interfaith center

my proposal and the fall quarter for studio were wrapped up today. i presented my project this morning so all that is left is turning in my portfolio for the quarter. below is my project with explanations/reasonings behind my design:


- this highlights some key structures in Boston as well as the common building materials used in the area




-why i chose my site:
1) visibility to surrounding area
- it can be seen all the way from downtown and the cambridge area, making it an intriguing place to visit
2) establishes an emotional experience for a visitor traveling through the different zones: noisy --> natural buffer --> cleansing journey over the bridge --> worship
3) spiritual interaction with water
- high tide allows you to physically touch the water and low tide gives the sense of floating above the water



-two main aspects taken from my vernacular studies of the Puritan settlers that drove the design for my interfaith center:
1) religious views: restrictive views that did not allow for conflicting beliefs. this view is like a box that does not allow anything inside of it. by "exploding the box" i am signifying the breaking down of the hindering ideals behind religion and creating a form that represents the intentions of the structure
2) town layout: the puritan town layout was a radial scheme with houses surrounding the church/meetinghouse. this layout was successful in creating a cohesive community feeling so i applied this concept to my floor plan. i revolve all of my worship rooms around the lobby (which i have established as the most important room because it is the main place of interaction amongst the visitors).



-a radial scheme floor plan revolves around the central lobby space. this space is the main room of interaction amongst visitors and is a place where learning and the bringing together of conflicting people/cultures/religions will occur. i incorporated a cafe into the space to help with the facilitation of interaction. what better way to learn from someone than to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee or pastry at the same time.



-the sections show the functions of the spaces and the zones that one will travel through when reaching the site. also, because my building sits on the water i creating a columnar system below that acts functionally and aesthetically. when the water is low the building looks as though it is hovering above the water and when the water is high the building looks as though it is one with the water as it floats on top gracefully.

proposal tomorrow

i have my studio proposal for the interfaith center design tomorrow at 11 a.m. we are given 3 minutes to present our project and then a 10 minute dialogue with the jurors. ive narrowed down the main points i want to present tomorrow and am pretty confident with answering the questions i may be presented with. i also have a BUNCH of sketches due tomorrow which have been put off for quite some time, so now its really coming back to bite me. hope it goes well tomorrow, wish me luck, and ill probably post my proposal with pictures of my boards and model in the next few days

moving in the right direction

an informal pin up review was held yesterday for us. we combined with another studio section and ill just tell you that it was a wasted 4 hours of time. we were given 2 minutes to speak about our projects and then given feedback. however, some students decided to speak longer and the instructors decided that 15 minute reviews would be adequate for getting us out on time (it also didnt help that it took everyone an hour to pin up). after my presentation the only feedback that i got for my project was the fact that i incorporated food into my design. having a cafe in my interfaith center was definitely a driving force because i feel that food is a great way of initiating conversations for people and an easy way of learning about other cultures.

other than that simple comment i got nothing in return as far as my project. so, now im just going to work on my presentation boards a little more until friday. i feel that my project is very strong, and although my design isnt flawless, it shows the concepts that i am trying to convey and is a design that i feel really tries to successfully address the issue of establishing a working interfaith center.

my layout:
board 1: shows my overall site and the culture that inhabits it. i have pictures of typical boston structures and what i also want to show is its location on the map. i want to signify the importance of food in this board since it is a driving force for my design and i also want to show the common materials used in the area.
board 2: this will show my specific site. i have diagrams of the affects placed on my site and how i will wish to address them.
board 3: diagrams of my preliminary building forms, experiences through the spaces, and my connection to the vernacular. i definitely need to make the connection of my building to the vernacular a very important aspect. it is the reason for my buildings design and i do a good job of saying it but i also need to SHOW it.
board 4: floor plan. location of rooms and chart showing why room are located where they are. im also showing preliminary floor plans to give an insight as to my process
board 5: sections. these will be huge factors in showing the placement of my building on the water and how it structurally works. im showing a site section along with a few diagrammatic sections that will showcase some of my ideas behind design reasoning.
board 6: exterior perspectives. these will give the person a true feeling of what the building will look like, from its materials to the overall feeling of being in the space.
board 7: interior perspectives. these will show the "life" of the space and how people will interact. i am choosing to show the indoor lobby and the outdoor garden platforms. i want to show the life of the lobby and what the space would feel like, and i want to show the outdoor gardens use of incorporating the water into spiritual enlightenment.

the project is due on friday and i will have the weekend to establish a successful verbal presentation. i am very confident in my speaking ability and feel that whatever i have not conveyed in my visual presentation boards i will make up for in my verbal communication.

trouble trouble trouble

im getting really stuck on my project. i have a really strong floor plan premise and good foundations for where i have placed all of my rooms. the one thing im having a lot of trouble with is the form that my building will take. i want the place to represent an area where someone can come worship their certain faith while at the same time learning the disciplines of the other faiths. my basic idea is the use of a very central and large lobby area where the social areas will be. off of this, i have the main worship areas: the main auditorium, outdoor amphitheater, and personal worship rooms. i want these rooms to be very dramatic and function well.

ive sketched about 1000 different options and have made a dozen models but the form of the building just isnt come along like i would hope. however, i feel that i have a really good idea buried somewhere in my thoughts and i just need to get the expression out on paper and i will fly through the drawings for it. countdown to mondays preliminary deadline starts NOW!!

site

the site for my project is set on the southern bay of the charles river, right next to boston university. the site has many advantages to it as it is a focal point for viewers from across the bay as well as close up to the building. this will be a great aspect for attracting people to come to the center and hopefully come inside to check out what the building is all about.

main concepts in the works:
- central lobby/cafe/meeting area that forces interaction and involvement of people at the site
- dramatic north face to entice viewers to visit
- linear or radial plan
- location is next to boston university, enhancing the aspect of combining people of many different backgrounds. kids come to school from different areas/religions/races/countries just like people of different religions will come to my site
- link between puritan vernacular study from before
~ town buildings surrounded central church/meetinghouse just like my rooms will surround my central lobby area

things i want to accomplish:
- a place that successfully incorporates interaction with visitors
- dramatic form
- successfully flowing circulation to establish a strong emotional experience
- very thought out process that develops a well conceived solution to the program



-my site and analysis of area (red square is my specific site)

final project

the final project for the fall quarter is going to be a very extensive one. we are to design an interfaith center where people of any religion can come to our site and practice their religion free of prejudice and seclusion. this project is going to carry a heavy weight on my grade as it is the pinnacle of the quarter and the way to show my progression throughout this studio. im really excited for it as i already have a few ideas flowing so im ready to get down to work

vernacular puritan architecture

below i have posted the presentation boards i completed for the first part of the newest project. after studying the puritans i really focused on how their towns were formed by their religious views and how/why they used such materials. i felt that i did a good job of analyzing and clearly showing my analysis on the board but my professor didnt really agree with me. however, much of his dislike was with my abstract drawing which i agree was not as thought out as it should have been as i came up with it at 5 in the morning and on 1 hour of sleep. anyway, i will rework that as it is the basis for our next project.



- board 1 showing colonial boston settlements and the drastic change to present day boston



- board 2 shows a diagram of the main aspects that affected the colonial vernacular and below is the typical town layout and how centralized the church should be in the puritans eyes



- board 3 shows simple diagrams about materials, building layout, affects of weather, and adaptability

presentation!

tomorrow is another big day as i have a formal presentation due on my vernacular analysis. were required to have 4 boards: 3 contain analysis on the vernacular we studied and the final board is supposed to be an abstract expression of what we feel is the very basis of the culture of that vernacular. its pretty much a piece of art, so right now i tentatively want to keep the abstract very simple to signify the importance of simplicity that the puritan settlers of boston placed on their buildings.

tonight is going to be a long night but im feeling decent about what i have. ive been flip-flopping a lot on this project due to some lack of guidance as far as what is required but ive done a lot of research and if i put it all together how i want it i think i can present a good analysis. no sleep for me tonight which should be interesting because i was up late last night and i have margarets formal tomorrow. should be interesting

colonial sketch

-sketch of a colonial home using black pen and pencils

colonial times

our next project involves the analysis of vernacular architecture (architecture built by the people at its very beginnings). Being assigned "Cold Climate" vernacular architecture i chose to research and analyze colonial houses of new england. going back to the vernacular architecture of colonial times takes me to the saltbox homes and the cape cod type housing. these homes were simple in their designs and reflected the people way of life at that time. no rooms were established that were not absolutely necessary and privacy was a luxury and very scarce. much of the designs were to temper the harsh new england weather. sloped roofs to minimize snow build up and to counter the wind, north facing windows were absent to keep in as much warm air, and a central fireplace was the only means for heat and light at night time.

from my overall research i need to ultimately boil my analysis down to one specific building. which building i will choose i am not sure yet, but i will ultimately be designing a building program to fit this cultural identity. as for right now i need to provide 4 presentation boards: 3 for my cultural/vernacular analysis, and one board for an abstract expression that conveys the cultures internal spirit. what that means exactly i will need to clarify, so for now i am focusing on laying out my boards in a concise manner to express, once again, only the main ideas of my analysis. this project will be due next wednesday and from then i will be given a building program which i am very excited for.

final design proposal for robie house

my final critique for the addition project was due yesterday and i must say that i did not disappoint the jurors to say the least. my addition was a subtle notion that rested right above the entryway to the house. i added a library/studio/patio space that was hardly 3 distinct rooms but rather one large space. i felt that the house did not need a MASSIVE addition like many of the other projects tried to do because the house was already a huge success (not to mention the lot did not really allow for a large expansion).

the one thing i think made me stand out from a lot of people in the eyes of the jurors (since they were our studio instructors) was the amount of evolution that occurred on my project from wednesday to friday. the instructors held a preliminary pin up on monday and gave us till friday for our final design proposals. i tweaked a few ideas but was pretty much set until i talked with my instructor on wednesday and he made a few comments that really challenged my ideas. for this reason i realized that what i previously had designed did not work well with the house so i took a chance and decided to change my design. i ended up staying up the entire night on thursday to get all of this done but it came out great and im really happy that i took the chance


for my final design i received such comments as "this is a very nice gesture above the entryway" and "the whole composition of the piece to the house is a beautiful one."however it wasnt just these comments and the jurors approvals that made my design a success but the whole project itself made me learn a ton! it simply taught me the process in designing. sketching/researching/model making. these are all part of the process and although i had done them before i never really knew why i was doing them. learning this process is going to guide me into future projects in school and in the real world when i work on actual designs so i cannot say enough how much this project helped improve my skills as an architect.

also, a lot was learned on presenting information. i learned a lot about synthesizing all my information and only showing the most important aspects of my analysis. i did so much research on the house and looked at it from all angles, whether it was researching the architect or looking at the wind patterns of the site, i looked at every aspect. so although i researched all of this i knew i didnt need to show all of it on my presentation. i simply showcased the main aspects that influenced the design of my addition.


-preliminary addition design



-quick perspective sketch of first design



-idea for materials to be used



-white model of house and its 60' x 180' site lot (3/32"= 1'-0")




-basswood model of the addition hanging over the entryway (1/8" = 1'-0")



-final board for part A. highly refined from previous boards to simply show the main points of my analysis



-final board for part B. my layout matches part A so that a comparison and correlation can be easily defined



-rendering of the addition. this one drawing shows the section, position, and floor plan of the addition.

taste of my newest design

i changed my design to reflect the building a little more and i believe it is still just as successful in enhancing the entryway which is one of the main aspects i am trying to accomplish

change of plans

my project has taken another turn in the design process and i have actually changed my mind on my addition. i have altered the design of the addition and upon a mediocre critique i am altering the layout of my boards. i need to recreate my boards for the original case study analysis along with the new boards for my addition. i've spent many hours trying to figure out which material was best to provide on my boards and i feel that i now have a good understanding of what will be presented. on top of the boards, i need to build a basswood model as well. i already have a foam core model of the entire house and its lot so for the basswood model i am going to increase the scale and focus on the entryway where i will be placing my addition. this way i can really show the relationship with the addition to its immediate parts of the original house. luckily our due date got changed to this friday so ill have a little extra time but it doesnt help that i have two midterms tomorrow!

little taste of whats to come

here's a quick snapshot of the new addition i designed onto the robie house.

addition progress

i've decided on a final design for my addition which will consist of a studio space, library, and small outdoor patio. i realized i wanted to do these specific rooms because i felt they were the only rooms that were missing from frank lloyd wright's original design. im going to place the addition above the entrance in order to make a statement with the room and at the same time seclude the addition from the public. the room will help enhance the appeal of the entrance and also shelter it with more ceiling space.

im going to use steel, elm wood, brick, limestone concrete, and a translucent glass material as well. my goal is that by using some of the same materials i will keep a cohesive feeling of the room to the rest of the house and incorporate new materials that wright might have been interested in using. the studio will be almost completely open to nature which is the main design criteria that wright worked around.

the final presentation for this project is due wednesday so im going to have to kick it into gear to get it all done since i will need a basswood model, drawings, a final laid out presentation board and i will also have to redo the first part of the project to make my drawings more visible and appealing. wish me luck

p.s. the final presentation will be a silent critique meaning we do not get to talk about the project but we will be critiqued on only what we have on the board. in a sense the board will do the talking for me so i need to make this one good!

addition to the perfect home

part 2 of the precedents in architecture project has been assigned and it is going to be really fun! i am to create an architectural program for a 3 room addition to the house. as simple as this sounds there is one challenge i will face: changing a design of frank lloyd wright. we are able to create whatever 3 rooms we would like and the square footage will be somewhere around 500 feet as the rooms are not to be too elaborate.

somehow i will need to create an addition that will make an impact on the house but be cohesive to the original design principles at the same time. trying to fix a design flaw of frank lloyd wright's is like trying to tell john mayer how to play the guitar. its going to be a difficult task but im feeling up to the challenge and i really wanna knock this design out of the park. especially since my presentation for the analysis of the house did not go so well. my drawings were too small and there was "too much information on the board." im going to redo the board for the very final presentation and make it visually appealing to compliment the amount of research and analysis i put into the first part of the project.

stay tuned for updates on this part and feel free to give me ideas of what i could do. where could i put the rooms? what kind of rooms should i add? how can i make a strong impact while staying in tune with the original buildings design? this part is due next wednesday so im going to start cracking down on it!

analysis of the robie house

frank lloyd wright's Robie House is one of the great homes in architecture history and is a precedent for any house to be designed in the future. i was fortunate enough to have this as my case study and i enjoyed learning all of the great features of the home that make is so famous. i wanted to share with you a few of the main aspects of the house that i found to be important to its notoriety.

horizontal planes:
this is major element in a lot of frank lloyd wright's buildings. this horizontality does so many things at once: it shows movement, utilizes a form to create space, dramatizes the structure, and can serve as a great juxtaposition to surrounding landscape. wrights main horizontal elements occur on his cantilevered roofs. these protrude out from the building and establish a great visual appeal to a pedestrian on the nearby streets while also establishing a relationship between form and function





















shifting rectangles:
i see this building as starting from an exploding box and ultimately ending in the plans simple design of two rectangles shifting side by side one another. this form compliments the site which is 60' x 180' and utilizes every bit of space.



privacy:
wright designed his buildings FOR his clients and not for what society told him how houses should be designed. he recognized that a house was to be a place of solitude and comfort for its tenants and this is no more clear than in the robie house. with its entrance secluded away from the street, the perimeter wall surrounding the house, or the low ceilings and high walls, wright made the house applicable for a private space for its tenants.

robie house

our second project was issued on friday and i am VERY excited about it. we are given a case study (master piece of architecture in this case) and are asked to analyze why it is a successful piece of work. i was given the opportunity to diagram and deconstruct frank lloyd wright's robie house. i've been diagramming it for a few days now and have a pretty good understanding as to the makeup of the house.



much has to do with shifting planes, privacy for the owner, an open floor plan, and long cantilevering roofs. much of what defines the house initially are the roofs that cantilever out from the building. these roofs protrude out and establish an overhead planes that defines a space below and also provides shade and shelter from the sun and rain/snow respectively.

the house is very interesting and i am really excited to further my explorations of it. on friday i need to have a few presentation boards showing my analysis of the house. after that, i am to rebuild the house in model form to an 1/8" scale. this will be a challenge as it will coincide with the final part of the project which entails my program to add a 3 room addition to the house. the final details of this part have not been ironed out by the professors but i am already thinking of it and the challenges i will face.

structured madness

project one of the 2009 school year has been completed. it was a project of abstraction. a project of imaginative thinking and deep abstraction. we were given an art composition and from that we were to complete 3 parts:

part 1: analyze the composition into what we feel it is depicting. using flimsy tracing paper and a pencil i attacked the drawing with ideas. the climax of part a was to be a finished self interpretation of our composition. the board was to be 24" x 24" and composed of black ink lines. my thoughts behind the composition were mainly based around the intersections of the lines. i brought the mindset that these lines were structural planes curving extravagantly into the air and that there was a webbing that aided in the withstanding of the structure. the piece was "Structured Madness"

-original composition

-my final drawing

part 2: create a foam core model expressing your new composition in 3D form. here i initially started with the idea that the planes intersecting were flat/straight. beams ran across as the webbing. this model was to be an initial creation of our 3D form.

-3/16" foam core model

part 3: create a refined basswood model expressing your ideas. this model was to be more of an evolution from our previous model and was to associate back to our composition. my wood model finally evolved to a status where the planes were curved and the webbing was thinner and more entwined with the entire structure.

.
-1/16" basswood model

this overall assignment was a good experience. although it was extremely abstract and was not supposed to be thought of as a "building," i did enjoy what i got out of it. i improved in my ability to think abstractly and to really deduce what it is i am looking at and interpret it in my own way. i am going to keep improving my work ethic with my initial ideas in the sense of creating more study models and a lot more freehand sketches. hope you enjoyed this first project and look forward to the next one....which will hopefully involve the designing of a building.

start of a new year

so today was the first day of the 2009-2010 school year and all i can say is i am stoked! for some reason i just really want to go head first into this quarter and kill it. my studio is run by a man who i believe is going to push me further with my ideas than anyone has to this day...in any subject for that matter. i know it might get frustrating at times, but i want some good criticism throughout my design process and not just at the end of it. im really optimistic towards this year and i cant wait to get fully into studio work. my other classes should also be pretty good as i am taking an architecture history class which i find extremely exciting and inspirational. as soon as i get the program for our first project i will post it so you can be fully aware of what i am asked to do. also, i will share some of my ideas and sketches throughout the process to allow people to give me feedback.

the art of drawing

i recently took an advanced drawing class and although it was poorly instructed and really didnt teach me anything about drawing, it did force me to pick up a pencil and see what i could do. what i got completed actually made me feel quite satisfied as i realized that i really do have a love for drawing. ive always enjoyed it but never really had the passion to devote the time to doing my best work. here are a few of the drawings ive done that i submitted in class. hopefully i can save some time throughout my busy weeks to do some more drawing. not only is it vital in the profession but its also very relaxing and a good sort of therapy for me too

p.s. i have more photos but i cannot seem to find them right now. they might have been lost in my transferring of hard drive material because i recently had my computer washed out. luckily i still have the original copies in reno so next time i go home i will put them up, sorry bout it.

first three

ive been going to architecture school for a full year now and i know for certain that this is the career for me. architecture challenges me to be creative and yet realistic with elements in the always changing built environment. whether its becoming more green or keeping a project in a certain price range, i am challenged day in and day out.

the three major projects that i have completed in school introduced the concept of invoking emotion in people to work and live at their full potential. my first project was to build a reading room on top of NewSchool that would hold a famous manuscript of the great architect, Le Corbusier. the building had to stay on one roof of the school and we also had to create a design for the roof as well. i built my room entirely out of concrete in recognition of Corbusier's great use of the material throughout his career. my building was intended to be seen from the street as to catch the eye of a pedestrian or tourist that was walking on the nearby streets. therefore, i hung the room off the edge of the school to make the statement that the room was larger than its dimensions and that the manuscript wanted to be shared with the entire city.




my second completed project was to build a single unit studio room in an open field in San Diego. we were to build off of 12 pre-existing concrete columns. i chose to use wood as my only other material in adding onto these columns. i felt that wood had a great contrast to the concrete and was well established in the context the room was placed. i have realized that i have this great desire in using "shifting planes" in most of my early designs. i love the way the planes are simple and create a sense of motion.




my third and final major project that i completed in my first year of architecture school was a student housing project located in downtown San Diego. a hypothetical situation was created that utilized a pre-existing vacant site in downtown SD and a program to build 5 student housing apartments. the site was divided into 5 equal lots of 50' x 100'. using ccdc.com we were given our city limits/building restrictions and were off and running. each of the 5 students was to design an apartment building that would house (1) proctor unit with family, (2) married student units with children, and (4) single student units. below are pictures of my individual unit and the site as a whole.