Learning Portfolio
Isabella Yingzi Xu Arch 20, CCSF, George Lin Fall 2016
Table of content Week 1-2, Multiview drawings of Restaurant Joya
Week 3, Group Tiny House Plan
Week 4, Array Tool: Cubes and Trellis
Week5, Array Tool: Patterns
2
Page 4
Page 6
Page 8
Page 10
Week 5-8, Individual Tiny house project
Week 9-10, Improved Tool
Week 11-16, Mid-Century Modern Architecture
Page 13
Page 19
Page 22
3
Week 1-2
Multiview Drawing: Restaurant Joya
Joya is a restaurant on University Ave. in downtown Palo Alto. It is a simple structure with an earthy finish. It is basically a box with small roof overhangs made of metal brackets and rods. The two sides that facing the busy streets are opened up with several sliding folding doors make the transition from indoor to outdoor seamless. The project is to produce a multiview drawing of the building with the aid of pictures, google earth, visiting and measuring the place. 4
Week 1-2
Multiview Drawing Strengths: The exercise taught me how to draw to scale. I also learned that some details are important to show. Weaknesses: The building was quite simple in shape and the drawing was not a big challenge. Opportunities: The method I learned will enable me to draw other buildings in a way that can be understood. Risks: The process is time consuming for big buildings and not very forgiven compare to using computer programs.
Floor Plan
5
Week 3
Group Tiny House Plan We are the blue team. The project was to design a tiny house with a footprint of 160 sf as a group. As a reality check, the plan was marked on the floor with painter’s tape in actual size.
6
Week 3
Strengths: We were able to collaborate and deliver the results in time. Weakness: The plan was quite ordinary and can use some more imagination. The pictures were not very well taken. Opportunities: The concept of Tiny House is very attractive and I am interested in follow it up in the future. Risks: Too many things crammed into a small space. The space lacks strong character. 7
Week 4
Array Tool: Double Ice Cubes and Snowballs Ice cubes
Strengths: Instead of just make a 10 x 10 x10 cubes using array tool, I made two of them and moved them close by to generate double ice cubes with different color. I am happy with the apprearance. I also drew a ball as component and made the same matrix with array tool. Weaknesses: The array tool took some time to get familiar with. Opportunities: The tool can be very useful in generating building blocks are repetitive. Risks: If one is not carefully on the numbers, mistakes are very easily made. 8
Snowballs
Week 4
Array Tool: Double Ice Cube Array
Axon
Side Elevation
Perspective
Side Perspective 9
Week 4
Array Tool: Graphite, the Cat and White Trellis Strengths: The array tool enables me to draw many repetitive parts efficiently. Also, I learned that moving along axis is the best way to get something in place. Weaknesses: There was imperfections when using array tool to draw the top pieces first time. It is hard to remember to calculate the thickness of the lumber when move it to place. It was sticking out when moved 20’ instead of 20’-4”. Perspective
Opportunities: I can see that the array tool is very powerful when there is a building block used extensively in a project. It generates consistency and accuracy. Special pieces can also be made by making it unique. Risk: It is easy to lose track which piece is in a group, which is a component, which is unique. It is also confusing somethings trying to make modification to a complex array. Axon
10
Week 5
Array Tool: Patterns
Tile
Diamond
Axon
Stripe
Axon
Strengths: I learned how to make patterns with array tool, especially deal with special pieces that are different than the components. It was fun to make the pieces together to make a six pattern cube and add the cat on top. Weakness: Some of the patterns were not very straightforward to generate. There might be better way to make them more efficiently than what I did. 11
Week 5
Patterns’ Cube
Hex
Diagonal
Perspective
Opportunities: The cube looks interesting and can be decorative. Risks: The utilities of the patterns might be limited.
12
Checker
Perspective
Week 5-8
Individual Tiny House Project Off the Grid
South Elevation
13
Week 5-8
Currently most tiny houses for sale require hookup to the grid for use or using fuel as an energy source. The goal of this project is to design a tiny house model in an economically and environmentally friendly fashion. It is designed as one of the four models in a self-sustainable community of tiny houses for everyday use. The criteria are as following: 1. Size <= 160sf, indoor/outdoor living, encouraging social interaction/connection within the community 2. Modula, components are easy to build in a factory and move to site for minimal assembling before use 3. High degree of self-sustainability, with renewable energy and water supply
14
Week 5-8
This tiny house consists mainly of two boxes for cost-saving assembly. One box is 12’x 8’x 13’6” and the other one is 11’6”x5’6”x10’. The dimensions of these two components will allow them to be transported to site fully fabricated for quick construction. There is a bathroom, sitting/eating/studying area and a kitchen inside. There is also loft area above 8’ for sleeping and storage. To connect to the outdoors and create a sense of larger space, there are big windows and also a 8’ sliding/folding door on south side of the house. When the door is fully opened, the boundary of inside/outside disappears. 15
Week 5-8
Up: 1st Floor Plan Left: Loft Plan
16
Week 5-8
Solar panels will be installed at the back of the house facing south for maximal sunlight exposure. Two rain barrels will be installed for collecting water, one for the cone shaped stand alone rain collector and the other from the roof.
17
Week 5-8
North
South
18
West
East
Week 9-10
Tool Improvement: Pizza Cutter
Original tool
This project is to model a tool in Sketchup and make improvement to it. I chose pizza cutter as the tool to model and improve since I use it frequently for homemade pizza. When making pizza at home, the pizza was molded into the pizza pan and after baking, the cutter can not cut the edges of the pizza effectively. Strength: I learned to use various tools such as Follow me, Soften Edges, Intersect, Offset and Scale. Weakness: I was not able to around the corners of the handles with the tools mentioned above. 19
Week 9-10
Improved Pizza Cutter
The improved tool has an added small knife tip. As it can function the same way as the original tool, it can be used to cut the edge of the pizza with a slight tilt too. Opportunities: The process enables model other tools and convey ideas to improve them. Risks: The improvement is very specific for homemade pizza and it might have a limitied market. 20
Week 9-10
Improved Pizza Cutter
Exploded Axon
21
Week 11-16
Improved Mid-Century Modern Architecture There were 8 mid-century modern architecture buildings for us to choose from for this project. My choice is Guggenheim Museum.
The goal of this project is to further improve modeling skills, learn to use modeling to express design ideas in architecture. 22
Week 11-16
About Solomon Guggenheim Museum ● Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for “non-objective” arts ● Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright ● In the city of New York, 5th Ave. and E. 89th St. ● Built 1943-1959 ● Roughly On 230’ x 150’ block (Google earth) ● 7000 Cubic feet concrete, 700 tons of structure steel ● It consists of one continuous spiral ramp ● Another important feature is the spiral “slits” at the exterior of the building ● It is one of the most different building among the surroundings ● The form is widely praised after its opening
23
Week 11-16
Section and Plan of the Existing Building
Section
24
Plan
There are section and plan readily available for the existing building in the public domain such as the internet. However, several factors complicated the modeling process. First of all, the building has been extensively renovated twice and the section and plan didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reflect the changes. Also the unique design makes the interpretation of the data not straightforward. For example, depends on the orientation of the section represents, the height of the beginning of the grant ramp will be different. Both the vertical and horizontal elements are not strictly vertical and horizontal, the commonly used tools are not useful in the modeling of this building.
Week 11-16
Method for Modeling of the Existing Building
Spiral Ramp
Interior Wall
Slit Intersection
Exterior Wall
The modeling started with constructing the spiral ramp as it largely determines the geometry of the building. Three parallel layers of the spiral was used to intersect with “interior wall” to generate the center atrium. The resulting component was intersected with the “slit intersection”. After pulling the window and floor apart, the resulting ramp was used to intersect with exterior wall to generate the “slit”. As the process seemed clear, there were many trial and error during the process. Due to the sequential nature of this method, correction often mean starting from beginning.
25
Week 11-16
Model of the Existing Building This exploded axon showed the major components for the building: ● the interior spiral wall define the atrium ● the spiral ramps with tilted windows and floor on the edge ● the exterior wall with “slits” ● the roof with the glass dome for the atrium ● surrounding buildings in the complex.
Exploded Axon 26
Strength: The process effectively improved modeling skills. It also reinforced modeling habits: ● saving the files frequently to avoid lost of work ● Using components effectively ● Generate clean model from beginning Weakness: The modeling process was tedious due to the curved nature of the building. Sketchup is not the software of choice
Week 11-16
Model of the Guggenheim Museum
Perspective 1
Elevation 1
Perspective 2
Elevation 2 27
Week 11-16
Sections and Plans
Section 1
Plan 1
28
Section 2
Plan 2
Week 11-16
Site Plan
The Guggenheim is situated at a prime location in New York city. It is on 5th ave. between 88th and 89th st., right by the central park lake.
29
Week 11-16
Improvement: Issues to Address and Solutions Issues ●
●
●
● ●
30
Though the spiral ramp is widely praised, the tilted floor and wall are problematic for displaying art work, especially paintings The “slits” reduced the height of wall for displaying larger art works. The windows around the “slits” introduced too much direct light inside. It is a problem for both the art works and also the visitors. As a matter of fact, the windows are covered up and artificial lights are used inside the museum. The museum can use more displaying area. The museum though has a great atrium, it doesn’t open to the neighboring park and lake.
Solutions ●
●
●
●
●
Rebuild the surrounding buildings into additional display areas, including a cylindrical building and a “bridge” structure. The new structures build on the extension of the ramp thus form a even grander ramp inside the museum and integrate the old and new. The add ons are further away from the center of the spiral, it is mostly flat. Remove the “slits”, remove the windows and tilted floor to get rid of the problems and also gain some wall height for displaying. Use glass for the “bridge” and some of the add ons to give visitors a break areas and enjoy the view of the park and lake.
Week 11-16
Improved Guggenheim Museum Model Top: Perspective of the proposed Guggenheim museum renovation street view Bottom: Perspective of the proposed Guggenheim museum renovation interior view
31
Week 11-16
Elevations of the Proposed Renovation
Top: Northwest Elevation Bottom: Southwest Elevation
The proposed renovation will preserve the essence of the existing building. It will enhance the practical utility of the building. At the same time modernize its appearance.
32
Week 11-16
Plans
Top: Roof Plan Bottom: First floor plan
33
Week 11-16
Sections
Section 1
Section 2 34
Section 3
Section 4
Week 11-16
Exploded Axon
35