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arch201_2009project01

Your first project will be to design a home for an art gallery owner. The site is 60’ x 15’ on the edge of a small urban grid (see figures below). Comparing the desired square footage to the site footprint, it is obvious that the home will have to be tall—an opportunity to think of spatial sequence in terms of carefully studied lateral and vertical circulation systems. The following is a list of spaces/events to be designed for:

- Gallery for collection (Total 800 sq ft)
- Office (200 sq ft)
- Kitchen (250 sq ft)
- Entertaining Space (Total 800 sq ft)
- Bed/Bath/Private (300 sq ft)
- Garden Space(100 sq ft minimum)
- Clearly Articulated Vertical Circulation

Several points and constraints should be noted for your decision-making:

- You are encouraged to overlap spaces and functions.  For instance, gallery space and entertaining space might coexist together in certain parts of the home (this is just one example).

- Some of the programmed spaces mentioned above would only be used at certain times of the day or only intermittently. You should consider your own ideas of additional activities that could take place in these spaces (entertaining space, garden space, etc) and which could be facilitated on a daily basis.

- The vertical circulation should be a key spatial and organizing system for the home (not a peripheral system to be hidden.  Please consider how the vertical circulation (be it ramps and/or stairs) could facilitate and connect the above programmatic activities, as well as provide visual barriers to more private spaces.

- Consider verticality as a means to organize/stratify uses and privacy concerns (building sections will be key to explaining this vertical layering.

- One the ground level of the home (for the purpose of this project, the first 10′ from the ground) you have to strictly adhere to the site footprint-no violations, no exceptions.  After 10′ you are allowed to “bump out” from the site footprint an additional 2′ in plan orientation for only 50% of the building façade surface area (there are no restrictions on “bumping in”).  The height of the home should not exceed 60′-this gives you an envelope of 60′ (length) x 15′ (width) x 60′ (height).

- One last point-please interrupt me to ask questions.  No question is right or wrong, and class participation and discussions are a key component of learning.  I will constantly and consistently ask each of you many questions throughout the semester-I expect the same from each of you.

DESIGN OBJECTIVES:
To understand form- and space-making as an iterative design process which uses a diverse set of tools, skills, and media in an opportunistic fashion. Examine the creation of space within the framework of an experiential sequence of spatial opportunities. Reflect on the importance of rules and constraints within a design problem and its resolution.

SKILL BUILDING OBJECTIVES:
- The careful and rigorous craft of creating physical models and orthographic hand-drawings.
- Digital modeling skills and techniques including transform, drafting, and surface modeling operations.
- Graphic skills and methods including Photoshop and Illustrator basics.

ASSIGNMENT ONE: Study Model
Due Wednesday, 26 August

Your first assignment is to study this problem with a study model(s). For Wednesday, please carefully put together a study model of the project at the scale of 1/4” = 1’. Include at least the blank wall of the existing, adjacent building (which is 60’ tall and 60’ long).

“Without rules, there are no freedoms.” -Leonardo daVinci

FURTHER MODEL CONSTRAINTS
You are only allowed to use seven (7) “planes” or flat sheets of material. You can shape these as you wish, and you can (and are encouraged to) perform an unlimited number of folds, slices, and hole cutting operations to the sheets to create spatial complexity. 1 or 2-ply white board is recommended. This “mind-bender” will hopefully help you think in terms of careful positioning of floor and wall planes—of course, most spaces do not need 4 walls and a ceiling with a standard door opening. Think in terms of physical and visual spatial flow and sequencing. Your only other responsibility before Wednesday is to purchase Rhino 3D modeling software and have it installed on your laptop.

Further instructions and guidance will be given each studio meeting, but in short, here is the tentative schedule for Project One:

MONDAY
Studio and project introduction
Deliverables for next meeting (Wed): physical study model

WEDNESDAY
Rhino Modeling Introduction
Discuss Study Model Outcomes + Transformations Phase
Deliverables for next meeting (Fri): Transformations Matrix

FRIDAY
Rhino Modeling Skill-building Session
Deliverables for next meeting (Mon): Hand-drawn Orthographic Drawings – Plans, Sections, Elevations (with entourage) + Digital 3D Model

MONDAY
Review designs / vetting against codes, life safety issues, structure, circulation
Discuss spatial sequencing
Deliverables for Final Review (Fri): Spatial Sequence Matrix

WEDNESDAY
Discuss on representation techniques and Rhino camera control + Skill building with Photoshop and Illustrator
Deliverables for Final Review (Fri): Section Perspective

FRIDAY
Reviews
Deliverables: Study Model, Transformations Matrix, Orthographic Drawings, Spatial Sequence Matrix, Section Perspective