Good luck!

Good luck this week! I'll leave you all with this before presentations....


It's been fun! 

You're friend,


from the future...




2F4U

So after last weeks critiques, I found myself facing a couple of problems that I need to resolve.

MIRACLE MILE

A problem which i discovered only at the crits was how my building met with the miracle mile.

As we began to design our Culinary Art Academy, we originally had the entire site to work with. I have originally proposed a green/outdoor space on the east side of our current side, in the middle of our original site. And thus my floor plates on the east end were curvaceous, intended to create a more welcoming, and a less rectilinear, monolithic mass. However, since our site has been cropped significantly, It seems as though the hope for a green/outdoor space on the east side is also severed. So...I have since, rearranged my floor plates to meet the property line on the east facade, and the north-east facade. (Somehow, I'm still skeptical about this motion) However, It does remove the "awkward" rooms with walls that meet a curved wall. I have also figured out how my right fire escapes into the ground floor/parking lot. Below are the sketches of the new 3rd and 4th floor respectively.

Structure.

Majority of the buildings vertical structure will be concentrated on the east portion of the building. I propose three derrick model vertical towers (which will be the fire escapes) that will support the roof truss which the pods will be hanging off of. Other steel columns will help reinforce this and support the lower floors.

Facade Structure

- The Facade will be supported structurally by vertical tubular steel and horizontal ____(blanked out on the term)

There are still several issues that I still have to tend to.

But here's a quick blog on my resolutions.

Check-in

I thought I'd post up a bit of the progress I've made over the last few days...

First of all, the glazing system.  I've got most of the script done for the glazing triangulation, the cable truss system, spider connections and the exterior shading mesh.  It's clear in the images below that I still need to resolve the edge conditions of the glazing, the edges of my script are a bit tricky... (you know what I'm talking about Tony).  Also, obviously, the large vertical 3D trusses are absent in the render, I've got the script for those done but I haven't integrated the two together yet (so that all the edges match up nicely).

You really don't get a sense of the triangulated glazing here at all.  I'm thinking that I'll add a thin line between each triangle to exaggerate the effect. 

Screenshots:

 The ragged edges of the glazing will get stitched up once I add the trusses that will border the vertical edges of the this strip (and the other ones...)

 The other thing missing here is the horizontal HSS braces for the glazing at each floor plate, and maybe one intermediary brace as well..

I realize that it's a little hard to get a sense of the scale of things in these images.  That bit of a plane at the top right is the opaque roof and there should be two of the upper catwalks in this image as well.

I'm wondering if, in addition to the larger HSS braces, if there should be smaller, more frequent horizontal tension rods linking the vertical cable truss points.

Now, the service stack.  I've rendered a few views but bear in mind that the colours are not even close to final and the actual renders leave a lot to be desired as far as lighting, etc.  That said, currently the stack is comprised of six elements as well as a steel core.  Based on previous comments I think I'll be adding more services to it.  The way the horizontal pipes meet the stack looks unusual but I've designed it (or rather, the script) so that the pipes never collide with each other or the central structure.  This necessitated the the circular departures from the stack.  Though these might seem convoluted I think it's the best resolution I'm going to get for that bit.  The more I look at it though, the more I think that it really does need a few more pipes and that the vent pipe needs to be larger.

Both renders show and additional element that I've been playing with: using the pipes to differentiate spaces in the restaurant.  Since each pipe either begins or terminates at the mechanical room, a opportunity presented itself to use the transfers to the stack to form an overhead condition for some of the restaurant tables.  Right now it is a little sparse, but again adding more pipes will increase the density.  Also, some sort of (simple) structure will be needed and tat will also contribute to the density of the canopy (as I picture it).  The actual locations/paths of the pipes on their way to the stack is not final yet.

One other thing that is obvious in the first of the two renders is that I need to add restaurant furniture in before I render.  Of course this is normally something that I would add in photoshop afterwards but I doubt that I will be able to find a good restaurant image taken from above like that...  Still, I'm not looking forward to having to model all that detail.

Still to do:
3D trusses that support (and separate) the glazing and carry along the ceiling for roof support as well.  In the last render two of the splits in the roof are visible (just the cracks of light), those will be the paths of trusses, glazed above.
Also, I still need to bring the mesh into the restaurant to break up the space (as both wall and overhead conditions), as per my suggestions in my previous post.

One week to the deadline...

I have taken the input from my crit and have tried to fine tune some of my design decisions.

One of the biggest concerns with my design was that there was a huge disconnect between my building facade and the interior of my building. So I began to address that first by designing the form my interior teaching kitchens in both plan in section.

I tried to give it a more faceted form

The next step is to make the kitchens jagged on the interior similar to how the facade is to obtain the same language.

I have played withe the facade by peeling it away to provide access into the building.

Next...

The intent behind my project has been that cooking is a process.

A process is a series of actions taken to achieve a particular end.

I had began to alter the levels in my design with on of my teaching kitchen towers. When I began to develop my project I decided to step my floor plates as well to emphasize my design intent while also allowing for multiple views throughout my building.

My concern with this is how I am going to set up my floor plans as I will be having so many to illustrate what I am trying to do. And also sections will be able to explain this really well.

With this stepping I will be incorporating more circulation in my building, which i didn't have entirely set up.

Structure...

Because my facade is so busy and so way my structure I have decided to simply my structure like this....

Where the structure will follow the form of my facade, this will keep it less busy and simply and unify it.

Also in section I anticipate my structure looking this this...

I am going to be taking out the residence program in my building because I no longer feel its necessary.

I have made these changes to my design and now I have to refine the plans and week moving forward. Please let me know what think of the changes I have made.

Alternating floor plates....

Final touches

Before I head into full on production mode, there are a few things I wanted to post up for opinions.  First of all, I wanted to address the atrium wall to roof condition.  It's become apparent that carrying the somewhat bulbous glazed facade seamlessly through to a horizontal condition is not the best option, neither structurally nor visually.  Rather than have the atrium enjoy both a glazed wall and roof, I will be extending the "traditional" opaque roof further towards the street to meet the glazed facade.  as the two meet the opaque roof will begin to peel upwards.

This will accomplish a few things: Visually it will further the illusion that a force from within is distending the facade.  Functionally, it will block the high summer sun, while the peeling up at the edge will allow more winter rays.  Given this consideration, the mesh will thicken as it climbs higher on the facade, obscuring more summer sun.  I'm thinking that, since the roof will be achieving some large spans, that a simple spaceframe system might be the best structure (it'd be supported by the atrium service shaft structure).  Above the structure there would be a fairly typical roof arrangement.  This way, the structure would be visible from below, similar to the rest of the expressive structural elements in the building.  (Perhaps the spaceframe structure could even flow continuously into a few vertical supports... I'm not sure).

The glazing will be supported in much the same manner as before, with horizontal HSS members handling the majority of the loads at a rate of two or three per floor.  Those will be supported by four primary verticals that will span between the ground and the opaque roof.  The rest of the loads will be born vertically by a cable truss system.

Rather then the shading system staying at a depth of 200mm, this system will now vary in thickness throughout the facade, transitioning gradually to the same thickness of the roof overhang.  As I mentioned before, this is motivated by both the aesthetic and light control considerations.

The second issue, (which I have yet to draw) is an attempt to deal with the atrium floor: the restaurant seating.  Since no one enjoys an intimate dinner amongst an unbroken sea of tables I have had to think about how I will break up that space.  I've considered incorporating small changes in elevation within the space, a terracing of sorts.  The other technique available to me, given my shading system, is that I carry one or two "ribbons" of the mesh from the entrance and allow them to flow into and about the restaurant floor.  These "ribbons" of the mesh system can then divide the space, covering some sections and perhaps work in conjunction with the terracing I spoke of.

Since I already am employing the mesh in a sculptural gesture in the vertical cores, this language would not be out of place in the restaurant.

Finally, there is the issue of further resolving the expression of the kitchen related services.  Despite the discussion during my critique (and our fearless leader's distaste) I have not ruled out the use of colour as a method of organization for the various vents and pipes.  The other solution would be to look to the inherent differences in materiality of the conduits.  This way the distinction would be the difference between insulated and uninsulated water pipes, aluminium vents, waste water pipes and (most likely) braided flexible natural gas lines.  Either way, rather than surround these pipes with a structure like I had done for the interim submission, I will reverse the hierarchy and allow a single structural core to be surrounded by the pipes, highlighting their expression.  

On that note, I'll leave you all with a photo, created and photographed surreptitiously at the Mandalay Bay spa.

Crits

So yesterday we finished up presentations outlining our work thus far on the Culinary Institute, and we were lucky to have Steve Bondar from DSAI take a look at our work to talk about how we can further develop the project into fully articulated designs. Some of us and myself included spoke to overarching ideas and experiences that we are implementing with the design, but what we lacked was the exploration of the third dimension to fully articulate the ideas we were trying to convey.
Here's some quick sketches on the ideas that generated discussion in my presentation. At the top are some general experiences that I am trying to implement and how I can mesh my two large ideas; the direction and angling of views from within/outside the building, and the hydroponics culture.

We also discussed how the component and structural system I was planning on implementing could compliment the hydroponics element, and perhaps incorporate a horizontal element that could actually house the vegetation;
More to come as we move into final production!

Concepts Used Elsewhere

While perusing the Phaidon Atlas of 20th Century Architecture today in the Resource Center, I came across some interesting projects that shared similar concepts to what I'm envisioning my spaces to be like. One of the most prominent works was of Moshe Safdie with their Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum.
There is a atrium space that has a hovering form over the occupants, much like the way I see my atrium working with the hydroponics system, I envision the atrium itself to be a little more communal; which makes me think back to a ThreeTimesNielsen college project in Orestad.
Another aspect of the Safdie project that caught my eye was this image of crossing circulation;
This is an early idea I had for the 'slices' of my floor components that I previously mentioned whereas they could interlock with one another and create overlapping zones in the circulation. It reminded me of this image from the the atrium in the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics;

Here's an early sketch I had of these two ideas possible coming together;

On a side note, I was looking into this Shin Takamatsu project for an interesting atrium design spectacle, and I thought Liz could benefit from checking out the massive metal ball that hangs over the pool.
And lastly, I can't remember if Vince posted this project or one like it, but the Trutec Office Building in Seoul reminded me of something Mary was trying to achieve with their exterior facade.

Ant City

I came across this a while back...

I showed bonnie and she suggested I share it with everyon...

On That Note...

Here's a quick look at how the components for my facade system have been developing. As an initial exercise, this was an interesting experience as it allowed for the exploration of the specific component, and for me helped realize other design implications this could induce for my overall design concepts. Here is the overall concept for my components that will comprise portions of my facade. The idea is to generate thin slices within the building to help delineate views through the building from the exterior and other parts of the building. The lightweight cable truss system helps achieve the translucency, and the tempered glass compression struts allow for a transparent view into the space, while generating an interesting shadow condition in tandem with the cable system.

Here is the physical mock up of a typical 'slice' in the building system. The truss and spider components were 3D printed and the floor is comprised of a series of laser cut MDF laminated strips.

One of the interesting things that arose from the model exercise was the evolution of the floor system. It started to generate the same conversation I was having before about the permeability of different integrated components. The 6mm acrylic supporting structure on the interior portion of the physical model brought about some interesting contrasts between the slatted flooring, and I then started to explore the possible lighting and permeability it could have with the space and possibly other floors as well.
Ultimately this system could integrate itself in some other format for interior partitions, and perhaps act as a support system for the hydroponic element I previously discussed. The floor condition could also be interesting within the hydro 'core' as the programming within the middle will be relatively loose and flexible.

I'm going to document the lighting results with the physical model on a light table shortly, I'll update this post with the results!

R&Sie(n)

In a previous post, there were some good examples that showcased large scale green wall systems that were integrated in their respective designs. Good examples as they were, the intent of the hydroponic element in my building's central atrium will have a more intimate scale that will facilitate interaction. It will house a variety of species for farming and local production for classes; depending on exposure and location within the system.

To demonstrate the type of intimacy I'm looking for, there is a project in Paris done by a research and design firm called R&Sie(n) which is a think-tank of sorts that explores different aspects of research and development. Their project in Paris is a hydroponics facade system for a private laboratory, but any other information beyond that regarding the specific type of research is proprietary.

An example of how intimate the space could be for students both harvesting, researching and relaxing.

The glass bulbs are all hand blown to help bring light into the inverse side of the facade, which could be relevant for my design since the hydroponics system I intend on implementing is not just a single flat plane, but encompass a cylindrical shape for a greater level of interaction. They are also used for exploring bacterial culture within the system, but any other information other than that isn't really provided by the project description.

Also, I came across the Institut Du Monde Arabe by Jean Nouvel, I'm not sure if you have seen this Arash (probably have by this point), but it made me think of your design. There are a bunch of cool pictures of the system if you click on the link embedded in the nam of the project. Hope it helps!