Architecture 101FINAL 2015 SPRING

INSTRUCTOR : Jerry W. LumEliza Poon

Content

• Week 10 ———————-——————————————————————- P.4

• Week 11 & 12 ———————————————————————————- P.10

• Week 13 -—————————————————————————————- P.16

• Week 14 —————————————————————————————- P.24

• Week 15 —————————————————————————————- P.32

• Week 16 —————————————————————————————- P.48

• Week 17 —————————————————————————————- P.54

• Week 18 —————————————————————————————- P.60

• Conclusion —————————————————————-——————— P.64

Week 10Discussions related to Site & Assignment of Town (courtyard) and Country (hillside) Sites.

Program Analysis: Make sure you fully understand the significant aspects of the problem. Visually interpret the written requirements to clarify your understanding.

Site Analysis: A study of site conditions and determinants that may impact the design of a site-specific environmental installation.

Development I really liked Jerry’s pepper example. It looked so much fun. Since then, I have been sectioning everything in my mind. But those things were all in 3D. I wanted to make something different, unique and fun! Not knowing how long I have been staring at my Macbook, thinking of what to section, suddenly the Apple “popped out” and my eyes were wide opened : I’m a die hard fan of Apple, so why not to extrude a 2D logo into a 3D model?! isn’t it fun?!

Reflection • This is the first week of getting prepared for the final project. I like models and puzzles.

I knew it was going to be fun to make a sectioning model by ourselves. After days of struggling what to section, I was more excited about doing it when i came up with the Apple logo idea.

• the hardest part was to remain a good balance of the model as there was only one standing point while there were different weight from every directions.

Site Selection our team first picked the area around the tree at the courtyard. we wanted to create an installment which allowed audiences to have more interaction with the tree which referred to the nature.

Site Selection We actually wanted to go further into the tree in order to provide an unique experience perceivably.

However, since our installment would very likely to block the pathway around this site of selection, we have moved on our awesomeness up to the hillside.

Adoptmulti buildings structure

perpendicular angle size

Week 11 & 12Research architectural installations to become inspired and to determine the breadth and depth of design-and-build approaches. Consider the limitations

on time, budget, and available resources before selecting viable approaches to our Final Project.

Development After the first iteration of sectioning, I wanted to try something with negative space. So then I took the idea of the modern nation stadium shape. I would like to present it like as a placenta, hoping one day it would be built as a full scale for people to “go” back as a fetus and feel love of the mother nature.

Reflection Since I did not want every piece to be placed horizontally, the most difficult part was to adjust the angle of every single piece.

Site Selection We have moved up to the hillside to excel our excitement and passion. Wind is always strong up here. We have decided to take advantage of it. In the following weeks, we a imed to make the inv is ib le wind perceivable.

A prototype of the Frame idea hanging around the trees.

Adoptmulti buildings structure

perpendicular angles no base

insert the secondary building to the main building

Week 13Research architectural installations to become inspired and to determine the breadth and depth of design-and-build approaches. Consider the limitations on time, budget,

and available resources before selecting viable approaches to our Final Project.

Safety Workshop.

Reflection • It is really interesting to do something folding and overlapping

like this. • But it was not easy to make it stand firmly and have symmetrical

shape.

Development Our team wanted to have some honey cone shape to attach with the frame structure. I then came up with the idea from a soccer ball and the Hong Kong Space Museum.

We started to work on a full size scale model and tried to solve issues about the details:

How to connect every piece of wood to form a flexible frame structure? How to adjust the support points both on the trees and ground?

How to attach the strings with the wood piece and trees? etc.

Adoptperpendicular angles

Week 14Design Team Installation starts.

Continue installation components design.

Development The next element that we had to think of was the sitting design. I presented a hammock plus benches. When we tighten the strings which is attached to the structure, it is a hammock between two trees. When we loosen the strings, one side of the hammock falls down to become benches.

Reflection • If such idea was ever adopted, the choice of materials and the

way to install it would be a huge issue. • But personally I quite like this idea of hammock/benches. It

saves space while is providing different individual experience from different functions.

Continue our hands-on trails, experiments, and discussions of every possibility.

Issue & Solution The wood connection: How are we able to make the frame movable? so we have to work on the wood joint between each wood piece. Since we want to utilize the wind element through an irregular form of shape, we want the frame to be able to move individually like human body joints. we believe it performs the best of evoking the strong wind visually. We have gone through tons of ideas about how to make a connection between each wood. Condition/Requirement: flexible (able to move 360 degrees in any direction), firm (able to attach woods sturdily), material (easy to find), method (easy to install) Final: drill the black little flexible tube into the head and tail of each wood piece.

Week 15Continue installation.

Continue structure components design.

Development It a combination of the pervious two iterations, the honey cone and the hammock/benches. It is a movable benches with a honey cone shape curving towards inside. It gives a large amount of mobility.

Reflection • If such idea was ever adopted, the choice of materials and the

way to install it would be a huge issue. • It is able to evoke a good communication within the structure. • It gives a lot mobility.

It is another move of this structure. It is able to be flipped all the way over, facing the outside instead of the inside.

Such mobility gives different shapes within the same structure.

It is funny to play with different shapes. And now it looks like an open theater.

We Started to work on the trees.

Issue & Solution The support on the trees: How are we we going to hang up the frame onto the trees? We 1st thought of having strings go/hang over branches. However, we want to have a more flexible way to hang up the installment in case we have to modify some sections specifically. The perfect way is be able to detach any component easily instead of taking the whole thing down. So we rounded some rubber bands over the branches and hung some S hooks on them. then we just hung the wood components on the S hooks.

Week 16Continue installation.

Continue structure components design.

Handle DesignWe wanted to make it simple but user-friendly. We took away other unnecessary parts, left the useful elements.

Week 17Continue installation.

Continue structure components design.

Develop verbal presentation in which each design team presents their design intentions and demonstrates how each intention is satisfied by

installation.

Issue & Solution The connection between the fabric (sail) and the strings: At the beginning, we connected the fabric with individual strings which were not the strings from the structure. And then we hung them on the tree like how we did to the frame structure. We 1st tried to use the copper ring to hold the fabric and string together. The wind was SO STRONG that it was lifting the whole structure up, which apparently looked amazing. However, on the second day when we came back, the whole thing fell apart!Because the sail caught a lot of wind, it created strong tension. It caused the lines to tangle on each other and pull apart and even break some connections within the structure. The whole team was really frustrated about losing 2 days of work and even more, we have to reconnect the frame. It actually gave us extra workload. We then understood and realized that we have to work on a better design for putting up the fabric piece. We want it to work like a sail on the boat. So it allows the fabric to go up and down. We can unload the sail when we leave. To prevent such accident by decreasing the surface area. We don’t want the fabric catches the wind and creates huge tension then tears down and destroys the whole installment again. We use the white cable clamp instead of the copper ring to attach the fabric with the strings, which are from the frame structure rather than hanging it up with extra individual strings like we did before. It matches the color tone. It gives us mobility. Those components are movable on the strings. It works like a certain. More importantly, additionally, it saves us a lot of troubles. The more strings we use, the more risky it would be, because strings are very likely to overlap with other strings around them. It then will become a mess and things will be stuck up there. But now we do not have to worry about that, because we have avoided to add extra strings.

Jelly fish is in the wind!

Week 18Team Presentation.

Review Every of us prepared out own speech and presented it in at class. It was quite frightening because there were so many guests. It made me feel extremely nervous. When I don't feel comfortable, I tend to avoid eye contact. that was why I kept looking and reading from my text and I was so worried about whether I have covered the part that I was supposed to. But this was a very valuable chance to learn more. We have guests, we have more points of view from different perspectives, which helps us see a lot more and understand more.

Conclusion

• After mid-term, the real challenges were coming at us as it was the time for us to face the actual problems and issues with building a full size installation. Sometimes it was difficult to have everybody fitted into the same schedule. I missed some meetings, others missed the other meetings. However, I think that our team was dealing it pretty good because our group mates are all so responsible, helpful and understanding. Every of us tried our best to give out the best of us to this project. It’s exhausting to proceed a project, especially a group project, but it has a lot of fun at the same time. More importantly, it is a very invaluable lesson, and it is also a perfect chance to try out different kinds of things.

• Tips for next 101: Don’t give up so early. The best is yet to come. After all that struggles and failures, you have gain something. You may not notice what that something is actually, but I’m sure you will see it one day!