Hannah

Hannah Craft: Architectural Design II

Project 01

For this assignment, we started out with a lot of research. In order to visualize this research, we made 3 collages.

Collage 1:
For this collage we had to use different images from magazines, as well as other materials, in order to create something that represents craeft.
I interpreted craeft as something creative and unique that is often made by had so that is what I made my collage represent.

Class definition of craeft

After making this first collage, we were given a specific definition to use throughout the rest of the project:

Craeft is an activity involving expert skill in making functional objects by hand.

Collage 2:
For this collage we had to identify how craeft is used by a specific architect. The architect I got was Glenn Murcutt

Glenn Murcutt is a famous Australian architect, he only works in Australia because of the familiar climate and conditions.

A lot of Murcutts designs are designed to fit within the environment and he has a saying of "touch the earth lightly".

Murcutt expresses craeft in his architecture through the locations within the environment, materials, sustainability, and unique details within the buildings.

Collage 3:
For this collage we had to make more of a grid with images that represented a craeft that we had chosen. The craeft I chose was glass.

Glass craeft can be broken down into 2 main categories,
stained glass and glass blowing.

I incorporated lots of images to show the process and final products of both stained glass and glass blowing. I also included some tools that are often used for this craeft. I also included a few images of buildings with regular windows to represent the transparency and reflectiveness of glass.

Concept Sketches

I came up with 4 concept designs for a glass craeft studio. All 4 designs were pretty similar because there are specific rooms/areas you need for glass blowing and stained glass making, however, each design has a slightly different layout and exterior design.

Final Design on Autocad

After some discussions, critiques, and consideration, I decided to go with my 3rd concept design for my project.

I then made a few small changes and created a floor plan that is to scale and also a section which cuts through right before the start of the gallery walls when you walk in.

Wunderkammer Drawing

I took my autocad floor plan and section and printed them onto a vellum sheet. From there I drew a perspective view of the gallery from the interior of the building and I strategically lined it up with the gallery walls on the floor plan. I also added a paraline drawing to show what the exterior of the building would look like. There are colored and also printed images of stained glass throughout the drawing to help resemble the craeft.

Wunderkammer Model

For my model I used watercolors on the background to resemble stained glass. I then made a 3D window frame that looks similar to a traditional stained glass window. I also included shelves with printed out images of stained glass to resemble the gallery part of my design. On top of all of that, I used paint, glue, and clear plastic to make pieces that resemble frosted glass with a wavy texture and also circles to resemble blown glass. The final thing I added was long dowels to represent tools like the blowpipes used for glass blowing.

Project 02

For this project we were tasked with designing either faculty or student housing for our craeft college. I chose to do faculty housing, for this I had to design 4 houses for the glass craeft faculty and their friends and family. The designs all represent glass in their own way.

We started out with sketching out 24 parti diagrams of possible concepts.

After that we chose 5 of our best partis (the ones outlines in red) and made a more detailed and larger version of them.

5 Chosen Partis

Concept Designs

After some critiques, we picked 3 designs to make actual concepts out of. I ended up also doing a 4th one for more options.

Concept 01:

This concept represents the different shapes and styles of glass. Two of the houses have very unique shapes and they have sharp, rigid corners. Those two represent glass like stained class and glass shards. The other two houses have a very organic shape with lots of curves and they are all rounded. These two represent more of blown glass. I also had the idea of having a drastic change with the solid walls and transparent glass windows to represent solid vs. void in this design.

I also provided a rough study model for this design to help better visualize the generic shape of the houses. I modeled one of the rigid homes and one curved home. In these models you can also see my idea of having sloped roofs, much more than you can notice in my sketches.

Concept 02:

This concept was one with more basic geometries. I tried to focus more on the overlapping and the material use rather than the overall shapes of each floor. These houses look like shipping containers stacked on each other, hence the name, which could eventually be the actual material used for the homes since it would be a more sustainable material. I wanted to represent glass in this design with have half the walls being solid glass with a vein of blue stained glass through the middle. The homes would also be angled so that the covered outdoor space would be in the back to embrace nature and view the creek out back on the site.

I also provided a rough study model for this design. This study model helps get a better idea of where things are located on the home, like the solid walls and transparent glass windows.

Concept 03:

This concept was a lot more simple than my others. I took four cubes as the buildings and then cut a circle out of the middle, which would have a glass dome over it. In between each of the homes is a road for parking and also sidewalks for walking to and from the homes. This design used very simple geometries to contrast the more extreme ones used in my first concept.

I also provided a study model for this concept to help better visualize the different shapes and also the void in between buildings. the piece on top represents the dome on top and its curved shape.

Concept 04:

This concept was done later on and this one was a combination of a few ideas. In the middle it is a large rectangle with opening on either side. Once you enter there would be a garden with real plants but also small glass sculptures that go along with the plants. There are also pathways around the garden which lead you to the first floor of all four houses. On the second floors of each of the houses, there will be a door that leads out to the roof of the rectangle building. On the roof there is a pathway around the perimeter and then the middle is open so it is like a balcony that overlooks the garden below. The rectangle is the community space and they cylinders are the homes. The homes have lots of windows and a glass dome roof aswell.

There is no study model for this concept since it was done later.

Chosen Concept

The concept I ended up picking was concept 01.
(Mismatch Culdesac)

After picking this, I went deeper into the details of the design. I ended up changing a few things like spacing out the windows throughout the floors but still keeping the idea of solid and void. I also incorporated a roof extension on all of the houses for a covered paring space and a driveway. You can see this represented in the 3D drawing and also the roof plan. I then worked on the floor plans and dividing up the space but keeping it very open because that is how you need space in a glass studio. I also made a rough sketch of a section of one of the buildings to get a better idea of how the two floors fit together with the sloped roofs and tall glass windows.

Schematic Design

I next went even deeper into the design ideas with a site plan so show how the buildings fit on the site. I also created a finalized floor plan that is to scale with only a few changes. I also sketched out all four elevations of two of the houses, one house was rigid and one was curved. I then cut a section through the middle of the site so you can see the interior of two of the houses and get a better idea of what it looks like.

Revit

The next thing I did was make my design in Revit. I focused on the site plan, first floor and second floor, which you can see below. These provide a clearer and more realistic representation of my ideas.

I also made renderings of the site to provide a visual of what the site would really look like.

Final Model

The last thing I did was build a model of all four houses that was to scale. I used thin wooden dowels to create the separation of each of the window panes, and the openings are all glass. I also included the road to help better visualize the flow of the site.