Calatrava loves cute animals.

I love how online bloggers called it the "Spiny thing."

Cute isn't it?

I want to look like SANAA...

Yes, I haven't written in a long while. So far, partnered project has developed so much! It amazes me how little arguments we have. And when we do, it actually makes the project better than before, simply because arguments only clarify the purpose, the concept, and the idea.

Our professor was in our last review, and before Michael and I even spoke, he laughed. "Gosh, I gotta know why you two are working together."

After the presentation, which went well, we approached him and asked him about his snickering. He declared (after some pushing on our part) that both Michael and I work so differently, that it was confusing why we worked so well. Michael, he says, starts with one, fat graphic idea, and I start with the pieces, and put them together. Doug spoke so much truth, and it only teaches me how we are all in close observance. Perhaps because its only 25 of us, but even then, without a doubt, he knows us after one semester, like the back of his hand.

So for our final review, I joked to Michael that we should look sharp, yet hip, like SANAA. He shakes his head, despite his admiration for SANAA, and says it would be obnoxious, to dress up so 'professionally.'

Well. It's still a thought.

Nox : h2o pavilion / David Clovers : Nola Filigree

Scribbled down by our professor, yesterday, next to our rather weak manifesto:



The investigation of the ground plane, and what it suggests for those walking/using it.

The other:



The investigation of the skin.

045: Photography, textures, quick thoughts

Photography:

Photography by :Sannah Kvist

Her photography I've particularly loved since I added her on flickr-- she had this account, then deleted all her pictures, then started again, with a fresh, non-frustrated attitude.

I picked this picture in particular to post in my blog because: What makes this picture interesting is its texture: bark, a building's bark, gravel, grass, person.

To think: When we are designing a building, people will find the art in the building int heir photographs: in how light touches on part of it, how it varies throughout the day, the many angles, the different companions they take, etc. etc.

So what if we are just designers? So what if it's "just an art" we are doing?: think of the photographers that will use these spaces to frame their thoughts, their subjects, their lovers, their family, their expressions-- or just their daily life.

Just a small thing. But I'm just pointing out: how the texture / wood slating / austere landscaping / the tree, and its tones at that moment-- that makes this picture gorgeous (in my opinion, of course.)

Umbrellas and temporary structures:

Kengo Kuma designs an umbrella house. Very creative :)

044: and from the ashes of inactivity:

Finally a post:



Found here.

I do love Jun Igarashi's work.

Which makes me think: grad school. Is it something I want right now? Do I yearn to expand my knowledge on architecture? It's a question left open ended, and a question my mother often addresses. I don't need it, but does my heart need it?

I think, if I had to go anywhere-- I would like, at the moment, to study for my Masters in Japan.

041: Eduardo Arroyo's pixelated landscape/ Sick days means all nighters.

Plaza de Desierto, in Barakaldo...



I found his orthogonal organization intriguing, unnatural even, in the good sense. It adds to landscape-- it's blatantly man made but still beautiful. He breaks away from the orthogonal flatness here and there with forced topographies, but gracefully I think.

On the subject on topography, parking lots:


NL Architects, Parkhouse-- scan from The Architecture of Parking

Sick days means all nighters, just to make up for the work days lost.

---

040: Riken Yamamoto & Field Workshop, melting plastic/shaping chipboard/ process

The day, in particles:

[Thinking While Creating/Creating by Writing]Riken Yamamoto & Field Workshop

Their thoughts on process:

Process プロセス

What we call 'process' cannot be illustrated by, for example, arranging a series of study models, side by side. Such an arrangement might demonstrate how the design changed from one model tot he next, but there is more to a 'process' than that. A 'process' is not something that can be broken down into clearcut stages. Many different things influence the design in an organic way between one study model and the next, for example, discussions with the client, local character,systems and ideas that Yamamoto and the staff come up with. Indeed, a workshop is held to investigate this very process.

We try to see things in a broader perspective from the point of view of agents such as local residents, users, and administrators. Architecture is an important part of that process bu not the end objective. In the case of an art museum, architecture is merely one of a number of elements or agents (such as the works in the collection, the administrative program and the social role and history of the museum) that interact and undergo change. The series of changes binds together the overall vision, but within the process the vision itself undergoes continual change. When architecture is not regarded as the end objective, that has an effect on everything: the boundaries between various agents are blurred.

Architecture is a catalyst accelerating change in agents. That is because the process of creating a tangible object called a building provides opportunities to do things such as solving problems of administrative programming and thinking about local society....

This blog was originally supposed to show my progress in all semester's projects: of course, because of other classes + studio time spent on the project itself, my updates are not immediate. I find this firm interesting not only because of their work, but some of their philosophy as well. They are very youthful, holding true to their mantra, "the process itself is architecture." I'm sure many would argue against it, for it, half-agree to it....Even I, myself, half-agree to it.

I checked out the book mainly for their work on the Saitama Prefectural University.

Melting Plastic/Shaping Chipboard

I continue the search for the convenient topographic solution. Give me another day.

Paris,France: Sophomore Trip

I can't wait for the catacombs, I can't wait for Peripherique's Atrium Building, I can't wait for La Defense, for the Louvre, for the cheap wine. I can't wait for Le Corbusier, the museums.

---

038: Oh, hiatus, but "work" remains constant during the semester...

Oh, Wheeler Station. The image of a grand transfer station on this piece of land!

The Assignment

Assignment 4. Building Design Program (2.5 weeks)

DUE: Wednesday, February 27

Wheeler Station Building Design Program

In Problem 2 (Design and Program Analysis) you established the parameters on which the program requirements for the final design stage of the project are based. The following list of requirements is based on your analysis. In addition we have added several small program elements not addressed in the analysis.

A. Metro Program Elements
1. Elevated University Line Station (alignment, size, and height as described in analysis)
2. Local Bus Stops (10 total, this includes 6 existing plus 4 new)
3. Information and Security office: 2000 SF (Information and Reception Desk, Security office,
Employee Rest Room, First Aid Room, Administrative Office)
4. Bicycle Storage Facility: 2000 SF (Bicycle Storage Area, Individual Restrooms with showers (4)
5. Public Restrooms: Women’s and Men’s (Total of 6 fixtures per sex, single or multiple sites)

B. Intercity Bus Program: Provide six spaces to be leased to intercity bus companies as
described in the analysis problem. No indoor waiting required; tickets provided by vending machines.

C. Commercial Program: 25,000 SF Gross as per analysis. Please note that 50 parking spaces should
be allocated to serve commercial (no permanent parking in these spaces)

D. Parking Program: 500- 550 Spaces (Includes 50 spaces dedicated to commercial)

F. Storm Water Detention: Provide .5 Acre Feet of Storm Water detention on Site as indicated in the
analysis

G. Urban Event Space: In keeping with Metro’s plan to develop functional urban landscape elements
wherever possible, develop a major public exterior space capable of supporting a weekend produce
market, public meeting, or performance.

H. Miscellaneous Requirements: Provide a protected or pull off waiting space for
6 vehicles (Taxicabs and auto drop off)

Adjacency requirements:

-Direct, accessible pedestrian movement must be accommodated between major metro movement systems (Metro Lines, Local Bus Lines). This would include ramps, stairs, or escalators and elevator(s). All stairs and ramps should be sized for a population of 150 persons (44” + 2 x 22”=88”).
- Information office should be centrally located for ease of use and efficient surveillance.

Additional Requirements:

-All bus and train stops should be provided with overhead covering so that it is possible to move between all modes of transportation (and major program elements) without getting wet.
-Retail space should be located to take advantage of movement between major program elements.

Schedule:

Documentation for this exercise will be due Wednesday, February 27 at 1 PM.
-Site Model: 1”=100’ (Concept Type Model similar to Assignment No. 3)
-Site/ Floor Plan(s): TBD
-Site Sections: TBD
-Digital Model: Ground level views, Major Interior/ Exterior Space

Topographic Interpretation:

Before this assignment, however, we were to vaguely assemble the program under one unifying topic: I picked Topography. Although my project was very literal, I feel that there is logic behind a literal topography, in which that slopes can equate themselves to ramps, making a more fluid traffic flow.

Thinking, thinking....

...and my thoughts ended up looking like a magnetic field: all pedestrians orbiting around the intersection of both lines. Of course, this isn't at all realistic (pedestrians will be thinking about their destinations.) Really, the 'magnetism' is behind the circulatory connection between three different zones: parking (cars), light rail (waiting, retail) and buses (inter/intracity) with transfers in between.

Thinking along the lines of form: I'm more of a functionalist, or, circulatorist (let's make up terms shall we?) but I have been thinking of form.

1. Topography + lamination + carve (light)= what my concept model looks at the moment.


2. Interpreting velocity with form, like the speed of cars, of pedestrians, of waiting pedestrians, of Greyhound buses, of METRO buses, of the light rail. Vehicles of different types, functions, and allowed speed.


3. Interpreting 'magnetic lines' with form: follow the line.

The Architecture of Parking by Simon Henley

There are the lines! Lines!



And this....

The above picture is not just for "inspiration," but I found it appealing (not only because it's a Japanese architect) because my professor previously mentioned that parking could indeed be seen as a form of topography. This takes that literally, of course, and I couldn't help but like the idea.

So far, what my project is looking like is like a repeating curve, a curve that was stolen from the flow of parking garages.

Houston is indeed a car city. Commuter haven. (or Hell.)

Wheeler Station does not call for a gargantuan structure. Drive by the site and you hear it call for what it already looks like. A megastructure would just be like a distraction from the city's core.

---

032: Nature walk

---

Some pictures I found while in blogs, or were in my computer.

The first, Koen Van Velsen, in Rotterdam:


















The second, a work by Mass Studies, Korean firm:

031: House in Black, Manabu Chiba

Like it said in Rem Koolhaas's little margin glossary in S,M,L,XL:
Avoid: I'm trying my best to avoid the Japanese word void

Simple. Beautiful. Voids.
Why I love Japanese architecture.