Aalto

Julia presented a lecture about 'Alvar and the Scandinavian Tradition', and I thought the idea of Aalto using both non orthogonal and orthogonal geometries in his work was very interesting. Seeing the image below, it reminded me of my own walls in my firm. The ceiling is in the Viipuri Public Library, Viipuri, Finland, and refracts sound waves towards students.

Other photographs of Alvar Aalto's work.

Baker House

Gifting

I have incorporated the idea of gifting through modifying the windows, to create a better experience when looking out from the inside. Also, I designed them with the site (noise, privacy) and the placement of the members in mind (for example, where drawing boards are placed, thin horizontal slats are used, so the draughtsman or whoever is not exposed to direct sunlight)

Mapping

Here I have mapped out where the projects of the people I critted are placed. It is interesting to see they are all in the same area - the vector area/ park site. 

Animation

http://www.youtube.com/user/dleenz#p/u/0/3qVZ00qotRg

I used a program where it took a screenshot every 10 seconds, and i uploaded it onto youtube.

Computers

Ahhh so annoying! The computer keeps rebooting so I have had to change computers at least 3 times per day!

Wednesday Crit

Talking to Judy was really helpful as I found out what aspects of my building worked and what didnt. The undulating wall  leaning on the 1:100 acted as a 'feature wall', so I will have to rework my building so it doesnt stand out too much.

Trading

The wall is made up of Annabel's sculptie that I have flattened and duplicated. In my plans for my previous workshop, I paced a shelf here, but Annabel's sculptie acts as a wall and also allows objects to be placed on to it.

Alpha channel

I made this alpha channel and used it as my texture for the roof. I was playing around trying to create an alpha channel where sunlight can penetrate through. However actually uploading it into second life I found it looks tacky and does not fit stylistically with my building. 

Wall

I manipulated the sculptie I traded with Bryton to create this undulating wall. Instead of a flat wall against the other building. When the light penetrates through the glass shaft it hits the wall and the wall bounces light in different difections.

Monday Desktop crit

This morning I talked to Ian about how my building is coming along.
The aspect I need to rework is somehow connecting the two floors more, because at the moment the only passage linking the two floors is the spiral stairs. So I have played on secondlife and quickly built and rebuilt different areas.

So originally this is what I had, however each floor is quite isolated from each other. Somehow I need to make it more 'open'.

Research

Contemporary Concrete House designed by Atelier ST



Concrete House -  Bernalte-León y Asociados, (Madrid-Spain)

Site

The undulating surface, under the light shaft manipulates light to penetrate deeper into the building. Sunlight hits the surface and bounces into the interior.

I chose my site on secondlife because it is extremely similar to my site in real life. In real life my building is situated in front of a patch of dense trees/bushes and in behind a busy street. To the side,  there is a flat area (parking area), where pedestrians use access the walkway that connects Beach Road and Symonds Street.

Sculptie/Scripting

I also traded with Bennett, as I wanted his multiple blocks that are scripted to move out then back into its original position again. Unfortunately the first time, I didn't receive the scripts that came with the blocks, however it turned out better because Bennett then explained how he made them and I tried it out myself. 
So the first sculptie is set so ; 'when i receive 'move'. it sets home to that position and moves up one meter and then waits 60 secs before going home again. I have 6 blocks altogether and each one has a different script. 

Sculpties

I played on 3ds max to try and make a something that would make people walking below hard to see up into the upper floor, but allow the photographer or whoever to still receive sunlight.

Research

I think this is a really interesting idea!

Building

Offset Textures

Gifting

The way I am changing my building to have an aspect of 'gifting', is to redesign the windows. When I think of the word gifting, the movement that comes into my head is 'outwards'. By changing the windows to suit the site, would be beneficial to the members of the firm, as it will decrease direct sunlight, which will increase work productivity.

The area facing the firm is quite loud as it is the main road, however the view is quite pleasant with the park directly in front. To the right is a flat area, the view has nothing special, and a few people walking past to go up the walkway. Behind the firm are trees/bushes.

Trading

I traded with Bryton, as I thought his flooring was one of the most interesting sculpties on the red carpet, as he hadn't designed a furnishing. However I could not manipulate it to change the width of the sculptie. Unfortunately Bryton cant remember how he made his sculptie!

So this is it, his "minized glowing curved floor", its scripted to keep glowing brighter, however I might take out the script when I use it in my firm. 

More sculpties

I started off with a sphere and moulded it to form a door handle however I made another sculptie because we had to make a architectural element not a furnishing.

So again I opened up a sphere, and made the part of wall in my building that is behind my kitchen bench (on the 2nd floor). This wall seperates the kitchen but also acts as an 'inspirational board', when the firm members want to discuss design matters.

I uploaded it onto Secondlife and made a script. What I made the script do is IF there is more than 1 avatar beside the wall (number of avatars nearby > 1) then it moves a 1m toward, a 1m up and it waits 60secs before going back to its original place.

I tried to

Gifting

http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_pilloton_teaching_design_for_change.html

So my gifting idea is the gift of teaching design. The video I chose is about a young designer named Emily Pilloton and a group called Project H which she founded. Emily and Project H work in Bertie County, North Carolina, which is the poorest and most rural state in the state, and they developed a "design-build" curriculum for high school kids, as their main approach is to design with not for.


So the kids assignments are oriented around things the community needs, such as bus shelters, home improvements for the elderly and an open air farmers market.


I think the contribution Emily and Project H are making, is such a great gift for the people of Bertie County, but even to people outside this town, as its a small step in the right direction for creating change in the future of design in rural communities.

Sculptie

This is my sculptie I made on 3ds Max. I created a low shelf that is on the 2nd floor beside the high bench with the sink. The top is flat so objects can be placed on top, and theres space on both sides to place paintbrushes, ink, paint etc.

I then uploaded it onto SecondLife

Gifting discussion

As a group we had a discussion about the idea of 'gifitng'. For the next two next,  our project is to keep with firm we designed for the animation workshop, but improve it, re edit, revisit it.
In the lecture we looked at one of Daniel Libeskind's building that incorporates screened off spaces, and of these soaring walll surfaces, they can project images on them. I think this is a good way of introducing the digital world. Seeing photos of the space at night vs day, the experience is quite different.

We were also told to choose a palette- of 3 colours and to map the people projects of people we critted.

Thursday Crit- Second Life

Malia West

http://taniawest.wordpress.com/

This weeks brief was about 'sustenance' and Tania back back to her Samoan roots, as this is a big part of her identity. Her design concept took inspiration from traditional samoan housing plans, thus the design of her building is open plan and decided to make the columns and beams visible. I particularly liked the how she blended "tradtional and contemporary". It was interesting to see weaving detailing beside very contemporary features, inspired by Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin (her matrix building). Tania explained how to get into the Jewish Museum, you have to go through another building, and she played with this idea, and disected her building through her neighbours. I thought this was an innovative idea, and this made me think about ways I could incorporate neighbouring architecture with my own, for my next project in SecondLife. 

Designing her own alpha channels and uploading it onto SecondLife was good to see, rather than the boring default ones. The plan of the building is not symmetrical at all, emphasied by the placement of the openings and thresholds. This helped make the architecture feel 'organic' and inviting- which is what I think of when I conjure up images of tradtional pacific housing. Overall I think Tania's design is a successful one.

Ziyi Liu (Bill) http://walkingsuperman.blogspot.com/ Bill grouped the members of his architectural firm, so a designer is paired with an architect.   Each pair gets one side of the building with a glass wall seperating the two areas. He stated he choose glass as the material, as he wanted the members of his firm to discuss ideas from across the room. I wonder if there needs to be a glass wall at all. What if all 4 members were placed in an open plan setting, so they could bounce design ideas off each other togethor? Bill had some fun scripts (however they did not work, which may have been because the computer was lagging?), and it would have been better if the round rib structure at the top was made with his own textures. His building looks well made, with a clean palette of 2 materials- concrete and glass. Maybe introducing a third material could have livened up the architecture? <><><> Yi Heng He (Damien) http://dhdesign2.tumblr.com/

Damien designed a building where when given commands, the walls expand out. He explained the purpose of this so during the daytime the building can effectively use the space, and at night for security reasons it becomes compact. He sited his building opposite the Les Mils gym a very busy area. Therefore he found a place of second life with existing structures on either side and wedged his building in between. The function of his building is for news broadcasting, and the central threshold acts as a place where information can travel through. It seems his building is mimicing the transitonal space of the new Ernst and Young building in Auckland city which the building his architecture is sited.



The rectilinear nature of the building, and the cubes that contract in and out, is reminicent of Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Centre in Cincinnati. Similarly both buildings are compact and solid. Damien's tip was to find scripts on 3greeneggs, fortunately I found this site last semester for Media 1 and was a great help. I could see Damien thought hard about the site and also how it could influence his design.

FINAL ANIMATION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jKZRQHP4H4

Animation

There is music with my video! so please turn on your speakers.
The music is 'Painted Sun in Abstract' - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txIN9ZsgIeU

First attempt

My first attempt at making a stop motion animation.

Carrying on

After doing some more sketches, I have made some changes.
I have placed my (architect) office space on the ground floor, (rather than the top) so it is easier to interact with the clients, as I will not have to be running up and down the stairs. I have removed the curvy cladding, and instead have tried to develop emphasing the rectilinear nature of the building- (from precedent material and past projects).

Inspiration

I looked up images of minimalist architecture and found this image. The front cube jutting out is similar to my design.

I am inspired by Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Center.

Dogan Media Center

Monday desktop crit

I had a one on one discussion with Julia about what I had done so far, and received helpful criticism.
1. Even though I have plan and side view drawings, sectional drawings were missing.
2. It would be good to someone combine the exhibition space and the meeting area, therefore when the architect or whoever is talking to clients they can also discuss what is exhibited without needing to walk out, and around.
3. Change who is on what level of the firm.

Sketches

The design I have of my architectural firm will most likely change after I see the tutors on Monday, but this is what I have so far. So as our topic is 'gathering'- I tried to combine ideas about the gathering of people in my firm (architect, architectural historian, draughtsman, landscaper and photographer), my past projects (waking and sustenance) and the piece of architecture from the matrix (Middleton Inn).
From the begining I chose to stick with my 1:100 site model site, so immediately just began to sketch out ideas of how my firm might be placed, whether it was hung, across 2 buildings, on top of a building etc. I remembered what Ghazel had told me about trying to find similar ideas my previous projects and found it was "protection" and "security". Also my 1:100 was kind of the same - showing external noise.
So I placed it beside my 1:100 building in the corner- and came up with a design that in a way blends with the surrounding buildings but also doesnt..
My building has rounded corners that contrast with sharp angles and curvaceous lines intersect straight ones. The undulating exterior surface is made from cement and wood, and both materials are moulded to create sinuous curves. My three main materials are concrete, wood and glass. - By using concrete I hope to link it visually with my 1:100 builiding.
When I went back to my site I really wanted to utilize the existing walkway. Therefore I designed my firm, so that the public can walk through part of the firm to get up the walkway but at the same time get an opportunity to see the work of the firms photographer- photographs of current project and research photos.
As one of my firm members has a thing for doors, I thought deeper into how I could integrate it with my idea of "security"- therefore the entrance is hidden. To the public it looks like another exterior feature. A threshold an be seen as a "the starting point of an experience, event, or venture" - so it starts in this long area which has a feeling of 'a gathering of people. - there is a big table for group discussions with clients, a table to sit, talk and eat.

Research

Door design, Katharina Feuer & Jons Messedat, daab, London, 2007

Although the form is not the same as my 'waking' design, it seems to have the same idea- modular areas that are half covered and half transparent. For people walking past outside it encourages curiousity.

The door design is unique in that it includes a window bay

The walls and the doors have a really 'rustic' feel to it, which I think is because of the contrast between the steel and the vines. (Which makes me think back to my first project and original materials I had chosen)

'Paletten Pavillion' - has used the materials in a very unconventional way.

Looked into doors that dont just swing out the 'normal' way. I was thinking of incorporating a door that swings up. Thus linking with the 'portable' idea of my sustenance project. However the doors above and below are another method, and have influenced my design.

Sketch

 I was out when I thought of an idea, so I quickly jotted it down on a piece of paper. - i have transferred it onto my A1 sheet.