Dam House - Brandon Eck

THE DAM HOUSE

| ARCH 4020 | INDEPENDENT THESIS STUDIO

Professor WG Clark
Site: Waterways

University of Virginia SARC
SPRING 2016

DESCRIPTION
How do we design in active environments, specifically waterways, while exploiting their natural powers without harming the natural ecosystems? The Dam House is a single-family home that generates hydroelectric energy from any waterway: stream, creek, river, or ocean. The house promotes a dialogue of placement, whether it be sited alone or within a community along a waterway anywhere in the world.

The home clings to the edge of a waterway and diverts water into a retention pond where flowing water strikes multiple hydroelectric, cross-flow turbines, generating energy that is transmitted to the home’s battery supply, which in turns provides the home with sustainable and substantial power year around. The retention pond diversion from the main course of the waterway allows for the natural ecosystem within the waterway to be unaffected unlike traditional dams.

The Dam House’s residents enter the property over the churning water as it passes into the dam and further to the sluice channel. The home is laid out spatially so that the occupants are required to traverse outside in order to enter new programmatic spaces, in an effort to better connect the user to their natural environment.

Floor Plan

Cellar Plan

Floor Plan

Floor Plan

Screenshot Iterations

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 2

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 1

Rhino Model Screenshot - Iteration 1