Sketch-Up : The Coolest Thing Ever

Today I learned a new program called "SketchUp." It's SO cool. It's an awesome way to represent buildings. I didn't learn how to use it, I simply was informed that I should use it, so I spent all night (until right now: 1:54am) teaching myself how to use it.

To practice, I began working on models/sketches of my movie theater, due next week for my final project.

I'll just attach the photos of the design I came up with. It's a pretty massive theater, but that was what I was going for, so I hope you like it!!


The overhang seen in the far left of this picture is a bus-stop waiting area. There is a bus stop and a T (subway) stop at the site, so I had to create space for those passengers to remain while waiting still.

This glass section seen below is an elevator shaft, for 3 elevators with a glass wall to exist.

A good shot of the elevator shaft and overhang/bus-stop again!

Here's a roof shot (you can see the sky-lights in the upstairs lobby, allowing maximum light in.)

The big block-like figure with no windows or doors seen on the upper right of this building is the movie theater.

Final Project - Week 1

Our final project is a 3-week project in which we design a movie theater with a city archive located on a triangular site in Kenmore Square in Boston. This is an oddly shaped, triangular strip of land, which will cause a challenge to us as we decide on how to arrange this theater. It can be either an indoor or an outdoor theater, but as you see below in the Google Earth image of the site, it is a very busy site, with lots of traffic and noise surrounding it. We have to take everything about the site into consideration in the process of designing our theater.
    We took a field trip to the site, and spent an hour diagramming and sketching things we felt would be important in the construction of our theater. I took specific note of the shops/programs that surrounded the strip of land. I wanted to see what kinds of people would be coming to the site and for what reasons. I learned that the site was almost similar to a mall's food court. There was also loud honking and traffic at all 6 of the crosswalk/intersections leading pedestrians to this strip of land, which currently acts as a bus stop and a subway (the 'T') stop.
    I decided that the theater could be built in one of two ways. First, it could either be woven into the scene, disguised to fit in to this larger area of food and entertainment. This would be dodging the need to compete with all the other stuff nearby. A second idea, is that it could be constructed as a new reason to go to the square. Rather than having people already in the area decide to attend a movie, it could be the initial reason that people were in the square to begin with! These are all kinds of things we really needed to consider. I still haven't decided how I am going to construct my theater, but to begin thinking about these aspects is important.

Here is the site:

Here is my interpretation of the site, with regards to those shops/programs surrounding it. In the center, is the site, where my theater will be built.

Our next step in the project involved familiarizing our selves with film in general. We began by watching a movie called Urbanized, on different ways people and cultures handle busy spaces in certain countries. Then the following day, we watched Pan's Labrynth, one of the most insane movies I've ever seen. We had to make a model that we felt represent the themes in the movie. This was a very vague assignment, but we all managed to produce pretty good models! (photo to come) Finally, we went to a movie theater and watched a movie and took note of how people act and the shapes and sizes of things in an actual theater. So overall, this past week was a very relaxed week, preparing us for the hard work this upcoming week!!

The Stacked House - Part 2

    A week has passed since my last post, and I've developed my idea of a stacked house greatly during that time. I chatted with my instructor, Ben Brady, who, by the way guys, is the coolest instructor in the whole program, and also the smartest. (Check out his blog online to see the kinds of work he is working on: http://benbrady.wordpress.com/) Ben told me that I had made great progress, and my floor plans I had created for the previous Friday had been well worth my time. However, somewhere along the way, I lost my "stacking" concept. Looking at the building from the front, it would appear stepped, like stairs, but from the side, it didn't have a stacked appearance at all. I also lost a lot of the concepts I had stated as my goal in making the house, such as creating light/dark space, public/private space, and interior/exterior space. So I went back to the drawing board and began experimenting with new floor plans. I wanted to simplify my project, rather than complicating it the way I had already begun to do. It was allowed to be simple, as long as it was practical and accomplished my concept statement's goals. So I decided my structure would be 3 identical stacked and sheared volumes, creating above and below space, and balconies.
 
    The floor plans I created were much more practical, allowing for a floor to the vegan, a floor to the butcher, and a floor to be shared. On the shared floor, I tried to create as open a space as possible, by limiting the amount of doors and rooms. I wanted it to be one big space, divided into smaller spaces by walls but allowing an opening in the walls to exist for people to pass through. Below is the floor plan of the first and second floors. The bottom floor was for the butcher (note his meat shop located in an outdoor space), and he second floor is the shared space (note the open-ness by only having 1 door to the restroom). The top floor belonged to the vegan, with another balcony to overlook plants and an open space, still connected to the second floor with a balcony stairwell.

 

Here are a few ideas of how I imagined the house would look from the outside.

First attempt: There wasn't consistency with the doors on the exterior (one door had a space between it and the window, and the third floor did not). The roof was too thick, and the balconies too high (an average balcony is 3 feet high, mine here were 4... too high!)

Second attempt: I adjusted the consistency issues, but didn't like the color scheme. It was distracting.

Third attempt: This is my final hope for what my building would look like.

 Here is a side-view/section of my building. I wanted to show this angle to show that the building is stacked both from left to right, and from front to back. Here you can observe the overhangs and the narrow passages that lead to larger balconies on the left and right side.

My axonometric drawing took 7 hours, and I am most proud of it. I decided to do an exploded axon drawing to show the different levels.

 

And here is my final product!! (my model)

 

Design Representation

Although we mostly work on our indivdual architectural projects, once a week, we combine with 3 sections and having "Design Representation" class. This is a full day of lectures and drawing on site, teaching us how to represent ideas through diagrams and in quick rough sketches. We go out into Cambridge and field sketch the same things, comparing, and discussing techniques and which ideas were successful or unsuccessful.

The first week, our design representation project was a bit entertaining. We did "blind contours." This means you go to a site, and sketch what you see, without ever picking up your pencil or looking at the paper. It turns out looking like a 5-year-old scribble, but it's really interesting because you can see the general shape of what you were going for, and it always occurs that there is some kind of shading/layers involved where we put more pressure with our pencil.

(Pictures of my blind contours to come)

    The Second week, we practiced working on vignettes, small sketches representing just exactly what you see in front of you. We went to a home built by the famous architect, Le Corbusier, and had to draw 10 sketches of 10 different views we see as we walked up a ramp. This seemed tedious, as each sketch looked similar, however afterwards, we could glance at the images and realize what was changing and what was static.
    Our next assignment was to use this idea of sketching vignettes to sketch the process of our walk from the dorms to the studio. This was our interpretation of the walk, so we could represent it however we wanted, using vignettes. It was a map of the space, but could be created with all of our imagination. Mine is seen below. The  triangular walkways are meant to represent "tunnel vision" as we turn the corners and look ahead at the long walk down the street. We were to represent the entire space, even if we had never paid attention to it. So in the lower right corner, you can see that I have never even looked to the left when I walk to work, I always am so focused on getting to the studio I don't take the time to look around. These vignette drawings were done on site, in a sketchbook, and copied onto this larger sheet of paper in an arranged fashion.

A final assignment of ours was to re-create a 1x1 inch square provided to us on a 12x12 inch sheet of paper.  We were to draw exactly what we saw using charcoal or conte crayon, including shading and shapes. Little did we know that these images would be combined together with all of the architecture sections to create a larger image. Here is the combined images, which we displayed on the wall in the studio. My 12x12 inch square is in the second row from the top, 3 from the left. I had a fairly boring section, and the crayon our section used was lighter, but nevertheless it was an awesome assignment!

Interpolation and Operation

Our second major project is a 2-week project that I'm currently still in the making of. However, there have been plenty of minor projects to help warm us up for the final presentation this upcoming Friday. First, we had to create structures based solely off of a rule-based operation, such as stacking, intersecting, adjoining, overlapping, offsetting, twisting, shearing, splitting, extruding, nesting, wrapping, etc... I chose 'stacking' as my operation, and have now grown very familiar with this characteristic.

First, we were assigned certain sizes to cut some strips, and had to create a space using only folding and our operation. I made three volumes and stacked them on top of each other, shearing them, and offsetting them, creating what appeared to be an artsy 3-story house. This was a great start, because it hinted me in the right direction of creating a real architectural home.

We were then responsible for creating models with contrasting circulation routes. I decided that since I had offset volumes, I could create two different circulations based on the arrangement of the stairwells. I designed two options, one which had parallel stairs that were outdoor leading indoors, and another circulation with interior stairs that were arranged at 90 degree angles from each other.

Next, I had to create either a portal or an aperture that I could see existing in this stacked house I would be creating. I created a goal in my building: I wanted to maximize light entering the home, allow it to enter in unique paths, and create contrasting spaces using the 'above' and 'below' spaces of the offset volumes.

I began by creating a diagram, showing how the light would enter a house that was constructed the way I had designed. This arranged drawing of the house would allow me to determine private versus public space, interior versus exterior space (balconies), and circulation paths.

As you can see, I split the rectangular box into thirds, offset them, and then sheared some of them, allowing for maximum light in the home, and maximum shaded areas on the offsets. This arrangement also allowed balcony space to be created.

Next, I created my portal. This diagram shows my though process. First, I had stacked stairs. Then I had a door that had stacked thirds that opened in opposite directions. Both of these ideas felt too heavy for my 'light'-based home I wished to create. I brainstormed a bit more, and finally settled on a door that was all glass, but had glass panes visually stacked, and different colored glass to create an effect of light in the interior as the sunshine entered through the glass. I also experimented with different windows I could add to the house to optimize the light entering and the variety of light beams.

Here's the model of the door I constructed.

 Now it was time to create the building itself. We were provided with a program for the building to make our building construction be more thoughtful. The clients for whom this building was being built were very close (brother and sister) even though they have very different personalities and scheduls. One is an carnivore (butcher) and one is herbivore (vegan/gardener). While they love each other, neither have much respect for the chosen career path and lifestyle. They share the space due to economic reasons, but they must work and sell their goods from their home. So the home had to include living spaces for each of them, and include a shared store front for the two of them to sell their product.

First I constructed a paper model of what I hoped my home to look like. I took three volumes and stacked them on top of each other, creating porches and interior/exterior contrasting spaces. I had hoped that because there were three distinct stacked volumes, that one would belong to the butcher, one to the vegan, and one level would be shared, since they needed to overlap lives at least somewhat.

The final step for this week was incorporating these ideas I've come up with so far into an actual building. I created floor plans and a cartoon sketch of what I believed my house looked like.

First floor: The far left space is the shop space and the patio with vegetables to be sold. The meat stand is in far back left corner of the shop. The right side of this floor plan includes the butcher's home apartment space - a kitchen for him to prepare his food, a bedroom, an office, and a bathroom.

Second floor: This is the shared space. It has a larger kitchen for the two to entertain from, with a dining table, and a living room with couches and a television. There is also a guest room, for when the brother and sister's parents visit, or they have other company. The porch of this level includes the herbivore's garden, where she sells her vegetables to customers.

Third floor: The third floor is the herbivore's space.She has a bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchen for her to prepare her vegetables, along with a television room and a small table for eating meals upon. There is a porch overlooking her second floor vegetable garden.

 

This was the cartoon sketch of how I imagined my home to look. 

After discussing with the jury at my Friday review, we've decided to hit the drawing board again, as my drawing lost a lot of its original intent while I began making floor plans. I forgot the overpowering "stacking" technique along the way, and made my building resemble less of a stacked figure and more of just any home. I need to reincorporate the 'stacking' of levels in my second draft of the building.

More to come later this week!!

The Busy Library

Following Day 1, we began our first real project. This one would take us about 4 days to complete, which I learned quickly was not a lot of time to get all your ideas out.

This project consisted of human motion and how it related to the architecture of a space. We had two small exercises to prepare ourselves for the final model.

1. Human Scale Transformation - we were asked to measure literally everything we could think of related to the human body; the distance between stairs, how high stairs are, how wide an average human is, how high a human can reach, how low you must crouch to drink water from a drinking fountain, what a comfortable seating height is...you get the picture.. It seemed like a tedious waste of time, to be honest, but when we began the final construction of our model, I learned how crucial the slope of stairs was, and how it directly linked to the rise and run of each step.

2. The Body in Descriptive Space (My Play Dough Project) - this was the most fun project ever. We could pick 3 adjectives from a provided list, and we had to create spaces that represented those adjectives. This was very vague, as we were not sure if the structure itself should look 'angry,' for example, or if the space was supposed to make a person inside the structure feel angry. So I decided to combine both of those ideas, and create spaces that made a person feel that way, and incorporated that adjective into my architectural design.

My adjectives were:

• Wet : I created a space shaped like a bathtub, with a large room shaped like a rain drop on top. If a person stood on the balcony in the rain, he would get very wet, for example. There was no cover. I made it blue, gray, and white, representing a rain cloud and a rainy sky. Even the trees were thought out - they were fluffy, as if they were clouds.
• Sharp/Angry : This space began as 'sharp,' hence its pointy shape, but as I proceeded, I decided to change it to 'angry,' for a variety of reasons. First of all, the colors were red and yellow, two completely contrasting colors that tend to be linked to emergency vehicles (firetrucks) and vicious situations (fire-breathing dragons?), for example. Also, I decided that a person in this building would get very frustrated as he moved up the stairs to the top, because the walls would continuously be shrinking in on you. It would be kind of frustration to be climbing to the top and then run out of space to keep moving up. The spiraling cone effect of the stairs seemed to anger me, so I switched over to anger. The trees were originally 'sharp' as well, however, if you think about it, they kind of look like creepy pine trees you'd find in a scary forest.
• Busy : The third and final model I made, and my favorite one to work on, was a busy house. This one had many levels stacked sporadically on top of one another, with different textures in the wall material (brick vs. concrete), and a variety of tree types in it. There were balconies, and multiple entrances, and it was raised on stilts as well. I enjoyed making this one because I could just add anything I want, and it would help me succeed in making an even busier home.

Then we began the final project  - "interpretation of program and design of movement." I chose the adjective 'busy' from the previous project, because I had had the most fun with it, and then was assigned a 'library' as my program. So my job was, in whatever way I wished, to create a 'busy library.'

I couldn't decide if I wanted to think of busy as 'busy decoration' or 'busy with people,' and then when it came down to 'busy people' I had to pick between 'a space busy with people,' or 'one single busy individual.' I decided to compromise and create a gradient space, ultimately leading you from one very busy area filled with socializing people to a quiet space with one individual busy at work on something.

So my transition went from a really busy public space, with outdoor grassy stairs, a terrace with tables, and benches, to an indoor public space with a cafe and small couches for reading. Then up the stairs would be a balcony overlooking the public space, but personally removing the individual from the busiest place in the building. Then in the following room, the person began to individualize, by approaching kiosks, magazine racks, computer labs, and the information desk. Although I did not reach the lower levels of my library, I predicted the stacks would be in lower levels underneath.

Here's the exterior of the building. I wanted to add some colorful shapes because this was the public space. It needed to be aesthetically inviting, and to allow visitors to feel comfortable in the space.

Here's a very rough model of the entrance room to the public space. Notice the grand staircase and the couch space underneath and behind the stairwell. There was a chandelier and a portrait at the top of the stairs inviting people up them. A bar and cafe are located on the left side underneath the wraparound balcony.

 Here's the interior kiosk center and information desk once you enter the second part of the building.

Here's two sketches of how I imagined the outside terrace and grassy stairwell for reading.

Another view of the outdoor public space and entry to the library.

Representation - 2D to 3D Translation

The very first day of this program, within three hours, they told us we would be assigned a project that would be due at 5pm. I panicked, seeing as I'd never worked on studio projects before, thinking I'd be an embarrassment and horrible. Luckily, I learned shortly after that, despite the fact that there were some undergraduate architecture students in my section, there were many other students in the same boat as me, with zero studio experience.

The assignment was simple.

The purpose:

• study the relationship between 2-dimensional drawing and 3-dimensional construction, through model making and precision hard-line drafting
• Develop spatial intelligence and visual thinking stills
• Understand drafting conventions, dimension, and scale
• Introduce basic tools
• Develop craft
• Understand intuitions and purposeful decision making skills
• Translate from 2D into 3D

 The instructions:

• Every student cut 4 identical pieces of foam core sheet
• Then each student was allowed to make 7 cuts on the original sized sheets to make them unique
• Then we were to combine them and form some kind of structure/model

It seemed easy, but when it came to assembling them, it took me at least 3 tries before I was even somewhat happy.  But here's what I came up with:

The final part of this assignment was translating what we constructed into 2-dimensions by sketching a section, a plan, and an elevation of our model. And here's what those looked like:

Overall, it was quite a day of work. But I managed to get by without anyone telling me I sucked, so I would call that a success! (They actually complimented my steady hand on shading in my drawings. Woo!)

Hokay, good bye.

Greetings, Friends.

        This marks the beginning of a long 6 weeks. Even in the first week and a half, we have produced more models than I thought we'd make over the entire program. But, I guess I should have expected that, being Harvard School of Design and all. Before diving in, I should provide you with a bit of background on my summer. I'm attending a program called "Career Discovery" (CD),  for students who think they're interested in architecture, urban planning, urban design, or landscape architecture, but aren't sure yet. It's pretty much an entire first year of typical graduate school squeezed into 6 weeks in Cambridge, MA. Even after spending only 9 days in the studio, I already know that this quote found on the CD website is true. A previous student explained it as:

"More work in one day than I think I've ever done, but more learning in a single minute than I think I've ever experienced."

       I'd say that's a pretty accurate description, seeing as we're in Gund Hall, our home base, from 9am until 6pm every day, before starting our homework assignments due the following morning, each of which take at least two or three hours. But the weird thing about it is that I enjoy every second of it. It's every kindergarteners dream, honestly. What 21 year old girl thought she'd be able to do 3 hours of homework on a Tuesday night using play dough, and only play dough? I sure as heck didn't. Until I finished my first project, which consisted solely of "play clay," the adult version of play dough. At Career Discovery, they make it very clear, right off the bat, that architecture school is incredibly challenging and time consuming. I had heard rumors that Architecture graduate students "have no lives," and an "early" night for them involves heading home from the studio at midnight. I kind of assumed that was just a way of scaring off the non-dedicated.

False.

        On my second night in the program, I was in the studio until security shut the lights off and announced it was "bed time" for all of us. That's when I realized that this might be the right place for me. I had been having so much fun with my play clay project that I didn't even know it was late. In my mind it was 9:30pm, and I had all the time in the world to complete my masterpiece. I think this is what architecture students talk about when they say, "They live in the studio, but it is home." In just 9 days at the studio, I have learned to know each of the 9 members of Arch. #1, my studio group, so well. We are a tight knit group, simply from spending all day every day together in the same studio section, moving late into the night. On those nights when we need a break, it's become habit to bring the party to the studio, rather than leaving the studio to go to a party. For example, Tuesday night movie night at the studio was pre-gamed... It didn't seem like a problem, and the instructors did not discourage it. As long as our work was done, why not throw a little alcoholic creativity into the projects? Sometimes people's best work is done under the influence... look at Dr. Seuss, and Walt Disney. Rumor has it they were a little loopy in their creation/design process. The teachers encouraged that we "maintain a social life" rather than "living in complete seclusion," by "working with some wine and cheese." Well...if the teacher says so.....

        Anyways, to sum it all up, in 9 days at the studio, I can already tell that architecture and design is the right direction for me. I have enjoyed it so much that I cannot imagine any other lifestyle. Screw the money and the fame... my eleven year old dream of being a movie star has 100% dissolved, and I'm pretty sure my fourteen year old dream of being the doctor who cured cancer disappeared when I discovered that blood makes me woozy. Architecture has answered my prayers, and if nothing changes, I see a loooooong future of it ahead of me.

       Today they told us that as an architect, you will not ever retire, but I almost think that the enjoyment I'd get out of the job would be worth working until the day that I die. I guess we'll have to see about that!

Enjoy the upcoming weeks posts!