Final Crit 2

Today was the second of the cross atelier reviews. 

I felt that I was actually relaxed and really prepared for it although - as per - the nerves and quaky voice still set in when presenting.

Overall, I think it went well but I think the major thing - picked up by everybody - was that the colours need to be toned down. It was something that I also noticed as soon as I had finished publishing the presentation. I tried to emphasise the colourful environment in the creche but I think I tried to hard. As a whole I need to work on my illustrations but this is something I have been very aware of since last year. 

Apart from this, it's just a case of making sure it all reads well and I can explain my scheme in a way that doesn't require me to be there. My little sketches/diagrams went down well and over the weekend, I plan on just diagramming and sketching my scheme to death! The images themselves were useful for me and my design process and additionally are useful for communicating it. 

One last key point that was made was the lack of connectivity between my two sites which seems crazy especially as part of my argument for using the sites was the connectivity. Therefore I am, as was suggested, going to produce a (hopefully awesome) section throughout the whole scheme, showing the connection and interaction between the sites as well as the journey taken by different characters around the sites.  

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!

Models!

Yesterday I built my sketch model to help me plan out my building. I used the spatial values and made small boxes to represent each space - based on the capacities and therefore the area of each space.

I began to have a play around with the layout and started to notice the axes of the site. This caused some small problems as it was something I hadn't noticed or looked into before and I was questioning whether a particular space should line up with this axis or the other. I then went back to the plan and Photoshop and started to look at these closely. Obviously, these conflicting axes need to be taken into consideration in my design. 

Another "problem" I came across was the multi storey aspect of my design. While I am using the old library as part of my building, I need to take into account the fact that it has a first floor, something I had to keep reminding myself of when playing around with my model. There are pros and cons for the different 'zones' of my building to be on either floor and now I need to decided which should go where.

The creche would be suitable to be on the first floor as it removes it from the street, therefore creating a safer and more private environment for children, however, I want to create an outdoor space as part of the creche, which would be better off on the ground floor although there is no reason why I can't create a roof space (but that comes with it's own health and safety issues!)

The cafe needs to connect with the street as this is the most public part of my building although by being on the first floor, it can over look the other areas of the building, therefore creating connections through the building that way.

The community part of my building, like the cafe, should connect the community to the building but by being on the first floor, it can make the most of using a whole floor and can also be kept apart from the creche. 

I think I need to make more boxes to represent different shapes of the rooms, and maybe split the spaces up in order to split the spaces over both floors.

Spatial Values

After thinking about the diurnal programme of the building and the key connections between the spaces, I started thinking about how exactly the spaces would be used. Just having a room labelled 'creche' doesn't necessarily make it suitable to be one. The same was for the 'event space'. By breaking by building into zones - Cafe, Crèche and Community - I was able to think in more detail of each space. 

I though about what kind of spaces would make up a creche; what do small children need. I was reminded of the nursery at my old primary school and how there were spaces to paint and other spaces to play in the sandpit and another again to play with toys or read. In the same way a building has different rooms for different purposes, a creche should have different spaces for different activities. By breaking up this part of my building, it becomes more than just a large room.

I did a similar exercise with the community space. Rather than having one large space, having a large space and some smaller rooms mean that a variety of community events can take place. As a bit of an after thought, I also decided to incorporate a prayer room into my design. Cheetham Hill is an area with a diverse population and in order to engage with the whole community, I felt that it was necessary, particularly if the building is to be used at all times of the day and most, if not all, days of the year. 

Before I can start working on the model, I needed to decide how big each space would be. This of course determined by the activities in the room and the capacity.

My next step is to start designing and formally arranging my building using a model.