Phase 04: Resolution

Phase 4 is called resolution, but it doesn't really feel that way.  I don't really have a design and I don't really know what I'm doing.  My project is now a massive wall that blocks out the train, and it has a garden on the interior.  Thus it became necessary to re-establish the edge conditions.  Train meets garden, garden meets train, or does it?  The wall, of sorts, is programatically sectioned off for food purposes, a train, and a store, but the garden's dialogue with the infrastructural nightmare of the train is far and away the most interesting condition.  Sidedrodromophobia, my new project title, is the fear of trains, and aptly references the position I take towards the train.

We had a mock final review on Monday, a test to see if our drawings and models speak for themselves.  Mine don't.  Well they do, but not well enough.  My board is littered with inconsistencies and gaping holes that don't explain process, but it was good enough, I suppose.  I also chose to insert quotes across my panel, segments of Robert Frost's "Mending Wall," as well as "a park is not an escape from the city, it is an escape in the city," a quote from Michael Van Valkenburgh, the principal architect at the firm I'll extern at this winter.  The firm is MVVA, a Cambridge based landscape firm known for their integration of architecture and engineering into their schemes.

Anyway, I'm not so sure I know where I stand in my design, and as the day of my final review approaches, the fact that I know nothing about how this works becomes more and more troubling.  We'll see what the future holds, though.  For now, I'll do my usual photo dump, but try to explain some of them more fully.

 

Childcare Center render in the morning

 

Interior render

 

Roof render

 

Day render

 

Interior Render

 

I tried using the 3D printing machines.  UVa names their after Wall-E and Eve.  

 

I didn't get it to work properly.

 

32nd scale model

 

32nd scale model

 

64th scale model with altered topography

 

8th scale model; table, tree, stairs, elevator detailing

 

Steel framing

 

8th scale model, corner detail

 

8th scale tree and framing

 

8th scale model, bird's eye

 

8th scale sketch model with bike ramp

 

8th scale sketch model, window system

 

Sketch of translucent concrete with train silhouette

Render of the space

 

Improperly scaled interior render

 

Sections through the site

 

Wall systems

 

Floor Schematics

 

Exterior render, train side

 

Exterior render, train apeture

 

Exterior render, walking on West Main St. towards the site

 

Program Diagram

 

Site Plan

That's all I have for now.  I squeezed in some studio time this morning, but tomorrow will break up my streak of 96 consecutive days in studio, but I'll keep my 130 consecutive days in studio while in Charlottesville streak.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Thanks for reading.

Calm Before the Storm

Long time no post

I was in the calm before the storm, and now the storm has reached.

I'll start by sharing with you a project I've been working on for my Building Integration class.  This is a comprehensive assignment  my precedent study, the childcare center.  A version of the document can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Qy0YHahdxfb05lR2JRQlIwRFU/edit?usp=sharing

Some warnings: this is not the final version I plan on handing in.  For copyright purposes, I've withheld the annotations and bibliography, since the rights belong to UVa (they use these assignments from the first year architecture students for their national accreditation process, thus I will just show a large portion).  There are spelling mistakes, but I think I've fixed them all at this point.

Additionally, I had a short review with a professor from the GSD on Friday, and as I've said, my project has changed quite a bit.  Here are some links that show my current state of design.  I've decided that the train is horrible and have built up a wall to block it out.  The pecan trees are now plum trees, as well. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Qy0YHahdxfN1NIQnpZdEpndE0/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Qy0YHahdxfbDQzWnBFZTBJRGs/edit?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3Qy0YHahdxfenFSZFJrdlYwR28/edit?usp=sharing

And lastly, here are some renders

Thanks for reading.

Solar Animations

Hi all,

Thought I'd briefly share some solar animations I've been working on.  In order they are animations of the sun during the winter solstice, vernal equinox, autumnal equinox, and summer solstice.

 

And for whatever reason I can't upload my last video, but you can watch it here:

https://vimeo.com/78935214

It's an interior animation of the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice (in that order).

If the videos don't work you can find those on the vimeo page as well.

Updates will probably be sporatic and brief and the real charette beings.

Thanks for reading.

Renderings

Just thought I'd share some renderings I did for one of my computer classes.  It's of the Childcare Center from earlier.  I made the model in Rhino and did the rendering in a program called VRay.

 

This is a view from the roof, looking down into the light well.  I used a white tinted concrete bump texture and three point lighting.

 

 

This is also the roof looking towards one of the light wells.  Again I used the same concrete and lighting settings.

 

Here is the entrance to the childcare center.  Same concrete, same lighting, but a displacement grass map and I used a glass texture as well for the windows, then added some reflection (you can't see too well in this rendering).

 

Overall view, same techniques, worst rendering by far

 

This is from a hallway on the second floor.  I used the same settings, but different lighting to make it more like an interior.

Thanks for reading.