Possible Studio Layout?

Aloha from Lava Land! My, interesting how things happen…after discussing all of the great info and help on this site with my wife, she mentioned she loves the idea of building a studio for me. Who would’ve thunk it! 8) In any case after chewing on this for a week or so, it occurred to me; since we had discussed building a new garage in the past anyway, what about building a three car garage structure with the studio located above? Since the current house is situated on a high point on the lot with a long, steep driveway, we could excavate the area in front of the house, build a two story garage/studio in the excavation, placing the studio level at approximately “ground level” of the existing house (making the equipment load in somewhat more managable.) :wink: Having said that, I was wondering if anyone has worked with the ICF product that Steve has mentioned, and would it be feasible in this application, given the extra weight of the studio above the garage? The proposed floor plan would run 42’ x 20’ overall, control room 19’ x 16’ x 10’, studio 16’ x 15’ x 10’. Any ideas on the construction, layout, orientation, concept? Thanks!

Had to do this one at a time... Here's the proposed floorplan.

Sounds like a GREAT Idea. when I was out with Usher back in 99 I stayed at his house for a week... In the Guest House which has a studio underneath it (not in a basement per se') So why not a Studio above a Garage.... go for it. :)

Thanks Bryan for the encouragement. I'm finding out that there's alot more to this design/construct/operate business than I thought. Challenging, but fulfilling. :shock: Here's another layout I've been considering. I'm hoping to draw on those that have gone before me to design a more efficient layout. :wink: Any suggestions? Thanks for looking!

Hi Kendale. I have done some small editing on your second plan. There are a three leaf between CR and Studio, why not put a window in the CR to studio? I also changed the door to Stairway as it should make it more easy to get the gear in and out the studio less corners to juggle around and less doors post to scratch knockels on. I think you should consider to mirror the layout to enter studio area first to reduce the long distance to carry gear. I understand that you have more plans ready to show??

Aloha Kaj, Thanks for your suggestions! You're right, I could use a window, eh? Cool. 8) I like the suggestion for the door as well. I'll head back to the drawing board and see about mirroring the floor plan. Thanks again!

Looks good Guy.

in addition to mirroring the plan horizontally you might also want to mirror it vertically so that the drain plumbing from the toilet and sink can go straight down the back wall of the garage rather than having be snaked around the garage door opening.

Like this?

Position is good, now just layout your angled walls in the live room. Where are the steps and how do you enter now????

Thanks for some direction Bryan. I think I'm begining to understand some of the control room treatments, but am not sure about the live room treatments. Would something like this work? Is there an accepted principle regarding the wall located across the control room window/sliding door (as in more absorbtion) and the wall facing the bathroom more "live" (as in slot resonator?) Thanks to all for your help.

You understand it better than you realize. Now repositioning the toilet put you into having people walk through the Live room to get to the studio. I hate that. I'd rotate the control room 180 degrees, and swap it's position and size with the live room so people have to go through the studio into the live room. Just makes it more comfortabel incase of a quick engineers bathroom run. :)

While you're planning, keep in mind that concrete weighs roughly 2 TONS per cubic yard - so if you're planning on ICF walls for inner walls as well, look carefully at downstairs support. If only the perimeter walls will be ICF, depending on soil type the 8" concrete ICF's will go at least 16 feet if I remember correctly, before needing a floor to tie them together. I'm still not sold on them though - I've yet to figure out what that 2-3" of foam is going to do when I add an inner frame and second leaf; seems like it might act as a third leaf, but I've not gotten solid answers yet. Might just go with surface-bonded hollow block, sand filled, instead. At least I know how to calculate that when adding gypsum inner wall leaf. Here's a link to some ICF stuff if you're interested - http://www.icfweb.com/

Thanks Bryan, Steve, Okay, this is where I think I need to ask for some help in figuring out access into the control room and toilet. Do we go through the rear wall bass trap or extend the stair landing out to access the side wall of the control room, or maybe something else? Any suggestons, please? :) Mahalo!

I see nothing wrong with the door towards the center of the rear control room wall. Just cover the door with material and leave the area above the door trapped. :)

Okay....how does this look?

This Maybe? sorry to come in late on this ;) cheers john

Thank you, John! The layout looks great and gained two rooms to boot! I think I'll run with this and start getting the other ducks in a row. Thank you, again.

i would have to say that John is a "pretty neat" studio designer..=) Great solution!