Presentation / 2009 03 24

While preparing the presentation it was helpful editing the whole year's work only on four A1 sheets.

Unfortunetely the new sectional drawing was not very successful showing the 30m wide space as if it was like 2-3m wide. The images turned out to be very small on A1 too since it was the first time for me to use A1 size sheet for presentation. Also my obsession with the black and white presentation since the January Progress Review seems to start to really bore people too. Oh by the way these were A1 full colour prints, prepared in black and white!

Hi Aine,

I have posted the two projects I was talking about last week.
It is not so much about the effect of the facades as quality and effect of your fragment are good.
What I will try and test in the jury is the relation between the facade and the internal organisation of the building.
I.e. whether addressing the stacking of the internal volumes in relation to a more curvilinear facade as in Francois Roche project in Bangkok, or whether it should go beyond that.

sample of roof surface

It is just sample of my roof surface.

Basic sectional drawing

Blue colour will be a part of my fragment model with roof surface.

Sectional Drawings- for Artemis

Artemis- here are some sectional drawings describing depth, hierarchy and pockets of connective space



Lebbeus Woods- From War & Architecture





McDonald & Salter- Drawings



Alison & Peter Smithson- House of the Future

Fragment Test 2

Here is my second model experiment for the fragment project. The scale is at 1:3 of the final model I'll be making. The fragment is of the entering and exiting points into the building and the routes that would be taken from the ground floor to the first floor. The final model with have varied openings and closing to obscure and frame views within and out of the building. (This is not shown due to folded paper modeling). This will be done buy laser cutting airply into strips and notching it together in a systematic way. Let me know what you think, as I'm starting to model the final tonight in order to get a spot on the always busy lasercutting machine. Thanks, zach.

Upcoming events

There are a number of interesting events at the AA that may interest you:



Frank Barkow, Barkow Leibinger, lectures on 18.03.09 at the AA, from 18.00.



Cristina Diaz Moreno and Efren Garcia Grinda, from CERO9 lecture on 19.03.09 from 18.00.



Edgar Gonzalez, of Brisac Gonzalez, will form part of the jury panel for your end of term review which will be held on 24.03.09 in the South Jury Room, from 10.00.

Fragment Model

Drawing of the model

This model is to study the network of volume and void structure

Fragment Study / The Ramps

In 1:250 scale this quick fragment model explains the entrance to the public room when it is approached from the Fenchurch Street Station, Trinity Square direction.

While "the Balcony" level is allowing the user to wonder around, the lower walkway is letting a faster flow of people (business and local people) to walk towards their destination in an easier way.

The inbetween levels could be occupied by a gallery and a coffee shop.

By making people cross through the building (magenta coloured path) the user can be attracted to the food / supermarket level on the way home or work just like the way it happens in Tokyu Department Store.

The floorplates are there just to give you an idea about the scale, each floor is 3m distanced from each other and this is a diagram representing the performance of the building. The weird angles that would not let people walk is a temporary condition that should be ignored when these diagrams are read.

From the north, the building would frame the Tower of London, this frame could accommodate a lobby for the hotel and a transparent passage entrance towards the Tower Bridge and Tower of London.
So far I did my best to avoid using colors but to describe the layers of programmes I've been thinking to place in the building, I colour coded the section slices for you.

The light blue is the hotel, purple would be the leisure, restaurants and bars with a view of Tower Bridge and River Thames. Yellow is a gallery space and other public programmes like a food market, coffee place, newspaper kiosk and a souvenir shop. The gray planes are the varying ground levels around the building.

The London Underground (District Line) runs through the lower compartment of the building. Allowing shortcut exits towards the Tower Bridge and shorter platform crossing advantage in comparison to the existing station.

Fragment

Top View

Front View

Right View

Perspective View

Fragment of the project, walls connected creating different spatial qualities.

It brings confusion of realising the definition of the space, i.e. whether it is interior, exterior, void or solid etc.

Idea is to develop the project with this study of conceoptional fragment model

Obviously when it is applied to the site it will be less repeatable in size and shape.

Design Strategy / Formation

The existing elements on the site that requires a new way of organization are the walkway towards the Fenchurch Street Station, the London Underground exits and the programme that needs to place on the site: Hotel.
In order to appreciate the 3D nature of the site, the building does not respond to the urban tide in a linear way, the idea is to have three inhabitable tubes of space merging onto each other to create one urban element which could be potentially used as an urban corridore.
Where the building becomes the street, and the city flows through the building.

The lessons gathered from the Tokyu Department Store, Kyoto and Love Hotels seems to all be waiting for their moment to take place in such strategy. The technique of creation of a void from first term and the accumulation of varying amount of mass around it already gives a clue about how this building could be designed. Using the fade effect on the facade, this diagramatic model describes potential thickness of the inhabitable walls filled with programme.
The edge can dissapear and with the cutting angle exaggeration just like how it was in the study models I've made in the beggining of the year. This kind of edge would provide a viewing deck for the tourists to take photos, enjoy the Tower Bridge and panaromic London view.

The walkway is a very important arterier for the city which lets the pedastrians cross the Tower Bridge to the southern side of Thames without being obstructed by the traffic. It's also used by the tourists to access Tower of London from the Tower Hill London Underground Station.

This animation could explain the way the I have imagined so far how this project strategy can work within this formation.

The mesh shows potentially where the hotel rooms could be located, and the X marks show the direction of three locations for a vertical connection. The entrances from the north could be from a door and suddenly the visitor could find himself in the public space.

Since it rains quite often in London, this kind of semi-open spaces could really work.

Design Strategy / The Public Cube

a public square is;

- An open area at the meeting of two or more streets.
- Agora, a place of assembly for the people in ancient Greece.
- A town square is an open area commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings.

a public cube is;

- A semi-open area at the meeting of four or more streets.
- A town cube is an semi-open area commonly found in the heart of the modern metropolis used for community gatherings.

Fragment of a Journey- Workshop 06.03.09

Building fragment workshop assisted by Ricky Li and Ben Lee


Carrie developing rhino surface models of spatial fragments- later translated in paper models


Aine's unfolded Pepakura net awaiting fabrication


Joe working on fragment of unfolded intersecting spheres


YT fabricating layered landscape surfaces

sketch

Urban Tide (strategy)

Mapping

Kyoto (drainage)

Collage

Scissors

Stone

Paper

IDEAS

DAITOKUJI

COLLAGE