Week 10

Searching For a metaphor.

After the submission last week a stronger metaphor was needed for the Howard Smith Wharves proposal so I began researching into new areas. A few issues with the project were that the concept of the building, having chambers with differing climates inside, could be placed anywhere, it was not tied closely enough with the Howard Smith Wharves. Another issue was how was the top of the cliffs to be connected with the bottom - one of the most important issues I feel for a successful Building. After having trouble with trying to find a metaphor in nature that was linked with the site and that was a function of a specific plant or animal I decided an "ecosystem" rather than an individual organism would be sufficient to 1; be a suitable metaphor to incorporate into a building form, 2; be a suitable catalyst and topic for learning and 3; be a way of connecting the top of the cliff to the bottom.

Some research into "Closed Loop" systems found a company in Chicago called "The Plant" which uses a industrial building in the middle of the city to house a farm that is a net-zero energy and zero waste system. They grow plants, fish, tea and brew beer all with zero waste. They use a special an anaerobic generator to produce electricity that runs on human, food and fish waste. this in turn powers the grow lights for the plants and heats the building. here is a diagram of their system.

http://www.plantchicago.com/about-the-plant/

How can these aspects be incorporated into a building. A building that was in the shape of a loop where people learnt about closed loop zero-waste systems that had a restaurant attached that used the food produced in the farm.

A few concepts were drawn up:

The first concept focused on a loop that wound across the cliff face which joined up to a series of chambers that each housed one aspect of the closed loop system, such as plant room, fish room, tea room etc.

The second concept I wanted to encapsulate the idea of a loop more strongly without breaking it up with separated buildings or an obvious lift shaft.

Plan View

South Elevation

Isometric View

This is a base concept where I will continue to resolve in order to accommodate space for the room with the separated room and restaurant. her issues to consider is how to successfully implement the learning aspects to the building.

Week 09

Project 2 Submission:

Week 08

This week saw the development of ideas and parameters to add on to the analysis that had already been undertaken. In addition to the analysis done last week exemplar projects were researched in order to form a decent concept and direction for the proposal.

Firstly the function of the proposal was contemplated. Recently a design competition was held for the St. Petersburg Pier in florida U.S.A. There were many proposals that were worthy of mention, in particular the entry by the firm BIG titled The Wave.

The form of this building is interesting but what was most interesting was the program that they proposed for it. As the building is water based BIG broke up the functions of the separate rooms to each house a different state of water.

This diagram shows how the building was broken up into the separate functions. This would be interesting to play with this concept of divided programs.

Another project that was studied was the eden project, which uses sustainable methods to control the climate that is inside the geodesic domes. The eden project also has differing climatic conditions separated into different areas. 

Fro the examination of these exemplar projects and the analysis already completed I came up with a rough idea for what the program of the future learning centre was to be. I wanted the centre to be somewhere where people could learn about different the climates of australia and their conservation. This would call for separated rooms or zones that each contained a different climate perhaps resembling this in some way. 

As the concept for the Folie project I worked on was based upon the framing of views as well as the metaphor of a bunker this was important to also be incorporated into the design. In the folie the group used the positioning of concrete walls in order to prompt users to view a certain aperture that would tell a story of the history of the site, this can be replicated with the newer design as well as incorporating the heavy, industrial feel that the bunker had. As we are designing in the group learning from nature i feel that it would be a great contrast to have the solidness of the concrete and bunker metaphor juxta-posed against a fluid and organic form.

When looking for inspiration for the form of the separated climate rooms i came across the work of Renzo Piano and his Tjibaou Cultural Centre.

The organic shape of the centre is a beautiful inspiration as well as being an environmentally sustainable design. When thinking about all the things that I would like to achieve with the function and the form of the building it could potentially look something like this, incorporating the bunker, framed views, the climactic rooms and the organic forms;

Again as the design group that I am in is specifically dealing with the concept of learning from nature it is important that I have a metaphor that is inspired by nature that is present in the design. After researching on www.asknature.org I came across some technologies and organisms that have functions that could potentially allow me to control the climates of the particular rooms using natural mechanisms for example;

These two animals the Buprestid beetle and the Bobtail squid (these are not the only animals with this function) are able to use special cells in heir bodies to reflect light of various wavelengths over the spectrum. The ability to reflect light could be harnessed in a building so that harmful rays could be kept out. If some visible light was desired harmful ultraviolet or infrared rays could be targeted to keep out. This could be used to keep the inside of a climactic room cool and would be appropriate for a temperate climate where you are trying to keep heat out.

Desert plants have evolved a function, due to the lack of water in their environment, to inhibit the evaporation of water as well as assist the condensation of moisture from the air by the use of tiny hairs that protrude from their appendages. This could be useful in the reduction of water usage and collection. this could be utilised to keep the interior of a climactic room humid to accommodate a tropical climate.

As we all know plants are inherently green and are so for a very good reason. Plants have a pigment in them that allows them to absorb the energy from the sun. As most people are aware the darker something is the more light energy and therefore heat it will absorb. This could be utilised as a function to absorb heat energy and contain it within a climactic room that was designated as an arid climate, trapping heat to be appropriate for desert plants.

From this point the ideas I have begun to research will be refined in order to present next week. The presentation has an allowance of 5 minutes, is to be diagram based and will be marked against how well each of these criteria have been addressed;

- Folie

- Concept

- Context

- Function

- Tectonics

- Contributory

- Presentation

Week 02 - 2

This week we had to form groups for our project 1 Folie Design.


I joined group 16, with Henry Bennet, Caitlin Lonn and Georgina Churchill. 


Project 1 brief:


The aim of this project is to design a Folie (see week 1 reading) in a location of your choice within the site boundary (see above) of Howard Smith Wharves. This project gives you an opportunity to study the site, analyse the context, and propose a simple architectural installation with a function. Your project should be an artistic investigation to find a way to communicate your message (subjective), as well as an investigation to provide a service for people (objective). You can consider this as an artistic endeavour to design a functional space.

Assignment Requirements:

1. This is a team project.
2. Each team needs to have 3 or 4 members (no more, no less, not negotiable).
3. Please sign up to a team with "Folie Project Team" section. (please scroll down to find it)
4. As a team, you will prepare 3 sheet of A1 posters to be exhibited. See Poster Guideline below.
5. There will be no presentation for this project.

Folie Design Guidelines:

1. Your Folie needs to provide a space to help someone to learn.
2. The Folie has to be at least for two people.
3. The Folie has to fit within 5m x 5m x 5m bounding box.
4. The Folie design proposal will be evaluated with design criteria below.
5. The Folie needs to be designed with all design qualities described below
   
   
   Howard Smith Wharves Site Information:
   
   
   
    Inner City Brisbane
   
   Howard Smith Wharves and Surrounding Suburbs
    Specific Site
   
   Figure Ground Map
   
   
   
   Urban Section
   
   
   
   Site Sketch
   
   
   Howard Smith wharves has a long History dating back to the 1930's. The original wharves were constructed alongside the Story Bridge to be Brisbane Central Wharves. The Wharves were purchased by the Howard Smith company and were in use till the mid 60's. The site features heritage listed sheds that were built late 1930's - early 40's and well as 5 air raid bunkers that were built during World War II in the early 1940's.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   (Images of sheds and bunkers available at http://www.ozatwar.com/bunkers/howardsmithwharves.htm )
   
   
   The folie design is to be evaluated on 6 criteria;
   
   
   Concept
   Context
   Function
   Tectonic
   Experience
   Presentation
   
   
   The design team had to think of ideas in order to satisfy all the criteria, in our first meeting various concepts were discussed.
   
   
   Concept: In relation to the concept the team decided to go in the direction of the historical value of the site. The long history would be an interesting subject to learn about and could be done through a variety of methods.
   
   
   Context: as stated in the concept the heritage value is very strong. The cliffs and the river provide strong limits to the site. The site for the folie could be placed to take advantage of the views around the site and out of it. Flooding is something that is not able to be ignored.
   
   
   Function: the function of the folie had to be some sort of learning space, although the definition of learning space was very malleable. Our strongest idea was to somehow teach the history of the site through some sort of function. Framing views seemed like a strong idea.
   
   
   Tectonic: In keeping with the industrial feel of the site it seemed appropriate to keep the materials involved very raw and untreated. Things like concrete, steel and wood would work best.
   
   
   Experience: The experience of the users in the folie would be to walk through a set pathway which at various points prompted the user to view certain elements of the site, therefore teaching one about the history of the site.
   
   
   The team came up with some concept sketches to see where the design could go.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   This concept focused on the idea of framing views in order to evoke a response. The design would have prompted the user to look in certain directions towards a historical element of the wharves. The design took the 5x5x5m restraints very literally and formed a dissected cube like shape. The design went through many phases but we decided to stick to the idea of framing views.
   
   
   
   The Views that the team decided to focus on were that of the Story Bridge, the Sheds underneath the bridge, Views of the CBD, views across the river towards Kangaroo Point and towards the other sheds.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   The Folie's was envisioned to be set into the cliff face, this solved many issues such as accessibility to the folie; now could be from the top and bottom of cliff and also that of flooding as it was out of harms way. As well as these factors it made for an interesting take on the site and enhanced views out.