Possible Interior

Here is a possible interior for our Waiheke inspired, city site hotel. We thought of having rooms grouped together in hexagonal pods, linking the interior of our hotel to our honeycomb stairs. These hexagonal pods also form columns, so we could have more than one within the hotel, with space in between them that could be used for other things. Since hexagons have diagonal walls you cannot see into them properly unless you are standing at a certain angle. This means that these rooms will be both open and private at the same time. The pods are made up of two hexagons, a smaller one within a larger one. The smaller hexagon contains a bathroom area whereas the outside larger hotel is the room itself. We still need to consider how many we want, what scale we want them at, and how they would be linked both to each other, the façade of the hotel, and the ground.

Diagonal walls

One of the aspects that I found very interesting from our earlier research was the concept of communal living vs. isolation. Hotels have rooms in very close proximity, yet they still have a sense of privacy. For our Waiheke inspired, city site hotel, we want to keep the open atmosphere of the over all hotel whilst still having a sense of privacy. This communal, open yet private living space also links back to J.B. Ballard's novella, Ultimate City, since the teenagers in the Garden City are sent away to live together. 

Therefore, I have been looking at diagonal walls, which can create privacy without the use of doors. Having diagonal walls in our hotel is something I would like to consider.

Here are some of the designs I have been looking at:

http://www.dezeen.com/tag/hiroyuki-tanaka-architects/

http://www.homecreat.com/2011/08/14/real-white-house-interior-design-by-architects-geneto-japan/

http://www.dezeen.com/tag/stad/

Jellyfish Aerial Silk

I've been thinking about how people could ride our jellyfish lantern, and thought about aerial silk. I quickly whipped this up in photoshop to try to convey the free feeling one would experience if travelling in such a way.

 People could be tied and secured firmly to the lanterns tails. This means that the scale of lantern would have to be quite immense in comparison to a person. Being attached in this way to the vehicle would also mean that the rider of the lantern would experience everything, swaying in the wind, breezes and weather conditions. This freedom can be thought of as utopian, as they would get to see the glory of the world from up high and really feel the world around them.
Issues with this would be that they could only travel in this manner in clear ways, and the issue of balance would once more have to be addressed as having only one person, for example, would off throw the lantern's centre of gravity.

Transmaterial- SRW Weave

We made our own material this time!

The Jellyfish

I had a quick play around with photoshop to try to illustrate our concept for the jellyfish lantern, as described in our post on our miscellaneous development page, here http://studiolimarchitecture-development.blogspot.co.nz/2012/08/lantern-modification-1.html. Basically we are adding tails to our lantern to try to stabilise it, as this is what tails on a kite do, and one of the main issues with the lanterns we are using is that if they tilt they combust. The tails also act in an aesthetic manner, as illustrated in this image. The tails make the lantern appear like a giant, floating jellyfish, which should suit our utopian idea very well, and particularly match the organic theme of our Waiheke inspired, city site hotel.

The Distortion of Perfection

I decided to document the motion of a pond as rain hit its smooth surface. I was intrigued by the way that a beautiful reflection of an overhanging tree became distorted by the ripples in the water, yet how this distortion in itself was beautiful. I thought that this could allude to our themes of dystopias and utopias. One would think that the distortion of such a lovely reflection would be a terrible thing, yet actually the rippling effect itself is stunning, demonstrating that things are never quite as we expect them, and there is beauty within something initially perceived as negative. It was also interesting that it was always water that caused this transformation- that something of the exact same material quality could distort itself merely by the way it moved. The changing geometries of water are also interesting, the way in which a raindrop falls and merges to form a larger body as it hits a surface.

Here is an image I created to artistically explain the motion of a reflection of a tree becoming distorted by water drops. I spent a few hours (I lost track of how much time, probably longer than most people would take, I am slowww at drawing...) sketching, inking and colouring this with water colour pencils. Then I scanned it and put it through Photoshop, editing it slightly and adding elements from one of the video frames.

I tried to distort the tree more going towards the right of the image, finishing with circles representing the rings created on water when droplets tough them. I also changed my coloured pencil strokes throughout, going from straight ones, to more jagged ones, to completely spiralling ones, in other words distorting these lines as well.

Just to see what it would look like, I decided to invert the image as well. I actually like it much more like this! This won't be relevant for presenting on Thursday, but could possibly come in handy at a later stage, as it appears like the dystopian twin of the above image.

Transmaterial: plaster casting

We didn't actually end up being able to plaster cast our Honeycomb Stair model, due to our wee problem with ghosts in our CNC Router file. However, this is a technique that we will probably use at a later stage, if not for this design paper, certainly during our time here at the University of Auckland.

Rush Hour Stairs concept

An initial SketchUp model I quickly whipped up in order to explore how we could run lights through our Rush Hour stairs. We ended up changing them to simply have hollows as we felt this was more aesthetically appealing and also suited our idea of just having isolated lines of light, like flashing lines of traffic going by, better.

CNC Routing

I used the images mainly from our previous blogpost on the miscellaneous development page and described the issues we had with CNC Routing, and what we learnt from it.
I enjoyed having the opportunity to incorporate pac-man into our presentation!

The Honeycomb Stairs Presentation

This isn't the final presentation board (you can see that on the Studio L.I.M. page under the tag Between 2 Floors) as the empty white square in the right includes a drawing by my team mate Andy.
This will be the second page of documentation for the Honeycomb Stairs, showing mainly two axonometric views, one of the entire stair in its context with the city in the background, and one in wireframe showing all the geometries that were needed in order to construct it. Andy's drawing will show a close up of how the foot meets the stair and the two photos show the texture I edited and applied on our 3D ArchiCAD model, and our initial inspiration, a picture of a honeycomb.

A Gradual Escape

The Honeycomb Stairs are an escape.
Transporting oneself from the geometries of the city to the geometries of the stairs.
Ascending a gentle slope to a gentler place.
Escaping our dystopian reality for the utopian hotel.

Our Honeycomb stairs act as the initial introduction to our Waiheke Island inspired, city site hotel. We want them to immediately place the traveller in a sense of calmness and safety. Although just as geometrical as the city, the Honeycomb stairs incorporate a different kind of geometry, an organic, complex geometry, a mimicry of a bee's honeycomb.  This geometry also acts as a safety net, as it gives the traveller a firm tread on which to place their feet. The wide stairs and gradual slope all help to make this a very peaceful, safe feeling stair. One can walk slowly up, feeling the small solids and voids, and the slight angles beneath their feet.

The calm feeling instilled by these stairs is enhanced once the traveller reaches the top. The Honeycomb Stairs act as the entrance to our Waiheke Island inspired plant room, which, in turn, acts as the over all entrance for the hotel. The proximity of the stairs to the plant room is supposed to give the traveller a more gradual sense of becoming enveloped in feeling of the island. Upon stepping on the Honeycomb steps they leave behind the city and instantly feel calmer and safer. Upon stepping off the Honeycomb steps the traveller becomes completely immersed in the wild and peaceful feeling of the plant room and the over all hotel.

The Honeycomb Stairs act as the first step in a journey of escape.

The Matrix: the Honeycomb Stairs

I stayed up until 1.24 am doing this, so I hope it's OK..! Anyway, here is my first matrix! I was unsure over whether to do one for both the stairs my team and I designed, but since we were asked for 3 and there are 3 in a group I figured we should just each pick a stair an do one... since I believe this will be more useful at the end of semester for the individual assessments anyway.
I tried to keep the colours consistent with the rest of our Between 2 Walls presentation, since it will be pinned up along side with all of our work from the past few weeks.
This was quite fun to do actually, and I even learnt some new skills regarding vectors! I tried properly downloading Adobe Illustrator onto my laptop today but it didn't work for some reason, so for now I'll try to learn that particular program from studio... anyway, it is bed time for me now, methinks!

A Blog to Watch

http://www.alexhogrefe.com/
I stumbled upon this blog today whilst looking at examples of graphical presentation as I prepare for Studio L.I.M.'s peer review on Tuesday. This blog seems very useful, it is created by an architect and talks all about his school work, shows examples of his portfolios, and has absolutely oodles of tutorials on rendering, illustrating, portfolio creation etc. I really like his style of work too so I think I may be coming back here again and again...

An Escape from Chaos

The Rush Hour Stairs are an Escape.
The city is chaotic.
The Stairs are chaotic.
But the hotel that lies beyond them is a sanctuary.

Our Rush Hour stairs act as a bridge between our dystopian city setting and the utopian, Waiheke Island inspired, hotel. One must traverse these stairs in order to reach peace.
This is not a comfortable task, as the stairs emanate chaos. Horizontal lines of light set against a dark background imitate the appearance of rushing traffic. These walls rise high above our eye level, making us feel trapped within the confines of the busy, rushing stairs. The steps, inspired by an aerial view of the city, are abstract and appear almost disjointed. Finally as a last straw, there is overwhelming noise on the staircase- one can hear common traffic noises, bleeping horns, cars rushing by, and the squealing of sirens as one runs up the stairs. For surely one would run, when confronted with such a cacophony, an overwhelming sensation, with the knowledge that there is a heaven beyond.

The hotel is designed to act as a utopia against its dystopian setting. However, when walking up these city inspired stairs, one may ask themselves if the city, so different to the island hell, really is a utopia. Perhaps it has bad points at all? Perhaps when one leaves the hotel, going down these same stairs, these stairs will be their lasting memory, and perhaps they will teach them to appreciate more what they left behind.

The rush hour stairs teach us that there is no such thing as a utopia or a dystopia, simply a conglomeration of both, which only depends on one's point of view.

Honeycomb Stairs BIM X file

I've uploaded the Honeycomb Stairs as a BIM X file and have been playing around with them learning how to navigate. It seems quite similar to navigating in Second life as we did last semester for ARCHDRC 102, you can fly, jump etc. I think it's really cool that ArchiCAD allows you to export your models in this way, it really allows us to experience our design!

Studio L.I.M. logo

The L.I.M. part of our team's name for design this semester stands both for all of our first names, Lingyu, Ingrid Anna and Manu, but also for Limitless Ideas Manipulation. Therefore we have incorporated these words in our respective languages (Chinese, German and French) into our logo.

Honeycomb Stairs Section

The Honeycomb Stair is not a very steep stair, it is supposed to be very easy going. This is enhanced by its width- it is almost twice the width of an average staircase. Actual honeycombs are sticky, hence why this stair is so easy to walk up, it is not supposed to be fallen off.

The honeycomb stairs are situated in the city and are inspired by the organic nature of the island.

It's strange looking at these stairs in section. In 3D the hexagons that create the honeycomb shape are so prominent in the design, yet of course in section you can't see that!

I feel like I've learnt a lot about ArchiCAD over the past week though! We're improving all the time!

I now need to fix up the proportions- the figure was just someone I photoshopped in from a photo, whereas I have now learnt from Manu how to insert a person from the ArchiCAD library. This will make the scale more clear. 

I also need to look at the stairs from different views so that the hexagons are more apparent and clear.
Below is my second development of the section:

Our second honeycomb stairs documentation sheet includes a section at 1:10 and a plan view at 1:20.

This is not a very steep stair, it is supposed to be very easy going. This is enhanced by its width- it is almost twice the width of an average staircase. Actual honeycombs are sticky, hence why this stair is so easy to walk up, it is not supposed to be fallen off.

We still need to develop this section. Ideally, the plan and section should be at the same scale so I will have to change this. Also I will run both the plan and section through a vector based program rather than Photoshop to improve the quality. It would be useful for me to learn how to use the layout sheets on ArchiCAD, so this will be how I will try to approach this. We also want to include a detail drawing of how the foot meets the stair, which Andy will do and which I will incorporate onto this layout sheet. 

We want to keep the black as a background not only because we find it quite aesthetic and it helps make our design stand out, but also because the black background symbolises the dystopian site and how this is juxtaposed against the stairs, which are, of course, an element of our utopian hotels.

Draft Review of KripZ work

Dystopian: A mechanical, moving stair. Clicking gears. Raw. 
Utopian: A fractal, calming stair. Incremental growth. Organic.

From their project Between two Floors KripZ presented us with their concepts for two stairwells that were far from the ordinary. Both were quirky, well thought out, and hardly your average set of stairs. Each set of stairs played with the idea of being either dystopian or utopian, and set within a hotel in a particular site.

The city is dystopian. The city stairs were mechanical, focused on scale and rotation and really expressed the rawness of the materials. Iron gears and chains made the stairs wind up and up, similar to the gears of a watch, which qutKripZ examined for inspiration. This is a very interesting concept that matches a dystopian setting. We can imagine a world where production is the key and the humble citizen is of lesser importance than the continual movement of the manufacturing line. The rotating cogs also make us wonder whether these stairs act more as an escalator, although they are hardly conventional in that respect- they are unique. We were impressed by KripZ knowledge of ArchiCAD, which they demonstrated through this stair design. They designed each of the individual bits and cogs themselves, and showed a decent mastery of the extrusion and mesh tools.

The island is utopian. Inspired by fractal architecture, the island stairs used two similar shapes and repeated them, focusing on incremental growth. The pieces increase in size as they reach the top, and this sense of opening up is supposed to give a sense of peace, calmness and happiness. We really appreciated the thought put into this and liked how an organic, fractal staircase such as this one would be perfect for an island utopia. Indeed, thought was put into every detail of this staircase. Kriptz applied a paua shell structure to these stairs enhancing the fact that these stairs are in an island setting. One tiny improvement in our opinion might have been editing the shade of this texture slightly as they were quite dark, and personally we believe a lighter shade may have been more fitting for a calming, utopian setting. However overall these stairs were very well considered and looked quite beautiful.

Honeycomb Stairs in ArchiCAD

Just some screenshots I took whilst working on our honeycomb stairs.

Hotel Research

The Apeiron: a high-tech hotel with an organic shape

The Apeiron will be a 7-star jungle themed hotel in offshore Dubai. Intended to be a paradice on earth, a butterfly jungle will be have a regulated temperature and humidity in order to make it a relaxing space.

The Apeiron is intended to be something different: “ the apeiron, from which elements [are formed] , is something that is different”. So stated Anaximander of Miletus (610-656 B.C.) and this is why the hotel was named thus.

The hotel will also include an underwater sculpted landscape and louvres to keep out direct sunlight. These louvers, as well as the ribbon frames that make up the façade,  will be made up of solar cells. Apeiron also means infinity, which links to these solar cells on the ribbon frames.

Something different to our norm: the underwater hotel in Dubai

This is a planned luxury hotel right next to the Burj Al-Arab which has the aim of giving its clients true peace and relaxation. This hotel aims to have a calm and tranquil environment, however some people may feel constantly on edge being underwater. Nevertheless, this is truly an escape. This hotel is something completely different to our norm, where we can experience a different world.

The Honeycomb Stairs

Our initial concept for one of our stair sets. I learnt so much about ArchiCAD whilst doing this... had to stay up until 4am though! :P

The capsule hotel: communal living vs. isolation

Developed in Japan, capsule hotels feature a large amount of capsules placed together that act as rooms for guests. These capsules are placed side-to-side and are about 2mx1mx1.25m wide. Privacy is gained by either a curtain or a fibreglass door.

It is interesting to examine capsule hotels in the context of communal living vs. isolation. People go to hotels to escape- quite often to be alone and simply relax. Yet how can one be alone when in such close proximity to others? In a place where a thin fibreglass wall and a curtain is all that blocks you from others, can you really have privacy?

We would think that hotels such as this would create a very dark and claustrophic atmosphere- something which we may explore for our island site hotel, which will draw from the ambience of the city.

Transmaterial: silicon

We're doing research on transmaterials- producing one each every week, I believe. Although we did use silicon for our avatar moulds, next time I intend on producing a transmaterial card that is more related to our work.

ArchiCAD

Making objects in ArchiCAD is rather tricky when you're a noob like me! The jandal was particularly difficult to do since I found the mesh tool rather hard to get a hang of. It could definitely use with some improvement, but we only had today for this exercise... :P I'm sooo appreciative of my friend's help, she was in the ArchiCAD group before. The cup was pretty simple, it took me a lot less time to figure out the shell tool and reminded me how to cut holes in slabs.

Section

Sectional view of the second plant room done with ink pen and water colour pencil on water colour paper. The bamboo complements the linear elements of the overall structure, and in conjunction with the bonsai tree create a peaceful atmosphere. The dark back ground represent the dystopian site of the city on the outside.

Sorry for the quality of the image, it's a photo. The actual image has a whole lot more contrast. I don't have a scanner and I didn't want to risk getting hit by a sock on my way down to ground floor. 

#itsassassinsweekatmyhall, #halllifeproblems

Le Destin Fabuleux d'une plante

Since one of the main themes of our overall hotel idea is escape, I thought about a particular storyline in the French film Le destin fabuleux d'Amélie Poulain, in which she steals her father's beloved garden gnome and has photos taken of it in destinations all over the world to send back to him. She does this in order so that he will feel motivated to go travel.
With this in mind I took my plant for a walk, thinking about how creating motivation to travel is really a motivation to escape.

By the way, here's a shout out to all my visitors from Russia. I seem to have a lot of you, or perhaps just one very enthusiastic Russian. I can't possibly imagine what is interesting about my wee 1st year work, but Большое спасибо for taking the time to visit :)

Hotel brief

All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.

Walter Bagehot

Why do we go on holiday? It is to escape. To a place we can leave behind our everyday lives and live in a dream for just a moment. Somewhere we can feel different to our norm: a place where we can create a temporary new reality.

With this in mind, Studio L.I.M. aims to create two hotels in both the Auckland CBD and on Waiheke Island, which contrast with their respective sites and instead take elements of the other. We want to create an atmosphere of difference: looking at getting the feeling of one site and incorporating it into the ambience of the hotel on the other, and vice versa. We want to play with illusion, and things not being quite as they seem. We want to explore light and shadow. We want to examine what it is to live communally and in isolation. We want to contrast utopias with dystopias, and look at our day-to-day realities as dystopian, and our hotels as utopian. We want to create space that people will enjoy.

We want to create an escape.

The island site hotel

The island site: a geometric, technological hotel which is not quite as it seems.

The island is quiet and monotonous. An expensive ferry trip away from the excitement of the city, the island has a sense of isolation. Silence.
In a place where wildlife rules, one may wonder what we are doing here, when we could be among more of our own in the city. 

Small towns means no new faces and gossip spreads like wildfire. Secrets don't exist. Nosy neighbours peer over their fences. One must fit the social constructs. Do things the island way.
In a lonely, controlled world like this, all we want to do is escape. Somewhere with the hum of life, the noise and the smell of people all around. Where there are bright lights and quick rewards to our senses. Amusement. Fun. Friends. The deep cacophony of loud base. The high pitched hum in ones ear afterwards. Deception. Narrow streets and broken lights, not all is as it seems in the city. Adrenaline.

Where the world is quiet, all we want to escape. To a place where we can live on the fast lane.

Our concept for the island site hotel is to have a very rigid design which is not quite as it seems. High tech and bold, this hotel should be a little different from the norm. We want to capture the atmosphere of the city in the island site hotel, the grid, the shadows, the excitement. We want to create a space where people can feel as if they are part of something greater. We want to create a utopia for the lonely island dweller.

The city site hotel

The city site: a culturally inspired, organic hotel within a high-tech, modern setting.

The city is grey and bleak. Its fumes rise slowly into the air polluting everything around it. Permeating the landscape. Asphyxiating it.

The throngs of people push through each other to get to their respective destinations. Everyone is going somewhere. Everyone is rushing. Everyone looks only at their feet and their destination and not at the beauty of the world around them.

The noise is suffocating. The loud hum of traffic. The honks of agitated drivers. The high-pitched chatter and squealing giggles of shoppers. The rustle of coins. The drunken man's loud protests. The beggars demands. The silence of the crowds that ignore him; it speaks a thousand words.

In a cramped world like this, all we want to do is escape. Somewhere open and airy, with plenty of light. Somewhere free, where we can feel isolated, just for once. Somewhere which takes us back to our roots and reminds us of the land as it once was, or could have been if we hadn't come and placed stone, brick and steel on it. Somewhere we can escape from the failure that is the city.

Our concept for the city site hotel is to have a hotel in the inner city which has the atmosphere of an island. We are trying to capture the ambience of Waiheke island and place it in the heart of Auckland's CBD. To do this we are looking at incorporating less refined materials and organic shapes. We want an open plan building with lots of lighting, a space where people don't feel crowded. A hotel where the visitor can have isolation, instead of constant interaction. An escape from the rush and crowded conditions of the city. A utopia for the city dweller.

Final Plant Rooms

Here are images of our final plant rooms, from various angles and elevations.

The exoskeleton architecture one was sooo fiddly to make. It was basically handmade with the offcuts from the other, box-like plant room.

Here are our concepts:

Plant room 1, Waiheke site: This plant room is inspired by the city. From the exterior, it appears like a solid rectangular prism, a simple shape with a very linear aesthetic to it. However, on the interior, there are moveable curved shelves and partitions with a dizzying, almost spiralling pattern engraved on each. Slots in the exterior façade and holes in floor allow the curved partitions to be moved- whether the space is to be divided differently simply due to taste or because some of the plants have grown into them. When the holes aren't being used by the partitions, they act as a drainage system for overflowing water. The linear pattern on the façades of the plant room make it appear as a solid, as one wall is the inverse of its opposite. This gives the plant room a sense of illusion and mystery, something that can be felt in a city. The linear aesthetic also gives us a grid like notion which reminds us of the planning of an urban space, and these linear façades will create grid like shadows on the interior, making it darker and more exciting, once more trying to gain the ambience of a city.

Plant room 2, city site: This plant room is an example of organic appearing exoskeleton architecture. The abstractness of the façades contrasts with the overall cuboid form of the building. We can imagine this plant room being constructed out of organic materials such as bamboo. The floor and ceiling of the plant rooms have irregular shaped pieces stuck into them, complementing the irregularity of the façade. This plant room has a very open and light feeling to it, something that we were aiming for as this is the atmosphere we experienced when on Waiheke Island. This also gives a lot of space and light for plants to grow to their full potential. The rods of the façade are slotted into holes, which can also be used as drainage for any over-run water from the plants. The texture on the floor is made up of light, straight lines, which mimics the lines of the façade but in a more subtle, open way.

Outcomes from this workshop

Over all, we were quite happy with our progress with this workshop. It was commented that we should have shown human figures in our section drawings and thought more about the scale of our plant rooms. These are points that we will remember and employ in our work from now on. We got quite good results over all, particularly in the theory, architectonics, and form and space of our designs. We feel that we learnt quite a lot in this workshop, particularly in relation to laser cutting, the program Adobe Illustrator and in making spaces that will create particular atmospheres. We thoroughly enjoyed this work shop and hope we only keep improving.