Last Leg

So, one week off, one week not as much work as I was hoping and then back at uni. Tech is done, essay is done and my IDR first draft is done. It's slowly coming together.

This week has mainly been focused on my drawings and their presentation. As I mentioned previously, I was told to find a style to replicate and although I've decided to ditch the Wainwright idea (it just wasn't really going to work) I have been working on my Frank Lloyd Wright styled images. The downside is that they are taking a very long time - having to trace the drawings in photoshop and then colour and add texture. I've almost finished them now but still have some context to add to the elevations and some finishing touches to add to the long section. After that it's just arranging them on the pages, again in the style of Wright. 

To help me, I got a couple (well, more like a small pile) of books out of the library. These are just filled with his drawings. I could easily just look at them all day. The drawings are so intricate and its even more amazing when you consider that he didn't have a computer to help him, let alone Google SketchUp or AutoCAD.

While my housing drawings are practically finished (until Thursday anyway), I can't really complete the presentation sheets for the centre until I have my 3D perspectives. So that's next on the agenda. The plan is to get these more or less done for Thursday - my penultimate studio day.

Easter Holidays Part I

It's amazing what a week away from uni can do. I've been doing long days of work every day but it's been more relaxed and I've managed to get so much done. My final plans have been updates. All that's left to do on the technical drawings front is the 1:5 sections and updating my site section. Once these are done, I can get them printed and work on their aesthetics. 
I decided to put Revit on hold as I started to see it as a time waster - I was spending hours working it out but I still don't have a model that I can use. It's much more worth my time to get my sections done through AutoCAD.

As well as finishing the first daft of my essay, I have also finished Part A of the IDR and made a good start on Part B. This section consists mainly on images and diagrams so I have had to work on them before anything else. From reading the brief, I can see many similarities between this part and the tech case study so I'm going to approach it the same way - similar diagrams and images. I plan on having this section finished, at least in draft form, by tomorrow.

Next week I am going away so I won't be able to do any work at all. Except for maybe a little bit of reading (although I tried that last year and it even that didn't happen). With this being the case, I want to make sure I get enough done this week while I am still in Manchester with very few distractions.

At this stage, I think the visuals and IDR are the most important things for me to be concentrating on but I also need to start thinking about what to exhibit. This is something for the week after next though.

I have a tutorial this afternoon but for now, I'm going to get my section details done.

Resolutions

This week has been spent on developing and refining the last details of my building ready for the crit. 

My housing was the main thing to be resolved but once I got onto Sketch Up, sorted out my house design and just started playing around with the orientation on site, it all fell into place fairly quickly. I resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't achieve a scheme that both had vehicular access and was pedestrian only so I just had to work around this, creating pedestrian only spaces and designated vehicle spaces. The views and the access across and around the site were important things to consider as the scheme is very family and children orientated.

I also spent time resolving the final details of my building, the creche and community space in particular. After exploring the spatial possibilities in each of these spaces, I started remodelling just the creche on Sketch Up and as per ususal, I got completely carried away with the model and ended up also modelling the community space on the first floor. 
I went almost completely against my original approximation for the floor area of the space. Rather than having one large hall, I inserted an atrium-like space that then created a connection between the circulation downstairs and the space itself. Despite loosing a large amount of the floor space to this atrium, I feel that this actually works better as it breaks the space into smaller community areas and also fits into my programme in terms of connectivity.

Once I had resolved these issues, it was simply a case of getting back on to CAD to update my drawings. Over Easter, I plan on getting reacquainted with Revit and producing models and all my drawings in one programme - the plan is to make my life easier!

Catch up and CAD

I feel like my journal (along with everything else) has been slightly abandoned recently due to the sheer volume of work. This week was spent mainly on AutoCAD and Sketch up, getting my building finalised and drawn up ready for today. I'm all CADed out!

Having printed out my plans etc for studio today, I was ready for them to be scribbled over. And that definitely happened! Which was good. When I was drawing them out, I didn't actually see them but during my tutorial things were pointed out that will definitely improve my design along with other things that I need to look at over the next couple of days. While many of these are in order to refine my centre, there are a couple of things to work on with my housing as well. Especially the site layout. I'm closer than I was but it's still not there yet.

After talking with my tutor, I had the chance to talk with a practising architect to get some help with my technical drawings and structural details. Unfortunately I ran out of time this week so I couldn't develop my detailed drawings but this is something that is going to happen this week. My precedent actually comes from my tech case study so this kills two birds with one stone. I am also going to look at the arrangement for the building (the Ritblat Building) as it is part of a primary school, therefore designed for children. I am hoping to develop my creche and create an environment suitable for children. I am also going to look at other precedents to help me with this. 

I also seem to have actually forgotten how to draw plans. Like marking the door openings and hatching the walls and dotting upstairs floors and stairs and adding furniture (although I think the time constraint had some play in that one). This are all things that need to be (and will be) sorted out for the reviews . . . . next week.