Final Hand In for ARCHDES 101

Here are the final 12 pages I handed in. Please note that any gaps here show up as video files on the actual .pdf file- unfortunately they don't show up here. Basically we were supposed to show the projects we have worked on throughout the semester as well as giving a sense of our experience whilst working on these projects, which were completed together with my team mates, Andy and Manu :)

Plaster Casting Workshop

Here are images from the plaster casting workshop I attended. Working together with Karen from Morphix Design, I created a yin and yan symbol. This was great practice for design work.

City Plant Room Matrix

The City Hotel Matrix

Crit presentation writing: part 1, our concept and the journey

Our hotels act as an escape. Just like Holloway wishes to escape the Garden city in J.B. Ballard's Ultimate City, our hotels are a way for people to escape their day to day lives. Those who live in the city might see Auckland as a dystopia. Crowds of people make it impossible to move. Pollution permeates the landscape, asphyxiating it. Therefore, they might want to escape to what they view as an island utopia, an open space, free of congestion. On the other hand, island dwellers might see Waiheke as boring, and too open. They might feel the allure of the bright lights and excitement of the city, and find the fact that everyone knows their neighbour- and everything about their neighbour suffocating. Hence, they may wish to escape to the city, a place they view as a utopia.

In order to reach our dualistic sites, travellers must undertake a journey. A last barrier before reaching our utopian hotels. To do this, we have developed two vehicles to carry our travellers between Auckland harbour and Waiheke Island: a giant lantern, and a cable car. The jellyfish lantern is a way for the traveller to experience everything. Belted securely onto the lanterns tails, the traveller can not only fully see the journey they are undertaking, but also experience it. They will feel themselves moving in the wind and feel rain or sunshine on their faces. Whilst the Jellyfish lantern might be beautiful to look at from afar, it may be rather uncomfortable for the traveller. This is supposed to cause them to question their perceptions of utopias and dystopias: those travelling to Waiheke wished for open air, yet perhaps this is a bit too open. Those travelling to the city wished for excitement, yet the adrenaline rush accompanying the journey by lantern may be a bit much.

Similarly, the cable car is also a difficult way to travel. It is manually operated by pulling on two ropes which extend through the central pod and past two pulleys, which are the only aids the traveller has in making the movement of the cable car simpler. One must really want to escape to travel by cable car. Since traveling via cable car could take a long time, the cable car has stopping points at various islands along the way, and is also equipped with the bare necessities: food and water, and hammocks for sleeping in. This however, makes communal living within the pod the only option, and there is no privacy.

Therefore, by the time the travellers have actually reached our hotels, their concepts of what is utopian and what is dystopian may have been questioned.

Waiheke Plant Room Ponds

Our Waiheke plant room sits between the two parts of our hotel, and acts as a reception. As the initial point of contact for travellers with the hotel, it is also an initial space for them to take off their bags and relax. After the arduous journey to reach the hotels travellers are able to stick their feet into the pool below the Waiheke Plant room, and relax.

Times Square

The screens on the sides of the City hotel create a Times Square effect. In the space between the three 'towers' of the hotel, all the occupants can meet, creating a crowd experience in the centre of the hotel. Here the bright lights of the billboards and the noise of the other occupants is overwhelming, and very much city like.

The Mesh

Our city hotel (read about it on http://studiolimarchitecture.blogspot.co.nz) is enclosed by a very jagged appearing mesh. This is also useable space, yet since the mesh is so abstract, it becomes a kind of luck of the draw as to how much useable space you will get with your room.

Waiheke Hotel Matrix

Site Plans

Here are the site plans of our hotels, at 1:500.

Plant room and Honeycomb Stair Section

I added the honeycomb stairs to my remake of the plant room section.

Diagrams

In our most recent history lecture, we were shown some diagrams which Richard Meier is fond of drawing in order to explain his ideas. I'm sure that at this moment the whole class simultaneously thought 'our matrices!' because these look like exactly the sort of thing we're supposed to do. Hopefully having seen these will make my next matrix even better, since I have been quite unsure about them previously and we're getting so close to the end now!

Ladders

We considered having ladders leading up to our pods, adding a climbing element into our 'forest' of columns, but decided to develop some sort of circular stair/ ramp system instead as this would be more sophisticated.

Draft Review of ArchiBJZ

For their final workshop, ArchiBJZ had very little to show us. This was due to the fact that they had been concentrating more on work for another class. However, there were some very interesting moments in the two plant room models they did display.

Their city plant room juxtaposed an exquisite curving façade with a more rigid, triangulated enclosure. The model was not quite complete, with their connection methods not yet fully realised, but on the curving side they had rather elegant slender columns running through their curved mass. The pieces which made up this curving mass were numerous, laser cut from a mesh model. They decided that plants would either grow on the mesh or within it, and that the mass of this over all object also allowed it to be inhabited by humans, and are working on developing the mesh interiors as stairs, a concept we found quite original.

On the other hand, the enclosure on the other side of their city plant room was intended to contrast with the calming, curving mass, and act as a more hostile space. Small triangular pieces of semi transparent plastic were stuck together to form an enclosure. Originally, ArchiBJZ were intending on having these pieces laser cut as well, however they decided that they liked the opacity of their final material, as it would let in sunlight, vital for plant life, as well as cause a greater contrast between the more solid curving mass. We believe that this was quite a good decision and that the difference between both sides was more clear due to their decision. This side of their model was not yet fully complete complete, however, with their connection methods lacking in intricacy. Currently they are just stuck together with blu-tac, however ArchiBJZ informed us that they do intend to come up with a more elegant solution: drilling tiny holes into the sides of the plastic pieces and hence connecting them.

Similarly, ArchiBJZ's Waiheke plant room was also incomplete. They did, however, have a very interesting concept for what they finally wished it to be. Inspired by the 2011 Serpentine Gallery, ArchiBJZ had part of their plant room going underground. They wished to create a very interesting spatial experience on the interior through the use of light. The Waiheke plant room was constructed of multitudes of laser cut circles, all slightly moved to the side. This meant that the roof would be fully covered and that light would be able to filter through the gaps. They also intended this to give the building an over all sense of movement, with the sliding of the circles. The connection methods of this model are currently very poor, as these rings were held together with masking tape. However, ArchiBJZ did have the interesting idea of holding the rings together with one solid element to one side, which would create an undulating, curving wall. We hope to be able to see this when complete as this sounds like quite a sophisticated solution.

Both plant rooms had a strong relation to their respective hotels. Their city plant room was intended to be placed between two parts of their hotel components, acting as a bridge between them. Their Waiheke plant room actually was the hotel, with only the top few levels being occupied by plants. Over all, we believe that ArchiBJZ have some very interesting ideas and lots of potential, however they will really have to sit down and work in order to fully realise these before our final deadline in one week. We look forward to see what they produce.

The Organic Façade Matrix

I prefer my Honeycomb matrix to this one, to be honest. However unfortunately, after having had my laptop running non-stop with large programs for at least the last 6 days (...it could have been longer, to be honest... ^^; I'm a bit mean to my laptop.) CAD decided to stop responding just as I wanted to do this! D: But still, it turned out OK I think anyway... well we'll see, I may decide to redo it.

Transmaterial: ArchiCAD modelling

Clay renderings

Just some more clay renderings. These are so quick and easy!

Plant room section

 I decided to redo my plant room section for final hand in. This was done in Photoshop after cutting a section through the 3D model.

Kerkythea Clay Model Renderings

I've been looking at some of the tutorials on the blog I shared earlier, http://www.alexhogrefe.com/. Therefore I also decided to check out Kerkythea, a free rendering engine that he uses a lot http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/. I downloaded Kerkythea and attempted a simple clay render of our Waiheke inspired hotel model. Here are my initial results:

This is the actual rendered result.

Here is the rendered result with a bit of editing in photoshop, to further bring out shadows etc.

And here it is in a context done on Photoshop.

Draft Review of 44 Grey

Despite issues with Secondlife that were beyond their control, 44 Grey had a very impressive presentation that demonstrated just how much thought had been put into the details of their design. Their island hotel is intended to be a day spa made up of different microclimates, and had a very well considered interior. Their city hotel plays with the notions of privacy and publicity and considered the façade as a screen made up of many interactive pixels.

Rejuvenation was one of the main points of the island hotel. And internally focused day spa, the island hotel is made up of atriums with differing microclimate. The atriums in the centre of the hotel contain facilities, and none of the atriums contain windows to the outside- this is a very introspective design. Balconies lead between undulating atrium forms and the exterior, filling the voids between the atrium and the façade with useable space. The entrance is hidden: the bottom levels of the island hotel are flooded, and one enters the hotel via boat. This increases the overall privacy of the hotel These were the concepts that 44 Grey showed us, but they certainly hadn't been their only ones. 44 Grey had spent much time discussing their ideas and it showed. They had considered many things, from moving floors and the use of figures as both ornamentation and as structural elements; with figures acting like columns on their interior. The effort put into the idea behind this design was admirable and their outcome was beautifully elegant.

Their city hotel unfortunately didn't really show up on Secondlife due to issues with the server, yet it appeared to be well thought out as well. The city hotel has a massive façade with images covering it like a film strip. These images relate back to the treatment of the figure in Classicism, looking at Romantic paintings and the like. They also helped to portray one of the themes in the building, the thin line between privacy and publicity. When a light is turned on in the building, the image on the façade turns off, like a dying pixel. This means that whoever is in the room is now completely visible to the outside world. The plan of the rooms enhance this notion. Similar to designs by Le Corbusier, 44 Grey had a hallway on every 3rd floor, with rooms above and below this. These rooms have some double-height spaces, and the plan gives the occupant the ability to move on both sides of the building- the public and private sides. 44 Grey did express that they weren't yet entirely happy with the simple, box like shape of the design, but they do seem to have a lot of good concepts to work with. We are very much looking forward to see what they produce in the future.

Transmaterial: Rice Paper

Stop motion practice: The Apple Cult

A few friends of mine and I decided to practice making stop motion video, concentrating on having the motion perfectly in time with the backing track. I think that the result was quite good, although the video is perhaps a bit too long! We particularly like our bit at the end.

Producers:

Seth Delpachitra

Soha Gomaa

Ingrid Anna Schwalm-McEwan

With help from:

Ben McPherson (who spent ages carving out our apple perfectly! :) )

Oh yeah- and the music is Wankelmut's One Day

Screen idea

This was just a quick vector drawing off a screen idea. One of the main issues we had with out lantern was that even a slight breeze would not only make the paraffin very difficult to light, but would also cause the lantern to tilt more at this initial stage, which could cause it to combust. Hence we may want a screen around the lantern depots. This could be a sliding screen, so that the actual screen part could be moved depending on the direction of the wind on a particular day. 

Entrances

For the city inspired hotel, there are two main points of entrance, as defined by the vehicle landing spaces. The first is just on front of the Rush Hour stairs, which is the stopping point of the cable car. This allows people to experience the rush hour stairs and all that that entails. (http://architektia.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/an-escape-from-chaos.html)
The second point of entry is through the plant room at the roof of the hotel, where the lantern lands- this immediately gives the traveller a birds eye view of their surroundings, similar to what one would experience if on a high-rise building, admiring an exciting new area from above.

The Architectural Promenade

Since his time drawing in Athens, Le Corbusier had an idea of the architectural promenade- having to walk around a building first, admiring it, before being able to stand before it and understand it as a whole. (We learnt this in history! :))
We were intrigued with this idea, especially in relation to the cable car vehicle- the cable car vehicle is all about pushing the limits. Escaping with this vehicle is not meant to be an easy thing- you have to really want it. Therefore, if we don't allow it to stop at the front of the building it means the travellers would have to go just a little bit further before finally having escaped.
It also enhances the journey of the lantern- the lantern travels at a slow rate, forcing the traveler to experience everything; to really see what they are escaping from, and maybe considering whether this scenery is really dystopian at all. Having the lantern not land right at the entrance enhances this, since it means that upon disembarking, the travellers have another slow journey to go, a journey in which they also must experience everything; experiencing what it is like to finally arrive at their destination and allowing them to consider whether their destination is actually much better than what they left behind.
Hence we want both our cable car and lantern to stop at the back of our Waiheke inspired hotel.

McIntosh Timber Laminates Ltd

This Wednesday we our group (group C) went on a field trip to McIntosh Timber Laminates.

McIntosh Timber Laminates produce all sorts of structural elements; columns and beams etc. which they mostly import to building sites overseas.

We were all equipped with hi-viz vests, hard hats and wellington boots. By the time I got to the wellies, they didn't have many sizes left, so I ended up waddling around in one size 6

 The sort of cool stuff McIntosh Timber Laminates Ltd can construct. I can't get over how much they can bend the wood!

 This is where the magic happens!

 Some joints being created in the wood. These pieces will be shipped down to Christchurch for the earthquake recovery rebuild of the city.

Curved wood!