General Chat / The Future Architects' Thread

The model is made with cardboard, and the those dowels (made of bamboo skewers) are representitive of trees. I don't know about the rest of the world, but that method of representation is done very often in Vancouver as our trees are very tall and the inclusion of any foilage would detract from the focus of the model.

Here's a local firm (who has won many awards and was featured in last month's Architectural Record), Patkau, who uses the same tree effect:

That last one gives off a creepy feel with the lighting.

Looks very good though and i've never seen that method before, cheap also.

I'm currently qorking on a 3-week project which will end up up being a 1:50 model and 1:20 Plans,elevations,secions and internal perspectives. I'll scan them in when i'm finished (4th Dec).

Here is the brief for those interested:

You have been asked to infill the site as a home for a (paranoid) retired man, and space for his teenage granddaughter to share. The man has recently retired and is interested in sailing. The granddaughter is due to enrol on Media Studies at University next year.
The client is becoming slowly more secretive and elusive, and so will release very little information on the site.

The site is 10 x 10 closed on both side by 6.5 hgih buildings with a north-south orientation.

My idea is some kind of abstract elongated cross-section of a boat. More to come later.

lol, that prompt is pretty hilarious. "paranoid" retired man.

Sounds like they're basically shaping you toward a nautical theme. Fortunately, there have been tons of buildings like that done before, so you've got plenty of precedents. One of my favorites is Richard Meier's Douglas House, in Michigan. It's absolutely exquisite.

They're definitely begging for porthole windows, that's for sure.

That's the obvious route. But there are many ways you can do a "ship" in architecture.

Villa Savoye, for example, is a "ship." Only it sails on an open grass field.

I dunno if it really counts, I'm not in school for it yet but next year i'm going to a vocational school for computer aided drafting and design, I want to get a five year degree in architecture eventually. Only problem is coming from a lower middle class family in ohio and not having the money for school. Community college and Student loans, I guess.

There are private schools that are generous with financial aid. I know I wouldn't be able to go to USC without the immense financial aid they're giving me. I've got loans too, but I think I can manage them once I'm out of school.

This is somewhat architecture related, but I need to tell my story. Last night was one of the worst nights I have had. First, a background on our weather. We've been hit by a cold front and have more than 600mm of snow (2') with 350 to 450mm to come today. It has never been this cold in Vancouver, -20C with wind chill. So, I went to my dad's appartment last night after school, arriving at about 5pm. The whole third floor (his level) was completely flooded! Everything is ruined. They had a crew there with four trucks and atleast 20 guys trying to clean everything up. All the gypsm board, base boards, cabnietry, insulation, flooring has to be removed. The building is concrete, so all the water dripped through the floor and damaged all the units below. The reason? Hallways are pressurized to keep odurs and smoke in appartments (if smoke entered the elevator shaft, you'd have a big problem). The problem here is that the air used for pressuriztion was 100% outdoor air. When you have -14C air (when accelerated, likely -20C) inside where no pipes are insulated, you have a major problem. My dad has sent numerous emails since Setember trying to get the building management company to fix the cold air problem, but they never did anything about it. A sprinkler pipe burst and it took an hour to get it turned off! So I was there for about two hours, trying to rescue as much as I could while the resoration company was moving as fast as they could. I phoned my mom (my parents are seperated, and if there were ever a time to be happy about it, this is it) and she was going to pick me up and take me to her place. Anyways, just as she arrives, a pipe bursts on the sixth floor. Water came cascading down the stairs, down the elevator shaft. It was seriously a waterfall in the elevator. Water then started to come through my dad's ceiling. Anyways, I got out of there quickly. I don't have any pictures now, but my dad was taking many for insurance purposes. I still can't believe it. What a mess!

WOW.

Now that sounds messed up. Unfortunately, buildings rarely seem to be fixed before they screw up. But that last scene sounds straight out of a movie. Imagine action star Natelox sprinting in slow motion, trying to outrun a massive tidal wave coming out of the elevator (The Shining style), hoping to make it out the door to his mom's car.



I hope your dad gets everything resolved and fixed though. Sounds like a pretty awful problem there.

Here are a few pictures:







Someone from the restoration company said that sprinker pipes are under enough pressure to fill a bathtub in 30 seconds. It took an hour to turn it off. My dad managed to get a two bedroom furnished rental apartment the day after and the insurance company is already sending checks for hotels and the month's rent. The good thing is that internet, phone, cable and heat are all included in the rent!

Sad thing that happend but sweet deal on the new apartment!

I have finished the H42 project and as promised here are some screens of the model (sketchup model that is, i don't want to bore you with another 'white' model)



Obviously you wouldn't see the whole east elevation but i wanted you to get the shape of the building.



Here is the front with portholes galore!



And lastly the North elevation, which i wasn't too sure what it backed onto. However i'm very happy with what i did. I'll show some plans and explanations, etc later when i get back.

RFan

Edited by RCTFAN, 11 December 2006 - 02:48 AM.

That's a better one to tide you over.



RFan

I like how it has hints of a marine theme with out taking it to gaudy levels. Not sure where in the world it's supposed to be placed, but the windows seem very small (natural light?). Good luck with it.

I think it would have been interesting to use a glass front with metal circles in the same fashion you have except reverse. Like a reverse-port hole type thing. It looks cool either way. Well I'm still not sure if I'm going to be doing Aerospace Engineering or Architecture next year but I am working on a model for my portfolio in case I decide Architecture. I will get pictures latter.

I like how it has hints of a marine theme with out taking it to gaudy levels. Not sure where in the world it's supposed to be placed, but the windows seem very small (natural light?). Good luck with it.

he's a recluse though, remember? it looks like a cozy cave to me.

It's based in Plymouth which is on the south west coast of the UK. The brief said that the retired man was paranoid so i wanted to keep the windows small......brief never said anything about being 'green' either.

I really like chapelz idea though.

You can still get good natural lighting without resorting to large windows. Placement is always helpful. Keeping them small at human height is good for privacy, but then you can always bring in light higher above through clerestory windows. Or you can have skylights via some "smoke stacks" (I know that's a bit obvious, but I'm just illustrating potential examples). Glazing type can allow light without relinquishing privacy as well. Try a frosted glass to get a nice, diffused light. Alternately, tall vertical slit windows can provide interesting lighting effects, although that idea's not necessarily conducive to the nautical theme, which tends to be more horizontal.

Nice stuff, though. You can already use SketchUp better than I. I hate that program. It's very intrisically flawed in its navigational and basic setup scheme IMO.


In other news, we FINALLY finished our project yesterday and hard our review. I'll get pictures of my model when I can take good shots of it (we need to find our black cloth). This is the biggest site I've ever had to work with. I can't remember the figures right now off the top of my head, but it's currently a hospital complex on a plateau. That should give you an idea of how large it is.

Oh, and I forgot. Is your roof accessible? Meaning can it be used? Because a roof garden or roof deck would be really cool.

Yeh i agree with you completely Cork. I was looking into having a huge frosted facade with clear portholes and some strips going across the tops (where the grey is on the model) but i figured the paranoid oldie would just hide in a cupboard knowing the front was glass.

Ah well, i look forward to seeing these pictures people are promising, speaking of which!

Plan 1st floor: It's raised off the ground by 500mm becuase i wanted a ramp to represent a gangplank up to the entrance. The right is the Kitchen with small larder underneath the stairs and the living room is on the left.



Plan 2nd Floor: here are the two bedrooms on opposite sides of the house with the small bathroom inbetween at the top of the stairs.



And a random angle section to show my favourite part of the house, the landing of the stairs creating the 1.5 story. I really like the angles of the house contrast to the box that pertrudes out holding the stairs.



N.B it's nota very detailed model and i haven't put any doors in becuase i'm lazy, although if your really desperate to see them i can scan the ones we had to do by hand showing materiality and habitation, although i think you get the picture.

Now let's see some more of your work!

RFan

Edited by RCTFAN, 13 December 2006 - 07:31 AM.

Haha, alright, here are some model photos:

(btw, the chipboard looks brown, but that's more because of the light. It's really gray, but I'm too lazy to fix it in Photoshop)

http://img133.images.../img2855dt2.jpg

http://img96.imagesh.../img2857ex2.jpg

http://img96.imagesh.../img2869bc4.jpg

http://img180.images.../img2895yl9.jpg

http://img180.images.../img2880zg7.jpg

Here's something interesting. This is the tallest building under construction in Vancouver currently (Shangri-la, 199m).



Note where the sixth floor is. That hgue mass of concrete is called a 'transfer beam.' The general idea with structural design is to go straight down vertically, however that beam which is a full story in height will carry the entire load of the columns which fall on it, and transfer it to other columns. It's a 61 story building.