Cloud Jumper_ Project 'Refine'

For the final studio project, Refine, when first introduced to the assignment I found it extremely daunting as I had never before constructed a physical model to the scale required - especially as an individual. Initially, as I contemplated over what section of my DDI design I should endeavour to construct, my thoughts were overcome with a variety of fears such as how I should best assemble this, will I have enough time to achieve that, and similarly which materials would be most appropriate for the task at hand. One particular concern that lingered above all others was that earlier during the semester I distinctly remembered my lecturer warning me, that if our final design fails to stand like a real building should, then unfortunately without doubt that student will have not satisfied the unit prerequisites. Hence, as I continued to contemplate over the most appropriate section to select for this project, the distressing thought that my model would crumble upon the day of presentation loomed in my mind….

After considerable forethought entwined with a desire to be daring, I decided that I would attempt to model an aspect of my design that clearly demonstrated that I had experimented with the architectural play of roof forms in previous design work. Not only did my chosen area demonstrate an appreciation for a unique roof form, but similarly for the DDI presentation earlier I had failed to clearly communicate the architectural expression of my design, an experience that continued to disappoint me. Ideally, through the construction of this model I was hoping to shed new light on my design in a manner that would with luck, allow my peers to similarly enjoy my design concept. The following sketch is the initiate example of what I intended to model for the Refine project at a 1:20 scale.






In hindsight reflecting back over the project though the refine model was without doubt the most exhaustive project I have so far done in my tertiary career, I still feel that despite the numerous imperfections the end product was a tremendous success, especially in parallel to the initial sketch proposal. As a consequence of choosing to construct a physical model I feel that I am now better prepared to tackle future model making tasks, particularly in terms of estimating the quantity of resources and time need in order to construct a successful model. In the beginning when I first set out to estimate the quantity and cost of materials involved, similarly the time I would need to assemble each section, I had severely under resourced many aspects of the project – a learning experience that endingly left me with many sleepless nights and a serve budget blow-out. Though I am extremely content with the final product as it was an extremely rewarding feeling to acknowledge that my model had not collapsed on the day of presentation, if given a similar project in the near future I would most likely opt to construct a digital model as the quantity of resources involved in a project of this scale was incredibly burdening for a single person. I think that the erection of a physical model to the scale that I had attempted to construct would have been more appropriate not as an individual exercise but with a partner in crime.

In comparison to the neat work presented to us by the University of Stuttgart, though I have no professional experience as either an architect or mentor, I felt that the architectural vibrancy and excitement of my student peers is exceptionally good in comparison. On the day of presentation for the refine project, I was considerably overwhelmed by many of the works on display, as some of the design concepts were incredibly creative, such as Koli’s subterranean habitation, Raymond’s shelving unit, Phil’s perspective sketches and Andy’s DDI model as well as many others.
On a final note, I would just like to add that I have really enjoyed this semester as the projects set have given me an excellent opportunity to really excel my architectural skills on a variety of levels and though I am desperately keen to enjoy the summer break, similarly yet, I am somewhat excited to see what challenges await us in the coming studio year….

Auditorium - 'refine'

Really enjoyed the final and farely informal presentations on Tuesday for 'Refine'. Everybody's work looked great, whilst a notion and feeling of interior spaces could be seen in most presentations, this part was really exciting for me. I still would have liked more time to journey through the magic of photoshop but time not allowing I endevour to allocate more time to this section of the presentation process in the future.

The whole semester was extremely rigorous in format with constant work needed and required for all stages of all 4 projects. But it appears that I have survived.... I hope everyone has a great summer..... regards Bill

Project 03: “Refine(d)”

Project 03: “Refine(d)”

It is done. I am proud to be one of the members of the 2008 4B contingent. Together we created such a huge amount of thoughtful and crafted work where seeing all three projects together, for each individual, has helped me understand our positive development as a collective.

Today was a very enjoyable day. I especially welcomed the structure of our formal / informal – review / critique / reflection. It was calm and insightful and it presented and helped to answer many questions and issues which I have been considering throughout the semester – The main one being a question of how best to represent and communicate an architectural idea (light and materiality in particular) through testing and proving the validity and purpose of design decisions with modeling. The necessarily rigid deadlines of this unit created tight timeframes, both in the group work and individually, which demanded that ideas be tested as soon as they were conceived. Time was of the essence and indecision, even hesitation (distinct from ‘pausing’) would immediately result in a lost opportunity.

My favorite part of Architecture 4B was the large amount of time that we were given to actually build physical objects and large models. I believe that most importantly this allowed room for mistakes to be made and I took this as an opportunity to explore materials and mediums which I have not previously worked with. I now feel as comfortable with knife, jigsaw, wood, glue, plaster, and toxic fumes as I do with the computer, drawing board, and written word.

The culmination of these risks and efforts is encapsulated by the one image; “Detail @ Night – 9PM” (posted above). It contains, fuses, and blurs together the architectural representations of my drawings and models, and together they manifest, abstract, and communicate the sense of place and activity that has driven the conception and development of my DDI architectural contribution, The Well-Being Centre. I consider what I presented today for Project 03 as being one of my proudest accomplishments. This is not necessarily for what is on display, but for all of the thought, learning, mistakes, and enthusiasm that backs it up. It has shown me the possible, teased me with the superfluous and impractical, and most importantly it has given me the confidence to capitalize on my potential to generate and build architecture.

Refine

The area I have selected to refine focuses on the atrium/vertical area of transport and studio space, which is the corespace within my building. This section consists of concrete waffle slabs (approx 350mm thick) with reinforced concrete columns of approx 350 x 350 wide. The selected area also consists of a section of the facade that faces south which is very important to the function of the building (ie. allowing as much diffuse light as possible)

The comparision between the aspects of light in the atrium and studio space is very interesting. Within the studio space the main aim is to allow as much diffuse light as possible, whereas the atrium space focuses on reflecting light entering from the north. By reflecting light in the atrium allows the occupants to experience the shift in lighting which will give a sense on time and location. The two images below aims at achieving this objective. The image on the left is taken at noon during summer and the right is during winter.

You can see from the images that the lighting quality in the atrium is different to the studio space which is to the right of the images. In the atrium a screen is used on the northern side (top left of the image) which reflects light within the space.

Another element to focus on for this project is materiality within the space. As my deakin design institute is the SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN it would be most appropriate to use materials to reflect to reflect the function and purpose of the space. To allow as much light from the south means a curtain walling system can be used and within the space metal sheeting will be used which illustrates a man made material. The image below aims at illustrating the lighting and material properties of the space.

Cloud Jumper_INTERVAL PROJECT_Jewellery Box

The interval project for me has so far been one of the most exciting projects this semester. When first introduced to the assignment I was exceptionally keen to immediately hop into the thick of things, because it was the prefect opportunity to produce a successful item of furniture. Where this particular project differed from past generic studio assignments, was that here through this project everyone had the opportunity to physically see their 2-dimensional idea come to life as a 3-dimensional material object. Initially, though I was tremendously excited about creating a unique item of furniture, an object that of course I would be able to take home, display and utilise, the requirement that each student had to use either the laser-cutter and/ or router to create this masterpiece presented me with great unease, particularly as I was not to familiar with the technology at the time. Luckily however, as works progressed and I continued to refine my design idea, with the parallel support of my colleagues I was able to document a 2-dimensional idea that the machinery would be able to produce with ease.

At first, after researching articles of furniture that had been designed by many of the world’s most famous historic architects, I was enticed to create a dynamic sunlounge chair, an item of furniture that would sit flawlessly in the back garden during a lovely summer even. Unfortunately, after sharing my idea with an experienced furniture maker, I decided to abort the thought of designing a sunlounge chair for a more timid object due to concerns that the size, availability of time and the material requirements would all hinder the success of the project. After frantically searching for a new concept I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a book on Victorian antiques which propelled me to design a jewellery box. I thought the design of a jewellery box would be the prefect concept for my interval project, because not only does a jewellery box serve great purpose in a school dedicated to fashion, but more importantly through this idea I would have the opportunity to explore the qualities of light, colour and form - characteristics that are so significant to the enjoyment of architecture. The preceding sketches are examples of my development work for both the initial sunlounge chair and then the desired jewellery box that I set out to physically build.


In hindsight, looking back over the semester I feel that this has been one of my most successful projects up to date. For me, the choice of colour, the variance of scale and its built composure have all come together to formulate an aesthetically pleasing jewellery box. Functionally however, my item of furniture needs further improvement as the jewellery box draws will tend to slide haphazardly when either pulling the draws in or out, as I had not considered the need for internal side guild rails during product design. Overall aside from the draw defect, I am still very pleased that I had the opportunity to take part in this type of project, because by simply taking a conceptional idea and then striving to successfully assemble a 3-dimensional standing object is an extremely rewarding feeling…especially when it will be a real building.

Test drive...'getting used to photoshop CS3' & outlining project goals.

The model is made up of components. Each one of these has its own structure. Then, the skin that attaches itself to this structure and the texture that provides depending the skin's chosen materiality. The seating for the auditorium for instance is made up of a 'Irwin Marquee' style theatre seat, bolted to a 300mm hollow beam that mounts as a combination to the timber auditorium levels that increase in height every 200mm. The timber stair to the right side increases every 100mm. To give that easy rise we are familiar with in an auditorium.

I plan to construct a storyboard in the form of a poster that examins through images the stages of construction for this building. The stages are as follows:

1 - concrete slab, slab reo 2 - load bearing concrete panels, wall additions 3 - concrete columns
4 - conrete bearers 5 - suspend slab, slab reo 6 - stairwells 7 - first floor skeleton (foyer) 8 - second floor skeleton (foyer) 9 - roof structure (foyer) 10 - roof structure (auditorium) 11 - full rendered model - then lighting sequences.

By using gradient tool, dropping shadows and adding texture to certain parts of an image I can start to understand the magic photoshop CS3 can create for images that would otherwise appear 'plastic' or 'texturally sterile'. My model has now advanced since this stage depicting most component for the concrete skeleton and going into further detail for interior components.
9am

12pm

5pm

SUPERSTRUCTURE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION

SUPERSTRUCTURE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION:

With much relief I can announce that the substructure has now been cast in casting plaster. It is still damp – 3 days after striking the formwork, but it is solid. For the past few days I have been working from the in-situ concrete frame of the superstructure to refine the roof design. The roof integrates its structure (truss) with a south-orientated clerestory (saw-tooth) which has integrated ‘evacuated’ tubes on its north (behind glazing to increase efficiency and to provide protection from the elements).

Today I cut and ripped the concrete structure (90x45 pine), used the laser-cutter to produce all of the required glazing (over 0.5 sq. meters) and amassed materials with which to construct the roof. Tomorrow it continues…