Wall Project

One of my goals in designing the front wall of the community center was to have the exterior of the building suggest how the spaces inside interact. The elevation of the building is very similar in form to the plan, with the two opposite-sloping roofs corresponding to the two angled walls of the façade.

Another one of my goals was to make each architectural element along the entry path guide the viewer through a set of experiences. The above photo shows the approach to the front of the building from the main entrance to the courtyard. The double-layered wall hides the actual entrance to the building, but the sloping edge of the front wall, and the triangular roof overhang jutting out to meet the far wall, suggest that the entrance is between the two walls. The long header beam on the outside of the wall reflects the slope of the roof, which would otherwise be hidden. The beam also suggests the direction of the path to take into the building. The two windows (the front Zen View window, and the triangular clerestory window above the main hall) converge to a point on this beam, focussing the viewer's attention on it.
The opening between the walls is visible from the other side of the building, as is the sloping roof and the interior windows and light shaft. The entry door to the main hall is just behind the front window, visible in this view. The entrance to the building is therefore visible from this location, but not immediately accessible. Reaching it involves passing through the outer room and turning the corner.

The outer room is designed specifically to encourage movement through the space. The tall, narrow, Zen view window affords a view of only a slice of the courtyard at a time, encouraging the viewer to move past it to get the full effect. Once a person is standing in front of the window, the high sill encourages them to move back towards the door to get a better view. The light shafts create a sense of mystery about how the light enters the space, which is only resolved by passing under the light shafts on the way into the main hall. The acutely angled corners of the outer room also create a sense of tension or energy and encourage movement through the space, discouraging people from lingering in corners and steering them toward the entrance.
The above photo shows a glimpse of light entering the building through the Zen view window. The lighting is equivalent to midday in spring or autumn.
The columns in the building's interior reflect the proportional grid of the elevation. The façade is divided into five equal segments horizontally and two ten-foot high segments vertically. The movable screen inside the building also reflects the same division rotated on its side. As a further reference to the proportions of the building, the two colors of the screen correspond to positive and negative spaces on each of the exterior walls. The beam that surrounds the two columns closest to the entry forms a rectangle with the edge of the light shaft outside, emphasizing the prism of negative space that one passes through to enter the building. When the screen is moved to close off the entrance, it cuts diagonally through this negative space, destroying it while continuing the plane of the inner wall. Even when the screen is closed at night, however, light from the inside of the building will still shine through the translucent material.

Paul's Sculpture Wall

I started the project with the concept/theme of a sculpture functioning as a wall. The idea is that public sculptures link the older population with the younger (children) population in that they give interests to mature audiences with their artistic appeal, and to the kids with their noticeable design that kids find a way to play around with. This idea fits with the community area, especially since it can be seen from the outside, while it functions as a wall (providing shade, breakinp up spaces, and blocking/restricting the views). The sculpture is not part of a wall, but rather it is a wall functioning as a wall, and as a sculpture. This theme, I thought, also shows a further breeding/merging with the arts and architecture, and merging with playful and more serious design/mood.

First, I created a model with hard paper (easy to cut and fold and move around).







Then, on creating the main "sculpture" I decided to use the fins to create a familiar symbolic image, or rather sculpture. I abstracted the form of a child and the parent to fit into squares (one small one, and another twice the size). I ended up with this design, the sky blue squares represent translucent panels to conceal most of what's behind the wall, while the dark blue represent voided squares which would allow for spaces to inhabit and look out/in to.

Then, I modeled the design in Revit (which helped me produce precise measurements from drawing to model). Here it shows the grid system I used. You can also see how I begin to merge the sculpture system on the left with the more skeletal vertical (rotated) walls, which also have their own fins for the play of light, and solar heating. The orientation of the rotated walls at the right side also limits the view form inside to outside to the trees, (both of my walls are oriented to view the trees (rather than out to the streets) to frame different zen views.



On the right, is a process photo of the opaque materials. You can also see how I put them together, using templates with little cuts that allow the pieces to fit together tightly. Drawing this on Adobe Illustrator for the laser printer to cut, and getting the right precise measurement so that each piece would fit is a real challenge! I ended up having to print multiple times to find out they do not fit, right. You can also see how the sculpture part begins to have lots of different sizes (three verticals are wider, and they go deeper form left to right). Also, the depth varies in location, many go out to make a seating wall, and the higher ones for as small sun shade. This also goes in for a seating wall from the inside, which makes the sculpture inhabitable, and more accessible to play around with, sit on (theres one part where it is 3 feet high seat one could climb on).
The translucent panels are also placed in different places to vary the light effects and to show the skeleton/insides of the sculpture. The panels create a perfect chance to show off the abstracted image, when artificial light is turned on at night.


Here is a view from the inside, showing the details on the stairs and the railings (both of which resemble the template I used for the fins on the non-sculpture side. I thought it creates movement and playfulness that I experimented and went ahead on using them.









The Complete Product:


I really enjoyed this project, and learned a lot with playing additive/subtractive and skeletal vs. mass. I also learned how to use a laser cutter, Adobe Illustrator, and better ways to conserve time. I have relied mostly in the laser cutter to provide a very precise cut. It also made possible for the cutting of intricate designs (like the rails), and other materials, without the wood breaking or chipping (which usually happens when I use a knife). Another thing I wish I handled more carefully, if I had more time, is my craftsmanship (the cutting, and gluing, and handling of the materials).

Wall Photos

For my wall, the design principle on which I focused most was skeletal vs. mass. The masses are two solid "L" shapes, and the skeletal panels are composed of smaller, overlapping "L"s. The two walls align with the trees, each other, and the other buildings that surround the courtyard. My goal was to create something simple and elegant, but at the same time intricate and detailed enough to sustain interest.

My habitable space features translucent glass flanked by two panels with transparent openings. This arrangement creates a playful pattern of light and a bright, welcoming corner where one can look outward, towards the courtyard, or inward, towards the interior trees.

Finally, the wall has three different thicknesses which add to the variety in a subtle way. I was pleased with the interaction of the three materials in my final model, because I think they go well with the context and create a sense of harmony with the wall's surroundings.

A Couple More Pics

Final Wall Project

I was inspired initially by James Sterling’s Andrew Melville Hall. It was interesting to me how the hall’s sharp angles created such compelling negative spaces. I decided to play with the idea of a puzzle because a community center is a place where the disparate parts of the community come together as one. The puzzle imagery also lends itself to dramatic negative space and interlocking systems.

Because of their height, I wanted to make the walls on the thinner side to bring them to a human level and to make them less daunting masses. I also wanted to keep the feeling like the walls were perforated. I didn’t bring them all the way to the top in order to keep the sense that they were modules (pieces of a puzzle).

The puzzle sheets are orderly and imposing. I brought chaos into the system by punching pieces of the puzzle out of the wall. This adds movement to a static system. The piece gets smaller and rotates across wall; when you walk in, you realize it has been
punched into the room. There is also chaos in the fact that entryway isn’t completely clear…you have to wind your way around in order to find it (in keeping with the puzzle imagery).


The piece rotates and gets smaller and closer to the wall by a 3rd every time to mimic the
fact that the façade of the system is divided into thirds as well. There is a glass casement between the pieces and the wall to play with the light as it bounces into room.

As you walk in, the square materializes into sitting blocks that form a lobby/seating area.
The first block is only half materialized to indicate an evolving mass. The final block you realize is the complete 3D form of the original “flat” puzzle piece.

Forming the 3rd wall of the sitting area is a piece of the puzzle that juts through the wall
and into the space as if the pattern was repeating itself outside the community center.
The sitting cube has a private zen view; in order to appreciate the zen view you must be sitting on the block. There is a screen to semi-block off the sitting room from the rest of the community center.

I incorporated skeletal vs mass by punching the pieces out of the wall. The vertical mullions are reminiscent of when you pull off the outer paper of a puzzle piece
and see the threads that ultimately make the shape.

Sam's Wall Design and Model

I started off working in the basic grid system of 2x2 squares within 4x4 sets. Within the grid I wanted to create a system of differentiation of light and play with the idea of public versus private in the community center. My front facade stems from this idea. The intention is that the four top rows of the grid were all initially glass, but that some of these pieces fell. The pieces that fall are replaced by solid and reappear below (in the same grid column), usually rotated to indicate falling. This system allows a lot of light to enter through the top of the front wall, with sporadic windows as you go down; these fallen windows allow in additional light and allow a viewer to see peeks of what is going on inside. What I thought was interesting when I actually modeled this was that in the predominantly glass portion, the top, the grid system is very apparent, whereas further below the grid is still very rigid in terms of creation, but not to a viewer. The order seems to melt into a more chaotic system.

My next intention was to penetrate the front wall at an angle with a rectangular mass. This mass serves as a bench on the outside of the community center, and as a platform on the inside. The platform has a floating step below. This platform is the basis for the inhabitable space--it is a room within a room. The room has a side wall, parallel to the front one and a ceiling, which is lower than that of the center. The roof of this inhabitable space, the room within a room, also penetrates the front wall. The inhabitable space is the most private part of the center; it can serve as a conference room or meeting space. This space has sliding translucent screen doors.

I then decided to have the wall turn at the same angle as the penetrating mass, to create a sort of continuation of line. While the envelope, massive part of the wall turned I left the skeletal frame behind on the frontal plane. The image above was the first step in my modeling process, in which I had yet to insert the acrylic windows. At this point I left the full frame. I then proceeded to employ the chaotic and erosive schematics to the frame, with both the glass and the frame eroding as you move down and to the left (see below).

Two 4x4 squares get punched out and become seats, where the bottom of the punched out cube is the seat itself. One cube, just above the ground gets punched in so one can sit in it from the exterior of the center. The other is raised and punched out, with the base at 12 feet high. The grid pattern with solid and glass is continued onto these cubes. To reach the higher cube there are stairs that lead to a loft from which you can access the seat; the platform and stairs are meant to feel informal and intimate to make this seat a separate experience.

The higher of the two seat cubes is also the place from which to witness the zen view. I cut a window in the side wall at the 14 feet, the site line from sitting in the cube. The window wraps around the corner, bringing the grid system around the corner. From sitting in the raised cube one would have a view of both the courtyard, but more importantly, of the park through the side window. This view as well as the privacy and intimacy of the seat cube would make this a unique experience.

Getting people up high in little personal spaces, while maintaining connection to the space below was the driving force behind the design exploration.
I decided to limit myself to cubes to reduce the solution space, or maybe I liked that a 3x5 grid of cubes just didn't fit in the wall's original dimensions. Or maybe I was licking a salt block while looking out the window.

Anyhow, I made some cubes out of paper,
the colors were there if I needed them, but I was more interested in the massing at this point.











This is about the time when I made the sketchup model I previously posted.

Then I went and sat at Cuppa Cafe and cut little squares out of clay.
Then I cut little shapes out of the cubes.
They ended up looking like THIS:




Then it was onto the laser cam. It cut my little pieces for me. For this, I am grateful.

These are my jigs. A wonderful suggestion from one Mr. Glen Gatz.









Process photos get spotty at this point. Clearly, I begin to worry about time.


While I quite like the wood aesthetic, it confuses the cubes, they become one mass of stuff. I think it is too difficult to see individual cubes.

Also, working at four in the afternoon gives some unfair lighting conditions. EVERYTHING looks good at this time of day.







GLAMOR SHOTS!






View of a little wooden woman about to enter the maze. Also, a view from inside, as she contemplates the chances of being crushed by a giant concrete die. Ironic? Not sure.



I clearly do not know how to use this blog thing.
Ah, well. If I did, this would be under. The picture on which the text sits shows the danger posed by the die.
The picture to the right shows her, unworried, but still below the level of the die, still at it's mercy.













The fallen cube is visible on the ground. It seems to say, careful, oh you beset with hubris, careful.