assignment 4.1: design plan

since we have completed our materials assignment and our first group critique- we are ready to move on with our individual designs within our main group design. by thursday- our group plans on finalizing our design so we then can work within the shell. i am getting excited about this next phase of the project because i will be focusing on the signage[wayfinding] within the building as well as the cafe [food service]. i'm excited because i get to incorporate my love of graphics within an environmental setting [both interior/exterior]. i'm also excited because i have never designed for food service- so i'm looking forward to tackling a new design challenge!

below is TEAM B's design plan from now until the end of the semester:

assignment 3.0: material study.

for my material study- i focused on both exterior + interior materials. i kept in mind the design of our building + application of materials onto the building. for the interior i found three textural materials that will aid in the movement of our gestural building: modular arts sculptural panels, skyline art glass, + lumicor acrylic resin panels.

for the exterior - found this really interesting project that was displayed in bejing, china alongside the summer olympics. the project is called greenpix- and it is a wall of a building comprised of solar LED panels that retain and harvest energy to produce its energy to display itself at night. the panels project any type of digital media whether that be photos, movies..etc. this is something i thought would be a really interesting material to include in our park on site to display student/local artist's work.

pre break review.

exterior perspective of the building-- view from lee street

our design consists of a central core joining two forms together. the core acts as a circulation volume to join each level together. the view that faces lee street also faces the south side- allowing that side to obtain the most amount of sunlight during the day. we have designed for a sunscreen- made up of perforated metal structured by wood frames- to line the south side of the form dedicated to the public spaces. the other form is dedicated to the studio spaces which will have windows to allow light to illuminate the space during the day.

exterior perspective- view from the north side of the building [train tracks] looking onto the cafe.

adjacency diagrams that show the relationship between the programed spaces of the project. we have divided the levels starting at the bottom being the most public into the top being the most private [studios]. we are utilizing the core as the main circulation area from level to level.

comments from critique:
-a series of context plans [relationship of building to site] to answer the question what is lee street missing that the project will fill in?
-in drawings- show an active park- why would people want to come to our site?
-relate the core to the retaining wall [materiality]
-connect building to campus [through physical connections: bridge?]
-the first level is the most important- design for a good first impression
-iconic buildings are usually tall- extend the core to project upwards [emphasize views and their importance]
-extend the mullions on the first floor lobby to connect to the second, third and forth floor
-design the site so the user's experience is controlled- traffic/ amount of people/ what they experience first, second, third...etc
-spread the building out farther onto the site to take advantage of the size of the site


after the critique- i think that it is safe to say that our group will really be able to take a lot from this assignment and utilize all the feedback we have received. we know that up until this point- we still have a lot of work to do to finalize materiality, form, and usage of the site. we need to explore ways of connectivity to the campus and the surrounding community whether that be through form, materiality, or the site. by march 26th- out groups goal is to finalize the design so we all can move forward with our individual designs of the interior....