FACILITY PROGRAM
The following information will be explained and refined through individual analysis and research. It is your responsibility as the designer to interpret the parameters like square footage requirements, number of buildings necessary, the use of existing buildings or land features in your design, etc. It is also you responsibility to communicate and substantiate your decision in the final products of the semester’s work. This list is a “core” program which suggests target space sizings and my be enhanced by your decision to add unique elements or to combine elements.

FIRE FIGHTING MUSEUM
+ Lobby space – 400 sqft
+ Public Restrooms – 300 sqft
+ Exhibition space – 10,000 sqft

FIRE FIGHTING TRAINING CENTER
+ Meeting room – 400 sqft
+ Large indoor activity/multi-purpose space – 10,000 sqft
+ Large outdoor multi-purpose space – 10,000 sqft
+ Volunteer Housing – 8 units @ 250 sqft including bath

CAFE
+ Kitchen – 400 sqft
+ Restroom (for use by cafe staff) – 100 sqft
+ Seating Area – 400 sqft

BUILDING SUPPORT
+ Mechanical – 600 sqft
+ Storage – 200 sqft
+ Vertical Circulation and Egress as appropriate

FURTHER CONSTRAINTS
+ How can the Training area space be utilized during off-time by the public? Identify one or more possible public uses or activities (perhaps seasonal) that can be accommodated by the large training areas.
+ You are to retain the old facade and large garage doors of the existing firehouse.
+ The height of your architectural interventions on the site should not exceed 3 storys.

In his essay “Stealth Diagrams”, Stan Allen observed that a diagram is “a description of potential relationships among elements, not only an abstract model of the way things behave in the world but a map of possible worlds.”

Please describe and elaborate on specific relationships, patterns, textures, or behaviors that you found in and around your studio site and surrounding context and have used in your diagramming. In the spirit of Steven Johnson’s book chapter, it might be helpful to address some of the following questions related to how cities change and evolve over time:

How can fragments of obscurity, accidental misalignments, and recorded mistakes in historical indexing be as important as precise historical readings? What is the advantage or disadvantage to both approaches? What is the potential in these blurred readings to develop possible new worlds in architecture?

What multiple histories and readings were utilized during the urban analysis and what was the process that could potentially lead to an architectonic expression?

What has changed (or is currently changing) in the context? What behaviors caused these changes? What has remained the same over time?

How do your diagrammatic studies map or index these influences (both on and off-site) as a reading of the context to suggest speculative and experimental design frameworks (space, sequence, geometries, ordering systems)? If it helps, you should describe some of the specific logics behind your diagrammatic decision-making.

Your writings should be 1-2 pages long, double-spaced. First draft due Friday, 13 November.

Please find three PDFs to read over Fall Break. We will discuss on Monday.

http://ilocker.bsu.edu/users/jdvermillion/BSU_SHARED/201readings

The first phase of the last project is described in this PDF.

Prior to field trip, while working in teams, each of you:

1) Decomposed an existing precedent building

2) Analyzed the interaction between building systems

3) Abstracted this analysis to a core conceptual ordering system(s)…

through diagrammatic drawings and models.

Now that we have returned from filed trip, you will INDIVIDUALLY:

4) Compose a new building design by (re)deploying this ordering system in the existing precedent’s site. In other words, composing a design from a key set of diagrammatic studies.

This is a quick exercise which will conclude at the end of the week. The following deliverables are meant to keep you on a clear trajectory:

Wed: A set of diagrams (drawings) showing your recomposed conceptual ordering systems redeployed on site, along with study models (minimum of 3). We will review via desk crates.

Fri: A final diagram and model of your project.

This accelerated timeline requires that you prioritize your decision making within the design process with a clear conceptual ordering idea which can be quickly deployed through diagrammatic investigations. Welcome back from field trip week…ready, set, GO!

To help your efforts over the weekend, here is a brief outline of our trajectory

1 Decomposing the Building and Systems

2 Representing/Diagramming/Analyzing the Interactions of Building Systems

3 Modeling and Abstracting the Conceptual Order and Patterns of Systems

4 Composing a New Building Design using this Systems Knowledge

While you are further researching your precedents over the weekend you should focus on the first step, i.e., examining the building as a series of systems which need to be described/dissected/diagramed for understanding.

Here are some carefully selected examples of diagrams which help you get started in your thinking/analysis over the weekend.

+ Tschumi1987
+ DIAGRAM 1 JASON
+ DIAGRAM 2
+ DIAGRAM 3
+ DIAGRAM 4
+ DIAGRAM 5
+ DIAGRAM 6

Hi gang,

We will be examining precedents for the next two weeks (before your field trip). Here is a list of candidate buildings. We will assign these buildings to teams of 2 or 3 this afternoon.

+ 100 Houses for Elderly People | MVRDV
+ Porter House Condominiums | SHoP Architects
+ Habitat 67 | Moshe Safdie
+ Aqua Tower | Studio GANG
+ 56 Leonard St (NY) | Herzog + deMeuron
+ Carabanchel Housing | Foreign Office Architects
+ Macallen Building Condominiums | Office DA
+ University of Cincinnati Campus Recreation Center | Morphosis

For Friday, teams need to amass as much information as possible (photos, drawings, diagrams, etc) about their precedent. Here is a helpful list of items to find and study about the precedent:

+ Structural Systems
+ Mechanical Systems
+ Envelopes/Enclosure Systems
+ Interior Spatial Systems
+ Context
+ Diagrams
+ Detail Systems (Repetition vs Variation?)
+ Writings / Videos / Podcasts of the Precedent’s ‘author’

Class,

Here is a PDF of the brief powerpoint we looked at on wednesday.  Operations on each slide are “keyed” in with the Rhino toolbars.  I hope this helps.

Link to Rhino Modeling PDF

Welcome to the 201 website. The syllabus and all assignments are organized on pages. Use the pages menu at the top to navigate. I will post news and resources periodically which will be tagged. You can use the tag cloud at the bottom of the page to filter these posts by subject matter.