Stretching Material

I got some timber offcuts from placemakers and found some relatively stretchy material to stretch around them.  I started off by making differently shaped combinations with the planks and then stretching the fabric around and pinning it down:

This was surprisingly hard to do without disrupting the arrangement of the timber, which is definitely something to consider for my design. 

I then decided to light it from within which I think created the most effective images:

I thought about hanging the timber within the fabric to maximize the stretching which actually worked:

The feedback I got from this idea was much more positive than the train tunnel/bridge idea and I need to develop it with my previous concept in mind.

Changing it up a bit

I decided to change my site to the train track bridge that passes over The Strand.  I wanted the rib like structure to incase the tracks, creating a tunnel for the train to go through and beneath the tracks a pedestrian bridge.  I thought this could then be wrapped in fabric to crate interesting light shapes as the train passes through at speed.

Here is my augmented drawing of the bridge:

Upon speaking to the tutors however, they preferred the previous design and site as this one is too reliant on the train and my other design is much more interesting.  Padma had suggested I explore the idea of stretching the fabric completely around different shapes and seeing the effects so I will discuss the results of this in the next post.The feedback I got from this was what 

Addressing the previous design in second life

The brief for this fortnights design is to take our gathering office space and adapt it so it gifts itself in some way.  The brief suggested an “exhibition space” as if our office had been in operation for 15 years and we wanted to exhibit our work for the public.  The idea was to adapt the space so it would display our history in such a way that would make the public passionate about architecture and the work presented. 

Our first task was to take our second life building and in a technique modeled by the artist… augment it on to our site. 

Here are images of my augmented drawings:

With the “marquee” 

Without the “marquee”

Our second task was to look further at our previous building design and do an augmented sketch with possible proposed changes.

Here is my sketch:

I wanted to order the space better and make the rib like structure more apparent.  I’ve done this by creating “levels” of flat floors instead of one floor that attempts to follow the terrain, as was the case in second life.

An Invented Word

My invented word is a combination of   and  and reflects my

The Idea of Gifting

The idea that I presented to my group was the idea of a gift from the past, demonstrated by the website futureme.org which involves sending yourself an email and setting a date for it to arrive in the future.  It’s in some ways a virtual time capsule. 

I was trying to think about this idea in terms of architecture, but really, all architecture is in essence a gift from the past, to remind us of who used to be here and why.  In this way I thought this perhaps made the idea too literal but I still think this is something to consider while developing my design ideas.

Matrix

I left my matrix at home today :(  Tragic times.  So i'll be scanning it for later tonight, apologies Judy and Ian if you're reading this.








Blog Reviews:

Here are the students I reviewed:

Richard:
http://archdesigntwo.blogspot.com/2011/09/christo-and-jeanne-claude.html?showComment=1316413133502#c427146657123053236

Overall

Overall I feel my building was relatively successful.  I made my doors and creating some seats to encourage socialising in the interactive areas. 

The view from above

Within the space, including sculpted chairs

Inside Sarah's space

Looking down through my space

The floor

The floor v2.0

Without the marquee

Creating the floor

More of the floor

Adapting my sculptie to the landscape

I decided to utilise the curved nature of the sculptie I had and use it to shape the floor of my building according to the topography of the ground.  It doesn't look as good as I thought it would and I possibly should've considered a different way of arranging them.  The prim limitations meant that I wasn't really able to complete the flooring as i would've liked.  Despite this the topography is represented.

THE MARQUE-E-E-E

I created my marque shape in 3Ds max and then applied it to my design, I feel it works fairly well but I possibly could've refined the shape further.  i made it symmetrical which differs from the absolute symmetrical nature of the Millennium Dome but I was focusing on the idea of coverage as opposed to the geometric ideas and I feel the shape I made is more appropriate for the concept.

Here it is:

If I get time I would like to create some kind of opaque pattern underneath the skin to reflect back to my first project that explored patterns created by variations in opacity levels.  unfortunately due to minimal prim numbers this may not be a possibility.

in response to my most recent project which explored the use of social space in relation to food,  I feel this is present in the spaces between the office area that encourage social interaction, and fruit trees or eating areas could be introduced to further reinforce this.

Chris' Space

I created Chris' space to reflect the attitude of the music he likes produce.  The graffiti flooring is a point of interest in the space and also links his part of the building to Elena's.

I need to now focus on doors and thoroughfares to ensure each space can be closed off for privacy.

My space

I wanted my space to allow a variety of social interaction so I designed it to curve up the hill and open out to two different areas.  I don't particularly like the shape as I feel like it resonates a little of some kind of fossil...
http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=fossil+trilobite&um=1&hl=en&biw=1333&bih=674&tbm=isch&tbnid=49nYDwkpKngZhM:&imgrefurl=http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/mar/06/fossils-evolution&docid=Uc19JtMaYEOesM&w=460&h=350&ei=6e5wTrmoKoKeiAfplPWgBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=563&vpy=164&dur=447&hovh=156&hovw=230&tx=112&ty=63&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=229&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0 Perhaps??

In retrospect I would like to make the exterior shape flow with the exterior to create more cohesion and better form.

Coming back to my matrix building

To continue with this project i'm going to arrange "pod-like" forms that encourage interaction and then have this space covered by a sculptie marquee, reflective of the Millenium Dome.  I'm going to draw on the idea of coverage and how this cover will pull relatively separate spaces together as a whole and make for a more interactive, flexible environment.  I'm going to work with the topography and use my original sculptie (The Curved shape) to create floors, walls and ceilings for my pods.

Sarah's Space

Being an Engineer I thought Sarah would want a logical, functional space so I attempted this as well as giving her the room with the best outlook. The way her room is designed leads it to have the most interaction with my space as we coincide well together and think in similar ways.  The shape of my area promotes transgression through space and thus further interaction with Elena, being the other architect and Bob and Chris.

I am planning to change the materials to be more fitting but this gives a basic idea of the function of the space and how it fits into the topography. 

Bob's Space

I've started making Bob's space, really thinking about the use of light in terms of photography and how that could be adjusted. I wanted one wall to be adjustable to let in certain amounts of light and I also wanted to include a dark room. I experimented with a couple of different ways of monitoring light as can be seen here:

I also included a dark room with a working red light for developing photos

View from outside of the space

More on Elena's space

I have added a skate ramp and worked out the wall shapes for Elena's office area now. I feel like the skate ramps could be multifunctional and lift up to include storage underneath.  I need to incorporate a desk for working which would be large enough for functionality but possibly be able to be packed away to change the space and make t more flexible.  I made an offset for the flooring and found a picture of graffiti for the skate ramp, to add colour which i suited to Elena's personality.  I adjusted the flooring based on the topography of the land surrounding.

Taking my sculptie and working with it

After a change of site I decided to take the wall sculptie I made and work with it in more interesting ways. I figured I would start making each individual space, appropriate to each of my colleagues, using the curved wall shape as a commonality to create cohesion between spaces.

I started with Elena's office space.  She's very passionate about rock climbing so I wanted to incorporate a small climbing wall into her area.  By changing the curvature of the walls I can create a variety of interesting shapes which i'll be able to utilise across my design.  Here are some images of Elena's area so far.

Implicating my design idea

I created the spinning rooms in second life and tested the script.  the idea worked well but there was nothing really dynamic or interesting about the design.

The 'spinning' rooms

I did some trading with Sam and got these arches, that change colour when an avatar walks through them,.  he took my elevator from last semester so that was cool. This is only a temporary place for them and this image offers a better view of what my design is at the moment

The rooms need more individuality to really accommodate each of my colleagues and they need something to make them more interesting.  As Judy said it's just a "5 pointed star" and needs more experimentation.  Nonetheless here is an image of the same shade sculptie I looked at before placed over the model, in reference to the Millennium Dome.

As can be seen I have built this on a platform which doesn't consider the context.  I think I need to choose a place in second life that reflects the real life site I chose.  The shade sail may be a too literal as an interpretation of the millennium dome and I should look at the purpose and intentions of the dome as well as the physical attributes.

Exploring different ideas

I wanted to look into how I would work the thoroughfares within the building so I designed this 5 way area that would allow access between the various rooms. I created the shape on 3Ds max.  Unfortunately, because I am retarded I didn't take any snapshots of it.  Hopefully it's still there and I can update this later.

Ok I found images of the piece:

During the mid semester crit I got the feedback to really think about the idea of spinning and using that to change the space.  I created these 'real life' models of spinning rooms that could change the interaction between different people as well as allow for private spaces.

Here are images of the model I quickly made to test the idea. I figure the rooms could spin as if to create separate spaces, if say two or three of the people wanted a private meeting, or alternatively each room could spin away from the center to completely privatise their space.

Applying my sculptie to second life

I have done a very basic sketch of what I envisage my design looking like at this stage.  The neighbouring buildings are extremely large so I made them partial in order to not occupy excessive space.

This is a wide extended view of my preliminary design in the space.  I think I may have scaled the neighbouring buildings slightly wrong as there should be more space between them.  For this purpose however I feel the idea is well illustrated enough.

This image is my avatar standing within the form looking out.

Next 3Ds Max idea

I've created this sail like structure that would be constructed with PTFE-coated glass fibre fabric (same as the millennium dome) and would cover the top of the building. I would have it slightly transparent and have parts opaque to create interesting light patterns.

The Patterns would be based on my lazercutting project, with the idea of branches and shadows.

Site

I have chosen my site where my group's 1:100 model was located.  I want to position it between two existing buildings where there is a far amount of space.

My design proposal would be located between these two buildings.

There is a fairly large space between these two buildings.  The building on the left is a storage facility and the building on the right is a car repair shop.

Colleague Profiles

Here are some brief descriptions of the colleagues I'd choose to work with:

Sarah:

Studying Engineering and Science, passionate about the environment and the outdoors.  Sarah has a quirky personality and she's interested in colour and dynamic and fun spaces.  Sarah would need a workshop to design and build that would be not only practical and functional but also youthful and exciting. Incorporation of the outdoors into the interior space is also something she would like considered.




Bob:

Studying fine arts at Elam, Bob is passionate about photography and design. He would expect an aesthetically pleasing space that would be ideal for taking and editing photos.  The room would need to be filled with light but also allow him to control the light coming into the space for certain photographic situations.






Elena:

Elena is studying Architecture but is passionate about rock climbing and other sports like skiing, skate boarding and surfing.  She would need a large space that would encourage physical activity but would also allow for an environment that would be comfortable to work in. This would need to be open plan and let in a lot of light.





Chris:

Chris is studying Architecture and is musically oriented. He would like a space that would allow him to play and produce music whilst also providing inspiration for design concepts. He would like somewhere to store his guitars and a good computer desk but also a large drawing board to work on non digital projects.








I feel like this group of people working together would create a positive and dynamic environment.  For me i'd like a space that could be private but also allow socializing, let in lots of light and give the impression of space. I'd like a large desk and good storage.

Matrix Research

My matrix building is the 'Millennium Dome' in London. It is made predominantly of plastic and the main feature of it acts (in a way)  as a giant tent over the main building. I think it would definitely be interesting to explore this idea and consider a plastic exterior for my design.  I like the structure as it's very horizontal and really utilises contemporary materials and methods of construction.

Learning about tensile structures in Tech, it'd be interesting to apply some of that information to my design, using the same plastic that is used in this dome. I assume that this building is a tensile structure, which makes it physically interesting, as I imagine all the support comes from the top of the poles.  Given the shear scale of the building that suggests it was a highly engineered design.

Trading day

We had a 'trading day' today of reactive architecture in Second life.  What ended up happening however, was an impromptu crit of our "reactive architecture" as we all needed to ground our ideas and create something more appropriate for the brief. My slide thing didn't work as I hoped it would,  I can't work out how to get objects to rotate in the ways I want them to.  Frustration Station.  The idea was to have a door that when touched, became a ramp/slide, something like a glorified drawbridge.  But the sculptie wouldn't move in the ways I hoped, so effectively, I gave up.  I adjusted the initial shape and made it hollower, to become something you could be inside.  I came up with this shape and included stairs to a platform.  The idea was that the large walnut like thing would rotate around an avatar standing on the platform when touched.  While it didn't rotate as I thought it would (Shocker) it rotated in quite an interesting way.

Here are some images of what I produced:

The stairs and walnut shaped form

Within the shape after a rotation

Further immersion in the shape

See above

I wasn't too clear on what we were supposed to be doing and it showed.  Judy recommended refining the shape and having a movable 'landscape' by using an extremely large prim. I might look into this but I don't feel I was really focusing on the task at hand with this piece and I need to reassess my angle.

Considering ideas for my Gathering Project

I have decided to base my colleagues on some of my engineering friends, if they were to start a firm in the future. The friends I have selected are all quirky, enthusiastic and enjoy the outdoors.  I want to capture a youthful spirit within my building and allow for a variety of activities that would enable dynamic uses of the space.

To start with I looked at playing around in 3Ds max and making different shapes that I could use for my reactive architecture piece.

The Bowl 

Experimenting with 3Ds max

Creating a shape that I could use for a piece of reactive architecture

The beginnings of the "yoyo" form

I thought the "yoyo"  idea could be interesting as a sculptie in second life that could b used to open a threshold but it didn't really provide me with the effect I was expecting.

I reassessed my shape and thought about a skateboard ramp or a slide that could be opened and then walked/ridden/slid across, kindof like a glorified "drawbridge."