Week 4: Masterplan 1.2

Group 1: Analysis of Master-plan 1.2:

The concept of last week was to have the ESD School as the forefront of the new design institutes. We depicted a footprint of a building with a zipper in the middle. This building was to house 2 university faculties within the same footprint.

· This idea still exists. The zipper is now replaced with a formal bender which now spans above the ‘old railway line’.

· The shape of the site for group 1 has grown larger and now represents a large ‘L’ shape within the overall DDI scheme.

· This ‘bender’, allows distribution and flow within the overall Deakin Design Institute. Provisions are now in place for bleeding points in and out of buildings. The space is wide enough to encourage social interaction.

· Group 1 has established levels that follow the natural slope of the Geelong Wedge. The slope of the site allows for different floor levels to be integrated within ‘the Bender’. In the case of Group 1 ‘The Bender’ is entered at Ground Floor from Gheirnghap St and follows all the way to Cunningham Pier.

· The buildings now envelope functions, facilities and all the student requirements for ESD School, Industrial Design School and the communal spaces that they share.

· The concept of ‘Configuration’ of spaces in regards to the ‘regularity of use’ has been adopted to assist in solving the layout of the DDI puzzle.

· Services such as lifts, toilets have been permutated and logically positioned to allow ease of construction and use.

· The 2 Basements: have been depicted within our sections. These 2 floors of car parking are to be formally positioned within the next submission. We have discussed it within our own group, but would like to discuss this issue involving all participants of this design, in regards to an appropriate entry and exit for this important facility. These large spaces also have the ability to house storage, cleaning and workshop facilities.

· Ground Floor: The ESD School has been crowned as a discipline that expands into each other school that makes up DDI. We have a large foyer for this building, to help depict this notion.

· A retail precinct has been utilised to activate areas of the site, where it could be described as ‘dead space’. These spaces now have attractions where people, university students or not will visit the site and use these services or purchase products offered. This expands financially viability.

· The junction formed by ‘The Bender’ and ‘Crossroad’ serves as a core through the centre, delivering students to their allocated classes or to the cafeteria or surrounding galleries/displays.
· On the other side of the Group 1 site we have a bold integration between the Fashion School and the Industrial Design School. The spaces formed by the Fashion School could be described as nooks and intimate spaces. These could be used for gardens and urban furniture, even bike racks.

· The conference hall on the Ground Floor is central to all Schools. It is also situated well in relation to the library. Accessed easily from Brougham St and Clare St.

· Vertical landscaping has been adopted as an ESD idea. It looks good, and also provides natural cooling and shade.

First Floor: Has an integration between lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, various staff offices, and research offices, administration offices and a resource centre. These spaces just mentioned are allocated for both schools. Pragmatic rules prove that the spaces should all be on the same level to allow smooth interaction of individuals between these purely academic spaces.

· The library introduced at ground floor, and appearing on every floor, is now ‘bled’ into this purely educational sector.

· An industrial design studio is introduced at the First Floor level. This studio has a void that spans to Level 3. Level 2 depicts an expansion of this studio onto a mezzanine. This ‘mezzanine’ studio connects to the ESD studio and has views of the bender, below. This same industrial design studio has another section on level 3 that has views onto the ESD studio below.

Level Two: Seems to further integrate both schools. The ESD School and Industrial Design School have a studio that actually connects within this level. Both schools have a combined cafeteria, large black-out space and computer labs. 4 student lounges can be found on this level. A garden terrace can be accessed on top of the conference/auditorium building.

· The ‘crossroad’ is used heavily at this level, allowing access along the opposite axis, and giving views to the bender below. The ‘crossroad’ allows bleeding points to the student lounges, displays, creating a massive flow from the southern computer labs and studios to the northern cafeteria and industrial design studio and computer lab. A large garden terrace can be accessed at this level of the site on top of the combined computer labs.

Level 3: The industrial design studio still continued at this level, with views onto the ESD studio below. A smaller black-out space is also utilized on level 3. There is a ramp that leads to another ‘studio mezzanine’ within the central part of the ESD building level 3, a garden terrace has been laid out parallel to this studio, which allocates a natural access to the ‘crossroad’....