Architecture

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Public versus private, the spaces in between


Hello,

I'd like to showcase my work (in progress) here in hopes of tapping an extra source of feedback. I've uploaded four crude AutoCAD renders curious for your comments, remarks, likes and dislikes.
I'll be sure to update this thread with some fancy renders and drawings of my finalised design once it's done.

We've been presented with a fictional (and very abstract) plan for a city (with a severe aesthetics deficiency) and been given the task to develope one of it's plots with an individually designed structure.

The concept of my design is providing an intermediate between two major cityscape features. The first being an abstract interpretation of a transportation axis wich we coined "de bliksem" (the lightning(bolt)) running through a large part of the city including the section designated to my group and covering a significant part of the plot wich was assigned to me. The second feature overlaps several sections of our neighbouring groups and could be considered as a (secondary) city square/park hybrid.
My structure tries to wrap around itself creating an open space within providing a possible pedestrian corridor between the forementioned cityscape features.

One of the requirements we would need to meet with our design was facilitating seven residential homes without extending the footprint of our structure beyond the boundaries of our assigned plots (30 x 15 meters, aproximatly 100 x 50 feet) Taking the average one-family home size (roughly 100-125 square meters) and the odd number of homes we needed to facilitate proved quite a challenge. Especially considering public space needed to be facilitated within the boundaries of our plots aswel(square meter eaters!)
It does explain the vertical direction as seen in most of our buildings.

Dead links removed.

[Aetius]

Interesting.

All I ever did in architecture class was design houses. Lots of them. It gets boring after awhile, more details, projections, etc. After four years of designing suburbia I quit. I envy what you are doing.

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Hi Aetius,

I suppose that's one of the benefits of studying architecture at an art-school. The emphasis lies heavily on the creative process and so far we've been getting the kind of assignments architects dream of.
Mind you, I did present a bit of a skewed view with the images posted; drawing up details, or running the numbers and such (the "technical stuff") does make up an important, far less stimulating, part of the design aswell.

[Desperado †]

Wow. Very interesting. Did you intend grey to be the finnished colour of the building? I like it, especially the corridor-type thing running through it which's obvious in the first pic.

I have been aspiring to be an architect (I'm going to an architect office for work experience). Is most of your designing on computer? How do you find the studying?

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Hello Caradog,

Did you intend grey to be the finnished colour of the building?

Yes, various shades of grey. The materialisation of this building will be untreated concrete of three different mixtures for a differentiation in colour, grain (rough/smooth) and thickness for the various elements of it’s composition, depending on their structural demands.

Is most of your designing on computer?

Some of it. It depends.

The design process can be roughly split into two parts, a conception and a presentation phase.
You’ll start out exploring the possibilities using the program’s requirements as stated by the client (in this case, our teachers core) and the site (the landplot and it’s surroundings) to formulate a concept.
From that moment on the main task lies in “translating” these word into the visual langue architecture is spoken in. Using quick hand drawn sketches of images that come to mind, shapes, sizes, perspective views, etc you’ll slowly progress towards exposing that wich will be the finalised design. As your structure and it’s spacial qualities become more apparent, you can use simple scale models and slowly start the transition from hand drawn images to the use of the computer as you refine your design in ever more detail. As seen in the images I posted earlier, this can be a real boon because using the computer means you can quickly translate two dimensional adjustments into the illusion of three dimensional space.
Once your design is finalised you enter the second phase. Now you’ll have to make that wich you designed apparent to the client and present it in an understandable and attractive manner.
The choice is ours whether we do this in a hand drawn or digital fashion. The speed, precision and posibilties the computer offers makes for a seemingly easy choice. Though one method definitly does not exlude the other. You can make use of the computer for precise plans and cross sections while opting for hand drawn elements aswell. Perhaps choosing to opt for a hand drawn artist impression to reach that unique and appealing quality you want to present your client with, wich a digital image would not posses?

I’ll make sure to post some examples to give you a better idea when I update this thread with my finalised design, including bits from every step along the way. Images definitly speak louder than words when it comes to architecture.

How do you find the studying?

I love it! Submerging into the (dream(?))world of architecture. Learning to channel your creativity through various media (pencil drawings, paintings, clay or cardboard models, computer aided design etc.) and utilising your logic and reason aswell when confronted with the technical side ever present.
It’s been a challenging, varied and very rewarding experience so far.

If you decide to take up on studying architecture, make sure to look around for the institution that teaches architecture in the manner you’re the most comfertable with. Apparently, there’s a huge variety in this. (see Aetius’s post for example)

I have been aspiring to be an architect (I'm going to an architect office for work experience)

My compliments on your taste in ambitions! Becoming an architect
Let me know of the things that suprised you or stood out catching your attention while experiencing the ins and outs of an architecture office.

[Desperado †]

Interesting.

My compliments on your taste in ambitions! Becoming an architect
Let me know of the things that suprised you or stood out catching your attention while experiencing the ins and outs of an architecture office.

Yes, I will do. Can't wait to see further images

[Sphere]

I am a practicing structural engineer, I get paid to destroy the dreams of architects, so here I go...

1.) The elevated building with no ground level; the lateral support is woefully inadequate, under moderate wind I would expect the ground level columns to bend over and collapse. I see what looks like a shear wall in one of the isometric views, you would need to have another going in the other direction and at least two other stair shafts. As an alternative, you could have it as a steel structure and show substaintial cross bracing (in both directions), between the columns.

2.) The semi-spiraling building with the exerior stairs. After the third floor, you cantelever the building quite a ways off the original foot print; thats far to much. To carry those cantelever loads the floor beams would be 10 feet high or more, and the moment forces in lower floor columns cause them to snap like a bent over sapplings. Either you find a way to decrease the force of gravity by 60% or you only cantilever the top 1-3 floors. The alternative is to make the building a true spiral (very popular right now) or some other way to balance the building weight so that the columns are like a tree trunks, the branches may be spread way out, but the forces are symetrical as they come down the trunk, and no bending side to side occurs.

3.) The short grey building. Looked good at first, then I saw the elevation. That void space behind the cantilever is killer. A good rule of thumb is that however far you cantelever a beam out, you need it to continue twice as far back into the building, otherwise the the beams are like a giant wrench cranking on the weak little columns below. The easiest option is to have exposed columns to support the edge cantelever so it is no longer a cantelever (though Arch's tend to hate this). If you want to keep it, you have to have your floor beams extend through the void space into the other side of the building. They dont need an actual floor on top of them (though this helps, like balancing a teater-totter) but they cant just end 10 ft behind the cantelever.

4.) The tall square-ish building with large stair shafts; would work. To make it more efficient structurally you could rotate the stair shafts 90 degrees. You want your longest shear walls running parallel with the worst wind direction. The worst wind direction is when your building is best acting like a sail (most exposed surface area to the wind i.e widest part of the building.

Are your dreams sufficiently crushed? I will send you my consulting bill later. (seriously though, not bad work, you need to develop things further though.)

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Thanks for your post Sphere, exactly the kind of critique I’ve been hoping for.

I will single out the paragraph you labeled with “3”, since it concerns my own design, but I shall definitly let my team members know of your comments on their structures.

3.) The short grey building. Looked good at first, then I saw the elevation. That void space behind the cantilever is killer. A good rule of thumb is that however far you cantelever a beam out, you need it to continue twice as far back into the building, otherwise the the beams are like a giant wrench cranking on the weak little columns below. The easiest option is to have exposed columns to support the edge cantelever so it is no longer a cantelever (though Arch's tend to hate this). If you want to keep it, you have to have your floor beams extend through the void space into the other side of the building. They dont need an actual floor on top of them (though this helps, like balancing a teater-totter) but they cant just end 10 ft behind the cantelever.

I’ve been having my doubts on the cantilevers myself and have been considering to support them with pillars, but I prefer your second suggestion. Extending the floorbeams through the open space central in my design could actually add to the aesthetic experience of this space if done propperly, ontop of providing a structural solution.

Ah, inspiration. Time to pick up them shards and improve the dream!

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Dead links removed

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Res.

[Yaga Shu Ra]

Res.