Post on 09-Mar-2016
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Final Portfolio
Arch 101 Design Studio Tiare Noelle Schiller
Fall Semester 2013 Instructor: Jerry Lum
Shaping Wonder: seeking beauty, the unexpected, and the unfamiliar in architectural and interior design expressions (project duration: 9 weeks)
Site Analysis – Batmale Courtyard Site Analysis – Batmale Hall Courtyard
City College of San Francisco
Site Analysis : : : We chose this particular site in the courtyard because it had existing structures that were the most appealing to us and interesting to use as boundaries for our design. We also chose an area that was also a passageway for many so that our audience would be larger as well as be compelled to walk through our design. We also wanted to include the upper level and nearest spandrel to hang support beams from as well as give our design more dimensionality. We chose to use the classroom walls and windows as perimeters and edges of our design – in this way having a boundary that was could extend into the classroom. We finally wanted to incorporate the tree in the courtyard to enable us to integrate both the built and the natural environment. The site we chose essentially shaped the design we created as well as helped to script our narrative.
The wind’s path over City College Campus -‐
Site Research::: In our site analysis we also had to take into account the natural elements, such as wind and sunlight that are essential factors at play in our design: what shadows may be cast, and what elements will our audience feel as they are standing within our site?
The Sun’s Path over city college during the time of our proposed presentation:
Individual Design Work 1st Iteration
In this iteration I explored the approach of tessellation, using triangles. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map, I created a 3 dimensional model using matte board. Using no glue but only cuts made with a box cutter, I was able to create this tunnel-‐like structure. There are elements of positive and negative space, triangular windows to the outside world on the roof and walls. I created two tessellations to give a variety of forms – one using an equilateral triangle, the other using an isosceles triangle. If the outside panels were a map as Buckminster Fuller hap imagined it would be quite interesting…. or mirrored instead of white, it could reflect the outside world in a very unique way, and especially our site. It was a fun experiment in tessellation but not one that responded to the site as much as I would have liked, at most it’s a tunnel that could lead one from the hallway side of Batmale Hall to the tree in the courtyard or to the other classrooms. I decided to try and be more site specific in my next iteration.
Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map
2nd Iteration In this iteration I explored further the design approaches of sectioning and framing using bass wood. Using repetition but with a hierarchy of line weight, I created another tunnel-‐like structure with wing like elements hinting at the feeling of exuberance and flight. These flying elements I hoped could connect to the upper level of the our site (the railing or nearest spandrel) and the lower level where the width of the wood is widest I imagined could be nestled next to the tree to provide an intimate space in which to dwell next to it. I was inspired by Theo Jansen who creates kinetic wind sculptures for this iteration, which also have the same expressive features I was looking to interweave into my design: lightness, and an energetic feeling of flight and movement. I enjoyed the increased complexity in this iteration from the previous but hoped to improve it by adding more shaded and opaque elements.
http-‐//kurungabaa.net/2010/12/22/strandbeesten-‐theo-‐jansen/
Theo Jansen : Strandbeests
3rd Iteration For this iteration, to improve upon the last and give more elements of shade, I wanted to blend both tessellation and sectioning/skeletal elements together, as well as adding an element of color. I had an idea that the sun may play off these panels of color to create interesting shadows on the structure. The site I had in mind was not one that would get sunlight at high noon – the time of our presentation, so the color panels as mentioned my my classmates turned out to seem a bit superfluous. My hope was that the dome shaped tessellated area could be nearest to the tree to provide again an intimate space to dwell as well as shade and a proctective element from the wind. The flying winged elements could ascend to the second level. The longest pieces of wood that curved over the whole model I was told were a bit impractical, as it is hard to get wood that long as well as that flexible! I was also told the model seemed a bit disjointed as I may have tried to interweave too many different elements without a real center or focus.
Research and Experimentation : : :
Before building my next model I experimented with elements of weaving by using the thinnest bass wood I had and gluing them together with even rhythmic spacing and the slightest spin. Using two of these composite pieces I was able to create a vortex-‐like effect when the two were woven together. This I was told was reminiscent of the Japanese artist Shigeru Ban and the Centre Pompidou-‐Metz, who then became a design inspiration.
The Centre Pompidou-‐Metz Shigeru Ban Photo by Julian Lanoo
Team Selection : : :
Based on the iterations that were created in class, Rue Critchfield and I seemed to have similar aesthetics we wanted to combine and both wanted to build off the same site I had previously discussed for the same reasons, and thus we chose to be collaborative Design Directors for the final project. We chose our other team members based on their design iterations, output, similar vision and interest in the site we wanted to use. These team members were Carlos-‐ our Project Manager, Betty -‐our Bookkeeper, and Siamak – our Photographer. Brett we took on as he needed to belong to a team and really liked our vision, and assigned him the role of site coordinator.
4th Iteration Rue Critchfield and I collaborated on this draft of the final iteration together, which became the basis for the final model we built full scale as a team. We began with a blank model of the specific site in the courtyard we were planning to use, which Rue had built out of foam core. Rue had also taken a small triangular piece of paper and folded it at irregular but increasingly larger intervals and unfolded it, like origami. I used the edges of these folds that he made and extended them out with tiny wooden sticks, which started to mimic the irregular organic branching of a tree limb. Extending these lines toward the second level above the courtyard, and bringing in the woven spinning elements I had previously been experimenting with, we managed to create a model that became a conduit between the Brutalist form of Batmale Hall and the tree in the courtyard. We then decided to continue the form that is the hard concrete block of Batmale hall and break it apart into both positive and negative space by using a parallel rectilinear line repeated out as an extension of the corner of the building, which became the perimeter of the entryway of our design.
We also hoped to echo the pattern of the spandrels that extend the entirety of Batmale Hall by creating joints of wood at nearly 90 degree angles, spun and repeated. In doing so, we hoped to distort the viewer’s perspective of space and time, to almost slow them down as they approach the tree in the courtyard. In this way we wanted to soften the contrast of the two and create a space which harmoniously connects one to the other. We also wanted to create an intimate space where the viewer could interact with the tree and be protected from the forces of nature – the sun and the wind. The origami like triangle Rue had originally made took the form of a semi-‐tessellated covering next to the tree that provided this intimacy and mimicked it’s forms.
Final Iteration / Small Scale design Charette : : :
For this final model we simply improved the last by altering the entrance, where the walls of the structure are windows of the classrooms of Batmale Hall leading to the courtyard. We also built a second covered tessellated area on the other side of the structure in order to provide balance to the overall piece. Off of the second tessellation I extended it’s lines using very thin sticks of wood at irregular angles again to mimic branches of the tree. Betty also designed a chair which was inspired by our previous iteration, and you can see in the center of the model in one of the pictures. We felt this model was more harmonious and something we could start building from.
Materials Research : : : In order to actually construct this model full scale, we went to Building Resources and Lowes to look at available materials. We decided on using thin wood pieces from Lowes as it was the cheapest, lightest and most consistent material to work with, and closest to that of our original model. It is one that also comes closest to the actual bark of the tree: originating from trees but through an inorganic process, thus keeping with the theme of connecting the built environment to that of the natural one. We wanted to have honest connections, and decided on black screws and tapered bits of wood to make long extended pieces, both of which we desired to create a rhythm with. We also wanted to create a structure that would work with the environment and not against it, and thus could move with the wind if needed. In order to suspend and join certain areas we used black paracord and tied knots where certain joints met in two or three places.
For the covered areas we found that plywood would be too heavy and expensive, so we decided on a lightweight cotton fabric, the same shade as the concrete of the courtyard, again in hopes of blending two worlds together. In my experimentation with fabric, I found I could echo the curvilinear shapes formed by the spinning wood at the entrance by stretching the fabric at it's corners into the wooden frame we created as the perimeter near the tree. In this way, it also softened the joints of the frame as the one approaches the tree, and also giving a skin to the skeleton we had built. The fabric also served as an interesting method of blocking and framing the view that one has within the structure. In our experimentation with both wood, rope and fabric, as well as our investigation into different types of structures that could be built, we decided it would be most elegant using the site we had chosen to create a composite structure that was both tensile and compressive.
Thin milled wood
Installa@on : : :
C O N N E C T I O N S : : :
Final Installation and Design Narrative : : :
Our design attempts to transform the Brutalist built environment of Batmale Hall, and connect it to the tree that has grown out from a tiny square in the concrete of it’s courtyard in an attempt to harmoniously intertwine the organic with the inorganic, the and form a language in which the two may converse. In this way, we are providing a transformational passageway, a tunnel or conduit that translates the language of the natural environment to the built environment. We also wanted to create something that could transform the feeling of unease and anxiety often associated with sharp, acute angles into something welcoming, with an energetic feeling of freedom and flight while still remaining grounded to the earth and it's organic, natural forms, creating a composite of contrasts.
Our design intends to manipulate the viewer through a low tunnel-‐like passageway in which they must bow to enter a dwelling space we have built beside the tree, as a metaphor to signify they are entering a sacred space, often as you do when you enter a temple or in Japanese custom of conversation. In this way, we are placing an importance on this arbitrary outgrowth of nature, one we often walk past on campus or in a city. We wanted to create a space within a space, giving the viewer a suggestion to dwell and transforming the often mundane “city tree” into something poignant and allowing the viewer to have a momentary intimacy with this vulnerable yet resilient form of life and perhaps experience it in a new way… or even see how it’s form is echoed in our built environment using the forms we have suggested. Even in this intimate space, the viewer is connected to the outside world with a triangular wooden tube that extends to the other side of the tree, in which they may have chance interactions with passers by who talk into it, or can simply listen to the wind or peek out to see what’s on the other side.
Chair Design : : :
Rue designed a chair in which to sit in the intimate space, using a slab of Avocado Tree he acquired when his neighbors cut it down. Using scraps of excess wood from our full scale model, he built the base of it, weaving the wood together in a Japanese style with twine in a very harmonious repetitive design. Betty designed a chair with a built-‐in ashtray that echoed the triangular shapes in our full scale model to serve as a partition to the innermost open negative space within our model. It could also serve as a meeting place where people can converse, have a cigarette, and look into the classroom as the perimeter to our installation are the open windows into it, thus creating interior and exterior interactions.
Chair Design: Rue Critchfield
Chair Design: Bea Carbajal
Epiphanies, Realizations and Discoveries At the beginning of this project, I thought as a Design Director I’d be pulling all the weight of the project and in charge of geGng everything accomplished, but it turned out instead to be the complete opposite! Without the help of my design partner and en@re team, I would have never seen this project to comple@on. In fact, there were en@re days I could not be present, and the whole team con@nued to build without me, with deL skill and efficiency. I have never before been involved in a group build, and was completely blown away by the collabora@on of our different strengths brought together in an exquisite fashion to accomplish in what seemed like a nearly unachievable goal. I was also shocked to find it was indeed possible to create a small scale model, and build it life size, so that one is able to walk through it – a truly sa@sfying and exquisite experience, one that will last me a life@me. As a team, the project went quite seamlessly, although near the end of our build we had to improvise and get inven@ve, but I believe in quite elegant ways. Whenever there was a conflict, we would ask ques@ons calmly un@l the best solu@on could be reached. With such an incredible instructor to be our mentor, and set such a high standard of excellence, we shaped wonder in ways we had never dreamed! I am humbled by both my instructor and my project partners, and am ever more inspired by them to con@nue on this path of illuminated crea@on.
As an environmental installation, I believe the work speaks for itself, and I hope that it can inspire others to seek beyond the realms of their imagination.
Design Directors: Tiare Schiller and Rue Critchfield
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Design Team (from left to right): Brett Stone, Bea Carbajal, Tiare Schiller (myself), Rue Critchfield, Siamak Saadati, and Carlos Esquivel