Final Model

Above is a picture of my final wall model. The design intent was two fold: 1) "Complete the square" the building originally broke off by being positioned at an angle, and 2) create an experience of playful penetration by creating an entrance facade that could not be read from the outside, fulfilling the "can't judge a book by it's cover" adage.

PROCESS:
I started out with a base sketch (not pictured with a very simple idea of completing the square. The nice idea behind that is by subtracting volume from the front of the building, the ceiling that covers the removed volume functions as an additive space. I intend for this space to be my habitable space, and is the spot in the model shown that is "on top". The nice thing about this setup is that the zen view of looking out the windows at the top is really seen in the back of the community hall, but you're not really enticed to go up there until once you've moved through the building itself.
The facade I put in front of the subtracted space is supposed to be transparent one way, and have a graphic of sorts on the other side (so that looking from the outside, you can't actually see in, but when in the "black space", you can see out). You've probably seen this before on a bus, where you could see out the windows, but people see an ad on the outside. The goal of this glazing is to have a design that doesn't reflect the function of the structure. The below graphic shows the underlying structure and function of the operable components of the building. A graphic overlaying the front could have complete disregard for this, to encourage the surprise/discovery of finding ways into the building.
















I found this project to be frustrating, as I felt the quality of my final model was not proportional to the amount of time I spent on it. Aside from the quality of it's construction, it falls short of it's design intent. I think much of my difficulty stemmed from the fact my design demanded "operability" and "intricacy", which makes for a bad combination at a small scale.

I feel my last project was strong on execution/construction of my idea and weaker on the ideas, and that this project was the reverse. My plan is to make sure everything comes together in the chapel project.