Angel Hernandez Hernandez: Architectural Design I
Project 1: Backyard Cottage
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During the first nine weeks of this class, we were assigned a project. The project was making a backyard cottage for the city, specifically a cottage for a craftsmen. Everybody was assigned a craftsmen and a site; the craftsmen i was assigned was a jeweler.
Craft Investigation
I started my investigation by firstly researching a couple of cottages, just to get an idea of how one should look like. And then I looked up how a jewelers workshops would look like, and I realized they only really need enough space and storage. And after that i went on to lookup different gems and crystals.
Concept Designs
After a couple of days of researching for a couple days, we were them told to make at least six concept designs that incorporates features that are unique to our craftsmen. Since my Craftsmen was a jeweler, I had to somehow incorporate that into a cottage, with that I created 5 unique concept designs; these are 3 of my concept designs:
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Schematic Design
I decided to choose this design over the others. Starting off with the floor plan; geological crystals aren't perfect squares or triangles. it tons of different faces all around it, the wall in the front that recedes back by 2 feet resembles the different faces in a geological crystal. The way the rooms are designed, the sharp and imperfect slants in the walls, also resemble crystals. Moving on from the floor plan to the roof, looking at how jagged especially the tallest peak, resembles the tips of geological crystals. Out of all the designs this one closely resembled the jeweler craft compared to the rest.
Final Design
With the final design, it didn't change a lot compare to its concept design. Though the floor plan did get altered a bit, first of it was mirrored, the entrance now being on the left. The way the rooms are arranged, and how they're shaped, resemble topaz. Since topaz is commonly square or rectangularly shaped, and looked up multiple topaz jewelry pieces like: necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets. eventually I came across an earing that had 3 rectangular topaz pieces stacked on each other, with the smallest at the bottom and biggest at the top.
Project 2: Craftsmen's Guesthouse
To complete our exploration of CRAFT, we were told to design a residence for a guest craftsmen at a modern craft guild that was meant to be placed on the Old Alton Bridge. The guesthouse is meant for temporary housing, so it wont be for just one profession of craftsmen, its for all of them. With that in me mind we need a design that works well with the environment and that could be used by any profession of craftsmen.
Research
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In the beginning we visited the "Old Alton Bridge" site, we photographed and measured the bridge. these measurements would heavily influence the way our design would fit in the bridge.
Other things we had to consider like the bridges trusses, which limit the height and width of the building. The surrounding river, trees, and the highway close by also affects the way we would design it. |
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Concept Designs
Like last time I came up with three different concept designs:
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Concept 2
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Schematic Design
I went with my first concept, deciding that it was the best one. Throughout the process of making the early schematics, its shaped changed. Starting with an additional support pillar in the middle, so that it wouldn't just collapse from the middle. The bedrooms are on opposite sides of the building and the living room and kitchen/dining area are in the middle for easy access for both bedrooms.
Final Design
By the time the final plans were done, the house got longer taking up more space on the bridge. The tube-like corridor was replaced by rectangular prism, for practicality. Curved walls and ceilings, especially ones made out of wood. At this point the proper materials I had in mind for the house were established; dark wood for the Rectangular prism corridor, and white brick for the cubes on either side of the house and the pillar in the middle.
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