I have the rare privilege to design and build my own space as an architect. This blog series will capture the entire process - victories, failures and everything in between - as I design and build my own compact family home - 'THE NEST'.

Designing your own home or space to live in - this is a phenomenon that occurs maybe once, very rarely in an architect's entire career & lifetime. So I need not go into the sentiments behind the space an architect designs for him / her self - to put it very simply - it's a very emotional and intense process.
I am fortunate enough to have one such space that I am both the architect and *one of* the clients for. This project commenced construction in March this year. Yes, I know, terrible time to commence construction with the economic degradation in Sri Lanka, but this is the timeline that came to be when we finalized everything in order to get started with the build.I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and I love a challenge!
The Nest, as the project is titled, cannot be described or outlined in one *or several* blog posts. This projects was initially conceived as an idea back in early 2018. The idea of a co-live residence for a family of 3 sisters - one of whom is Natty, my wife.
The space has been in the making for several years and has seen many iterations. There is probably something in this process for everyone to learn from / relate to *including myself*, so I decided it will be interesting to share the entire process of design and the ongoing project construction progress up until completion in a series of weekly posts. *Architecture nerds assemble!*
As this will make the most sense as two separate ongoing segments, my plan is to structure it as :
1. An Architect's Family Home - THE NEST - A Curated Construction Series
An ongoing series of posts that will outline the construction progress as closely as possible.
All the victories and failures that will be experienced as The Nest slowly materializes into reality. Detailed site visits, problem solving, cost cutting, budgeting, additions and exclusions that will make up the final result will be curated in this series titled 'THE NEST - CONSTRUCTION -'
2. An Architect's Family Home - THE NEST - Design Process Series
A ongoing curated walk through of the several years of design that went into this house. The many detailed explorations of space that finally culminated in the project on site will be shared in this series of posts focused on the design process of architecture from idea to realization and will be titled 'THE NEST - DESIGN PROCESS -'
I would love to hear your comments on this. Is this content that interests you ? Let me know in the comments section below
Here's a quick glimpse of the project as a basic visualization vs. as it stands today on the site.

The above image captures a view of the shared living areas inside the house. The shared spaces are designed as small habitable pockets inside a garden *more on that in the future posts*. On the right is the spine wall that separates the shared spaces from the private rooms which are designed to be almost self contained living pods *I know! I'm super excited about this too!*.

The image above shows the site as it was on my last visit a few days earlier. The foundation of the private rooms has been completed and the steel work for the floor foundation beams have been all tied up. The plot is deceptively small and most of the design is focused on making it feel larger than it is. Did it work ? Well you will find out at the same time as I do when more of the design reveals itself through the actual construction.
That's it for now, have a great weekend.
Cheers my friends !

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Peace . Love and Architecture
Your Everyday Architect
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