Experiment 2

Preliminary preparation work for the 29^th of March

The idea of this Experiment is to design a connecting building, a bridge and a faculty of architecture, in the negative space, between the buildings and significant trees, around the Square House building.

Using onsite observations, and the 3D model of the university you can find an appropriate area in which to consider siting your building.

Lets start with this weeks homework.

Using the 3D campus model, and either (if you feel comfortable) attend the site and have a look around. If you don’t feel comfortable, we completely understand. Please use so the 3D model to help you understand the building locations, heights and forms, and please use google (or other) satellite images to give you a sense of where the significant trees are. We will also try to have some photos taken and uploaded.

When considering the space consider your restrictions too.

You can’t demolish any buildings

You can’t significantly block any buildings sunlight (where’s north?)

You can’t block any significant thoroughfares (although I don’t mind you moving the roundabout that’s near the Square House building)

You can’t chop down any significant trees . We need them to breath

You’ve been asked to model in a ‘x,y,z’ axis cross, but please play around with the cross form.

Russells example is a basic form only

You should play with the proportions of the cross, consider different length, widths and numbers of each connection. Your building is going to emerge from this cross form, so take your time with it. Perhaps you wish to try some different options to give you more to explore as the weeks progress?

Here are some hand drawn examples from previous years to inspire you

As you are 3D modelling these into your copy of the University campus, consider which buildings you might connect to your new faculty.

You must connect to the square house….but which other building, or buildings would you like to connect to?

The gym so you can do some aerobics at lunch time? The law building so you can access their Library? Nida, and the you build above the road? Or the Round House for quick access to the pub

I would like for you all to consider another aspect of the assignment and prepare this for our next online meeting which will be Monday the 30^th of March

Ask yourself…What is the Faculty of the Build Environment going to need as a faculty of the future.

I want you all to look back and consider how these facilities have changed, how teaching has changed. I want to look forward and consider how they might continue to evolve in an ever changing society.

As an example :

As a student 25 years ago, we had only a very small computer lab of about 10 linux computers (that’s for the entire faculty). We had huge studios spaces, and the need for large drawing boards, and small portable ones. We hand drew, we had our drawings scanned and copied for presentation. We had rolls and rolls of paper prints to store… we made physical models from cardboard, requiring a library of materials, big cutting boards and a lot of paper recycling bins. Oh and bandaids after those late night accidents with cutting knives…lost the top corner of a finger- still a strange shape….

To prepare a written assignment we had to spend time in the library. It had several copies of the important books, but not many, so you could only keep them for a week or so, and had to write out by hand, quotes you might need later. Our home computers were the size of bird cages, and no one owned a printer. We submitted our assignments through a slot in the wall. There was very little online content and hardly anyone had internet connection at home.

We had a great social life, with a fantastic common room, with a pool table. We all met up weekly to share some drinks and have a chat. Every day we played pool together in between lectures. We unwound well, we made a lot of friends. We were good pool players!

This is already so very different to how you are all taught today.

Think about the faculty you are working in now and how in another 25 years the students needs might change. What can you do to ‘future proof’ this building?

Ask yourself….What’s wrong with this faculty building- could I improve on some aspect? What’s missing? What don’t I like?

This is YOUR faculty and you get to adjust the brief.

Russell has asked you consider the following

Lecture Theatre
Studio Spaces
Offices for Academic Staff
Offices for General Staff
Workshop
Computer Labs
Gallery
Research Space for Academic Staff
Meeting Rooms for Staff
Meeting Rooms for Students
Library

But are these things all needed?

Will Lectures become a thing of the past- where you watch them at home and ask questions via forums. We are only just now introducing these things- but is this the way our education will evolve?

Or is the one on one aspect still very important, and you gain so much by attending in person

Do you need larger studio spaces? Better acoustics in those studios? Powerpoints!!?

Or will all tutorials even become taught online. Perhaps as pandemics become the future we will have to?? Or do you consider the one on one tutorial important enough that we will find a way to keep it alive. Perhaps having a few weeks WITH tutorials and now having them online will help you answer that question.

Are there workshops that the Square house already has that you can tap into? Perhaps you don’t need more? You should check out their facilities and consider this. You are only a faculty of 100 students.

Or are they already over crowded, so you should include more facilities in your building? Is there something they don’t have that we really should have?

Library… what is a library these days. In our days it was a huge space full of books-essential to getting your assignments done. Is it now more about accessing online content? Do any of you ever go to the library to read or find books? Perhaps its size has changed, and what you look for in a library is a different thing? Or would it benefit you having lovely books with illustrations as inspiration? Drink cups of tea and whimsically think about what it would be to be able to design like the greats?

Is there another space we haven’t thought of yet, that you forsee as being essential in the Faculty of the built environment in the future?

I want you all to think ahead. Think outside the box. Create your own faculty.

In the first task that I’m giving you, I want you to have answers to these questions and then consider how much room they need.

Russell has given you a link to a past students spreadsheet where they calculated how much space their building was going to take up.

Have a look on Experiment 2s home page

https://russelllowe.com/arch1101_2020/experiment2/brief/brief_exp2.htm

This is a very important first step, as how can you design a building if you don’t know what’s in it, and you don’t know how big those spaces are?

Again, when I see you (although virtually) next, Id like for you think about that spreadsheet and please set one up for yourself. I want to know how you will be approaching your design and what your ideas for the future faculty are. Please don’t just copy theirs. I want to see original thoughts here.

Now that you know What is going into your building and How Big those areas are, start to think about connections.

These are diagrammatic connections are called Bubble diagrams.

Even though you are at a very preliminary design stage, having an understand of what spaces need to connect to what other spaces, will help you create your build form later.

To set up a bubble diagram. Start by drawing- in rough proportion to each other, the sizes of each space

From there consider how those spaces connect. Do you want your bathrooms close to your lecture theater for instance? Should the gallery be close to the student social areas? does the teaching staff want to have their quiet research space right next to the rowdy student social areas?....

Here is an example from last year. You can see from this example how the floor plan of the building is already starting to form just from this bubble diagram

S- Studio

CL- Computer Lab

T- Toilets

SM - Staff meeting room

O- Office

R- Research

CA- Common Area

Shaded region- path

By the 29th Id like to see your abstract ‘x,y,z’ axis cross forms in the model. More than one option if you like. Id like to know what is in your faculty, how big those spaces are going to be and what the essential connections are between those spaces.

If you could all upload this to your blog as a preliminary work it will greatly help me when we meet online next.

Thanks everyone and stay safe in these strange times

-Catherine