Anna

Anna Nguyen: Architectural Design I

Project 01: Prairie Pavilion

This project introduces us to the Texas prairie and its beauty. We went through a process that included, research, brainstorming, sketching, building and presenting. We were assigned to create a pavilion that represent and emphasized what the prairie is with an adjective that we think best describes what the prairie is. It was a step by step process and the end results could have not been better!

Taken by Stephen Fuqua

Research: The Texas Prairie

A bit of our architectural process is actually researching the landscape. The goal of this research is to create something that can elevate or embody more of the landscape. From the research we used a bubble diagram to pick out as many adjective from the research and just the prairie itself. With all the possible adjectives we can come up with, we chose our favorite adjective and created a word drawing from there.

'Flourishing' Word Drawing

FLOURISHING

Developing rapidly and successfully.

THRIVING.
PROSPERING.
BLOOMING.
EXPANDING.
DEVELOPING.

In my case, I chose the word "flourishing". Despite the other factors of the prairie-- its expansiveness, flat area and wildlife, I decided to choose a word that encapsulates its growth and greenery. I was always a fan of nature's greenery and the concept of its cycle of growth. The word "flourishing" also can hint at its expansiveness because of its endless and rapid growth. In my word drawing, you can notice that there are no circular shapes or round shapes in there. I found that though circular shapes may convey flourishing and blooming more accurately as you can see those organic shapes in nature, I wanted to see if angular shapes can also convey growth.

A Texas Prairie Pavilion

Parti

A Parti is essentially a main idea that us architects collected from all of our different trialing ideas. Below are my parti studies and elevation study. I attempted to convey the prairie as "flourishing" with the help of the wide windows and expansive views that is offered from my pavilion with some of the studies. The pathway of the building can also transcribe my word because the entrance starts a bit smaller and then the building suddenly "grows". My other two parti diagram studies, I did not enjoy as much as the final because it did not capture the word as much as I wanted it to. Their flows were not to par and I could not envision a building with them.

'Flourishing' Parti Diagram

Parti Studies and Elevation Study

With my final pavilion parti diagram, I created three study models. Unfortunately, I had to tear of up first two study models because I needed some of their parts to create my final model. But below are different viewpoints of the final study model I did and decided to reference my final model off of. I added some railings as well as different floors onto this final one which I did not do for the first two.

Study Model

Pavilion Study Model

Final Model and Drawings

I referenced my final model to my final study model with the railing and different floors. But I also added a staircase and some extra details to the railings as well as a grass patch with a stone path. The most difficult part of creating the final model was making sure the railing stayed up. I had to wait at least a minute to make sure each stick stayed up and as well balancing each piece of the railing to ensure its stability. My final drawings below showcases my model's different side views and floors. I redid the elevation drawing twice because I wanted to make sure my pencil lines represented the right weight of the parts of my pavilion.

Project 02: Prairie AirBNB - Flourishing

Taken by Sean Fitzgerald

The prairie can be beautiful place to venture into and explore more of its environment. This project we were asked to create an AirBNB for visitors to rest in and find the prairie within the building itself. Again, we were asked to tie our word that best described the prairie to us to our AirBNB.

Concept + Schematic Design

One of the several floor plans created to ensure the best placement for rooms and features.

Brainstorming ideas through schematic design.

Study Models

This is the first study model of this project and it was one whole building in contrast to the floor plan above. The idea here was to showcase 'flourishing' through the growth of the building but Mr. Carson suggested going further with the word. He suggested that I should open up the courtyard a bit in order to further convey 'flourishing'. I thought that was a great idea.

I broke the building into two pieces in my second study model and found that using the courtyard as a center of the growth was a good way to show expansion. The idea with this is that the courtyard can act as a growth point and expand from openings and go beyond the building.