Journal 3 constructing

Week 3- Constructing Environments Journal entry

This week during our tutorials we went looking around the campus at various buldings with some sort of relationship.

The relationship was ‘Linkages,’ in other words we were looking at smaller, newer sections of the buildings that created a link between two older buildings.

The first building we looked at was the link between eastern precint student centre. The constraints in making the structure would have been access to the site, where to store materials and of course the fact that the existing sections of the building were still in use during the build. The new extention creates a modern and sophisticated aspect to the building without standing out or contrasing to strongly with the surrounding buildings. The bulding was constructed using a steel frame infill technique in which the frame is constructed and then materials are added to fill the gaps and form the structure.

The structural system is a portal frame that uses steel, it would have been created off site deu to the access difficulties that the builders would have faced. Steel, concrete, glass and wood are the main materials used for this building.

The attachment to the existing building is almost seemless as the steel frame simply mmeets the concrete bricks of the old building. The bulding uses tention to support its structure and counterleavers on the right side to take the weight.

Week 3- Constructing Environments Journal entry

The second link we looked at was MSLE bulding link. New renevations to this old bulding have seen it be recreated in a modern yet fitting manner. The link we focussed on was not a huge piece of architecture, it was quite a small section that was interestingly designed. Constraints faced when building the structure would have been the low bearing capacity and water profing. The structure takes on an unusual form as it is stepped down from the top level to the lower level. The metal panelling on the exterior of the building makes a smooth yet destiguishable link between the different materials that make up the two existing buildings.

The building uses a shell that incases and area that becomes and interior link between the two buildings, this shell is made from metal sheets that wrap over a frame that would likely have been constructed using wood.

The interior is covered with plasta however it exposes the raw materials of the existing buildings on either side.

Metal, steel, wood, plata, glass and brick are the prodominant materials evident within the structure. I found the interior to be extrememly inviting and nice. The fact that is had a new modern look yet and industrial feel to it really appealed to me. The use of exposed brick from the existing buildings contrasted nicely with the raw wood and white plasta.

Week 3- Constructing Environments Journal entry

The queens college extention was the third building that we looked at on campus.

This site was still a work in progress which made it interesting to see a differet stage in the buildings construction. The most problematic constraints for this building were again access due to its location and also time as the completion of the building was not on schedule. The new extention created a link between two older sections of the queens college building. The structure uses pre cast concrete which is lifted into place following a wooden frame worlk that defines the buldings shape and holds insulation. Some steel frame was also used to create the balcony and provide structural support for the concrete allowing the bulding to have structural strength in both tention and compression. Materials used were wood, precast concrete, steel and glass. This would have been the least impressive of the four linking building we looked at as the design just didnt have that ‘wow’ factor that you like to see in architecture.

The access to the site was very narrow and hard to get in and out of with only one point for entrance and exit. Materials are placed around the site on the side of the road and on the embankment, this showed us just how limitted for space they are during some builds and how comprmise is sometimes the only was to successfully build in the industry.

Week 3- Constructing Environments Journal entry

The fourth building we looked at was the Ormond theology centre reseption which incorporated and extremely modern extention to an old stone building. The constrast between the two building was quite nice and the new section of the building really complimented the old.

Constraints with this building could have been risk of damaging the existing structures as it was a more complicated on site build than the other links would have been. This building does now contain elements that were constructed off site to a large extent meaning a lot of the work was done on site.

The building uses composite concrete, steel structure the uses counterleavers to support itself. There are good examples of both tention and compression within the building as the steel beams and cable wire supply the building with tensile strengh the concrete gives it a comressive stability. Materials used on the build include institute concret, steel, glass and wood. this was one of the more extravagant structures that we looked at on the site visits and to me it was the most interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

Week 3- Constructing Environments Journal entry

The final building we looked at on the visit was the construction site of the new oval pavilion.

The building is part of a redevelopment that froms a mojor extention to the existing structure on the site. We had the opportunity to listen to the builder of the site speak about what was going on around the site and how each thing there worked and why it was there. I found it very hard to hear a lot of what he had to say due to the rough weather and heavy winds but what I did manage to hear was extremely interesting.

The builder spoke about the use of various bricks to construct layers of the building, this allowed them to add layers of waterproofing membranes as well as insulation. He also spoke about the health and safety issues of the site and how wooden rails had to be temporarily constructed around all the edges of the site to preent falls and to show where the edges where to those walking around and on the site. It was interseting to see stages of both excevation and and construction all on the one site, however, it would have been more usefull if we could have physically entered the site to experience it first hand but for obvious reasons this wasnt possble at the time.