#arch111

Original Design: In my initial building of the corner room, I attempted to construct the internal walls first, with the thin slit between them to allow light to peer through.  To support the light isolation, I built up walls made from index cards and built a roof that spanned across the top of the designs.  From the ceiling, I hung the 3 index card pieces with inlet flairs to match the angles in the film.  However, based on my wall design, I found that the walls could not support my ceiling, thus causing me to add center supports to hold the structure in place. Additionally, the uneven structure of the ceiling caused a non-uniform distance in the gaps between. 

(pictures on canvas submission)

Jeff Goldstein Lecture Review

Walls are an immensely important part of architecture, which may be obvious to anyone who thinks about it. However the nuance that walls can provide in a project can elevate an okay project to an amazing one. One of his examples was a baseball stadium. One could look at at the walls as closing in, limiting the space. However Goldstein says that the walls bring them together instead, and I found this to be an interesting viewpoint that I had never considered prior. The use and significance of walls in architecture proved to be Goldstein’s main thesis throughout his lecture.

Jeff spoke of some projects he had worked on, and their walls importance. One such project was the the Living Community. The residents desired and needed their privacy, so the walls that surrounded each room needed to give each resident a sense of privacy from other guests. However, at heart, it was a community, so in the lobby areas, the openness allowed a community to form. The ebb and flow of the closed walls and open walls allowed the project to show its heart. Another project of his was work for the  Boy Scouts. He spoke of the many partners at his firm that were or had been eagle scouts, which led them to truly have some passion for the project. And that passion is what drives good results in architecture. A project with no passion is often an under-performing project.

Jeff Goldstein’s lecture was an interesting insight to a part of architecture I often considered obvious. He showed how you can make something seemingly obvious into an essential part of a design and the designs heart and feel.

source: DIGSAU (Goldstein’s firm)

source: DIGSAU (Goldstein’s firm)

(pictures on canvas submission)

Review 1: Rachel White Nov 29th

// A Highly Focused Salsa Club

When creating a business, it's always important to know your target market prior to creating it. In Rachel White’s case, her business idea was a salda club. Normally, it’s market would be simple: people who salsa dance. However her idea was to broaden this up, as the market was a bit narrow. She opened it up to three simple groups of people she often saw at clubs:

The first was the spotlight dancer. They could dance, and they knew it. They desired an audience and that’s what she aimed to give them, and a floor to dance on. This is the normal market of a salsa club, but opened to include those who wished for people not so similar to their market to watch them.

The second were the people watchers. Most people can relate most to this group probably, which makes it a market to target. Rachel wanted to give these customers a platform to interact with the spotlight dancers from afar.

The final group she wished to market towards was the couple who showed way too much PDA at the club. This is a niche market, but her attempt at marketing towards them was makeout pods located throughout the floor.

The Salsa club was located in an unused lobby, surrounded by an aquarium and a VR lounge, so her other market was foot traffic from these two locations, with its attempt at marketing being it's interesting architecture, with its main attraction being the giant escalator sleeve traveling through the different floors of makeout pods and people watching nooks. The sleeve rose through the floors and its curved, yet angular form drew attention to it instantly.

The critics, however, didn’t see such instant appeal. They believed that the club was devoid of architectural inspiration outside of the escalator sleeve, and even the escalator sleeve wasn’t truly “salsa” enough. They said that the interior could be exchanged from a salsa club to a Whole Foods, and nothing would truly change. This point may have been too harsh,  while technically true,  the club wasn't truly “salsa”, the interior looked unique and interesting enough that while it could be exchanged for many things, a salsa club wasn’t out of the realm of possibility, however. The next point, however, was more of a true critique of not only the architecture, but the entire premise of White’s design. The idea of solely marketing towards three groups of people, with two of them being fairly niche, is a bit too focused. The group of people who wish to salsa dance, but aren’t exactly stars may feel intimidated at the rows of hallways dedicated to those who watch them. However, on the opposite side, the three groups that it attempts to market towards allows it to tackle its target market efficiently, which seems to be Rachel’s main goal with her design.

Review 2: Watts Nov 29th

// A Combo of Living and Learning

Universities, and by association, the University of Tennessee, always strive to combine a certain mixture of an environment of education and a student’s home environment. In most cases, first year students here at UT will be required to live at dorms, which can be a step in the right direction towards combining these delicate environments. However, Watts attempted to strike a new balance by combining the familiar aspect of a dormitory with that of a library, to create a place that students can both be at home, and study, as many students find studying actually in their home quite distracting.

His solution towards this problem wasn’t without flaws, but an attempt was made to try and balance the delicate mental states of a student. The two sections, the library and the dorm rooms, can only interact in the lobby. This allows students to not truly leave their building, but exit their section of the building, so a different mindset can be wielded. This combats the problem of never truly obtaining a studying mindset. As he mentioned, students in study rooms inside dorm rooms are only a short walk away from their rooms, and are still in their hallways. It's often tempting to leave the study room and travel back to their room instead of getting work done. However, with the design that Watts has presented, these two sections allow a student to transfer their home mindset into their school mindset as they leave the dorm and travel to the lobby.

There were plentiful critiques against the project, and not without weight. One professor mentioned its lack of true content and inspiration, as it was mostly just a dorm and library that mostly met together in their respective lobbies. Another questioned its efficacy. If a student can’t transfer mindset down the hall, can the student transfer their mindset on the other side of the building? And the fact that a library and a dorm have very different spatial and architectural requirements makes it a much more gargantuan task than Watt’s seemed to let on. One of the final critiques was that the point wasn’t focused enough. Watts seemed to have an idea but the execution of the idea wasn’t exactly on point. The idea can be traced back to its origin - “A Combo of Living and Learning”. But was a combination of a library and a dorm the correct combo?

 Review 3: Ashlyn and Logan Nov 30th

// Chattanooga, College Hill, and Community

Chattanooga is a beautiful city, with plenty of great restaurants, events, and people. However, as a city, it’s very fragmented. Ashlyn and Logan attempted to tackle this, by trying to try and stitch the West Side of Chattanooga back together again. However, they were fearful of trying to attack the issues Chattanooga had with its fragmentation by coming in, as outsiders, and just listing off their problems. Instead, they had a couple of ideas for unifying these places. The first was an area of housing, mainly marketed towards those who currently lived in low-income housing. The other area was the main idea, a permanent community potluck.

The potluck is an attempt to bring the citizens of Chattanooga together to revive College Hill. Currently, as Logan describes it, College Hill is a “food desert”. With the potluck, and a community courtyard, they hope to change this. Logan’s idea was to invite food trucks, and those that do good get a permanent spot in the courtyard. This courtyard is a community place that they can gather, to truly become a community that Logan and Ashlyn want to create.  The site is between the industrial and commercial areas of Chattanooga. This allows it to be a transition area for Chattanooga.

Empty, Alone, in an area of isolation, a marker exists, along with a dead tree, lies dead remains, a floating memory of once exists before.

Alas, in the place of memories, in the home, lies an empty environment, full of material items to proclaim self-happiness

A yellow haze casts upon a floor, to which itself is unnaturally alone, “k” surrounded by nothing but darkness, darkness itself who contributes to loneliness, wondering thoughts, and the source of all evil, he finds himself surrounded

Upon a landfill, mankind finds themselves inhabiting the area, to escape the government, regulations, and oppression. With no fixed structure to call home, the inhabitants make do with the environmental structures providing their soul security.

A young adult, held in captivity, afraid of the world and its powers, hides and makes artificial memories, superficial to their own to improve the lives of androids. Surrounded by large concrete walls, only interacting with the external through a glass wall.

Clutter is found spread throughout, with material items left in disarrange, items to fill the void that seems to haunt all, loneliness

A horse, the one memory most vivid, only painted into the mind of K, keeps the balance between what’s real and unreal, teeter-tottering on the edge of balance

A friend in an unfamiliar environment is found, dimly lit, with an orange haze surrounding the interaction

In a dark place, shadows from the columns reflect off the water, hiding the nature of the surroundings behind the absence of light

Snowcapped stairs face the opening to a glass, unsure of what was happening next. Not a single person to be found.

On 5th and 52nd in New York City, Nike transformed a 68,000 square foot high riser into a modern concept store called “Nike House of Innovation 000.” Designed to challenge the familiar faces of concrete structures, the building takes a different turn by allocating itself to a glass façade. On the interior of the building, Nike uses deep technology to integrate their product line better. The store takes consumers in mind, with online order pickup, custom light levels (brighter for women and darker for men), and pager buttons in dressing rooms to “call an athlete.” Nike developed this 5 floor building with customers in mind, setting up different moods by changing the environment and open space based off of the category of the product.

In Quebec, these two beautiful structures hang off the cliffside to form a set of eyes overlooking the Quebec countryside. With its dark black wood the structure seems very much apart of the landscape, almost a natural addition to it. Its angular, but still blends in and sticks out at the same time.

Inside, the view outdoors is breathtaking. You can see the hilly landscape across the valley and the indoors is both cozy and open.