change in concept

ive had a breakthrough tonight! so upon leaving studio today i realized that my concept was not very strong for my nature center. ive been wavering with my concept this whole time and thought i had a good baseline with it but was sadly mistaken. HOWEVER, taking time from my other class material i stumbled upon my new concept; a concept where i can derive all of my forms, functions, and materials from. although it sounds a little funny, this is my new concept: a display case.

what do you picture when you think of a display case? glass, wood, the framing of a specific object, metal supports, a square shape...? all these things are going to drive my current design. its going to refine some of my more thorough ideas and completely enhance aspects of my design that were lacking.

what i hope to accomplish with my design is as follows: its going to be a display for natural history indoors and out. inside the center will be a place for stationary displays to be put up where visitors can walk around and view. i will set up areas where displays can be placed for shows and conventions but keep the space very flexible for any use necessary. the thing i want to definitely accomplish is a cohesiveness between indoors/outdoors. if youre inside i want you to be able to look outside and learn something at the same time. with this, i have specific areas inside my structure that will serve as personal retreats where a visitor can experience the great views to the outdoor nature. for example, i will have a window that specifically frames a plant or grove of trees outside and on the inside of the building i will have a placard that will explain what it is that you are seeing. this will create an experience where there are things to learn at every corner of the building and you are constantly surrounded by nature.

the project is due in a little less than two weeks and still on my agenda is...pretty much everything. tomorrow i am free from school and work so all day i am going to be working on this. i plan on having my site model done along with a concept model (to accompany a rougher concept model that i already have) and some elevations/perspectives. i already have the floor plans completed and am happy with how they look so thats a plus. hold tight and ill have more of my progress up in a few days or so