Week 10

1)

Expressive montage (click the photo for an enlarged image!)

2) The type of spaces I'm aiming to create are just relaxing places to be in, such as rooms with flowing water or white open-spaced areas with various panorama views of the landscape.  The types of use groups that would use my architecture as a place to relax and get away from any negative or daily worries would mostly mature older teenagers and young adults. The main colour scheme I'm sticking to is on the lighter spectrum of the colour wheel by using alot of pastel colours and different shades of white.

3) I'm using the power of an interactive web media creation with html and flash to challenge the design and representation of my architecture by allowing concepts of "free-flowing/fluidty" and "translucent spacial proportions"to be integrated into my design aswell.
Just a couple of examples and ideas that the web creation could provide for this assignment:

• The cover/opening page of the website will have a panoramic render of my design and the landscape that it sits on, with an animation that showcases my aspects of translucency and fluidity by perhaps fading-in the render and then once you click enter the background will have a translucent effect as to not over-shadow the information infront of it.
• I've thought about the "flowing" aspect of my design with the image  gallery having an infinity amount of loops when the mouse scrolls through the images, so it seems like it never ends which ties into my fluidity concept.
• Using flash would allow me to utilise animations to its full potential which I would not be able to do with just using a pdf and putting images in them. Animations such as fade in effects, transitions, colour changes and animations when you click a button etc. 
• I am planning to make a shoet CG video of my building, perhaps a short walkthrough through the building. The digital technique of incorporating a video in my website would further add onto its interactivity with its pause/play/skip/fast forward options.

The image below is what I drew up in studio about the layout of my website. 

Independent Task- Week 9

1) I have some updated sketches of the recent design that I had in mind

2) Just demonstrating through the screenshots below that I know how to embed an interactive 3d model into a pdf. The draft that I've embedded into the pdf file was my previous idea so  please don't mind this horridly incomplete model.

Created a new view

Normal View

Cross section

Week 9

Just clarifying that :
A retreat is somewhere that individuals go to relax and learn more about themselves by having some time to reflect on themselves and their lives.

 In studio I've discussed the following with my tutor:

• External environment:

The landscape should be integrated in the architecture too because of the concept of fluidity, so the architecture should flow into the landscape essentially creating one form. Integrating the landscape would also help with the notion of relaxing and 'getting away' from everyday life to come and relax in a retreat.

• Interior:

With fluidity and translucency being my concepts, the retreat should have a 'light' ambiance to the environment-thus, the interior should flow from indoors to outdoors. My interpretation of bringing a soft and light feel into the scene whilst incorporating my concepts in the design is to have windows throughout the building and perhaps a panoramic view of the outside. Also have materials that have some translucency to them, perhaps some light screens instead of walls to divide up the spaces.

• Finalising the prescribed additional representation:

My tutor was suggesting to create a short cg film to showcase my ideas clearly, so I'm taking a great leap of faith that I'll be able to lean how to video edit quite soon! So with the short film, I'm going to be embedding it into an "interactive web media creation with html and a combination of flash". 

Independant task- Week 7

1. 1)  A brief outline of Project 1 – What was your chosen architecture? What were the concepts unpacked in your concept model? 
2.  
3. For project 1 I made a digital concept model which drew inspiration from SANAA's Rolex Learning Center. I had an initial concept of of simplicity and free-flowingness, which I then developed into translucent spacial proportions and fluidity. 
4. I wanted to convey 'lightness' throughout the model. With my fluidity idea created a series of curved lined sequences at the base of my digital concept model to make an illusion of a fluid and light structure.

1. 2)  A visual analysis of 2x precedent studies as a pair – One from your Project 1 architect, another from an architect of your own choosing. How are they conceptually similar to Project 1? 

3)  A Design Proposal and Design Draft for Assignment 3 – List three specific building types and functions for your new design. How can they challenge the concepts and ideas you have looked at in

Project 1? Select one and begin a first design draft. 

1. 
   
   • A residential area/home with an intimate sort of setting.
   • A skyscraper-like building.
   • The last one that I could think is some kind of office building.
   • A fourth specific function for my building is a retreat centre (which my tutor suggested)

So I've re-finalised my function from a residential building to a retreat space for young teens/youth to relax and reflect. This choice of creating a retreat center would allow my concepts of  Fluidity and Translucence to follow through the concept design.

4)  A Short Description on your Prescribed Additional Representation – What is the relevance of the technology you have selected to the nature of your design? What kinds of techniques and processes would you use from this technology in order to engage with the design of your architectural solution?

The technology that I am going to use is Modo for rendering and some of the complex modelling with the curved and flowing features of my design, 3ds max will be used as my primary source of modelling, photoshop to edit the renderings. 
I was planning on making an Interactive web media creation with html and a combination of Flash but I'm still deciding as it has been suggested to me to produce a CG short film on my building. For now I am focusing on creating my design and completing the visualisation. 

Week 7

1) To finalise my choices for this upcoming assignment:
Both of my precedents are built, one is from my nominated architect from Project 1 (Teshima Art Museum by SANAA) and another one of my own choosing (Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia by Santiago Calatrava).

2) From my previous post I've outlined the ideas I had on what my building type would be my next assignment for which I was thinking having either:

• A residential area/home with an intimate sort of setting.
• A skyscraper-like building.
• The last one that I could think of that would suit my purposes is some kind of office building.

This week I've come to the decision that I wanted to have a smaller scale design compared to the architects that I've chosen. I wanted a private setting (which contrasts to both precedents with their buildings being open to the public), my final choice is creating a residential home. By creating a residential home, I am striving to achieve a sleek, and curvacious building by creating a very similar design concept to both SANAA and Santiago Calatrava's work.

3) My tutor and I were about how to implement my concepts into this next assignment, we concluded that the concepts I had were a bit more difficult to envision in a small residential building rather than large upscale projects such as the ones SANAA and Calatrava had built. So we're still in the process of figuring out what would best suit what I need to do in this upcoming assignment.

 4) With the design I'm trying to achieve, I'm thinking of extracting some ideas of a smooth flowing movement from each face of the building even will interior has to carry through the  Fluidity and Curvacious concept, I wanted to produce something quite unconventional much like SANAA's Teshima Art Museum. In addition, The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia by Santiago Calatrava showcases my ideas of fluidity and curvaceousness quite extravagantly as well as an unconventional design.

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia's structure flows continuously to the ground, seeming as the structure doesn't end.

The outer shell adopts this idea of sleek and curvaceous lines.

Even the stairs show continuity by its spiral design.

The front of the building has a 

Many of the levels have smooth flowing lines that seem to continue onto every corner and space.

I've made 4 sketches for this upcoming assignment. I've decided upon much deliberation that the fourth sketch idea is the one i'm going to follow through with. :)

Independent task- Week 6

In project one, my ideas and concepts were centered on SANAA's style and work that they had done with buildings and how they conceptually handled their ideas to conceive an elegantly curvaceous environment. 

Just running over my previous assignments in project 1 to reposition myself in terms on this new project:

From project 1 in assignment 1 I had two concepts:
Simplicity and Free-flowingness. 
The concept of simplicity comes from the effortlessness of SANA's buildings which envelopes a sense of softness and lightness with the use of a basic colour palette (see the New Museum of Contemporary Art). The free-flowing concept is derived from the curvaceous planes of the Multimedia Centre in Oogaki. 

From Project one Assignment 2 I had two concepts which were refined by the previous concepts in assignment 1:
Which were Translucent Spacial Proportions and fluidity.
Apart from refining these concepts based on my previous assignment, I had also adapted the two concepts from the Rolex Learning Center made by SANAA.

A separate building that  I chose by SANAA is the Teshima Art Museum. My other building that I'm choosing by a completely different architect is Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia by Santiago Calatrava.

Divergences + Convergences

References: 

SANAA, Teshima Art Museum:

http://www.thefoxisblack.com/2010/12/13/teshima-art-museum-by-ryue-nishizawa-and-rei-naito/

http://www.archdaily.com/151535/teshima-art-museum-photos-by-iwan-baan/

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/sejima_nishizawa/teshima-art-museum/teshima-art-museum.html

Julian Worrall "Teshima Art Museum," issue 093,  ICON, March 2011. 

Raymund Ryan, "Teshima Art Museum," Domus, Dec 2012.

Santiago Calatrava, Palau de les Arts:

http://www.flickriver.com/places/Spain/Valencia/Valenza/Camins+Al+Grao/

http://www.calatrava.com/#/Selected%20works/Architecture/Valencia%201?mode=english

Lefaivre, L, 2009. Santiago Calatrava. 1st ed. Milan: Milano : Motta architettura.
Tzonis, A, 2004. Santiago Calatrava: the complete works. New York: Rizzoli.

Three examples of buildings/functions what i wish to create in this next assignment could be:

• A residential area/home with an intimate sort of setting.
• A skyscraper-like building.
• The last one that I could think of that would suit my purposes is some kind of office building.