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JONATHAN WIRJOPRAWIRO
PREFACE Architecture Design Studio: Fire The University of Melbourne ID: 390261 - Semester 2, 2012 Lecturer: Derham Groves Tutor: Keith Streames
This project stems from Derham’s research into the career of the Melbourne architect Arthur William Purnell (1878 – 1964) and one of his most colourful clients, Alexander George Barlow, a highly innovative—if slightly shady—businessman, who was a pioneer of the car retail industry in Melbourne. After his new car dealership, Barlow Motors, failed in 1930 during the Great Depression, he leased the Lower Melbourne Town Hall and installed a miniature golf course there. Alas, this business went bust too. When things finally got too much for Barlow in 1937, he shot himself. A.G. Barlow’s son Alexander (Alec) Arthur Barlow (b. 1908) worked for Barlow Motors. In 1926 the company sponsored him and the Australian adventurer Frances Birtles to drive a Bean car from Darwin to Melbourne in the shortest possible time. They completed the 3391-mile journey in 205 hours with many adventures along the way. If that wasn’t enough, Alec Barlow was also an aviator. In 1929 he crashed his plane and matter-offactly bought a new one a fortnight later. (Read “The Barlow File: Another Adventure in Building” by Derham Groves on LMS.) Imagine that A.G. Barlow and A.A. Barlow are alive today and need a new building for Barlow Motors, consisting of a car showroom, a car service centre, a car park, a “bachelor’s apartment” for A.A. Barlow, and a rooftop miniature golf course. Since the brands of cars once sold by Barlow Motors no longer exist, choose a current brand for the company to sell. The new building should reflect the adventurous spirit of the Barlows. The site is 20-28 Latrobe Street, Melbourne (which is now part of 333 Exhibition Street). For over 100 years, this site has been associated with transport in one form or another, ranging from a horse drawn coach works to a car park. From 1919 until 1930 Barlow Motors operated on this site. It is ideal for this kind of mixed development because there is car access off Latrobe Street, Mackenzie Street and Grant Lane. Assume a cleared vacant site.
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BRIEF REQUIREMENTS
SQM Neon sign Rooftop 9-hole miniature golf course Coffee shop
20 Car park manager’s office Male and female public toilets One-bedroom ‘bachelor’s apartment’ for A.A Barlow
1800 Car showroom, including reception area and sales points on the showroom floor 35 Boardroom 900 Service centre (show car hoists, workbenches, etc.) 20 Service centre manager’s office ? Staff showers, toilets and locker room 35 Staff lunchroom ? Car park for 300 cars (~2/3 of existing capacity)
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INITIAL THOUGHTS
What does it mean to design a building in the inner city? How is it different to any other building? Designing a public building in the city meant that there were a few more things to consider, such as the street frontage on the LaTrobe Street side. In Melbourne, streets like LaTrobe traditionally have buildings that are built hard-up on the front. Furthermore, in a landlocked site like the one we have, there are going to be many obstructions in terms of views and shadows, as well as limited exposure to the sun and natural lighting. Unlike greenfield sites, there are also constraints in terms of how far we can dig underground for basements (because it may have an effect on the footing structures of the adjacent buildings). At the same time, as a public building, sometimes we have an obligation to give something back to the city - an obligation to the wider community perhaps. Rather than having a hard-up frontage, it may be nice to create a thoroughfare on the ground floor of the building, or some sort of recess in the building footprint just to create a public space. So in terms of the brief, I decided to be critical and challenge it a little bit; what is actually essential to the building? Neon sign Is the neon sign essential to the building? what does it achieve? The series of lectures point toward looking at Las Vegas and the high impact that the neon lights have in attracting road-side traffic toward the building. However, is that effect still reasonable and likely to be achieved in the tight urban fabric of Melbourne, and when the other buildings do not have neon signs? Is LaTrobe Street, Mackenzie Street, or Victoria Street likely to have that much traffic in the first place? Mini-golf Why design a mini-golf course/hazard? - A flexible activity space that can bring revenue to the building - A place to pass the time while a person’s car is getting serviced - In conjunction with the showroom, could create an interesting experience Both the neon sign and the mini-golf seem like very separate parts of the brief, and it seems quite difficult to integrate it into the building in such a way that it is coherent. However, unlike the other programs of the building, because they are less constrained, these two features seem like the best opportunities to respond to the part of the brief that asks for a connection to the Barlow narrative.
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Car parking Firstly, there are two viable options for car parking; a fully automated and mechanised or “robotic” car parking, or the traditional car parking that utilises ramps. Straight away it is obvious that traditional car parking for 300 cars would take up an enormous amount of space when compared to the robotic car parking. Is parking for three hundred cars necessary in this new building? With the future in mind and issues of sustainability in relation to transportation, should we be encouraging the use of cars within the CBD? Can I achieve some kind of middle ground that satisfies the brief but also removes the need for 300 car parking spaces? What kind of vehicles need to be parked in this car park? should we cater for large four-wheel drives, or is the inner-city demographic more likely to be using small, flexible, fuel-efficient cars that are easier to navigate with? Car Showroom When people ask me what I will be designing for this semester, I immediately shift my focus to the showroom. Although a large proportion of the brief floor area is required for the car parking and service centre as well, the showroom will most likely define the identity of the building. Offices What is there to consider in an office space? - The space and the shape of the room - The views outward and natural lighting inward - Vicinity to toilets, car parking, and other areas of the building - The intended use of the space; will it be rented out? or only used for the staff of the building? Coffee shop The café should probably be on the LaTrobe side since that side has a heavier pedestrian traffic. It should also probably be adjacent to the mini-golf course. Bachelor apartment This space will largely reflect the client (as well as influencing the rest of the building), which in this case will be my interpretation of Mr Barlow’s character. Words that come to mind for this apartment are; extravagant, clean, simple, superior, fun.
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THE BARLOWS
A.G Barlow (senior) “highly innovative”
“Businessman”
“slightly shady”
“Industrial Pioneer”
A.A Barlow “Adventurous”
“Risk-taker”
“Fun”
“Wealthy” “Cars and aviation”
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I interpreted the character of A.A Barlow predominantly as a man who is torn between the two sides of his personality. On the one hand, he is the son of Barlow senior, who was largely responsible for building the multi-million-dollar car dealership business. This side represents order and regularity, and his obligation to continue the Barlow legacy. On the other hand, he is a wealthy man who likes to have a bit of fun, has a passion for cars, and is a risk taker. Immediately I could see some connections between his character, and a few of my favourite fictional characters, from whom I drew some inspiration:
One such example is Tony Stark (Iron Man) from Marvel Comics, who is a billionaire playboy, industrialist, and genious engineer. He is also very adventurous, wearing his powered suit of armor and flying around in it, despite many crashes. This is directly relatable to Barlow’s narrative. The design of his private garage as interpreted in the hollywood movies, is situated underground, which I thought could be an interesting spatial experience for his private collection.
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THE SITE
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Location
Shadows
The site is landlocked betwen three different buildings, two of which are very tall, on the east side. There is also an alleyway on the east side which acts as a buffer between these buildings, and also serves as a service lane.
Consequently, these tall buildings also create shadows. The diagrams show where the shadows are likely to be in the morning, and this will make the most impact in terms of shading. Currently there is another high-rise building under construction to the west of our site, which will have a similar impact in the evening. However, throughout most of the day, this site is exposed to a lot of sun, because there are no tall structures north of its location. This is also apparent from the terraced design of the existing building.
The surrounding buildings are mixed-use residential, offices (like the Origin building), and retail.
Stakeholders Out of the few people I saw while visiting. All of them seemed to be regular office workers. Again, this sample size is too small to form a conclusion, but presumably most of the high-rise residential buildings would have their own car park, making our site very convenient for office suits.
Vegetation and other features The site is typical of La Trobe street, with minimal vegetation cover aside from the trees that line the footpaths, and its proximity to Carlton Gardens.
Views There are two or three key views from the site and to the site. One to the Royal Exhibition building and the Carlton Gardens, and the other is a clear axis along La Trobe. The Carlton Gardens can also be viewed through the space between the two tall buildings on the east side along the alleyway. In the distance, the Eureka tower is also perfectly framed between two nearby high-rises.
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Traffic On my visit, it seemed as though the north side of the building (McKenzie and Victoria) experienced a lot more vehicle traffic. As such, that side seemed more like the front of the building, rather than the La Trobe frontage. This may be due to the presence of the petrol station, which makes the north entrance incredibly convenient. However, the sample size is too small, and this may not be the case on an average day. In terms of traffic inside the building; as with any multi-level car park, it is very devoid of life. Most people come in and out very quickly. However, it may be a completely different story with the new programming.
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The site visits reinforced my bubble diagram; so from then on I thought there were several fairly obvious statements that I could make to inform my decisions when planning:
1. The cars should enter/exit from Mackenzie. 2. LaTrobe side is for the very public pedestrian entry/ exit. 3. Grant Lane can be used for a more private pedestrian entry/exit.
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BUBBLE DIAGRAM
Neon sign
Car park manager’s office
Victoria Street
Service Centre
Service centre manager’s office
Car park
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Neon sign
Staff showers/toilets/ locker room
Staff Lunchroom
Mini Golf Bachelor Apartment
Coffee shop Public Toilets
La Trobe Street
Showroom
Boardroom
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Mini Golf Hazard:
“The Gambler” Plan 1:20
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For the mini-golf hazard, I always had a few things in mind; 1. It has to have a high degree of ‘replayability’. Having played mini golf several times in my life, I started to experience a sense of monotony and shallowness in the game, even with hazards that have a lot of complexity and many twists and turns. What I found was that it wasn’t the length of the hazard that made it more fun - in fact, longer hazards tend to highlight their ‘linearity’. That is to say, there is only one straight path and many obstacles along the way. I challenged and reversed this notion by simplifying the physical form of the hazard, while increasing the depth of gameplay, effectively making fewer obstacles, but many possible paths. 2. It has to somehow link back to the Barlow narrative and his character. To me this was important because it really emphasises the character of the building; it isn’t just a normal mini-golf course and a normal showroom, it is essentially Barlow’s building and should reflect his personality.
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Our client Mr. Barlow lives life on the edge, he likes taking risks and sometimes this is what pushes the Barlows to success in the first place. I see this element of risk-taking as a big part of the lives of the Barlows. As such, this mini-golf hazard aims to embody that sense of chance and gamble that we might all relate to as well. As a person putts the ball in a straight line, they have to first overcome the slope up, followed by a very small opening in the middle. Once that is done, the hazard does the rest of the work by randomly choosing where the ball slopes down toward. Unlike other mini-golf hazards, this scheme has 8 holes at the end, each with more or less the same chance for the ball to go into. Placed at the start of the 9-hole mini-golf course, each of these holes would then lead to the other 8 hazards in the 9-hole course, making this the perfect way to play mini-golf, as well as a form of roulette at the same time.
CAR PARKING
Since we needed to fit so many cars in such a narrow site, I thought that exploring my options for car parking would be the best first step in designing my building. The most obvious thing to me at first is that the car parking needed to have access from Mackenzie, but already this poses some issues. The Mackenzie side of the site is much narrower than the LaTrobe side. Knowing this, I tried to plan the car parking on the wider side of the site. A few notes about car parking (from the metric handbook): - Ramps can be a maximum gradient of 1:6 - Two-way circulation should be 7 metres wide - Car parking spaces should be 2500mm wide by 5500mm. The first reasonable solution I came up with was to plan the car parking in this manner (below). This would be located at the wider end of the site and be a two-way car park using ramps. Since the ramps are quite short in this scheme, it also needed to be a split-level car park.
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Wanting a 1:10 slope on the ramp meant that the ramp took a LOT of space on the plan! Even with a split-level car park, it would dominate a lot of the space. However, I stuck to it for the meantime to see what I could do with it.
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I proceeded to sketch a few section diagrams to give me a better idea of where I want certain spaces. This sketch shows the car parking tower on the LaTrobe side, with a large ramp from Mackenzie Street that takes cars up multiple levels before reaching the car park. The idea was that having the car parking higher up would also create the thoroughfare on the ground floor that was desirable to “give something back to the city�. I also thought that the ramp could then also become a large architectural gesture. With regards to the form of the building, I’m a strong believer of form follows function, and in this case, I quite liked the idea of the car park having a terraced effect similar to the existing design. This is predominantly to maximise the natural light from the north, but also in conjunction with making it an outdoor car park also promotes ventilation. I wanted the showroom to be underground because one of our guest lecturers stated clearly that natural light is bad for showcasing cars. Ideally we would have controlled artificial lighting - a combination of strip lighting and downlights. I also thought this could be an interesting experience in terms of vertical circulation - if a person has to take a lift down to a completely new space. 26.
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One of the most important things about multi-story buildings is the structure of it. How will it stand up? Conventional modern buildings use a series of columns or load bearing walls inside to achieve structural contuinity that allows for a full glass facade. Especially in a car park, columns have been a standard structural system to maximise the circulatory capabilities of the space. These days, columns and structure can become an integral part of the design concept, and does not necessarily need to look utilitarian and boring. For example, the proposal for a showroom and leisure center in Egypt by Manuelle Gautrand Architecture hides columns in a manner so as to make it look sculptural.
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STRUCTURE
I decided to go with another approach. With this brief, I felt that there was a clear separation between the various spaces in the program. With that in mind, I came up with this concept of a large load-bearing wall that would divide the building into two parts, much like my interpretation of A.A Barlow - torn between two personalities. With this idea, I could eliminate the need for columns, and instead use the wall as the main structural member throughout the whole building. The floorplates would then be suspended off this wall. This also works well in the sense that it can halve the distance that the floors need to span, making it more structurally viable. I felt that this structural system was reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Co. building (1936, photo above), where the floorplates are suspended off a central tower. Of course, there are drawbacks for this concept. Essentially, what I would be doing is diminishing the width of such an already-narrow site, and it may become difficult in terms of planning.
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Left: a sketch ideas of what the LaTrobe facade might look like. The idea is that the structure is completely hidden in a “calm and composed� facade Below: a diagram section showing the division, straight through the middle, and the split-level car park wrapping itself around the wall.
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Above: sketch of the showroom, looking toward LaTrobe Street. In this case the showroom is half submerged underground, so that pedestrians outside can still look inward. However, I was thinking that maybe there would be a one-way mirror inside, so that people in the showroom are not distracted by people outside, and it creates a whole new secluded environment. Below: one of my inspirations for the underground showroom - again from another hollywood superhero movie - Batman’s bunker/armory. It is a vast space with a fairly low ceiling which makes for a somewhat intimate feel, which I think can be desirable for a showroom.
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SCHEME 1
What came out of the concepts I mentioned before is this scheme for the building; - A terraced split-level car park - A large structural wall dividing the building, and floorplates suspended off it - A long multi-storey ramp from Mackenzie street.
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The feedback I received for this scheme is that I should reconsider the planning of the building; with the wall being such a prominent feature of the building, it is detrimental to my concept to mix the various programs together. I tend to agree with this, so I decided to start from scratch after this point. Another problem that was pointed out is that split-level car parking could be bad for the building, in terms of future-proofing. It is difficult to re-appropriate such spaces. I was also told to perhaps consider robotic car parking, because it saves a lot of space, leaving more room for offices and the like, which would be a great revenue source for the building. Left: plan for a typical car park floor for this scheme
UP
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Car parking
Boardroom, and bachelor apartment
Car parking
Ramp up
Office spaces
Mini-golf
Staff toilets
Lift Service centre Cafe Showroom
Car parking diagram, showing a two-way circulation plan
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SCHEME 2
Back to the drawing board. So this time, after having received the feedback from the critics, I knew I had to solidify my original concept of splitting the building into two. I needed to not leave as much room for compromise. For the final scheme I wanted to fully separate the programming, as well as re-think the showroom (underground showroom wasn’t received very well)
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The two main changes to the design lie in the car park and the showroom. For the car parking, I wanted to maintain the two-way circulation, and I found that the best way of doing that is by having the configuration as shown on the left. This configuration can fit almost 30 cars in each floor, which means roughly 10 floors to reach what the brief asked for. The showroom also underwent a radical change. Instead of having the underground showroom as before, I decided that I would have the showroom in a large atrium-like space. First of all, for a building in the inner city, real-estate is a high-value commodity. What better way to show off Barlow’s status and wealth than by having a spacious showroom? Unfortunately, not having the underground showroom also meant that the floor area of the showroom is greatly diminished, and to solve that I simply created multiple levels. These multiple levels are then carved into nice curved forms to create a terrace effect, which allows for visual connectivity between floors.
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FACADE
The new scheme was largely a “decorated box”, and this meant that the facade had to become a feature of the design. When designing the facade, I wanted it to be able to facilitate the neon sign as well. I came up with this sketch of what I thought could play along well with the Barlow narrative, as well as the concept of my building as a whole. As the linearity and regularity of the car park meets the wall, it switches to the “fun” side of the building, and the linearity subtly warps out of shape, representing Barlow’s inner conflict. I then modelled the geometry parametrically using “attractor points” on Grasshopper.
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Some inspiration I drew from: Research Lab, University of Grogringen by UNStudio L.E.S. Residential Building by gage | clemenceau architects
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FABRICATION
This semester I decided to laser cut most of the components of my physical model. This meant that I had to prepare the file for fabrication (2D vector drawings like the one shown above), take into account material thicknesses and tolerances, as well as the material characteristics themselves. For this design, I especially wanted to prove that the structural system was viable, so what I did was to perforate the main walls with slots that would consequently fit the rest of the floorplates. In the end, it worked out fine in terms of structural stability. However, I had a lot of issues with tolerances and material thicknesses. Some of the cuts were not as accurate as I had anticipated, and I did not leave enough tolerances in some of the perforations so I had a lot of difficulty fitting the pieces in. This is especially true in the case of plywood, because it is a natural material and tends to not be as accurate as the perspex. 44.
So I used a combination of 3mm white perspex and 2.7mm plywood. Aside from the insufficient tolerances being the main problem, I also had another problem of the plywood bowing and twisting. This also made it quite difficult to slot into the walls for some of the floor plates. Despite all that, once they were slotted in correctly, the model stood great and had a lot of rigidity to it, which I was very pleased with.
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FINAL SCHEME
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Car park
Showroom
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In terms of programming, I’ve kept the concept that I was working on, to split the building more or less into two sides, to play with my interpretation of the Barlow narrative. What I’ve done here is I’ve created a structural wall that divides the two sides into the services and car parking on one side, and the showroom, cafe, mini-golf, bachelor apartment, and offices on the other. The floors would then all be suspended from this wall, in a similar manner as to how I have tried to build my model. I then designed a playful facade on the showroom side that contrasts the two sides of the building as seen from LaTrobe street. As with any car showroom, an important consideration is how to signify its presence within the tight urban fabric of Melbourne. An effective way of doing this (and coincidentally also a component of the brief) is to design a neon sign that works in a similar manner to what some of the buildings in Las Vegas has. With this scheme, the curvatures on the facade creates the perfect backdrop to outline with neon lights, which would then highlight the showroom when it turns on at night. By having the showroom in a large atrium space, this scheme emphasises the extravagance of the building, and consequently of Mr Barlow himself. The three-tiered nature of the showroom floor-plates can showcase different series of cars from the manufacturer, as well as distinguish different degrees of exclusivity. These showroom floor-plates also taper back as it gets higher, allowing for visual connectivity between each floor, and consequently letting Mr Barlow watch over his showroom from the bachelor apartment at the top.
First of all, we have the people who are wanting to play mini-golf or visit the showroom. There is a pedestrian entry on the LaTrobe side where people would be greeted by a reception desk, and one would take the elevator to visit the showroom, or visit the mini-golf desk and start playing. There is also a cafe nearby, and this is elevated so that the people eating and drinking can spectate the mini-golf. Then we have the staff members responsible for the cafe and the mini-golf. They would also have pedestrian access from LaTrobe, or they could go down the elevators from the car park. So on the ground floor there is the kitchen, locker room and showers, the staff lunch room, toilets, and storage.
STORAGE
MINI GOLF
LOCKER UP
KITCHEN
G R O U N D F LO O R
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Moving on to the upper ground level, there are two entries for cars. One of them leads up the ramp and into the car parking, and the other leads to the service centre for the cars, and there are also car parking spaces for when people wait for their cars to be serviced. Additionally, on this level, there is another pedestrian access point from Grant Lane, which is on the east. This leads to a foyer/ reception area for the offices and Barlow’s apartment, and is also the exit point for people using the car parking. So two elevators open both ways to the car parking and the offices. SERVICE CENTRE
FOYER/RECEPTION
CAFÉ
STORAGE
U P P E R G R O U N D F LO O R
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The level 4 plan shows the curvature of the showroom, and here we can see a typical office plan. These offices can be used for the actual car dealership, or may be rented out to other small businesses. They are also connected to each other with stairs, and they utilise that north-east view that I mentioned earlier.
OFFICE CAR PARKING
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SHOWROOM
VOID
LEVEL 4
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The plan more or less repeats itself until level 9, which is the boardroom, where Barlow would have his meetings, etc.
CAR PARKING
BOARD
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SHOWROOM
VOID
LEVEL 9
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Eventually we reach level 10, which has the plant room, and also Barlow’s apartment. The way I designed this apartment is sort of just a normal apartment, but incredibly spacious. A couple of things to note; the apartment is accessible via the stairs from the boardroom below, as well as the elevator, and the south wall of the apartment is just glass, so he can see the showroom below.
CAR PARKING
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PLANT ROOM
LEVEL 10
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So here are the elevations showing the building in context, and the sections. There are a couple of reasons why I wanted the car parking to be exposed; one is simply to promote ventilation and light, as well as giving a visual connection from the car park to the rest of the city, and vice versa, as some of the adjacent buildings will be able to see directly into it.
South Elevation
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Also in terms of the sun, the offices are east of the wall to take advantage of the passive lighting, as well as being shaded from the afternoon sun. While the car park is on the west so it stays brighter for longer without needing lights. The showroom is on the south side not only to give the desired LaTrobe frontage, but also so that in minimises the natural light in the atrium space, and hence you can have more controlled artificial lighting to showcase the cars.
North Elevation
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Ground Floor
Upper Ground
Level 4
Level 9
Level 10
CAFÉ
PLANT ROOM
MINI GOLF
SHOWROOM
MINI GOLF DESK
BARLOW’S APARTMENT
OFFICE
TOILETS
OFFICE
BOARD ROOM
Section A-A
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Ground Floor
Upper Ground
Level 4
Level 9
Level 10
CAR PARK MGR.
STORAGE
Section B-B
MINI GOLF DESK
SERVICE CENTRE
LUNCH ROOM
KITCHEN
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LOCKER
STORAGE
CAR PARK
ADDITIONAL SKETCHES (in no particular order) Idea for the mini golf: a journey back and forth from both sides of the central wall with golf hazards that each have two holes in them, leading to either side of the wall. This concept would offer multiple pathways for every ball hit! Below: sketch of what the underground showroom might have looked like from ground level; as a sort of mezanine level that you could look into.
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Working out the office spaces of the first scheme
ideas for the new atrium showroom
Above: ideas for the ground floor Below: facade concept sketches - The two sides of Barlow
Ideas for the neon sign
new programming for scheme 2
Ideas for Barlow’s apartment
LECTURE & TUTORIAL NOTES
Some short and interesting notes from the lectures: - “Learning from Las Vegas; The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form” - Robert Venturi, Steven Izenour, Denise Scott Brown. - The “duck” and the “decorated shed” - with presentations; play with the narrative, - use evokative photographs of the model, - presentation drawings should be cohesive between boards, - a broad palette of presentation and drawing techniques may be bad and detrimental to the cohesion of the presentation. - finish all drawings before judging whether it is good or bad - don’t throw any drawings out - USE COLOUR! - use nature to get ideas on colour palettes - drawings don’t need to be perfect - presentation drawings are not working drawings, no dimensions needed.
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