079 Development: Recap of Form Development

These renders have been blogged about (separately) previously, but I think putting it together helps me understand as to how and why my final form eventually turn out the way it is looking right now.

~ H

078 Development: Mobilising my Thoughts

The last tutorial of my architectural bachelor was bittersweet. I found myself realising that my best works tend to be from the design studios which are not strictly themed nor set-in-stone sort of brief, and it's always been Yasu's studios. Not saying the other design studios are not up to par. Just a personal preference and realisation after looking through my past 5 semester of design studios.

Why do I say this?

I am 70% on completion of my design panels and the design itself, and I suddenly found myself in an awkward position of not being able to connect with it emotionally. Perhaps I should have Jane and Yasu know that I'm in the middle of packing my life in Brisbane away (literally) while trying to finish up the semester - I will be flying out of Brisbane 4 days after the presentation on 12 November 2011. So I'm not sure if my awkward sense of feelings towards my design is because I'm nervous about leaving Brisbane, or actually presenting my final work.

Then I found this video Claire put up on her blog, which was actually the quote that Yasu had flashed in our first and last lecture of the semester. It will be one of my take-away from this design unit, as well as one that will inspire me to finish up the last few days with a little bit more rigour and, by the time I am ready to present next Tuesday, (hopefully) I will feel more "connected" to my design. Don't get me wrong. I still have the passion and the commitment, and I do think my work is kinda-awesome (not amazing, but not a failure either. ok maybe moderate is the word) but I'm pretty sure there's some "magic" missing from my design that's conjuring this feeling of "disconnectedness". But I'll figure it out.


Ira Glass on Storytelling from David Shiyang Liu on Vimeo.

~ H

077 Exemplar: BMW Guggenheim Lab

A mobile piece of architecture that will be moving through 9 different cities and rebuild for an exhibition in New York City by the end of its cycle. It is currently set up in New York on a corner of Houston St. I think this is a really simple design, and like most architectural presence, aims to engage the everyday people to participate in building what they want of the city they live in.

The interesting component about this project, was the fact that it was a collaboration of various disciplines.

~ H

076 Development: A.C.A.E.

Before I get lost (again) in the grand scheme of designing my architectural entity, here are summaries of my brief, taken from all the previous entries that I have written in the last few weeks.

I started my design with wanting to create a centre of education for communities within a radius of the urban fringe. It was an idea spurred by the knowledge of Australia's increasing loss of agricultural land to urbanisation. As my architectural presence falls within the broad banner of Mobile Architecture, I wanted to marry the technology that we have today with the Australian agricultural community, and hence, the idea of Australia Centre for Agricultural Education (A.C.A.E.) was born. As has been blogged about before, the context was in response to:-


Ministry - "Department of Regional Australia"
An architectural presence to support the initiative of Regional Development Australia http://www.rda.gov.au.

Goal - "Reaching out to Australia's Isolated Communities"
A central structure of  architectural presence + mobility curated for Australians and curated by Australians.

Progressing from our Project 1 presentation, I wanted to also create a presence that spurs the movement and mobility of the people using the spaces. It is not just about creating a form to satisfy a brief but one that satisfies the community enough for them to use it more often. A form that educates the local about parliamentary functions (in this case something that's related to agricultural), and the responsibilities of the government to provide an initiative for the locals.

We have a few centres in Australia that are initiatives or agencies by the Australian state and territory governments, representing the various characteristics of Australia. These are various entities responding to the various functions of the parliament of Australia. A few examples are:-

• Australia Centre for Photography by the NSW Government supported by Australian Government of Visual Arts and Craft Strategy
• Australian Centre for Contemporary Art by the VICTORIA Government, also supported by the Australian Government of Visual Arts and Craft Strategy
• Geoscience Australia, a prescribed agency within the Resources, Energy and Tourism portfolio, and our Minister is The Hon Martin Ferguson AM MP - a world leader in providing first class geoscientific information and knowledge
• There are two centres within The University of Sydney;
• Australian Centre for Field Robotics based in the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at The University of Sydney, and is dedicated to the scientific advancement and uptake of autonomous and intelligent robots for operation in outdoor environments.
• Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety funded through grants Hunter New England Area Health Service and the New South Wales Department of Health.

So with the creation of my Australia Centre for Agricultural Education (A.C.A.E.), it will be an Australian Government initiative of Regional Department of Australia, administered by the Department of Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government, under the parliamentary leadership of Hon Simon Crean MP.

~ H

075 Development: Spatial Planning

I quickly cad out my sketches and tried to incorporate the context that it is built for - along existing rail or road network. The above is in context of an "existing" rail network. This spatial planning is still in work in progress. But the site constraint, area (footprint) and spaces are almost "there"...

~ H

074 Development: Spatial Planning

After drafting out a 2nd planning program, previously, I continued to further develop on the form, making estimates as to where the spaces will fit into. But it was much easier when sketched out really quickly and I get to see where the real spaces will have to go. What you see below is the outcome... and I must reiterate a point, that the "flower"-looking plan which I think my entity is developinig towards, is totally, purely and absolutely unintentional.

 

~ H

073 Exemplar: Presentation

I was flipping through BIG's archicomic book and felt that some of the methods of presenting their firm's design approach made sense, no matter how complicated their design appears to be. This particular page of the book (page 90), is an example of how I can adopt the idea process behind my design. It's just an example that I quite like because the "stage-by-stage" approach is very easy to "read", which is something I'd like Jane & the other tutors to feel when they look at my presentation later.

~ H

072 Development: Roofing Integrity

The basis idea of transformable canopy in my Architectural Form. This was part of the idea process for my roofing development, and may or may not be adopted in the final design.

~ H

071 Week 12 Tutorial & Development: Form

Architectural Form

This is the development of the form when integrated with the roofing form which will eventually be adopted into the final design. The form is a continuous result from the previous form ideas blogged in entry 57, entry 58 & entry 59. It is also a further thought process of the spaces within will eventually be finalised, keeping in mind the early development of spatial idea in entry 60.

This was a development from the tutorial based on the following sketch.

~ H

070 Development: Planning Program

After a few conceptual developments, I have re-drafted the planning program of my architectural entity by making it greatly smaller than before [see previous draft here].

~ H

069 Exemplar: "Zombie Safe House Competition"

One of the Competition Entry for 2011 Zombie Safe House Competition
http://zombiesafehouse.wordpress.com/z1538/

I found an article on Inhabitat about a competition to design Safe Houses for the civilisation to prepare against the possibility of a Zombie Apocalyse [a bit far-fetched coz I don't believe in these things but I'm all for creativity] and I found this competition entry of a particular interest - Zombie Ranch.

I am more interested in the form of this entity. I have been trying to form different levels of activities with a central core and with the emergence of this design entry online, it is obviously a coincidence that what I'm trying to create is almost similar. Of course the context & environment that between this design and mine is totally different. A fun, interesting competition nonetheless!

~ H

068 Development: Context Exploration

I decided that in the process of my conceptualising my design, I needed to try placing my entity into a context that it is built for. One of the key components of having this entity regularly used and recognised is to have it within or near existing lines of public transport, one of them being the rail tracks. Therefore, as can be seen in the JPG above, this is what I quickly tried doing. The selection of context and site is based on the theme of mobility and my (our group) initial interpretation of "mobile architecture". Mobile Architecture is a catalyst that triggers movement not only within the entity but a presence that spurs the movement and mobility of the people using the spaces within and around it [link to a previous entry on this].

The form is still in a development process, and the context is still open to interpretation:-
rail tracks, motorway, roads & streets and whichever mode of accessible public transportation.

~ H

067 Reading: [Personal] Transformation in Architecture

My work has centered on a fundamental idea that a designed object can transform in the way a natural organism does. The design of such transforming objects is based on several key principles - a transforming object:

• is made of many parts that act as an integral whole
• has a dual nature - half structure, half mechanism
• is made up of linkages having unique properties - i call these kinetic blocks
• has behavior based on its underlying geometry

(Hoberman 2005, 71)

The exploration of kinetic blocks, structure and mechanism in the process of transformation in an architectural entity is something that I am trying to apply in the mobile elements of my permanent architectural pavilion. This reading is very relevant in helping me understand the basic principles that lies behind the notion of "transformable" architecture, if I am pursuing the application of this theory.

~ H

Hoberman, Chuck. 2005. "Transformation in Architecture" in Transportable Environments 3 edited by Robert Kronenburg, 70-79. Taylor & Francies, Hoboken.

066 Exemplar: Hoberman Transformable Canopy

This transformable canopy by Hoberman Associates was a preliminary design commissioned by SHoP Architects. It was... "for an innovative canopy that extends to cover an open plaza, and then retracts, nesting into a large architectural column. The canopy is developed from a unique spiral geometry, constructed of structural panels and supported by a series of tension rods." I think the idea behind this is exactly what I am trying to do for my roof design of A.C.A.E. - the retracting roof concept -, as has been blogged about in the last 3 entries. Although, what I'm trying to do is a bit more straightforward, in the sense that the roof retracts left to right and into the central column core, instead of in an anti-clockwise/circular motion the way Hoberman have explored. There is a 13-sec clip on their website worth watching for you to have a feel of how it works. Check it out here - Transformable Canopy.

~ H