Precedent Study: Luis Barragan

After analyzing my clients, the site and the brief, I thought it was due time to find some inspirations in the form of other buildings. I knew that I would have to find some way of providing the opportunity there for the site to be partially divided, due to the clients needs. The way I came up of doing this was to use the building to provide a partial division on the site. I also needed several outdoor spaces, for circulation, exhibition and entertainment.

I decided to look at the work of Luis Barragan, the Mexican architect, in particular his usage of courtyards as circulation and usable external spaces. Many of his works are defined by wall extensions which protrude further than the edge of the building, defining areas of the site into external areas.

His works are ambitious and colourful, however have been criticised in the past for not being entirely functional. There is no doubting their beauty, I also thought that he has a connection to all of my clients in that his works are inherently inspired by his upbringing in Mexico, much like Rodrigo. Like Pablo he is fascinated with colours and tricks of the eye, and like Antony he is intrigued with planes and their connections with open spaces.



Images taken from: helenjamesdesign.blogspot.com

Room Sizes (Approx)

So to try and get some ideas for my first designs, the most sensible way to tackle this appeared to be to work out which rooms I would need to incorporate in the design. I attempted to break it down as such: Antony - Studio, Exhibition (Internal + External), Bedroom, Bathroom (Ensuite)
Rodrigo - Performance + Recording Studio,, Entertainment (Internal + External), Bedroom, Bathroom (Ensuite)
Pablo - Studio, Entertainment (Internal + External), Bedroom, Bathroom (Ensuite)
Shared - Kitchen, Entrance Hallway, Lounge

By the process of elimination and thinking which spaces can be contained within one another, I worked out the following list of spaces I will need:

Studio x3
Bedroom + Ensuite x3
Kitchen
Lounge
External Exhibition
Internal + External Entertainment

The scanned image below show approximate sizes for the individual spaces.




The next image is the approximate sizes for the shared rooms.

Client Analysis: Rodrigo Sanchez

Rodrigo Sanchez is one half of Mexican musical duo Rodrigo y Gabriela. Growing up in Mexico City, Rodrigo formerly played in a metal band called Tierra Acida. The duo moved to Dublin, Ireland, in order to try and further their musical careers. After supporting Damien Rice at Oxegen Festival, they got their break and toured much of the UK.
They released their self titled debut album in March 2006, which went to number one in Ireland, beating Arctic Monkeys to the coveted spot. Their influences span from Led Zepplin, Metallica and Slayer, amongst many other heavy metal/classic rocks groups. To date they have six albums under their belts, including two live albums.


Rodrigo is a vegan and actively supports animal rights, therefore he will require a separate fridge to the others, as well as somewhere to prepare food. He needs a performance space, and a recording studio with equipment, which could be integrated. Rodrigo also wants a space to entertain and a space to dance, which can be a mix of interior and exterior spaces.

First Image from: iheartau.com
Second Image from: viddug.com

Client Analysis: Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley is a 60 year old (38 for the purposes of this project) English sculptor, best known for his larger than life installations, most famously the Angel of the North. Growing up in West Yorkshire, he read archaeology, anthropology and the history of art in Dewsbury. Gormley traveled the world visiting India and Sri Lanka to gain further understanding of Buddism, before returning to study at Central Saint Martins College in London, completing his studies in 1979 with a post-grad course in sculpture.



Gormley has always shown a vivid fascination in human form, expressed in many of his works including Event Horizon, Iron: Man, and the much coveted Angel of the North. Having won the Turner Prize, and had works exhibited in various corners of the world, Gormley is one of the most renowned artists of his time.


His works have always formed relationships with the architecture and landscape surrounding them. 'Sculpture for an objective experience', a combined work with David Chipperfield, appears to be a functional building, however it is almost mocking the human will to turn all man-made objects into architectural forms.
He is a subdued and reserved character, preferring to keep himself to his own devices. He needs a studio space, as well as an interior and exterior exhibition space. His love of Italian cooking will require an adequately equipped kitchen.

First Image from: davidrose.co.uk
Second Image from: echostains.wordpress.com

Client Analysis: Pablo Picasso

So I've been given three clients for the Habitat project, picked randomly from a selection of 10 or 15 characters, each person has their own traits, which have to be dealt with in the design. The first client I am going to analyze is Pablo Picasso.

Born in 1886 in Spain, Pablo Picasso is one of the most renowned artists of all time. He lived the majority of his adult life in France, where he was a co-founder of the cubist movement. Some of his most famous works are Les Demoirelles d'Avignon and Guernica.

Showing immense talent from a young age, Picasso's style evolved as he grew older, he studied in Madrid and spent his final year in France, where he met his close friend to be, Max Jacob. Many of Picasso's early works were grim and dark, echoing the desperate cold times in which he lived. He was primarily a painter, although he did experiment with other mediums, including sculpture and installation art. His career is defined into five categories: Bloc Period, Rose Period, African Period, Cubism and Classical-ism and Surrealism.

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth" - Picasso

Pablo will need an internal and external studio, with a changing room for life models. He will also require an easel and store rooms. Picasso was also known for his extravagant parties and, therefore an entertainment area is a must, however it will have to be separate from one of the other clients (Antony).

First image from - http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp
Second image from - http://www.artiusgallery.com/news/about/pablo-picasso/

So...

I thought I'd try and blog on here more consistently, hopefully once a day if possible, just covering one small section of what I'm up to at the time, whether it be precedent work/CAD drawings/lecture notes or design information. I'll try and keep the posts precise and to the point, so that the blog as a whole is easily readable! I'll also try and make sure that each blog post has at least one image, related to the work I have been doing!

Oh and if you have a couple of extra minutes, check out a music, arts & culture site I started over on Crack in the Road. Starting the blogsite last year, it grew to such an extent that I managed to travel to parts of Europe over the summer to attend various festivals, and conduct interviews/reviews. We have about 10 writers from all over the UK, and we've interviewed the likes of The Subways, British Sea Power, The Drums, Zane Lowe, The Magic Numbers, plus many more cool artists! So yeah, enjoy and hopefully you'll be able to see more regular updates on here!

Dundee V&A

So the winner of the Dundee V&A Exhibition was chosen earlier this week, after over a month of the 6 designs being on display at Abertay University. Several weeks back I visited the exhibition, and left with mixed opinions on the different buildings. Steven Holl's monstrous attempt at creating an inspiring and functional landmark, ended up appearing entirely awkward and unusable. On the other hand, the elegant Snøhetta design integrated perfectly into the riverside surroundings, including slits in the roof to allow light into the studio and exhibition spaces. Another personal favourite was the REX design, iconic and robust looking, however there have been doubts about the costing behind the build, so it was never a realistic option.

The winner was the Kengo Kuma design, a building that if constructed, will hopefully form an internationally recognised landmark on the banks of the Tay. Chosen by the panel for it's 'fantastic spaces to exhibit stunning design collections'; initial costing see it coming in at around about the £40million mark, however if you ask me that's a slightly modest estimate, especially in todays economic climate.


All images and quotes taken from http://vandaatdundee.com/your-future/

Analysis Of Precedent - Part II

In the previous post you can see some of the many models we made, as well as a 1:50 detail model, 1:100 volumetric and 1:50 structural model, we also made a 1:50 circulation model. Colour coded straws show primary and secondary circulation throughout the house.

Here are the drawings which we used in the final presentation, all of which were scanned in at Burns & Harris and then arranged on photoshop in order to be printed on A1 with scales and titles. The sheets themselves are relatively self explanatory, which helped us in our presentation. We each took it in turns to talk about the house, with the building split into 12 elements. The feedback was pretty positive overall, and was a great introduction to the year, not only on an architectural level, but also to get people communicating with each other.

Analysis Of Precedent - Peninsula House

Next up on the project agenda was the testing yet informative Analysis of Precedent project, the first experience of group work within Dundee School of Architecture. Each tutorial group was split into 4 separate sub-groups, and every trio given an inspiring and well known house to research and dissect.

My troublesome trio (Clare Gorman, Gillian Brown and myself) were allocated Sean Godsell's Peninsula House on Morninginton Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Largely constructed of wood and oxidized steel beams, the house is a fantastic example of integration, control over, yet respect of the surrounding landscape.

First point of call was to source as much information on the house as possible, which is where the journals and archives in the library prove invariably useful. Several books under our arms, and numerous photocopies from the likes of GA Houses and Architectural Review, we left the library, ready to embrace and tackle our project.

The first major difficulty we encountered was to scale the plans, sections and elevations to the correct size, as the only drawings we could find had no set scale on them, so it was a case of reading the text, finding out the length of the building and scaling accordingly. Whilst this was going on we also set about making our coloured volumetric, showing a form of spacial awareness of the building we were investigating.

Below are photographs of some of the models we made, as well as the model making process.

Clare + Gillian Model Making

Close up of 1:50 Detail Model

1:50 Detail Model

Inspiring Place 2010

So another year in Dundee, time again to find another place amongst the illustrious streets, which provides me with inspiration and awakens my creativity. After hours of trawlling around the West End, including venturing down the beautiful Strawberry Bank, a secluded "Secret Garden"-esque area, complete with cobbled streets and overgrown ivy. Also on my journey I managed to convince several builders (who were on their tea break at the time) to allow me inside the building they were currently refurbishing. The property is in a fantastic location on Perth Road, just a minutes walk from the Art school, and with awe inspiring views over the Tay. However, they wouldn't let me take any photographs, apparently they were rather supersitious...

Moving on from those two places, which could easily have featured in my final presentation, I decided to focous on a more specific theme, one which is extremely prevelant in Dundee; the concept of mother nature taking back what is rightfully hers. I stumbled upon this back alley yards from the DoJ building, yet as soon as I spotted it, I knew it was worth documenting. From the D messily scrawelled on the wall, to the empty bottle of cider sitting on the stairs, this truly appeared to be a place destroyed by man. However, on further inspection, the items which really caught the eye, were the mystically coloured leaves and wild ivy which dominaes the area. A place which was once controlled by us, is now experiencing an epic and enthralling battle between the picture-esque nature, and the troubled, angst filled youth of Dundee.

Hospitalfields (Site Analysis)

After the mediator project we moved straight onto a design project, again situated at Hospitalfields. I felt that the first time we had gone there, we didn't really get a fair impression of the site as the weather was awful, so we picked a better day and went back to take more photographs and accurate measurements. Here is the site analysis which I put together after visiting Hospitalfields again. The light was far better, and I got some fantastic photo's of the shadows created by the imposing trees surrounding the site.

Mediator (Hospitalfields Trip)

For our first project back we went to Hospitalfields in Arbroath, which is about 15minutes drive away from Dundee. The purpose of this project was, as a group, to a produce an outcome which we felt was representative of the site itself. Hospitalfields has been passed down through many different families, and it is apparent in the building, which looks rather disjointed and really gives the viewer a sense of growth. The day we visited was a cold, dull day, and much of the parts of the site that I had looked forward to seeing, were dampened. Our senses overall were dampened, and it left nearly all of us coming away with a feeling of desolation and loneliness from the site. Below are a selection of some of the more interesting photographs I took at Hospitalfields. Another purpose of our visit was to get a feel for the surrounding area, as part of the site would be being used by us for our next design project.

Here is the Hospitalfields website for those interested in learning more about the area:
http://www.hospitalfield.org.uk/

Habitat Project