Bristol

This is my reworked scheme for Bristol.

I'm finally at a place where I'm happy with my project. It's taken quite alot of different design stages but I'm happy to be moving forward with this now.

Facade Ideas

Some ideas for facades, lasercut corten steel.

Final Istanbul Plans

Final plans for istanbul, I really like the plain line drawn approach, I think it helps them to read easier.

Easter

I'm spending Easter focusing on my Istanbul work, trying to get my portfolio together so its ready for the review a week after wek get back.

Heres afew of the pages I've been working on recently.

Intrim Review.

Had the intrim review today, it went reasonably well, I've got to reassess  the programme and tweak it slightly and also to develop more architecture into the scheme. Heres afew images I presented.

I was happier with this review than I have been with most recently, the tutors seemed to give helpful and insightful feedback which is going to benefit my project. I would prefer it if the tutors could be like this more often, a little positive encouragement goes a long way.

Design.

March hasn't been a very good month for me, I've gone down several design paths that have ultimately come up short.

I've now settled on looking at Californian Christian Mission's as a design precedence as shown here.

The creation of a courtyard with cloisters surrounding it and buildings running parallel to it all seems like a good place to start with a new design.

I'm going to really get my head down and try to crack on with this design.

Model development.

I wanted to continue the theme of model making so I made some abstract space models looking at different ideas.

Once again I really enjoyed making models, these were a variation of laser cut pieces and hand cut models, I also used wax as a modelling material for the first time I really like the way it represents water and plan to use it in future models.

Brief.

I've decided to do a Sailor's Mission for my project, I want to do something that related to religion and I'm also interested in the forgotten nature of the life of a merchant sailor.

I feel that with the positioning of the site as shown here;

Really works with the water surrounding it, giving it that connection to the sea.

Blackburn Cathedral

I went on a visit to Blackburn Cathedral, I went to the Sunday service and spoke to the Dean after also, I've been trying to decide on what I want to do for my brief, and I thought that I might get some inspiration from this.

The result was positive in that I did discuss at length what makes a certain space religious and how that sense of faith is maintained and created, I'm still stuck for a brief though.

Religion for Atheists

After being told to present our own briefs I looked at this book for inspiration.

It had several interesting ideas and a specific chapter on architecture talking about the creation of 'Monuments to Man' rather than to God, an idea I found very interesting.

Because we have been asked to prepare our own brief for this project I wrote one based around this idea and felt it was a really interesting project. However my tutor felt that there wasn't enough architecture in the brief and it was too simple a project.

I'm abit upset at this response because it was something I was really getting excited about, I'll just have to try and come up with something new. I do like the idea of looking at something religious though and I think thats the area I'm going to explore.

Bristol

Our New Project is based in Bristol, we're heading down there in afew days to look at sites etc...

Not overjoyed with the selection of city, I wanted to have a go at designing something next to the coast personally and was holding out for a coastal city, I guess Bristol's close to the sea I can't really complain.

Critical Study.

Handed my dissertation in today. Overall I think I'm happy with how it went, I think theres a couple of really insightful and interesting pieces of writing in there. I'm really pleased that I managed to interview two MP's to get their views and I think that it really helps to add balance and opinion to my argument.

If I was doing it again however I think I would have chosen a more publicized topic, as I found it hard finding sources to use for the study, apart from that I think that it was a really interesting topic a and a great learning experience helping me to have a greater appreciation of how polotics effects architecture in this country.

Istanbul Final Review

After my final review for Istanbul I was generally disappointed, I felt that the tutors refrained from looking at the overall design scheme in order to focus on some images and diagrams that they felt were drawn incorrectly.

They felt that i wasn't properly drawing the car park structure underneath the designs and spent 5 minutes talking about this rather than giving me feedback and constructive criticism on my design.

I'm just going to try and move forward from their comments and try and see my tutors on the design again so that I can get it done and out of the way inorder to focus on the latest project.

Sections

I've been experimenting with different sections, looking at both line drawn and photoshoped ones.

Personally I prefer the line drawn section and I will seek advice on them from my tutor ahead of the final review.

Square research

I felt that I was somewhat neglect the design of the square so I went on a visit to Manchester to look at the successful public realms in the city centre. Heres my findings.

Looking at the square in a more analytical way I decided to make some changes to it shown here, helping to open it up and allow access through it.

Volumetric Development

After using the mapping project to look at the location of my scheme I then used volumetrics, moving from a simple cube to a design that had the corners removed replaced with glowing sections that represented the cinemas.

I was really happy with the way that the photographs came out for these models, again using LED's to light the models and log exposure photos.

I feel that my model making skills have really started to come on this year. In these I looked at casting different materials in different shapes which was a new and interesting experience.

I generally felt that my model making skills were good but looking round the year I really feel there is room for me to improve and and trying to get there now....

Back to work....

Back to work after the Christmas break, I'm trying to focus on getting my dissertation done while not neglecting my design work. The way the deadlines line up with each other is really hard work it feels as though theres constantly pressure on in some way or another.

I know that whats to be expected doing an architecture degree but I really dont think the tutors help us out with it at all.