Program Advancement

The most recent desk critique brought with it a few resolutions to design program, room layout, and overall building composition. We are still on the drawing board for additional complexity, checking to see if there are any places we can disrupt the symmetry to result in new and unexpected possibilities for enhanced spatial experience.

Lecture 07: Accessibility

Vivian Lee presented on Accessibility in Architecture. Her core focus centered on three topics;

+ CHOICE: Flexibility, options, and alternative means of use and/or interface.

+ PEOPLE: Nobody is excluded. Design should embody everyone in mind, incorporating the needs of the able, the elderly, the young, and the disabled.

+ THINGS: This includes spaces, products, information systems and any other objects/interfaces that people engage with in a space.

The building that most stuck out in my mind from her lecture was the Student Center in New York by Bernard Tschumi Architects. This building embodies similar characteristics to our current work in the studio by utilizing the handicap ramp for the entire structures movement and flow through space, keeping a fluidity to the design through demand. His methods of detailing this concept were truly inspiring.

Design Update

For the third crit we have been encouraged to move forward with more privatized spaces. These include small courtyards off of each living unit. The linear volumes stack in a skewed manor, weaving as they move towards the quarry.

The curvature can be resolved with tweaking the courtyards as to keep a consistent living unit, which is important for consistency and cost being a comprehensible studio. This will provide the facade with porosity, aiding in the aesthetics as well as the ventilation.

The concept in section created more excitement as water entered the form more dramatically, creating a better space within.

Intial Design Phase

The first six models at 1/32"=1' scale. We brainstormed and discussed possibilities on the site. It varies from transforming the idea of courtyard space (the typical typology for monastery) and the aggregate growing and expanding elements on the site, to that of manipulating the edge condition of the peninsula. In terms of the view (as the building will be situated on the bedrock projected out into the lake), each proposal suggests distinct strategies to maximize the opportunity of diverse viewing angles through bending, shifting and rotating the mass.

Study of layering strategies and programmatic responsiveness to day-lighting conditions.

Separation of program and utilization of edge condition to encourage hotel privacy and experience.

Study of maximizing spatial occupancy and the initial proposal of micro landscapes.

Linear study on edge condition and view maximization whilst garnering southern exposure.

Proposal of courtyard spaces (micro-landscapes) and the integration of a very historical monastic element.

Large courtyard and the initial phase of folded spaces to create a diverse layer of interaction and program.

Lecture 06: Site and Sustainability

Maigret's focus began on infrastructures in and around cities. She was primarily concerned with how to design around shifting water systems. The great lakes has an infrastructure that fails frequently in heavy rains, disrupting local ecologies with run-off and other forms of pollution.
An example of this issue in a visible and explorative format was the Green River project by Olafur Eliasson. He was interested in the kind of response a city would have to what appeared an abrupt and toxic change in their visible waterways. He poured a non-toxic green dye into the river as a catalyst to view a responding time frame and effort.

Her focus also included micro climates which support unique ecologies. Through design intervention unique scenarios become possible. These micro ecologies also exhibit themselves in the work of Patrick Blanc with his Green Wall Facades. In particular was the focus on Herzog & de Meuron's Caixa Forum, in Madrid, Spain. This facade goes through seasonal changes and adds a new dynamic as well as beneficial properties to the cityscape.

Ecosystem Urbana, also in Madrid, is has constructed several green space pavilions that create micro climates, reestablish landscapes, and provide communal spaces. This "Symbiote" project provides evaporative cooling for another beneficial element for both the plantings and the people.

[images courtesy of nemetonmagazine.net, adaptiveresue.net, and genetologisch-onderzoek.nl]

Precedent Study

"Great attention was given to the placing of the building volume, its proportions and relationship to both the Castell’s impressing monolith and the dynamics of the picturesque landscape. While corresponding to the volume inflection of the existing hotel, its façade relates to the soft flow of the topography with a transformation between open and enclosed balconies, structuring the entire building as tectonic formation of shifting horizontal strata.

The building is elongated in East-West direction, giving all apartments a southerly orientation and thus access to the main view. In order to capture the stunning panorama for each individual dwelling, the South façade is entirely glazed and affirming the building’s modernity in contrast to the adjacent Castell. The offset of open and enclosed balconies is protecting the interior from the intensive Engadin sun. Their materialization with a maze of metal panels adds roughness and texture, recalling the strong material presence of the alpine environment.

Considering each dwelling’s spatial and visual exposure towards the surrounding landscape, the floor plan layout of these high-standard apartments has been kept open and simple, allowing for a flexible arrangement of spaces around a fixed central core." - architonic.com

Lecture 05: Scheming

McMorrough's lecture looked at the phase of schematic design from an alternative, albeit, Dutch approach. Instead of just diagrams and data substantiating the design, examples were given of firms (predominately OMA from the lecturers personal experience) who utilize the book as a method of development. This provides a linear formation: the frame the idea and argument. According to Rem Koolhaas "Facts are facts. Design sometimes just needs to be design". Capturing the information is critical as is the conveyance. It is not neutral. There are options. People will see this.

Emphasis was placed on the point that "Design is the thought and logic with a goal and motion. A scenario is an option for a situation. We need to be clear on this; definitive and mobile.

A case study was expressed with OMA's Seattle Library. The text that was constructed exploring the notion of demand and the method of space utilization was represented in a very diagrammatic fashion with the written outline. It was surprising to see how the text, developed at a stage and by individuals very different from the structural and envelope designers, strongly influenced the later stage. A clear relation could be interpreted. It was interesting to see how the representation of the research, in the book format, was able to influence the final result.

[images courtesy of architectureinmedia.wordpress.com & wirednewyork.com]

Lecture 04: EuroGreen

Bicycle... Bicycle... I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle...



[image courtesy of wtsp.com]

Lecture 03: Typology

Professor Lars Graebner spoke on "typology". He specifically looked at housing units. The focus spanned everything from egress to daylighting (Lar's favorite) and ventilation. An example included Oscar Neimeyer's Altonaer Strasse (56-57). This facility had partitions that allowed for a central core to access two units. A promenade was in the building which provided cross connection. This allowed the number of elevators to be reduced and lower budget. Aalto was another example. His complex used a slab and tower combination. It had two entrances for central access. Each elevator reaches 5 units. Hallways were eliminated with this design decision.


A final example, although numerous cases were presented, was Lakeshore Drive by Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. This complex was a strong example of structural honesty, despite the criticism of Louis Kahn, and possessed a wonderful free plan (even if Mies designated furniture positions).

[images courtesy of bldgblog.blogspot.com & architectureweek.com]