Noshahr Cottage

I have designed a cottage in Noshahr, Iran.

I had a contract from a company for a research about architecture on the Caspian Sea in the year 2003 therefore I knew the architecture in this region and decided to build a holiday house there.
The traditional house consists of 3 rooms. They lie side by side in the East-West direction. The rooms in the sides are for stay and the room in the middle is for circulation and some times as a joining room.
The building site is located near the city of Noshahr, and is rectangular with 10 meters width and 30 meters length in the north-south direction. There for a rectangular plan was logical. The car park lies on the south and the yard is on the north of the house. The house has 1.5 floors and a single pitch roof. The lowest height of the house is on the yard side.
The plan of the house has three rooms on the ground floor like traditional houses. But here the rooms lie in north-south direction. In between the rooms are big glass doors. The East and West elevation have less and small windows. Because the rain in this region is very strong and comes from the west side. The entrance lies in the middle room and has a canopy roof. The canopy roof is the bath of the house. The middle room has all the functions except the entrance, for example the lavatory, kitchen, the stairs to the top floor, dinning and terminal. The north room is big and has a high height. It is the summer stay. The winter room is the south room which is small with a low height and has a fireplace. Here is the winter room. Both of the rooms have large Windows. The summer room is big, because in the summer there are lots of people in the house, and has a high height, so the warm air can reach the top room. There is an opening in the highest part of the south wall. The bad air can go from there to the top room and then out side. Moreover if the windows and glass doors are open, there comes a draught. This is good for hot days of the year. There is a terrace on the north side of the house, in the yard for stay in the summer. The yard and this terrace are in the back side of the house and have a private atmosphere. The use of the house in the winter is for a few days. There for a central heating is not suitable. Because the central heating needs time to warm up. But if the fireplace is on in the small room, the winter room warms up very fast. After the winter room is warm, the glass door between this room and the middle room can open and the other room becomes warm slowly. In spite of it the house has the central heating for necessary days and times. There is a solar protection over the window on the south elevation for hot days in the summer.
The top floor is a stay room and suitable as a bedroom or a library of the house. The bathroom is in this room and is with ledge which is a canopy roof for entrance. There is a balcony on the south side for stay in the winter in the outside. This balcony is on the other side necessary for summer, because it is deep enough, that the sun can not rise into the room. And at last this balcony is an important in traditional architecture element for this region.
All of the rooms are rectangular and suitable for every design and interior designs.

The house is built with pre-packed concrete and has no temperature isolation. Because the weather in this region is often mild. The construction of the roof is with beams from wood. The roof is temperature isolated and the last finishing is with corrugated iron.