Thursday, April 2, 2009

10 Captures










Contribution to Fabrication

My contribution to the team fabrication is as follows:

- Found used architecture for project and found information and images
- Emailed the architect
- Created site context: neighbouring buildings
- Assisted with terrain and landscape
- Assisted with the AI
- Generated Skybox
- Generated change of time of day for analysis
- Creation of PDF presentation
- Captured 10 images

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Conclusions

Choosing between the environments listed below wasn’t easy, I had to balance up several factors that would contribute to picking my final environment.

Whilst there is a lot of information regarding Stephen Holl’s towers, there is still a lot of unresolved architecture, and trying to decipher the internal architecture would seem to be extremely time consuming. Also, there maybe a problem in modelling towers in Crysis, as it would get repetitive climbing the towers in a real-time environment.

Matt Day was extremely helpful with his projects. His Concert Hall was particularly appealing, however the project is still quite conceptual and the information is limited and hence would produce the same problems as the aforementioned.

This leaves the Concert Hall in Bodo, having a great diversity of architectural elements that is described so well in the rationale for the submission; this project would be a great model to navigate through in Crysis.

Unbuilt Environment # 2 - Concert Hall Competition in Bodø

Langdon Reis Zahn Architects
Entry for Library and Concert Hall Competition in Bodø
http://bustler.net/index.php/article/langdon_reis_zahns_entry_for_library_and_concert_hall_competition_in_bod/







The Ceramic Tile Panel
The tiled panel will be approximately 1.5m X 3m. The tiles themselves will be 600mm X 200mm with one splayed edge. When viewed from a distance the large panels will be recognisable and when viewed in close proximity the individual tiles will be more dominant. The tiles themselves may come from Hoganas, the company who made the Sydney Opera House tiles (a homage to Utzon), they will be white ceramic, however some tiles will be lightly pigmented using natural ochres from the regions around Bodo, colours will range from brown, red and yellow. These colours will give the buildings a dynamic quality and a soft elegance that will reflect the surrounding landscapes, sky, buildings and light, in many ways.




Pattern + Shape
The shape of the single tile is an abstraction derived from drying codfish on traditional timber structures (please refer to diagram). Each tile has one splayed edge, the adjacent tile is then rotated 180º to form a rectangle between two tiles. This pattern is then repeated across each panel. From a distance the pattern jumps in scale ,12 tiles form one panel. The panels are placed parallel to the angle of the facets they are on.. This means on each facet the tile pattern creates lines that slightly change in direction, helping reinforce the buildings shape, and referencing the rock formations near the Saltstraumen.

Building Synergy
The Bodø Nye Kulturhus and the Bibliotek need to be intrinsically linked both through their own architecture, and by the space in between. This interstitial space must be cohesive, connected, fluid and dynamic. It must define and delimit the cultural precinct, whilst connecting to other public spaces located in the immediate vicinity and in other parts of the city. Together the buildings must form an ensemble of parts that make up a clearly identifiable and distinctive precinct that will leave a lasting memory in the minds of both locals and visitors to Bodø.
The diverse activities- recreational, cultural, communal and commercial, must collide and intersect to create a vibrant and dynamic cultural ecology. The buildings must form the foundations for this activity to occur.

Built form hypothesis
The built forms take their initial inspiration from the merging between natural and artificial landscapes i.e. the natural glacial topographies/fjords and the rigid city grid. The buildings merge with the ground, almost as if carved from the same solid mass. They stand like rocks in a stream.
The forms of the buildings are in harmony with their surroundings, both natural and man-made. They have been shaped in response to view corridors, solar access, wind, visibility and access.
Careful manipulation of the building forms and the creation of sheltered entrances aims to slow passers-by and provide shelter from extreme weather when needed.
The aesthetic qualities of the buildings seek to both connect and contrast with the existing urban fabric with respect and understanding. Heights have been set so as not to dominate the existing buildings.


Façade Concept
Both the Bodo Nye Kulturhus and the Bibliotek are clad using the same façade system. The solidity and continuity of the two building’s facades strengthens links across the sites and clearly defines the new cultural precint. The façade emphasises the carved geometries of the buildings by creating large planar surfaces that include subtle creases and directional lines that relate to views, wind and access to light. The interplay of faceted surfaces means the building will take on a wide variety of qualities when viewed from different angles or at different times of the day, whether it’s clear and sunny, overcast or dark.








Friday, March 13, 2009

E-mail to Matt Day

I thought it would be a good idea to email Matt Day, a competition architect from Day Bukh Architects http://www.daybukharchitects.com/index.html to see if there were any potential environments that could be used for this project. The exchanged emails are below.


Hi Matt,
Essmael Yasseen here from Arch1391 last semester. How are you? How was your break? Happy belated New Years!

Life has developed from Second Life, and now I am enrolled in Arch1392 Design
Collaboration. Our project is to construct a significant piece of architecture that hasn't been built using Crysis, a real time environment editor similar to Unreal Tournament 3. The significant piece of architecture isn't restricted to a building, it could be an urban development or a city plan, etc. Rather then just making a visual replica, our group wishes to make a series of simulations for whatever example we choose (this will give us the edge over the rest of the class).

We will be
working on this through out the whole semester, so as you can imagine, we aim to do a great job! I know that as a competition architect, you would have a few designs that haven't been built. I was hoping that we could maybe assist in a project you may have worked on or currently working on, in fabricating it for you in a real time environment. We did want to do something on a larger scale, like an urban development... I remember you mentioned a school overseas that you were working on with a group of architects? We are open to any suggestions. If you could help in anyway it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks and Kind Regards,

Essmael Yasseen



Hi Essmael,

sounds great.

I defiantly have some competitions entries that you could choose.

On our website there are two possibilities,

europan - housing development (under housing)


or

kristianssand - large concert hall.




I have also a few others which could be of interest that are not on
the site,

I have attached some images of these.

a concert hall,

an opera house

a museum

a school

and a community centre,


011.JPG




let me know if any are of interest.

regards

Matt Day

Unbuilt Environment # 1 - Master Plan for “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” Competition

Steven Holl Architects.
Master Plan for “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” Competition

http://bustler.net/index.php/article/steven_holl_architects_wins_master_plan_in_shenzhen_4_tower_in_1_competition/


Steven Holl Architects’ design for the master plan is based on the concept of tropical skyscrapers as Shade Machines with a Social Bracket connecting the towers and the street level with a horizontal structure containing public programs and a rooftop water garden.

The Social Bracket gathers the public programs from all four towers, combining them as one continuous element that links the four sites with the city streets and pedestrian traffic. Supporting programs for the towers, such as cafeterias and gyms, are combined in the Social Bracket and enhanced with cultural programs such as art galleries, auditoriums, and a cinema. The Social Bracket’s sculpted form allows it to negotiate between environmental restrictions and the requirements of the public programs. It features a continuous roof garden park that collects storm water and recycles all the greywater from the four skyscrapers.

This is a good example of an environment rather than a building. It presents a diverse range of settings that could be extremely effective and interesting to view in Crysis. Perhaps the most intriguing element of this environment is that it would include phenomenal view points from the top of the towers, looking down onto the promenade and courtyards. Also in the information acquired, there seems to be a series of analysis that has been conducted for this environment. This analysis can be tested in the Crysis editor.