open space – SaveOld2StTree.org

Interview with Bruce Cheatham our Tiny House Design Winner

Posted on January 18, 2019Leave a comment

Bruce Cheatham of Cheatham Drafting and Design our Winner of our Tiny Home Design contest was nice enough to sit down with SaveOld2StTree and share some of his story.

Bruce sharing holding a sample from the winning design

Bruce and his partner from college Paige Jimenez work together at Cheatham Drafting and Design to produce some very creative works that can be seen at their website https://cheathamdrafting.wixsite.com/global

So here is our interview:

SaveOld2ndStTree: Bruce how old are you?
Bruce: 25

SaveOld2ndStTree: Bruce please share with us your education in Architecture?
Bruce: I have been interested in Architecture since attending high school at William Tennent High School. Drafting for 9 years in high school, college and after college. He went to Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster PA and studied Architectural Drafting where he met Paige Jimenez.

SaveOld2ndStTree: What made you take up drafting?
Bruce: While in High School an older brother of a friend brought home some drawing work and he really like the idea of drawing.

SaveOld2ndStTree: How did you hear about the contest?
Bruce: I saw the Facebook ad.

SaveOld2ndStTree: What made you want to participate in the contest?
Bruce: I love doing Tiny Home Concepts. And I recently did a concept for someone on a property st 19th and Ridge.

SaveOld2ndStTree: How many projects have you worked in the past?
Bruce: 5 or 6 during 2018. With two years of designing for house flipper, bathrooms and decks.

SaveOld2ndStTree: What are your hobbies?
Bruce: Golfing and drafting. His hobbies are his commercial endeavors: construction, drafting, concepts, real-estate,etc.
SaveOld2ndStTree opinion- Bruce is a real go getter and hard worker

SaveOld2ndStTree: How can people contact you for working together?
Bruce:
Email (CheathamDrafting@gmail.com),
Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BCheatham013),
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bruce_cheatham/),
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-cheatham/) and
his website (
https://cheathamdrafting.wixsite.com/global ) .

SaveOld2ndStTree: What are you looking for in the future?
Bruce: Moving back into Philly. I spend most of my time in Philly when I’m not home. I’m currently looking at developing a 1/2 Block property. My older brother has a construction company and maybe we will team up on future projects.

SaveOld2ndStTree: What did you like most about your design?
Bruce:

The Floating Stairs – with options for creating storage as with small houses storage is always and issue

3D rendering of the tiny house design showing floating stairs and roof changes

single closet storage available

1st Floor design with storage below stairs and a mechanical storage location in back

2nd Floor design with closet and variable levels making the house interesting with balcony

the Juliette style balcony for light inside and so it looks good from the outside

3D View with Juliette Balcony and Front entrance

Fun of designing with different pitched roofing

3D design showing different roof pitches plus sun lights. This is so Cool!

SaveOld2ndStTree: What do you think of some of the box architecture designs popping up around Philadelphia?
Bruce: Not a big fan. I’m not liking the fake extensions from the house designs, where they don’t use that space for something. They are just facades that add no functional use to the resident.

So we used Bruce’s design as a part of our Philadelphia Zoning Board hearing. Our statement to the Board “I could see myself Living in this House! It is really Cool.”

Again this was a Great Design! Thank you Bruce.

Just a few windows and a small open space changes everything.

Posted on August 28, 2017Leave a comment

We wanted to share the impact even an small bit of open space has on the inside of a tiny home. The original developer proposal only had windows in the front because they wanted 100% coverage. Such a design in our opinion and our experience in one of own rooms, creates a cave effect and the circulation inside the house is so difficult to create. By just adding a small piece of open space to the design creates so much light and openness inside the house also.

Outside Front view 2-Story with L-Shape Open Space

Rear view including the L-Shaped Open Space

1st Floor View from door straight to back

3D Rendering of Impacts on Light without Open Space

Posted on August 12, 2017Leave a comment

I’m so surprised that the Philly ZBA does not require this for all new developments. It was so easy to create. The new tech is awesome. We created a few 3D renderings of the developer’s proposed design of a 3 floor building without open space and then two designs with a small L-shape open space in a 3 floor and then a 2 floor design. We used www.SketchUp.com a free product for 30 days that also allows you to drop the rendering into Google Earth to get the appropriate shadows through out the year. Then we used Flashbackrecorder to record the rotating and changing of time through the year.

The first video is of the 3 story version proposed by the developer. Notice the size in comparison to the house on Manton Street and the garage behind. The recording and shadows are based on August 30th at about 10:52am for an accurate comparison.

The next video is the 2 story Tiny house that is more appropriate for older residents and people that just want a ting house with a little open space to store trash, bicycles, barbecue or enjoy our giant tree. Look at the sight lines in the back of the houses. Just a little bit of open space just 2 to 3 ft just changes everything.

The next video is a capture of the shadow changes for the 3 story no open space design. What I did was start early in the year and then vary the hours in the day. After I cycled through the day I then would pick another day a month or two later and cycle through the hours of the day. I repeated this throughout a standard year. This is important because the Sun’s angle changes throughout the year and you have to look at more than one day for a good comparison.

Then the same 3 story concept with the small L-Shape open space. The sight lines and openness really is present even with just a small bit of open space and variation from a plain vanilla box design.

Now here is the same L-shape open space but in a 2 story design. It is so much better than the 3 story design. Plus because of building codes for PA, US and international the house can never be more than a one bedroom. Who wants to travel up 3 flights of stairs to go to the bathroom?

Lastly we create a comparison video of all three designs at the same day and time August 30th at 10:52am.