Well, I did it...made it to the end with a design! You can see my boards under "my work" tab, listed as my Fall 2009 studio work. I have posted the boards, as well as some model photos. Enjoy!!!
With the theme of the studio being Shaping Light, I was intrigued by looking into the way light can bend, move, and change shape. I started the quarter with the idea of taking cardboard and laminating it together with a flat surface on one side, and an organic shape on the other. The organic shape undulates from being thin to thick and creates an illusion from either side of the panel that this solid element is in fact permeable and light penetrates in varying shapes depending on the angle you are viewing it. I liked how it was the user that interacted with the object and that is how the light is transformed, rather than the object transforming the light. Trying to transform this into a concept for the Transit Station at Civic Drive, I wanted to focus on the idea of bending light and having the user experience the shaping of light rather than the object making a static shadow. I wanted to see how the angle of view would create interesting light opportunities both for the users and the station. In the site design, Zach and I created a sunken plaza to the north of the station platform. It is a large plaza that steps down 5 feet. We have also concentrated on creating context for the plaza to support, and a bioswale to the west of the plaza. When I started my design, the site design changed slightly. Connecting the plaza more directly with the bioswale, I created a feature at the west end of the plaza where the plaza steps down into the bioswale and a boardwalk rests about 5 feet above the steps. It plays on the idea of multiple views of the same thing, from above and from next to it. I also wanted to connect the plaza with the station platform, but still keep some security for the platform and separation of space. Playing with how the platform touches down to the plaza, gracefully and naturally landing in a trough of water to leads to the bioswale. The plaza also has small water features that dig into the ground and lead water run-off from the streets and sidewalks down into the troughs and into the bioswale. The steps of the plaza alternate from concrete pavers to grass pads where people can layout during a sunny day. The station shelter design is comprised of three major elements. The first and most important part are the panels that line the edge of the platform and the plaza. The metal panels are lined with plexi on the sides and are kinked in one corner to bend light as it comes into the station. The reflective nature of the metal will reflect and illuminate the station in unique ways as well. The panels are large yet moveable by the human hand, which was something I really wanted to include in the station. I wanted something that users could move and adjust to their liking, both for entertainment purposes and light purposes. Like my panel study, the panels are not necessarily what shapes light, it is the users who move the panels around the pin that create the light patterns and unexpected angles. At night the panels illuminate along the plexi sides which create a dynamic wall of strip lights from afar that kink or stand straight. It creates a way to shape light at night even when there is no natural light to play with, as well as safety and security on the platform with lighting the station. The next element is the roof. Steel beams lay atop the platform and much like a literal translation of the panel, it starts flat and kinks upward towards one end. Much like a frequency wave, it flows open upwards towards the sky and ends standing straight up. Depending on where the train enters, the roof opens up to the train, and gradually flattens back down at the end of the platform where the train leaves the station. The last element is the columns of the station shelter. Made of wood for a natural element that grounds the platform to the plaza, they are large and one piece from beam, to column to ground. Placed at every 14’ the columns vary in angle of the beam piece due to the changing roof plane. The column that stands straight up on the westbound platform entry stands as a beacon of entry for the platform and holds a sign for the station name. The columns stick out onto the plaza side and dig into the plaza ground where the trough of water leads to the bioswale. The columns are one of the main direct connection of the platform with the plaza, even though people are still able to move the panels from the plaza side. This term helped me force myself into learning new computer programs and use materials I’ve never used and construct something I have never constructed before. It was a learning process throughout the whole term and I would hope that I can use these techniques in the future in other studios and work. I know I still want to learn a little more into Rhino and its rendering engines you can use, because I had some difficulty finding my comfort zone in that area.
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I found this building on ArchDaily's website. It pretty much sums up the triangulation and faceting of the station shelter that I have started. In this case, it is a building facade and it is all in glass. Something to think about because in my review some people brought up that it might be a little to dark and heavy feeling inside and out of the station. Check out the link below cause it really is a beautiful facade! http://www.archdaily.com/7093/basque-health-department-headquarters-in-bilbao-coll-barreu-arquitectos/ We had our first of two Mid-Reviews on Monday. I was working off of what I had started about a week ago and moving forward with it at an overall perspective (Site Plan and Site Model) and also at a small vignette scale (Human Scale Perspectives and vignettes). Zach and I worked on cutting a site model together on Saturday that we can use for the review and for the Final eventually. As I was preparing my drawings, it became clear that I didn't really have a sense of scale for the large shelter I was designing, and realized that it could very quickly become a scary space. I am aware that it is a fairly solid piece, though through making a physical model and placing into the site, it didn't seem too out of scale, nor was there little light. It surprisingly had really nice shadows and light patterns on the inside of the station. So I forged on to the Review knowing that I probably would get some criticism about the scale, relationship to the plaza, and natural elements.
So at the Mid-Review, I started with a desk crit with Erica Ceder of FFA. I thought having the desk crit was really helpful at the beginning of the review because it gave me guidance as to what to speak on at the actual review. She had some good insight into what was wrong, what was working, and where I was totally off! Then after the desk crit, I had the review with another FFA Architect and Jim Pettinari. They both added some good insight and brought out some good advice for developing my piece further. Integrating nature more into the site, addressing the plaza as a program and create pockets of space for users rather than large open space. They also wanted me to investigate the structural system that would be used to span the 30x200ft space where the station is placed. They then said that some visits to successful large plazas within Portland would be helpful in programming my plaza. Overall, there were useful comments, and some issues with timing and what I was able to present vs. what I talked about. I hope that the next review would be a little more developed with the time frame, and hopefully the reviewers would be accepting of our short time frame of design. I found this on archdaily's website when I was researching for studio, and it immediately drew my attention. I saw the color, and the variation of density and how it undulated across the plaza, and immediately wanted to know what it was, how it did it, and if it worked in Phoenix's extreme climate. Apparently it's just off the shelf electrical conduits and unistrut hangers? They vary in shades of green and provides shade but still allows light to penetrate so it's not completely dark and closed off. They also included solar panels integrated into the structure that holds up the conduits to power the stations lights at night! I really want to work with a surface that undulates, interacts, and materializes from one thing to another and this might help me get somewhere!!
here is the link to the archdaily site where you can read more and find more of the pictures like the one below! http://www.archdaily.com/26182/phoenix-civic-space-shade-canopies-architekton/#more-26182 I chose to research Floating Green by the Chinese artist Ling Fan. It is an installation located in Pudong Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park in Shanghai China, that addresses the idea of a public lawn, and how it is no longer purposeful for what it was originally brought to a site to accomplish. “A lawn represents social commonwealth, an urban substitute for the productive soil of the rural environment.” (Ling Fan) It is placed in cities to represent nature in an urban context, and create a space for relaxation and slowing down. The lawn is supposed to be something people can use, whether it’s walking on, laying on, playing on, etc. But the problem with this idea is that the lawn slowly browns, and becomes an unsightly object that now must be maintained and kept from public interaction. It’s not uncommon to see a nice large lawn in a park and there is a “keep off” sign posted so that it stays nice and green with little maintenance. What Ling Fan wanted to accomplish was to bring back the lawn in an inhabitable way so that it once again became a part of the urban landscape. Ling thought that street furniture would be the best way to go about integrating the urban landscape with the human element once more. Ling was intrigued by the idea that lawn is supposed to represent a natural atmosphere, when in actuality it is a completely engineered element that has been genetically enhanced, mass produced into rolls that get shipped around the country on trucks. He saw the “Floating Green” as an urban element of lawn that detaches itself from the flat Earth and folds it and structures it to form an inhabitable piece. It draws on the interest that instead of “keeping off” the lawn, the user is drawn to “hop on” the lawn and touch the greenery.
I chose this as my case study because I liked the green element in it, and I was intrigued by the form and nature of the sculpture. I like how it goes from ground plane to furniture to wall in one fluid motion, much like how I see my project taking the direction of. I like this uniform element where it is one continuous surface that creates 3 or even 4 planes. Ideally, I would see my plaza being integrated with the station by being one surface that is continually wrapped from plaza floor, sculptural wall, to shelter piece. Ling Fan’s piece is just one example of how any material can be inhabitable and continuous with an artistic appeal. Sources: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/26/floating-green-a-grassy-bench/ http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/7557/ling-fan-floating-green.html http://www.fatflatfloat.com/floating-green-%3F%3F%3F%3F All images were found at www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/26/floating-green-a-grassy-bench/ This last Wednesday we did a design charrette with Brooke Muller's class from Eugene. Zach and I worked with a group of students who were designing a mixed use project to the south of the Civic Drive station. During our charrette with the Eugene students, Zach and I got some good feedback about what could be addressed better, and what worked well so far. We had two schemes presented, but we decided to further investigate the "dug-out" scheme where we designed a sunken plaza to the north of the station platform. The other scheme we did was called the "ramp-scape" that consisted of a large boardwalk/ramp that went over the station and connected both sides of the site with each other. One of the things we got in both the review and the charrette was that we should have kept developing the ramp-scape because it was intriguing and was something they hadn't seen before. It was a stretch for the budget and ideal phasing of the project, but conceptually it was interesting. The students from Eugene tried to help by figuring out how to blend the two schemes together so you can get that conceptual ramp feeling, but still have the separation of platform and plaza as well as safety and practicality.
I think for me in the next couple weeks I will concentrate on how to bring in the best parts of the ramp-scape to the dug-out scheme to make a cohesive and functioning site design. I will concentrate on the large "art wall" and station shelter and make it more continuous, something that become a ground plane, then wall, then roof, and possibly create something that would be similar to a ramp but more connected to the dug-out scheme. I am interested in this wall/shelter because I would like to investigate it for my final project at the end of the quarter. Overall, it was nice to get some student feedback and have them draw out some ideas that we hadn't thought of. So this weekend I checked out the newest MAX line through downtown to PSU. I chose this line because it was newest, and had some interesting station design besides traditional shelters.
One of the things I noticed about the Green Line stops were that they had different paving than other streets throughout downtown. The roads were treated with brick pavers around the pedestrian walkways (sidewalks, crosswalks, etc.). I thought it was a nice treatment to the line because it will slow down traffic as well as make them aware of the MAX and people using it. Another one of my favorite things about the new line were the actual shelters located at the stops. They seemed very industrial and architecturally pleasing. With stainless steel and glass being the main components to the shelters, as well as mostly stainless steel throughout the stations, it had a touch of roughness and permanence but also the glass lightened it up and allowed for a softness to wash the shelter. One of the things I noticed was some of the shelters were littered with leaves on the roofs. I liked the effect that it made with the fall colors being washed onto the glass. As far as access, the whole line really creates a pedestrian friendly design with the paths being extremely wide and open for security reasons, and the signs that designate the station name and number are clearly located and maps are made visible as well. The streets that the MAX runs on are very well designed, include a MAX only lane, are wide with trees lining the whole route. It made for a very nice ride that felt comfortable and safe at most of the stops. It was a great study for the upcoming station design in Studio. http://www.arcspace.com/architects/alsop/stratford/stratford.htmlThis is the link to arcspace where ALSOP has their new design for a train station in Stratford, London. It's a really cool design that facets its way from platform ground to platform ceiling. I like the wrapping of the skin and it becomes this undulating form that takes over the station and protects the passengers on the platform from weather and passing trains. Definitely an inspiration!
Here is the link to the site with tons of images! http://www.arcspace.com/architects/alsop/stratford/stratford.html So we were given the challenge of creating a sun screen for the overly exposed South and Western facades of the City Hall in Gresham, Oregon. Although there was a short term between the introduction of the assignment and the presentation date (5 Days), we were up for the challenge. I began with the idea of continueing my panel that I created a week ago and somehow translating that into a vertical sun screen of some sort. I looked into a horizontal shade as well but ideally it didn't seem to fit the issue of the western facade.
I also began to notice that the panel I made would be too intrusive on the window views if it stayed one large panel that sits on the window. Instead, I thought of cutting the panel into multiple strips of about 6 in. in width and the full height of the window. The strips would then be attached to a metal rod that would span the length of the window wall so that the panels would be moveable either by human manipulation or mechanically. At some points of the day, you could slide all the panels out of the windows view, or as the sun sets, you can move the panels into the areas you need the shading most. The panels ability to be manipulated also adds variation to the facade throughout the day. Since the panels would be made of cardboard and placed on the interior, the light levels would dramatically decrease and create a more comfortable environment for the employees of City Hall. The cardboard would block the direct sunlight coming in from an angle, and bring in the ambient light in general patterns based on the depth of each piece. The panels would be placed with the flat edge against the window and the organic side facing the office. The organic side would provide workers with a visually stimulating environment as well. so this is pretty cool. I found these images of cardboard lights that you can hang in your home. I dont know how safe they are as far as catching on fire...BUT it does look cool and makes me think that my cardboard panels have all kinds of potential for design! :) Check it out!
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meellen hagen . architecture student . blog . fall 2009 . archives
December 2009
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