thought bubbles...

one of my new years' resolutions is to make a stronger attempt to finish projects/ tasks that i start. i challenged myself to this resolution because i tend to find myself with countless pending projects/ ideas that sometimes don't quite get finished. i have to confess- i haven't been very successful. i'm beginning to think its due to the fact that i have constant thought bubbles popping up all around me throughout my day. if you were to look at my desk, planner, or sketchbook- there are post-it notes and doodles scattered everywhere...thinking that one day i'll get to them. yeah right.


to sum it up- in response to a good friend's post [suzanne cabrera]- i would say i am very much a chronic project starter who enjoys the process the most [even though the results are just as rewarding] because the process is where the learning takes place. i enjoy learning new ways to take on a project and feel that as each project passes- a new story is written.

16 more days...pre-final pin-up.

we had our pre-final pin-up this past thursday afternoon where my group shared our building design with the class and some guest critics. we worked really hard to solidify our ideas and present them well so we could move forward with our individual designs. we produced some perspectives, plans, sections, and a model to explain our ideas to the class. overall- i feel like the presentation went really well!


this is the front facade perspective showing the louvers we intend to place in the studio area [left side of building] to allow there to be some control over the amount of sun entering through the south facing windows. there is also a sunscreen placed in the middle in front of the atrium to also block some of the direct sunlight.

this is the north facing facade [the back of the building] that opens up the views towards campus + downtown. we still have some things to work out with this facade [i.e window placement + shape] to make it relate to the rest of the building. right now its looking like a condominium. ha.

we had some really great comments/suggestions given to us during the review. the critics suggested us to focus on the views we want to capture + think about how light comes in/out of the openings. light is just as important as views. horizontal layers have been created on the front of the building and it would complement the back if we were to create vertical layers. right now it appears as horizontal layers.

the roof perspective shows the planters that hold vegetation that helps to insulate the building. solar panels are placed on the studio roof to capture + harvest solar heat throughout the day. the placement and shape of the panels still needs to be thought about carefully.


long building section showing the horizontal layers and the "floating" critique room that will connect the roof to the atrium.
studio section showing the spacing between the floor levels and windows to make room for the adjustable sunlouvers from nysan.

our group need to sit down and talk about the comments given to us during our review as well as dicuss the concept behind our project. the idea of 'iconic' views and capturing them through our building as well as creating gestural movement as you pass by the building has always been part of our design process. but we just need to solidify our ideas into a nice conceptual statement to be able to explain to others our driving design point.

after our review-- our group chatted with patrick to talk about all the ideas we thought about throughout our design process to try and narrow down those ideas to a select few in order to come up with a concept:

-views in + views out
-skin
-welcoming
-flickering- moving pictures/ capturing scenes
-slipping through
-stop motion picture
-theatre/ on display
-prisms

and it really came down to the idea of showing constantly changing moments throughout the building both on the outside and inside.

while we were listening to travis explain some nice presentation graphics for us to consider about our final result- patrick gave us a little present written on a note card.

fleeting [adj.]: passing swiftly; vanishing quickly; transient; transitory

one word that really begins to explain everything we have been considering throughout this semester...thank you patirck!

24 days....form storming.

okay so i know my last post said 24 more days until project deadline...and no i am not lying- it really is 24 more days. our final review date has been moved to may 5 [cinco de mayo :) ] so we can hold our review the same day as the other 4th year studio. one full day of final reviews then a night of celebration-- yay we finally will be 5th years and another big step closer to graduation!

so our group has been spending the last week trying to narrow down and finalize our building form. since our last pin-up we received a lot of criticism on the box-like form our building has taken and that is mostly our group's fault for not explaining and presenting our designs well. our building does have a very linear plan- but in form- we are expanding out of the box and trying to create a gestural form that is not 'boxey.'


this working perspective helps to show our idea of expanding the structural wall [represented in green] up through the roof to create planters for a green roof. our atrium [we are no longer calling it a core] is angled and has balconies extending from the side.


the drawing is an elevation of the north side of the building [side facing the railroad tracks] and how we are thinking about treating the pop-outs on the south side. the pop-outs are a continuation of the structural wall shown in the perspective above towards the railroad tracks. i also experimented a little with photoshop rendering..i think i got a little carried away haha.


this is a south side elevation that shows the planters again but also the thought of layers of 'skin' being added to the south facing facade. the skin will act as multiple sunscreens since the south side will be getting direct light during the day. we are thinking of using different materials for these sunscreens such as perforated metal, slats of wood, + colored frosted glass.

24 days...cafe in the making...

i've found that diagramming + sketching has been the best approach for me to start any design process. along with researching + gathering precedents- i've started listing out the areas within the cafe that will need to be considered throughout the design:

food:
-deli
-coffee shop
-salad/soup bar
-drink station
-cold food station

seating [interior + exterior]:
-tables for 2 + chairs
-tables for 4 + chairs
-booths
-counters + stools

cash register[s]

food storage/ kitchen/ food prep

community bulletin/ self expression area?

trash/ recycling bins

condiment/ utensil station

since i've never gotten the opportunity to design a cafe, restaurant, or dining facility-- i really don't know the size regulations for the amenities within a cafe. but thankfully travis gave us some rules of thumb when sizing corporate dining facilities so we can size up our cafe for the school:

1. 60% of population will eat 2 1/2 sittings [550 people: 550 x .60= 330/2.5= 132 seats]
2. 25 sq. ft. per seat in the dining area [132 x 25= 3300 sq.ft. dedicated to seating]
3. kitchen + serving are is 50/50 and equal to the square footage of the dining area [3300/2 = 1650 sq.ft:: 1650 sq.ft. for kitchen, 1650 sq.ft. for serving area = 3300 sq.ft total]

so i have to make sure that i have about 6600 sq.ft. dedicated for the entire cafe...

i need to also check if the total number of seating counts for only interior seating + not exterior seating because there will be additional sittings outside on the site...

back to the drawing boards....

28 days and counting.........

trying to keep on track with our group schedule-- we have been in the process of experimenting with the shell of the building that was designed up until spring break. once we started working within the interior of the shell--we have found that the square footage within the shell is smaller than the square footage listed within our programming document. this gave us the opportunity to not only to increase the scale of our building- but also to re-orient the axis established throughout the building.


we have incorporated a retaining wall that creates a structural wall component vertically throughout the east side of the building. as seen in the process section on the left- the thick vertical line represents the wall within the ground that has been in-set 15 feet from the front of the building. the dashed lines represent the wall continuing vertically to create a division of hallway + classrooms/ auditorium space.
continuing with the expansion of the building footprint + experimentation with the building's axis- this plan represents the changes + differences from the above plan. we then proceeded to think about the structural components within the building + the grid positioning. this structural grid has already started to help us layout the interior spaces on all levels.

apart from moving forward with the design- we have already started thinking about the presentation format for our final critique. kemena and i are in charge of coordinating the presentation boards- so we have be thinking of ways to tie our physical presentation with our actual design of the project. as of now- we have talked about using 24" x 36" boards with each person having 3 boards to utilize for their indivual space they will be designing + 8 boards being dedicated to the group's building's design. so with that all added up- we are taking up around ummmmmm 24 feet :) what space we could present this in-- i don't even know. once we further develop our designs- we will have a better idea of how much board space we will really need. so i guess we'll see.....

a design walk around campus.

to take advantage of slowly approaching spring weather- as a studio we took a walk around campus to talk about the institutional buildings we have right in our backyard. since we do need to take into consideration the uncg campus guidelines within our group designs- it was nice to see it applied on the current uncg campus buildings.

our stops consisted of:

the HHRA building
music building
petty building
new science building

as we traveled along to each building- i began to sketch elements within each building that should/could be incorporated into our design. both the HHRA building + the music building had a similar design language in terms of a circular rotunda at the entrance then hallways breaking off from the center. these ideals reflect similar ideas that our groups has been discussing in regards to our central core + its interaction with the two side wings. we took special note of wayfinding both on the interior + the exterior of the building expressing both the positive + negative applications of each. clearly- wayfinding is a key tool when designing an institutional building and it was interesting to find that some of the buildings had poor or lack of signage within the building. there also was time spent discussing the regulations + codes that came along with circulation pathways [stairs, ramps, elevators].

overall- it was nice to take a break from studio and to get a chance to analyze the buildings we pass by everyday and be able to take the knowledge learned to apply it within our own individual designs.

lee street...here we come........

campus l.i.g.h.t study

to kick off the design process after splitting up into groups- my group [the art/gesture group] decided to study the campus at night and observe how the artificial light interacts within the natural environment. one idea that our group has discussed to incorporate into our interior architecture building is a change in the ‘skin’s’ appearance based on the light qualities of night and day. below are some images that I took during our [very cold] adventure showing some detailed light patterns composed of texture, contrast, form, and spatial relationship. this exercise allowed us to understand how patterns were created in the environment- whether it was a window opening in the building, the pairing of fixtures + textural materials, or the placement of fixtures.

glass blocks allow light to penetrate through the bridge's surface to illuminate the walkway during the night. [ a possibility to experiment with semi-opaque materials + light-- maybe instead of placing the materials on the ground plane- there could be an opportunity to place the material overhead or within the space as a room divider]

library entrance with focal lights to create a dramatic contrast on the columns to elongate their appearance.

view standing within the library looking towards the oakland deck and admission's office. the parking deck is one of the brightest building on campus at night due to the amount of negative space on each level.

patterns created on the ceiling of the rotunda area in the EUC. the simple placement of fixtures create this pattern within a defined circular space.

assignment 2: sketch/ study models

i approached the beginning of this assignment differently then i have tended to do in the past. this assignment was given to us so we can generate 10 different ideas about the conceptual form of the building based on the finished program document. so i jumped right into making sketch models [one of my weaker points] to produce multiple ideas about form, then sketching off the 3D model. i continued to do this process back and forth while compiling my 10 sketch models and sets of sketches. i felt that this process really helped strengthen my design process and how begin to think about volume, mass, and form of a structure.

below are the set of sketch models + sketches that i came up with for the proposed interior architecture building on lee street:


after finishing the models and correlating sketches- the diagrams above explains the flow chart of ideas that i came up with during this assignment. i really focused on the idea of a central core that essentially connects the public [community area] to the private [studio] spaces. through developing the idea of the central core- the idea of organizing the building on an axis came about. the tilted axis allows for an ordering system within both the public + private space.

this chart helped me realize that i kept going in circles with the same set of ideas over and over again. i should have stopped myself a one point to shake myself off and start in a complete direction for another idea. sometimes its just needed to step away from your work and gather inspiration from elsewhere to push yourself into a new and innovation direction.