014: Site Model

My partner (Michael) and I are in charge of reproducing the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. We are CADing everything.... in which the model will be in 1"= 30'.

The last project of the semester was issued out yesterday, two pages of terse information handed out to our "deer in the headlights"faces. It is a movie theatre on a small lot; a theatre that will have many floors, in other words.

The program looks "fun," but tedious. Our professors laugh mirthfully, but we know the hard work that is on the way...

013: [Intermission]

It is the calm before the storm.

It's all about diagraming, understanding, and seeing the site with our eyes closed before the project is disclosed.

012: Night time studies

^ View of Site 4, notice, how unlighted the convention center is....the Hilton (right) rests there luxuriously



^ View of downtown, from Site 4



^ Oh, the lights! Site 2 lies behind this fence.

Downtown lights shine emptiness, as the businessmen are 40 minutes away, in their suburban homes. The homeless wander around like ghosts, in concrete paradise, the sea of parking lots silent as the street lights blinking.

click!

011: (pending) New sites diagrams/studies

It starts.

010: Rhino homework = Concrete fascination

Rhino homework due tomorrow: This is a concrete shell structure designed by Felix Candela, the Manatiales Restaurant, 1957. This is by far, my favorite so far.......

009: New project, visiting the site:

It is a movie theatre.

On the dead side of downtown.

Let's start with, what I call, Site 3.



It is surrounded by: Parking lot, Parking lot, Four Seasons Hotel, Houston Center (mall), Apartments (under construction) and Parking lot.





The Four Seasons Hotel, Houston Center, busines towers block all view of downtown lights, but, the theatre would catch attention of four streets.....four streets that are not highly transitted. Damn.



Next, Site 2, Site 3, and Site 4.

Site 2



It gets a clearer view of downtown city lights, is visibly between the George R. Brown Convention Center, Toyota Center, right in front of the Center Point Energy plant (which has interesting vertical strips of lighting at night). A parking lot faces it. It is not next to any other building at all.

Site 1 is right in front of it:



This gives a good view of what these sites are surrounded by.

And finally, Site 4 is right next to the power plant, and diagonal to the Hilton, visible from the George R. Brown:



(You can see the convention center in the background.)

I'm not too sure about this one, especially with that curved shape: would it determine the shape of the actual plan? Either way, the theatre would be disconnected from downtown as well....it would be targetted more for those staying at the Hilton, rather than try to fill up that Sea of Parking Lots.

But it all depends on what the project specifies. After reading that, I will come to a conclusion on what site I feel is better....

008: Completion of Project 2 with the closure of review....

All eyes open after review.

I brushed my teeth, sort-of dressed up, and smiled like a nervous student, in the face of a jury. See, the Jury Room is white white, and our projects adorn it with the smell of judgement and twitching minds.

I explained what It was.

Uniform triangles, welded steel frames, all white attach to each other with bolts and customized angles to form the "tent structure." This creates two different spaces: One space, which is closed off to all outsiders and just forms a narrow openning for a ticket booth. The other, is open and almost transparent, which allows employees to walk through, and costumers to buy their food (it is a concession stand.) They can see them on the display shelves.



My Rhino renderings because this long scroll of vague directions. Vague because of time constrictions and my little experience with the program. Still, I produced, in my opinion, a beautiful wall display:



A pause, and they say very helpful things.

(1) The ramp, could be extended. There is a problem in scale. One would have to see the produces on display under the counter, then have to walk around to the ramp. Luckily, this is simple to fix, and just make the ramp accessable from two opposite sides. This doesn't kill the design at all.

(2) They appreciate my drawings, and the detail put into them, but thought that additional diagrams were needed in how exactly, more by steps, in how it all comes together. It does explain a lot about the structure, but not how to put it together.

(3) "Triangular-themed shelves" are out. I nodded with agreement. Blair said that an extention of the structure down to the base would add a good shelving-display area.

(4) They appreciated my detailing.

(5) Most importantly, I focused too much on detailing. They suggested I take a step back, after designing and reinforcing my structure, I should draw a few sketches, diagrams of the circulation, of the overall program, and try to fit everything else around it. Of course, they understood that we only had a week to design, build, and diagram these portable, modular concession stands, thus, it isn't a failure at all. Just a shortage of time (and sleep!)

I focused so much on making the structure work that I didn't put enough effort in combining the two systems: The structure-skin, and the ticket/concession counters-display. The outside and the in. They are not refined for unity.

They were also interested in how the frosted material connected to the frame. They said it would be interesting to see how the frosted panels would overlap or connect when assembled.


Overall, I'm content.



There I am, at my desk.
My archidesk.
It will increase in messiness exponentially.

007: Completion, prior before revew

Not knowing at all, whether this design is good or not, I like it thus so far. Possibly because I haven't seen all its flaws yet....



^ A view from the ramp side, seeing straight "through." The counter (with shelving underneath it) is on the right, while the rest of the display shelving is underneath the structure at the left.



^ The counter + display shelving



^ The opposite side of the counter. This is the ticket booth.



^ Detail of the connections (custom angles + bolts)



^ Top view

The project spanned for 10 days. About half of it was spent in the conceptual idea: of origami and the hidges of screens. At the end, it is a structure inspired by origami, that took a liking to rigidty rather than folds & creases, and that found itself having a semblence to a spider web crossed with a shoji screen.

Let's just see what the critics will say/hate/rebuke/praise/laugh about later today....

006: Review tomorror: Drawings tonight:

And it is taking forever...

005: After the long, long weekend:

Without signage, I know. More to follow...

004: Project 2: "Flat pack concession stand."

individual, origami like pieces

+


which equals, this triangular-canopy

=


Like Doug says, "air plane wing frame."

003: Project 1, The resulting model....

002: 1st project: A building's skin

>> Jussieu l'Atrium, Peripheriques Architects, Paris, France.

The first project of the year is a study of a building's skin. How is the skin related to its structure, its program?

My partner and I got the atrium building, the addition to the austere, geometrical Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. We are emphasizing its perforated texture: the interior, concrete "skin" and the exterior, aluminum "sunvisor."




The process is interesting and rather, holy.

001: New

The desk starts to fill.