In order to refine the colour palette and general aesthetic of my design I put together a mood board containing some visual inspiration and president design work that I wish to site. Many images are taken from the film "2001 A Space Odyssey" as the "pod"featured in that film was my original source of inspiration, I also draw on modern day space shuttles and other dystopian future set designs by Stanley Kubrick. I believe the kind of distorted vision of how the future may look in 2001 interestingly ties in to the design of the subway site, it was constructed in the early 70's and was designed to be there for a long time. The people working on this space therefore had to attempt to envision a space that would not look out of place in the "future" and just like Kubrick, it doesn't quite fit with reality.
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Im starting to develop my POD ideas for the spaghetti junction sunken amphitheatre/subway, swell as making many sketches I'm also planning on making a series of increasingly detailed "sketch Models" to help understand the spaces created by my POD and to illustrate my ideas. Below are a few photos of my first model!
Im currently in the midst of a group project that investigates environmental design in two contrasting libraries. We decided up the elements and each person has produced a detailed account of what they have found for that section - mine was/is Lighting and visual comfort!
Obviously that is massively important for a library, natural light can damage books, yet you need sufficient light to read, shadows are bad news and study areas have to have natural light in order to maintain a productive atmosphere. I went into a lot of detail about all of this, investigating the use of automatic blinds, a skylight, the way the building was orientated and how the angle of the sun has been considered at different times of the year. I will post a link to the group blog detailing this in the "uni project" page on this site, but for now, here are a few graphics I made on photoshop to illustrate my investigation. (the sun path I generated on an external website - not photoshop) Ive decided to base my pod's feed around space and physics/science education for 11-14 year olds. I plan on live streaming visiting lectures swell as having a star gazing dome projection on the ceiling of the sleeping area. My aesthetic is drawing from 1960/70's futurism seen in films such as 2001: a space odyssey, I enjoy the surreal interpretation of what the future may look like in Stanley Kubrick's films of the period. I also want to draw on aesthetics from set designs of "A Clockwork Orange" to create an exciting environment for the visitors (obviously without any inappropriate sculptures and paintings). I want the whole site to be transformed into a "space bowl" using tinted light sources and projections with a central toilet facility and Teacher/Guardian pod. Ive decided to suspend the pod just off the ground to keep off the cold floor, yet the profile is lower than the top of the pit in order to shelter the pods from the wind.
Im working on a new project that involves designing a "pod" for two people to sleep in while watching a live stream of events in Birmingham. The site location is the subway beneath "spaghetti junction" below is my site analysis. Its not a pleasant space at first but after spending so much time there I am beginning to appreciate the site more and more. There are some unique views caused by the supporting road columns and the planters provide some pleasant greenery. I am working on a site section that Ill upload soon!
Ive recently began writing for a Mountain Bike magazine called "Shredder" based in Scotland, I illustrated my article and thought I would share my work here as Im really happy with how it came out.
The article discusses weather racing takes the fun out of riding bikes and weather you can begin to forget the reasons you fell in love with cycling in the first place by taking racing to seriously. During a studio session yesterday we were tasked to create rapid fire models using card/paper and only folding. The emphesis was on producing quick and organic models with only 3mins spent per item.
Below are my favourite three that I have created that will later be sketched so as to look like usable buildings! Its quirky but I like it, I think its been an interesting and valuable experience that encourages originality and breaking convention. My latest group project required a pin up board submission similar to that seen in my 'Falling Water' project. Although not true for all members of my group this time around, there was not such an equally divided work load for this project, I was conscious that I wanted my work to be of the highest quality so took control of a lot of tasks to ensure it was a respectable finished piece.
I put the board together myself and provided all but one of the images, i developed my scale drawing and massively improved my photoshop skills in the process. I hadn't used photoshop before starting this course and to now be at a reasonably competent level is something I'm really proud of! I learnt a lot from piecing together a board from my first project, I knew the story had to be cohesive and that It would need to explain how the product works to somebody that had never seen it before. I drew my aesthetic from Constructivist posters and put something together I'm relatively happy with! There are changes to be made before my summative review but this is what i produced so far: (click to enlarge) Life has thrown a few curve balls at me recently, bad things always seem to come at one time but a long story cut short I found myself feeling slightly frustrated and down on Tuesday night. I pride myself in my positivity but everybody has those moments, and being open about the fact Im not bullet proof is something I'm learning to be comfortable with more and more as I grow, after trudging through an unpleasant evening the next day took a turn for the better.
I honestly have so much to write about, every now and again I get an overwhelming feeling of happiness about the fact I'm studying architecture, as the course un-ravels and I begin to understand more and more about the role of an Architect I just get more excited. Ive known so many talented people that have drifted through life with huge potential, but never found their love, their passion and the things that will allow them to make a difference to the world. I am so, so grateful to have found a path that I enjoy so much, so early in my life. Anyway, yesterday I went into university to get some work done and attend a few 'super studio' sessions (extra curricular activities BCU provide to us, they are soooo good). I had a mountain of work to do, and I can't help but be stressed when I know I have something to do, its not necessarily healthy but its the way that my mind works, I can't relax until I have done everything that I need to do, no matter how far off the deadline is. I had to make a full scale prototype of my groups 'product' for the sensory project previously mentioned. Im good with my hands, years being my own bike mechanic at world class races has helped, I like making things and I knew I could get something decent done, I was happy that I was able to work on this without help from my group, too many chefs definitely spoil the soup with regards to fabrication. I made good headway and at 12:00 headed into the studio to attend the first Super Studio session of the day, a documentary about Norman Foster "How much does your building weigh, Mr Foster?" it was introduced by the head of school Kevin Singh and it was amazing. I think even an individual who doesn't have any involvement in design could appreciate the film, but to somebody like me it was genuinely inspiring. Some of the spaces shown in the film were incredible, the spiralling ramp in the Riechstag dome struck a particular cord with me. I could write an essay on this film, maybe in a later post. I skipped lunch to get the model finished, and after a few hours in the workshop I had something that worked, the sense of relief was beautiful. I knew I had time to get it done but just to tick that task off the list was massively satisfying, I got something to eat and had time to relax before what would be an eye opening lecture at 18:00. I was lucky enough to have Thomas Justice give a lecture in my campus lecture theatre, there was free wine, crisps and dips, interesting people to talk to and a fantastic lecture. I was with four other Level 4 students, and we all very similar reactions - we were inspired. Genuinely inspired, we walked around the city until 9:00 following the lecture taking pictures, doing sketches and being excited about architecture! I got a late train home and collapsed into bed when I got home without eating dinner, but so much more content than 24h previous! Below, my notes from the lecture and a picture of the prototype I made(Click to enlarge): I recently took part in a short research task about the Unite D'Habitation, it was a piece of group work and each person tackled a different element of the building. I researched the concept and inspiration for the building, I didn't have chance to discuss everything I wanted to in our presentation as it was only short. So i thought id post a mini essay here:
Le Corbusier planned to build the ideal living environment for people bombed out of their housing in the second world war, he envisaged a mass housing solution that improved the quality of life dramatically for those who reside inside it. He wanted to encourage a sense of community, to inspire healthy living and to surround residents with nature, bright colours and a pleasant environment. Although from the exterior it may appear a cold and unpleasant concrete block of flats the vision for the building and its ethos are quite different to what you might expect. The Unite D’Habitation birthed Corbusier’s famous quote that a house is a “machine for living in” but this can often be misinterpreted, he does not mean to associate cold and emotionless connotations with a home but rather that it is possible to mass produce beautiful homes for the increasing population. Le Corbusier referred to the impressive structure as “The radiant City” this wasn't just a block of flats, but rather a whole city community contained within one building, Corbusier insisted on the inclusion of shops, athletics tracks, roof gardens, streets and even a “hostel” portion where residents could have guests stay for periods of the time. The vision for this building as suggested by its name is to unite the community within and produce a practical living solution for the future. This ideal is representative of the modernism movement as a whole, breaking away from conventional ideas of what a house should be and building for the future, with mass production in mind. The principal inspiration for this building was to create an improved standard of life, improved health, improved community spirit and to build the future. References: >Reason, A (2014) Brutalist buildings: Unite d’habitation by Le Corbusier. Available at:http://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/15/le-corbusier-unite-d-habitation-cite-radieuse-marseille-brutalist-architecture/ (Accessed 19th oct 2016) >ADAGP (1945) Available at: http://www.foundationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx? (accessed 19th oct 2016) >BBC (2013) Le Corbusier,s Unite : Is it a modern classic? Available at:http://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20130423-design-icon-or-concrete-horror (Accessed 19th oct 2016) |
AuthorWilliam Weston |