Response to exp 1 feedback from Helen

In response to the exp1 feedback I received I would like to defend some of the criticisms from the tutor and make some more general comment on the exp1 structure. I would appreciate if it was read fully and responded to so I could better understand the criticism I received

My design isn't missing ideas drawn from the respective clients, and was certainly not intentionally ignored. My design of the below and above sections symbolises and represents concepts from the clients in a more general way. Who would design an entire studio for a client based on an abstract section based on a single word describing a single artwork in their repertoire? After undergoing so many transformations, by the end of it all, the design may no longer have ANY significance left to the ideas and themes of the actual artist for whom you're designing. The design process outlined by the course is great for providing inspiration and a mechanism by which design ideas can be churned out for further development. However, this process does not, in my opinion, necessarily produce a design that's ‘meaningful’ to it's purpose or client.

Architecture is not an inside joke, it's not just art, architecture has an actual purpose and if it is to have deeper meaning in it's design it should be more straight-forward.

My below section has a clear reference to photography and manipulations with light, which has a straightforward relation to Moffat and is relevant to a building showcasing photography and film. The space resembles the inners of a camera lens, the most crucial element to photography. The levels appear to rotate like the mechanism of a lens focusing an image. At the top of the space is a transparent dome letting in natural light analogous to the camera lens and the sculptural element extending vertically down from the ceiling and converging at a single point on the ground like a stream of photons being focused on a sensor or film.

I think meaning and symbolism, although important, takes second place to good design, aesthetics and functionality. Rather, symbolism and meaning shouldn't be at the expense of the previously mentioned aspects.

The above ground space was designed with Gascoigne’s artwork and style in mind. She is modern, she is daring, her work is often a mixture of geometric components appearing chaotic but arranged in a structured way. The design of the building echoes these basic principles which define Gascoigne as an artist. However this is not at the expense of creating an attractive building. So, although the sections inspired the final form of the structure, and the words inspired the chosen sections, my final design will be representative of the clients not the process by which the design came about. My design has a clear relationship with the clients, which as a result doesn’t require that much explanation.
The process by which the final design is realised is a guide and as long as it serves its purpose, which it does, it should be flexible, and doesn’t need to be exact.

In regards to the comment I made about the second draft, the fact that I disregarded my second draft is not representative of my own design philosophy, I have nothing against the process described by the course, I just happened to settle on a design earlier in the process than others. Had this not happened I would have developed my second draft before choosing a final model.

I do however agree that my building is over scaled for the design criteria. This is partly my mistake due to not reading the design brief carefully before it was too late to make changes. However I can also attribute this partly to the design procedure. We were left in the dark as to the reasons behind picking words and making sections. In fact we were directly instructed when creating the sections to be purely conceptual and not worry about our section being practical or resembling a building. Then when it came to modelling our draft design my chosen section didn’t really allow for a small building. It’s form demanded a large multi level building if it was to at all resemble the section and it’s designated word. So if practicality issues, such as scale, are given no importance in the design process because it’s ‘conceptual’, then it shouldn’t be a major issue, particularly since many of the other student designs have some practicality issues, inherent to the ‘conceptual’ nature of this course.

Animations

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animations

currently having major difficulties with animations, my computer can't really handle the complex model and keeps crashing. i will transfer my work to the fbe computers and hopefully will be able to render the animations tonight on the more powerful machines,

final model

textures

36 Textures.
it took a lot of discipline to keep my textures from simply becoming pictures like i've seen a lot of other people do. i had to keep in the back of my mind that these textures arent going to be represented by the one square but had to be tileable and repeatable and have to look good as an array not as a single block.





Here is an example of my custom textures applied to my model. "Interwoven" was used throughout the floor of the entire structure and "rough" on some of the ceilings as it had an interesting gradient effect. "alive can be seen on the large painting in the screenshots, it is one of the textures in which i took care to make sureb it matches up with itself at the sides so it can be tiled.

stairs

these are the stairs that lead down through Moffat's gallery to her studio. it is a set of 3 cases that curve along the round walls of the gallery. i feel they help to reinforce the idea of a camera lens upon which the design of the underground section is based. each case is rotated 80 degrees relative to the one above which contributes to the impression of movement and twisting throughout the gallery. the edges of the stair are made of tubular steel which also suspends the stair. the steps are wooden and the panels along the inside are glass to allow the patron to continue to appreciate the room as they move downwards through it. the mixture of materials is analagous to the photographic collages Moffat produces.




This array of three staircases leads up to Gascoigne's studio and the two gallery levels below, which are contained inside the tubular geodesic sphere structure. the stairs are designed primarly to interact with and complement the gallery levels located inside the sphere. they are grand and powerful in their simplicity and proportions. they give the illusion of supporting or presenting the gallery levels. they specifically go up through the floor not down into it to give the patron a more profound experience when entering the gallery levels and suddenly finding themselves in such a radical space. the stairs also isolate the gallery levels, as you can see you cant move downstairs within the sphere, this further enchances the impression of uniqueness and importance of these three levels.

The stairs somewhat mimic Gascoignes paintings which often consist of an array or arrangement of simple geometric shapes or patterns, and give a similar bold impression.




this is the grand staircase which transitions the gallery from above ground to below. this idea of transitioning is seen in the design of the steps which give the impression of flowing. the steps on the top half are discontinous resembling cascading water and the steps on the bottom half of the staircase change from concave to convex, and together with the narrowing and widening on the passage, produce the effect of a flowing staircase. this case is made of two halves distinct yet in harmony with eachother which represents the differences and similarities in the artists occupying the below and above ground sections.

more progress shots

this is the model at about 85% completion.



here is the nearly completed 'below' section. Moffats studio will be on the bottom floor and the room on the bottom right is her dark room

draft of final model

The final model will e based on the hybrid section harmonize/unsettled. My thought process in choosing these sections was less to do with the associated word and more to do with how i feel the sections themselves can be representative of the clients. the secion chosen makes it difficult to model a small building so thelayout will consist of a middle gallery, a top gallery dedicated to Gascoigne, Gascoigne's studio above her gallery, an underground gallery dedicated to moffat and moffats studio space below that.



The above structure will be made of a tubular steel frame which will remain visible and clad in glass. I feel it parallels with Gascoigne's as it is chaotic yet organized at the same time and has a somewhat similar visual arrangement as some of her work. The below structure, which is not shown here because i did not start it until i developed the above section, will be dedicated to Moffat. Her part of he gallery will have a more literal symbolism in relation to the camera, lenses and photography.

draft model

This is the draft model based on the hybrid section evolve/unsettled





At this point i already had my idea for the final model so this was quickly put together just to satisfy the requirements of the project, hence the low detail and quality

ink sections

seed/unsettled::::evolve/unsettled



evolve/harmonize::::seed/unsettled



impure/unsettled::::impure/arrangement



seed/harmonize::::evolve/arrangement



seed/arrangement::::harmonize/impure


unsettled/impure::::arrangement/impure


harmonize/evolve::::unsettled evolve


















arrangement/evolve