Finalized: Plans

Not a lot of changes have been made to the first and underground floors. Here, you can see how you can get to the ground floor from the first. The additions made were the columns and furnitures to portray what each space is.

This perspective shows the northern facade of the building looking from the inside of the sunken garden.

The second floor was edited. A ramp was added since the exhibition space is at a higher level and two double height spaces are added next to the ramp and at the northern end. The archival space has been made smaller so that people can only accessed the restrooms before entering the exhibition space. Theater spaces remain the same with an addition of benches along the southern columns so that visitors can sit and look out at the administration building.

This perspective shows how one can be standing on the second floor and look down and see into the sunken garden at the underground level.

 In order to show the double height spaces and height shift of the exhibition, I drew a sectional axonometric. This axon shows not only those mentioned earlier but also the overhang space, entrance, sunken garden and how each space is related to each other.

Last but not least, I build a massing model. It shows the sunken garden, the anchor that connects the theater space, the open middle section of the building and the overhanging mass. You may not be able to see the interior spaces inside but the general shape of the building is clearly portrayed in the model.

Finalized: Concepts

 I have three main concepts that I have incorporated into my design. All of these have been mentioned in my previous design. The first diagram shows the middle section of the building being open throughout. The second portrays the sunken garden and the third shows the space surrounded by the screening devices.

All three of these concepts were put into a drawdle. The first image of the drawdle shows the openness of the middle section of the building as well as the garden space. Second image shows the protruding space and the screening devices.

 

This section should help you understand more about where these screening devices are located. They are located. As you walk along the ramp, and look left, you should be able to see only certain parts of the library and as you reach the second, there is and opening and the view towards the deeper part of the campus welcomes you.

In case you were wondering what these screening devices that I am talking about, I made a drawdle to show my intention.

Finalized: Location, Location, Location

I decided to divide my final presentation into categories which I think would be easier to understand.
It is all about location. The positions of where the central library and administration building affect where my building stands on the site. As the site plan below suggests, the building is aligned to the administration so that the middle section of it is framed towards it. The wing-like parts that protrude out of the middle section extends beyond the taller section of the central library so that people coming to this part of the campus can easily see that a building exist behind the library and invites people. Majority of the building occupies the garden area behind the parking lot.

garden behind parking lot

This site section should help you understand how tall and far my building is in relative to the library and administration.

This perspective is drawn from the balcony next to the administration building, and meant to show where the overhanging protruding spaces are.

Plans and Sections Edited

I have been working on trace and kept coming up with new ideas of improvements. We decided to have our final pinup before the final and see our progress. After a couple of weeks working on them, these are the new plans and sections I have come up with.

Since the mid review, I have moved my circulation ramp to the east and all my programs are aligned to the west. This created the middle section of the building to be open throughout and an opportunity to frame views. On the underground floor, this feature allow the view into the garden from the library.

And from the second floor, the view towards the administration building to the south is framed, and visitors can look down into the garden as well. Throughout the ramp to the second floor and south side of the middle section of the building are framing devices. That allow people to see only certain exterior space as they walk by. This is the movie feature from the exterior space from previous design which I have reused in this and made it a part of architecture. The whole wall around the ramp is formed by these screening devices.

The position of the theaters are unique as well. Not only do they overhang above the entrance, they create a V-shape ceiling, as seen in section. So, as you are walking towards the building to the entrance, you start out at a higher ceiling and the height gets shorter and shorter, in a way, suggesting you that you are getting into an enclosed area soon.

A new concept that I have added is the anchor that holds the theaters. Archival space should have easy access to the theaters because that is where the movies are going to be accessed from. Therefore I started thinking the archival space as a vertical space which is on multiple floors, rather than just where the library is. So I planned out the archival space accordingly and you can refer to the bottom section of the image above.

Developing Ideas

After getting feedbacks from three professional architects, I took their advices and continue working on improving my building. I used the technique shown to me by my studio professor; put trace on top of my existing plans and draw on it. Make general shapes of the spaces and move around to rearrange and see which fits where better. I play around using this technique and came up with a series of improved plans.

During the mid review, I was commented on for where I put my entrance. So I ended up turning my building around and rearranging the programs for the first and underground floors. I have kept the idea of exterior reading/garden space underground next to the library.

Working on my entrance, I designed it so that it is more celebrated and recognizable. The entrance lies underneath the overhang of the theater spaces and is risen from the ground level to make a gesture to the visitors that they will soon be entering a difference space.

According to the critics I had, the outdoor space on my second floor between the theaters does not work well. Since they mentioned it, I realized that you would have to come out from inside to be out in the outdoor area and then go back inside to reach the theaters. Therefore, the outdoor space ended up as a circulation space rather than a space for people to spend time within. So I had to decide whether I want the outdoor space or not and rearrange the theaters to create better circulation.

Mid Review

For every project in our studio classes, we have mid review and get feedbacks either from other professors or from guess critics. These are the plans, sections and perspectives I have worked on to get feedbacks from.

One of the three major things I got commented on was my entrance. According to my plans, the main circulation is from the north, parking lot. However, it is not true because the majority of the campus is in the east and if the students come to this site, it would be from the east. My entrance to the building is not quite celebrated as well and people walking by would barely notice it.
Second thing I got commented on was that the movie features we were suppose to cooperate into our buildings are not there. According to the critics, these features are there, however, they are not part of the architecture. I have only created moments where visitors can experience these movie features.

 The last and final thing I got commented on was my outdoor viewing area. As shown in the section above, this outdoor space is located between two theater spaces. One critic pointed out that in order to get from one theater to another, she would have to walk out the building and then reenter. My point of this outdoor space was to create a viewing area with a movie technique for the visitors to experience before moving from one space to another. However, she made a good point that that space going to end up only as a circulation space rather than a space people to spend time and soak in the experience.

Reviewed Plan

After reviewing the first two schemes with my professor, I have come up with a revised plan for the building. Looking back at the drawdle, we realized it has a section where there are rectangles of different sizes laid out.

Part of the drawdle

Thinking this as a section, it has all the spaces I have in the previous schemes. There is an outdoor space and an overhang space. So with my professor's suggestions, I edited the floor plans.

Floor Plans & Section

Schemes

First part of the design project is to look at the drawdle and come up with two possible ideas for a building. Since my drawdle focus on the two transitional space, I approach the plans to have two entrances to the building. The challenge of this part is to figure out how the programs are organized.

Scheme 1

Scheme 2

Sections

The Drawdle

After getting feedbacks from classmates and professor, I modified my initial ideas for drawdle. Instead of creating a very diagrammatical drawdle like the circulation drawdle, I decided to build the masses around the transitional space to define it. The drawdle is reversible. When looked at from the back, the masses around the transitional space are cut out and show the depth. The transitional space stands out more. The back can be viewed as a worm's-eye-view.

The section-axonometric drawing helps to understand the space more. The transitional space is cut and drawn a worm's-eye-view axonometric to show what it will be like if you are walking through the tunnel.

Drawdle First Draft

Now that we have experimented making films, we moved to focus on UNAM, the site in Mexico where our project will take place. First we picked a transitional space on campus and analysis what makes that space a transitional space. I chose the space which connects the campus to the stadium. There are two tunnels under the highway. These two tunnels are the transition from education to recreation. After the analysis I came up with these two drawdles.

The Transitional Space

Circulation Drawdle

Section Drawdle

Films Edited

These two videos are the same as the two I have uploaded in my previous posts. They are shortened to about four minutes and still have the same general themes of the extended version.

Short Film Analysis 2

The second analysis is for my short film "The Walk". I did a timeline that will help understand the film more. Different colored line shows different path and the dotted line shows what I am thinking in my head. Using these same colors, I draw the path on the map to show the circulation around campus.

Short Film Analysis 1

This is an analysis of my short film "Champions". This analysis is similar to the one I did for "89 Seconds at Alcázar".

The first part of the analysis shows how much intense training the boxers have to go through. The second part is layout according to where each event takes place around the ring. The images are also in chronological order, left to right and top to bottom.

My Second Short Film

This is my second attempt to create an avant-garde film about my path from architecture studio to my room. I did not use the time lapse option from my phone. I only used iMovie to create this whole video. Thanks to my good friend, Nyan Myo Hlaing (Charles) for helping me take the pictures.
Even though the quality of the video may not be good, I enjoyed every second of making this video.

My First Short Film

I thought I would give it a shot and make a video myself. It is not as easy as you think it is going to be. Finding an appropriate music to go along with your theme was the hardest part for me. If I knew how to create music mashups, I would have done it and it would have been way much better.
So this video I made is a combination of footage from YouTube. Credits to all who uploaded on YouTube for public access. The video is called Champions: Blood, Sweat and Pain. It is about a few of the heavyweight boxers who have come on top and defeated a lot. I hope you enjoy my first attempt.

Analysis Part 2

Putting the images from the previous post together, I drew out a plan of the salon the painting took place in. By doing this, it help me understand the space better.

Even though every image is connected to the floor plan, it would have been better if there was a line showing the movement of the camera around the room. Secondly, since the video is about the moments leading up to and immediately following the scene portrayed in the painting, a few images of what happened after should be included. Overall, the layout I have done will give the viewer a better understanding of space.

Analysis Part 1

Now that we have all seen the video, you will recognize this painting.

 Jacobs, Michael. Las Meninas. Digital image. Velázquez’s Las Meninas: Much More than Meets the Eye. The Guardian, 26 July 2015. Web. 7 Feb. 2016. 

I have picked out a series of images from the video to help me understand the room.