that can appear for decreasing the energy consuming during the construction and usage of the house.

The building has a duplex plan view that general living area takes place in the middle floor, guest room and crypt/storage areas in the ground floor, and office in the top floor with attic closets in horizontal plane. Main situation that make the plan view special is mud room, known better by people interested in agriculture and workshop. This room has been located by creating a second entrance from the living room as a pre-cleaning space. As the users prefer dealing with the most of the maintenances related to the house themselves, they required a free workshop area, and accordingly after using this space they need a mud room again for entering the living room. Sod room is especially located at the point where the land has a maximum slope, so that both to enter/exit to the floors without stairs is possible, and also a dark crypt is formed automatically from the section for keeping the agricultural products and stocking wine. On this wise, the terraces without stairs behave as balconies automatically. As the Weather conditions around the building region are hard to be snowy for 3 months in a year, South facades tried to be evaluated as living spaces in maximum. This situation described the location of the kitchen section in the living room and the bedroom. As all the activities except from guests’ usage will be realized in the middle floors, the eaves are kept short especially and so that entrance of daylight through the building is tried be maximized.

It is possible to divide the scenarios about energy consumption into 3 due to construction and usage of the sod house. First title is being the construction element to be hay bale, which means constructive applications. During baling process except from the energy used for pressing process, it is a determinant situation for structural scenario that the material’s effect toward nature is zero. Not losing its quality, its condition of not getting dehumidified of the hay bale affects the other construction elements it is connected with and connection details. Because of not causing bleeding (getting the hay wet) of the construction system during temperature differences, wood is preferred. For the water coming from the ground, the ground concrete applied on bridge floor will be covered with water proof material, and timber saddles will be placed. As hay bale cannot carry the ground load in the basement floor which is partially under the ground, all main construction system and outer walls are designed in concrete. So, the first floor where hay bale application realized and has a main construction system in wood, and the attic rise on a box made of concrete. According to us, this decision is the healthiest one due to isolation and static resistance of the building. Second scenario affecting the building related to energy consumption is the decision of top of the building and finishing materials. Main applications are covering the hay bales with grained mud plaster and covering the roof cladding with titanium alloy zinc plates having high recycling potential. The extraordinary decision is using high density floor coverings on the regions exposed to daylight for the purpose of storing the light temperature on the ground, caused by the daylight entering through the building all day long. In this respect, simulations are realized due to the shadow movements in the building by the help of a 3 dimensional program, and plans are prepared according to the path formed. When you enter the living room, it is possible to see the floor covering line based on parquet strips and cement separating from each other with a curvilinear line because of the reasons mentioned above.

A workshop/collective work culture is present abroad due to sod house construction culture. The users of the sod house were interested in this culture for the same reason. They have attended the workshops organized during the construction of their friends’ sod houses, and experienced this event. Besides the guests coming from Australia, office staff also contributes to the process of the Sod House Project, and experience this event personally.