Now that my tech case studies are out of the way, I've been able to resume project work. After scribbling ideas for the a last couple of weeks, I began by finally arranging the community space of my building. This has changed size since I created my programme and now has a number of spaces that can change - making larger areas or smaller ones as required.
Resolving these spaces have let me start to resolve the roof. As I am using the site axes to design my building, I want to continue this to the roof. Tuesday saw me modelling my new design which then allowed me to start playing around with the roof yesterday. By starting with a straight forward single pitch in the roof, I could then move on and develop to get my designs modelled in paper. This was going well until I realised that my roof was South facing - meaning that there would be direct sunlight at different times of the day which I really didn't want. This meant back to the drawing board this morning and I've now taken this into consideration and as a deciding factor in the design.
Despite being told to try and move away from a pitched roof, I have kept coming back to it. But I think I like the way it still reflects the original building and my design is beginning to do what I want it to - especially in terms of letting light into the building. I think it could still be developed further though but the paper models are definitely helping to resolve it. I need to get on with taking photos!
While most of this week has been spent on the case studies, I had an intensive brainstorming evening last Thursday after my PDP meetings. I took a (not so quick) trip to the library and picked up a couple of books. One of which being a survey of adventure playgrounds in London. This has actually been a very happy accident and lead on to me going back to the start of my project, remembering that a key theme was street life. I was then able to come up with a statement that I can use to guide my project.
The circulation as 'street'
The creche as 'playground'
The cafe as 'street side cafe'
The community space as 'public square'
This has given me something to follow and means I can make my spaces more interesting than just being rectangular rooms - one of my problems. The idea of creating an indoors adventure playground is really appealing and I know its something that I can get really absorbed in. With it also being a space for children, I can be really informal and break the rules a bit, getting rid of the solid perimeter around each area.
I also want to play around with the roof more. Last week it was commented on that my extension looked just that - an extension - and not part of the building. The idea was to bring the roof down to the creche. After modeling this, I saw it created additional space which allowed me to play around a bit more with the first floor spaces.
Today in my tutorial however, it was suggested that I completely ditch the idea of the pitched roof - something I planned in order to reflect the original roof. So this afternoon I'm going to have a go at modelling different roof shapes to help inform my design.
I am also going to look at public spaces in Manchester to help me develop my community space. I want to take aspects from them and use them within my design.
Basically, this week, I just need to go a bit crazy and ignore boundaries etc to really get stuck into my design.
So hand in number two has been and gone and this last couple of weeks has seen me trying to get on with my case studies and my IDR. After looking through the part B brief, I realised that I didn't actually have the work to talk about so in order to do that, I needed to work out exactly how my building is constructed. This is where my case study work came in.
The Ritblat building is my case study as well as a precedent. The timber construction is exactly what I want to achieve with mine. Therefore in order to help me construct my own building, I started to deconstruct that one. I'll admit the plans weren't easy to read at the beginning but I think I've picked it up now and have been able to work out the construction techniques involved. This in turn has really helped me with my project as I have used a similar work method.
The drawings produced by Hawkins\Brown are awesome and I am hoping to achieve something in a similar style with my own drawings. There is so much detail on them though and I'm not entirely sure I have all the time that would be required! Worth a shot though.
The biggest issue with my construction at the moment is the existing brick work of the library. While I don't want to interfere too much with it, I know very little of the actual make up of the wall, especially whether there is insulation in there already. This potentially could change the entire construction of the vertical elements of my building - and the interior finish - and this is something that I am hoping to discuss with my tutors on Thursday. Once that problem is solved, I can then resolve the roof and work on getting the formal drawings done. I am also hoping to start work on Revit at the end of the week: I think I have more or less resolved my house construction so I figured it would be a good place to start.
While all of my tech is in sketches at the moment, they have really helped me to develop this and on Thursday, I'm hoping that I can get some help with the last details like DPMs etc and make sure everything is in it's place before I start to draw them up for real - and put it in Revit.
Currently feeling confident although this could all change on Thursday! Here's hoping
