Monday 26: Today I was back in work placement, in person it was a really good happy, I was super happy to be back in. But anyway I had wanted to do work after work placement, and finish last week's journal post but I was too shattered to do any of it so that got pushed back to tomorrow. Tomorrow is also the day I'm supposed to have the plans for the laser cutting but that won't happen either. I don't even have a SketchUp model at this stage. I really think the best manner in which to go about this, is to create a 3D model in Sketchup and then dissect that so I can redraw the parts I need accurately and in scale. Otherwise I'd draw the net from my rough drawings and I think the end result would be bad, and wouldn't showcase what my design is. From this stage on I think it is important to play to my strengths, and my most obvious strength is Sketchup. I don't want to be wasting time with methods I'm not accustomed to, I think figuring out how to make a wood model will already be quite the task for me.
Zicatela House- Ludwig Godefroy Architecture (2015)
Tuesday 27: First thing done was the journal post from last week. I've actually been enjoying these journal post a lot more then I would have thought. I initially wasn't a fan of the idea, but it turns out to be a great tool to record all you have done, and in return that allows you to clearly understand your thought process and all of that. It's also a great place for me to reflect on my work, writing these journal entries means the thoughts are no longer just thoughts, writing them brings them to reality and therefore I have to act upon them, or at least there is a greater urgency to do so. Apart from the journal post I didn't get much done, I did choose my final design idea, it was the one I had favored since the beginning, but it was a tough choice to make nonetheless, I really liked the tree house idea. Even though that idea will not be developed further in this project, I'll be modelling it in Sketchup at some point after this project, just to see what it's like really.
Wednesday 28: In school for the morning again, I started making the Sketchup model for my square design. Surprisingly I got a lot done, in a short time frame, the basic modules are made, and the size of each room have been decided. There'll be two different size for the rooms for each level of the design. Each level will then be subdivided into a further two level, the level for the smaller rooms with shared kitchen/living, and the larger rooms that are fully equipped tiny homes. Sixteen 15m² rooms, eight 30m² rooms, two 49m² double heighted terraces and two 98m² kitchen living that will span 2 levels. Those will make up a "level" and all those rooms will be connected via a cross corridor. I think the size for the rooms are fair, ideally I want each room to have it's own bathroom/toilet and still enough floor space that the rooms don't feel overcrowded, which is why I have chosen to make the smaller rooms 3m² larger than the average student room. The 30m² rooms are also a fair size I think, the only addition to those rooms are a kitchen which shouldn't take that much space, students are not renowned cooks so the kitchens will reflect that. As for the kitchen/living it may seem too large, but you have to remember those spaces will be shared by 8 persons, due to the terraces, the kitchen/living are only in two of the buildings corners. I sized the shared spaces up because I want those spaces to encourage and nourish a community, the terraces for example may not be just restricted to the inhabitants, they can choose to have parties and invite people over, same goes for the kitchen/living. The idea behind this design is really to create a small community.
Lycée Sainte Marie- Georges Adilon (1976)
Thursday 29: Same old today, in school, just getting the model along. When modelling in Sketchup, I usually get a very fast start and get the basics of the model done with, but then new problems and details always pop up, and that's what I love, those small details that I didn't encounter when doing the rough sketches of the Lego models. For example yesterday I didn't take into account the walls thickness and so the rooms weren't really the right size after those walls were put in. So I enlarged them so the wall thickness were taken into account. The main focus at the moment is not the inside of the rooms. I want to have the bare building done so I can dissect it and turn it into a net for the laser cutter. Then I'll go back in and model the inside of the rooms, add the materials and all the rest.
Friday 30: Again still on the Sketchup model. I had quite a few oversights with this design. For example I have no ground floor, the first living level has to be raised, it cannot be on the ground floor; the design wouldn't work otherwise, yet I didn't think of designing that. Another oversight is staircases and elevators. Also don't have those in the design. Unfortunately people can't teleport to their level, nor can they jump high enough, it's a shame a bare central corridor would have been beautiful. So now I'll have to have those pierce the corridor, but if done well I think it could be a very distinct feature for the building. I also don't have a roof. I've been obsessed with my central corridor, but didn't think once that it would need to be covered, or I could have a compluvium, but the whole Roman house doesn't seem very fitting, getting soaked after you've entered your building isn't right. But to recap I have a few things that have come back to bite me, but they aren't things I can brush to the side, so I'm looking forward to incorporate them into the design.
Example of a compluvium, the cut out in the ceiling
Saturday 1 May: Today's focus was on the ground floor. I started of with a blank 31.6m square, that then developed to a level with a circular "meeting point" that sits in the middle of the cross corridors that have actually been turned into solid pillars that cut the room in 4. Those same pillars will be home for the lift staircase and launderettes. I strongly debated whether to have only two staircase, or two lifts or one of each. Looking back that was a stupid debate. Two lifts no staircase would meet my desire for symmetry but it would never be a thing because if the lift doesn't work then the building can no longer be used. Two staircase no lift would meet my desire for symmetry, but not the need of those with Bathmophobia or cows. But no a lift is an accessibility requirement. So it will be a lift and a staircase. Both will not be large, because they will pierce the whole height of the building, and I don't want something obtrusive, that's not how I imagined my corridors. Today I also finished up the ground level's facade, it has arches, with rotating panels, so that the building can be fully closed, and the walls flushed , but when open it creates a clear distinction of spaces, and adds variety to the building's design.
Example of the rotating panels
Cows, fluffy blow-dried cows to be precise
Sunday 2: I managed to finish up the lift and staircase. I stole the lift design from Richard Roger's Lloyd Building, those lifts look so cool, they're also a very slick design, which is perfect for my design. I recreated it in Sketchup, but did take a wall away, so I don't know how realistic the lift really is and whether it could actually work, but because I don't have a clear answer, and saw Richard's one work perfectly I'll have to assume it would work. The staircase is a circular one, I imagine if you lived on like the 8th floor and chose to take the stairs, you would be pretty dizzy after reaching the top. A common theme that can be seen throughout the design is the use of pure form, the rooms are square, the corridor is created in the negative space of four triangles. This same concept is used with all the added details, for example the staircase started as a circle, the arched surface, were an arc at first, an arc by definition being part of a circle's circumference. The same three pure forms (and the rectangle) can be found at the inception of any of the buildings form. Now maybe if you look hard enough you can argue otherwise, but what cannot be argued against is the intentions, and the intentions is to have the whole building's form stem from those three shapes, and the rectangle.
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