PATRICK

This is work in progress - still more to be done to this axo. It's four plates (900x900) and I really want it to tie back to my 5 rebrief plates, so its using the same style of drawing.  I've also removed parts of the building, cutting away to show how to move through it - so a forum at each level is exposed.  I was also thinking of fragmenting it, pulling out key moments and annotating those moments...  It needs to be made much more lush I know - I need to add trees, and add far more programme, especially in the forums themselves....

Work in progress so far. I've redone the section - although I need to populate it in photoshop to give it detail. I've also rendered the view from a flat overlooking the LA grid. It reminds me of the houses on Beverly Hills overlooking to grid which I like.  I'm also trying to layout some TS pages for tomorrow, without much success. One is showing the circulation through from ground to top - I've included the rendered image, but haven't illustrated it yet.  I'm not sure if it's that clear anyway.  I've also got a drawing on the go of the difference in construction between the concrete parts and upper timber parts.  Will post later...

Apartment view overlooking LA grid


New section (need to add programme, people etc etc)

Post tutorial post - work needs to be done on each, especially the section which is just a little confusing at the mo...  I also need to populate the forum - it'll be the Forum of Sport - a basketball court!

I've been working on the section which I'll post a preview a little later, but have also been looking at potential perspective views to work on.  The following are just renders - I haven't done any photoshopping to add programme, as I just wanted to check I've got the right view.  They show the journey to, and looking at, the "Forum of Sports" on the first floor.

1. Disembarking from the River, a view to the ramp leading up to the Forum which also shows the context of the overhanging levels above...

Last two days have been plans plans plans. Five plans for five plates, from the ground running up through to the roof top gardens. Amazingly my block is just under 450 meters, so fits the plate perfectly at 1:1000.  I had to thicken the structure so I could cut through the rhino model to give a more accurate drawing - I think it's making much more sense, but will be working late tonight to keep adding programme to each plan.

Please please don't slaughter me tomorrow as I haven't managed to work on the sections... Sorry Monia. I've been working non-stop since Tuesday, and it's taken this much time to get the five plans to this stage...

Plate One: Ground Floor

In addition to doing a number of plans, I'm also working with the section too. The following needs to be layered and given some depth...

As a whole across the river and site:


And zooming into a part:

Another view of the interior...

For Tuesday I'm trying to get done a number of drawings and renders.  Firstly to get to grips with a single 'forum' and how to circulate through it whilst maintaining my structural logic.  Then putting them together to draw a plan for each level and a first section...  All to come.  With the plans and sections, I'm hoping to get to manipulate the very geometric arrangement on Tuesday and beyond.  Going in the right direction I hope.

Below is a first v-ray render of part of the interior. (Thanks Mickey for teaching the basics!)  I'll put some further images up during the evening, but it gives a first idea.

Laying out work takes a ridiculous amount of time.  Some additional work has been done as shown below - I've identified exactly which members undergo buckling and how much buckling.  With this information, I'm going to remodel the component frame with engineered timber in mind so that the segments that have undergone the most buckling with have thicker timber parts to them.  I've also had a tutorial with both Wolf and Javier who agreed with pushing ahead with this!  The project is finally gaining momentum at the 11th hour! A bit tight for TS though...!

 

I'm in the middle of laying out a number of pages that covers further testing of the geometry of my structure for TS.  As recommended, this time the structure was made from spaghetti! I've now managed to get the geometry so that it is stable under loads which is good news.  However, I'm not entirely happy with it aesthetically now, so I'm hoping that the nest stage of looking at material will bring back some of the aesthetics I've lost.  Below is a picture of the test model and part of a drawing that lists all the results I've taken.

A weekend of work work work! I've been testing the geometry of my model through thin sticks and glue and spending much time consolidating my work so far so there's a clear direction to where I've got to.  It's made me realise that, even though I've been jumping around enormously, there's elements of most of the work done to date that has been brought forward.  I'll print out all the new layouts for tomorrow in addition to latest new work, but below are a few snap-shots...

With two TS tutorials today I've been working getting the geometry of the structure sorted out a bit more. Wolf suggested doing a number of structural studies with simple cocktail sticks or even spaghetti and going through iterations to get the best result that also ensures light and circulation still works...  I'll keep modeling and drawing tonight, so I have a clearer indication of what do test physically.

Have spent much of the weekend looking at geometry and how I link together the forums on different floors.  But of course this isn't answering 'what is the forum'. The general size and relation to each I know, but I don't yet know exactly what they are. Saturday and Sunday was spent looking at a geometry for the infill and not the forums. Images are below of this. I began to link the voids together that in turn defines the forum.  However I should be working in reverse. The geometry should be designed for the forums themselves.  I'm therefore beginning with the infill grid and punctuating it with a forum at each level in the location I've already specified.  So long as the connections between the different levels occur between the different forums, then it'll work. I'll keep drawing this up so it'll become much more clear for tomorrow...

I've just come out of a 1.5hr tutorial with Javier! Very positive and was great to pin down the next steps before the TS deadline.  What I've been doing over the last 36 hours is to 1. adapt my scheme to the site (river and grid), 2. look at a single light well and how it mediates vertically through the floors and forums, wrapping, dividing etc etc 3. Looking at the outer parts where the void is not necessary, but where I'm arguing for a form of terracing that responds to the river and the park forum, and square forum.  I've been doing plans and sections in sketches, and have drawn out the plan as shown below so I know exactly what the dimensions and proportions are.  The Rhino is combining the plan with section sketches into 3D which is still ongoing....  It's certainly making much more sense than it was yesterday.  The curved arches I quickly put in to have a conversation with Javier, but by putting them in, I'm beginning to see how they could be used to mediate my light wells...  Will carry on working...

Everything IS coming together, and the following IS making sense(!).  I'm going to push through to have some clear drawings for tomorrows tut, but have included an evolution (5 iterations) of the top floor plan so far.  It very much COMBINES all my previous studies and therefore isn't just another variation - promise!

Taking the blockwork pattern I had a few weeks back and the branching variation just before, I've combined the two with elements of the other ideas to produce something which is uber simple, and gets rid of any unnecessary curved geometry that really isn't helping for the moment. The following variations are a top floor plan, showing with varying scales the 5 different forums.  As a whole the building has 5 floors (5 forums). You gain access to each in a pinwheel motion from the previous larger forum from the floor below via a ramp - there will be no lifts, because I'm promoting chance interactions between forums as well as in them.  The way the light wells are positioned, they also define varying sizes of closed forums on each floor below.  So the ground floor which holds the largest Parkorum, will have various closed forums on the same level surrounding it.

This text is confusing I know.  I think it's better if I just get on with the drawings....

First attempt of the 5th floor plan (I begin from the top and work down for now) - this one has far too many light wells (void symbol) for programme to occur freely below.



Attempt 2; I've nested the upper forums together to remove a number of the light wells. It's a denser plan, but access between the living and seminar forums are not overlapping, so they need to be shifted with one another to ensure this occurs.

The plan below is a refinement to the previous version; indicating the progression from no green space - forum to all green space near the river.  I've also started to put it into 3D. Below include some Rhino shots.  There's still many many questions to be answered, but it's a start at least.

Some further guidance is certainly needed as I don't feel as though I'm clear.  I've been looking at how I can simplify each of the forum types - have some very clear rules that are super simple but give complexity in how they are associated with each other.  So I've been looking at a-periodic tiling that occurs in both 2D and 3D. It's leading me in an interesting direction although I feel as though I'm becoming stuck once again.  Here's some images below that give an idea of what I've been looking at.

Two images so far. After a clear steer from today's tutorial I'm looking at how to simplify each Forum type and how they are nested next to each other.  This includes looking at types of tiling (bottom image), the principals of which can be used to multiply the forum using very simple bounding box geometry, but how they're arranged and their associations give the required complexity.  Back to it!

Step by step I've been taking a typical example of one of the Forum types and manipulating it with regard to itself - dimensions, boundary conditions, connections, wall thickness etc. A typical Hall Forum has been drawn and a typical Square Forum.  I've also begun to look at how these are joining together which redefines the conditions above and the scope of the infill. 

The square bounding box contains only 1 type of forum nested within.  The region between the boundary of this forum and the bounding box is the area of infill - an area in which I don't design.  It's similar to the existing LA grid - The grid becomes my forums that connect horizontally and vertically.  The area between the forums is the infill in a similar way to the areas between the LA grid system.

Drawings will be continued... Below are variations on a typical Hall Forum