A comprehensive guide and reflection to projects in Architecture 101 – Studio Design 1 with Professor Jerry Lum at City College of San Francisco
Learning Portfolio Architecture 101 – Professor Jerry Lum
Juveriyah Salat
Table of Contents Project 1 – What’s Your Sign? ......................................................................................................................... 2 Phase 1 – Concept Generalization ................................................................................................................ 2 Phase 2 – Build It ........................................................................................................................................... 3 8-31-2015 ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Project 3 - Perceiving, Experiencing, and Interpreting Spaces and Places: Documenting Our Journeys ..... 5 Project 3A ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Project 3B ...................................................................................................................................................... 8 Project 4 – Wall, Window, Wonder ...................................................................................................... 10 9-14-2015 .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Iteration 1 ................................................................................................................................................... 10 Narrative ........................................................................................................................................ 11 Iteration 2 ................................................................................................................................................... 12 Reflections ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Iteration 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 13 Narrative ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Outline ........................................................................................................................................... 14 Storyboard ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Iteration 4 ................................................................................................................................................... 16 Narrative ........................................................................................................................................ 16 Feedback ........................................................................................................................................ 17 Iteration 5................................................................................................................................................... 18 Feedback ........................................................................................................................................ 19 Additions to Iteration 5 .................................................................................................................. 19 Iteration 6 ................................................................................................................................................... 20 Narrative ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Process ........................................................................................................................................... 21 Feedback ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Semester Reflection ............................................................................................................................ 24
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Project 1: What’s your sign? Week 1 Phase 1: Concept Generalization As we start class and learn more about making our sign, it offers a little bit of a challenge. What three adjectives describe me the most? Which ones are representative of me as a person? And how exactly am I supposed to create a sign using these? To accomplish this task, I chose determined/ stubborn, knowledgeable/ loves books, and curious. To create the sign, I started looking for images on the internet. I decided to choose a magnifying glass to symbolize curiosity, as that is a big symbol of curiosity. The personification of books was obvious – the open book I chose also represents an open mind, relating to curiosity. I had trouble deciding on stubborn though. I looked online for images that related to stubbornness; that was difficult as the only things that were coming up were rocks and mules. As I had to take into account the visual aspect of the entire design as well, mules and rocks made a terrible design. Looking further, I searched up a variety of different images and words, which led me to choosing my last picture – a flower coming out of gravel/a road. Creating the collage, was a different matter altogether. I layered them on top of each other to create a different aspect on what I decided was to be the more dominant personality type. The symmetrical composition of the circles and the asymmetrical line of the magnifying glass offset the symmetrical nature of the magnified area, leading to a hierarchical system.
Collage 1
Collage 2 2
Collage 3
Phase 2: Build It For my first rendition, I started with my second collage. To do this however, I had to think of a way to exemplify my collage into an actual sign. To do this, I first had to think about what I wanted my sign to look like. I had never made something before, so after we put up all our collages on the wall, Professor Lum explained how to create a sign as well as the dimensions that it was supposed to be. Through that, I got to thinking how I wanted to construct it. For my first design, I did not take into account how much time it would take to create the sign itself. I started to make it around 5 PM, but unfortunately, finished around 3 AM. Because it was late, the unaccounted-for consequence was that the construction of it wasn’t that great. Through this, I learned that it is necessary to give yourself time to design, plan, and then construct. Since I had never used spray paint before either, that was another challenge to overcome. My second design, I feel, was much better. The materials were the same; however, I started much earlier and had a clear idea where I wanted to go with the sign. The next few paragraphs will detail my thoughts; I will also explain my design process behind it. For the back resting against the wall, I chose a circle backing, which made sense, as that connected with the circular motion of the magnifying glass, as well as the other two elements. I chose for the rest of the sign to hang on a rectangular block as that connected with the slab that connected the flower and the book, as well as the handle itself. After the previous class, I had learned how to use spray paint correctly, and it made a very big difference in the overall presentation of the
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sign. The magnifying glass is hung from a string so that it dangles, showing multiple sides. The way that the flower and the book are placed has two separate hierarchical systems; the flower can be seen first from one side, but is shown second on the other side. 08/31 Professor Lum gave us some questions, and I have done my best to answer those. These are my answers as well as reflections for the class up to this point. In the past few weeks, we have learned that design is a language. Thoughts and ideas are very intangible and are not accessible to everyone else. Other times, it is hard to communicate what exactly we want other people to see or believe. Design is a powerful tool that can help convey the message we want others to receive. Even if there is a language barrier, or other obstacles, images can convey our message. The difficulty is choosing the correct images so that our message is the only one going through, and does not conflict with other things happening. It is necessary to say look at our past works, and compare them to our future. As with my work, my second edition was much better than my first. One thing that I can improve on is creating the correct balance for my projects. One thing I noticed was that my handle was much lower than I intended it to be. Weight is a big factor in design as well. The others in my class helped me realize how I could use better materials and tools to create my sign. For example, I could have used hot glue instead of rubber cement. For my craft, I learned that rubber cement does not keep cardboard sticking together. It is also a very messy and unreliable method of sticking materials together. It is necessary to be careful as well, as I burned myself using hot glue. Box cutters are good for straight lines, but scissors are much better for cutting round objects as well as finishing edges. Another thing that was
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mentioned in my feedback, that I corrected with my second iteration, was that all things need to go together seamlessly and combine. Shapes cannot be used arbitrarily but must coincide with something else in the design. Overall, I believe that the second time was much better, but asking questions and participating in class helped me realize what I could have done to make my first sign better and how I could have used my materials better.
Project 3: - Perceiving, Experiencing, and Interpreting Spaces and Places: Documenting Our Journeys Week 3 Project 3A: As we started Project 3A, I quickly began to brainstorm some places I would be able to go to. I don’t live in San Francisco – in fact, I live so far, I have to take one of the furthest Bart stations to get there (Fremont). I also had some limitations further placed on me for personal reasons. Therefore, I had to choose a place that had significant value but was also very unique and could provoke a multitude of experiences in me. In the end, I chose Lake Elizabeth, a local park in Fremont. While I had been there previously, I had never been on the far side of the 2 – mile walk path. Walking there was a serene experience. My pictures and reflections follow, and are noted here.
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Lake Elizabeth, at 1 PM was gorgeous. It was a beautiful day and the sun was
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Lake Elizabeth, at 1 PM was gorgeous. It was a beautiful day and the sun was hitting the water perfectly. Overall, there was a sense of adventure as well as a sense of awe and wonder, as I pondered what I would see and what I would feel during my trip. I had never been
in
nature
for
that
specific
purpose, just to capture light and certain emotions, and it was a new experience. I had such a great time; I
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think I’m going to reflect more outside and just think about nature, and ponder. I believe that this experience helped me become more in touch with myself, and learn other ways in which to expand how I see the world, as well as myself. I believe that this experience was the result of us learning that we could broaden our horizons and show, through this medium of photography, that we have learned how to expand our world view as well as our senses I had never been to that specific area of the park (labeled above) so it was an entirely new experience. I tried not to let my preconceived notions of what it would look like and just experience how it was itself. Through this process, I noticed the intricate details of the park, and I took in several aspects I had never acknowledged before. As this project progressed, I started taking pictures of specific areas that identified with certain emotions rather than ones that just looked interesting. There had to be something more to that, and I wanted to capture that essence in my photographs. I believe that the camera did highlight my experience as it created a small window to look through so that my focus wouldn’t be one a random series of objects, but what was right in front of me. My most memorable moment was seeing all the bright yet dark aspects that nature and lighting have to offer. It created a perplexing yet pleasing experience to the eye, and that very much agreed with me. I would not have been able to see this aspect without this assignment. It certainly helped me. The only thing I think was the problem was that I took pictures of nature rather than buildings, which is what most people did. However, I think this was a very beneficial project for me as it opened my ideas to the world around me, and helped me think that much more deeply about my surroundings. Project 3B: For the second aspect of the project, we were required to create a collage from our pictures that we had created. Our objective, as has been for
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the
entire
semester, to
was evoke
wonder. I had been wondering how I
could
have
done that with my collage. I came up with the
collage
above. When I took it to class, I got some interesting feedback. One thing that was said was that there was way too much going on at once. Instead of adding layers upon layers, was that I could have subtracted images, or add different elements of each image on one image. With that, I took the initiative to create another collage just for my sake to learn from my experiences (to the left). I really like this one, as it has multiple aspects to it, and there is not too much going on. While it seems as if it is multiple objects, in reality, it is one flower, and the idea of it being just one plant, evokes awe in m e.
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Project 4: Window, Wall, Wonder 09/14: Before
we
started
this
project, we started gesture drawing. The point of this was to realize what gestures and feeling we wanted to evoke in people who will be experiencing our places. To do this, we created wonder through charcoal. We had set
themes
supposed
to
we
were
draw
upon,
such as light to dark, thick to thin, and then framing space with light, and without light. Iteration 1: I got the idea by doing some preliminary research on what reading nooks were, and spending some time looking at why I liked them. As I wanted to create something new, I had to come up with something new. That’s where I came up with the idea of having stairs leading up to the seat. The first picture is my original sketches
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of what I wanted to create. The second is my schematic design, along with all the dimensions as wells as the conversions. This is usually how I tackle a project, starting with rough sketches, then with detailed dimensions of
the
model, this
in
case,
the wall. I got asked this question’ “Where would you put this wall?”, and it really helped me think of how I could incorporate this project into an actual living space or area. First Narrative: Entranced by curves & curvilinear walls, I started sketching. I sketched, eggs, waves, and anything I believed would result in the desired outcome. Given the problem, as well as options that I wished to choose, I started researching a specific type of window/ interior I had envisioned in my head. Creating just a wall was the initial challenge. Once I had finished the preliminary research, I started sketching what exactly I wanted my design to look like, as well as adding dimensions to it. The model shows a ¼” = 1’- 0” to scale model; the base is 14 feet wide, and it is 17’ feet hide, along with being 1’ – 6” deep. My vision was to create a unique reading nook, as I believed that that replicated my personality clearly. My position was “The wall is an augmented extension of
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me – a magnified hyperbolic extension of me”. To fully bring this to life, I had steps to reach the window, as high windows are a source of wonder. This was inspired by various designs of houses I have seen that implement a nook. It is also shaped to mimic a person’s back resting against the wall. There is an added element of danger as the seat for the reading “seat” extends past the window, allowing a sense of danger, but within reason. Since there is a window that allows you to go back into relative safety, the two conflicting natures balance each other out, allowing an added sense of wonder to the wall. Iteration 2 Reflection: With the second wall of wonder, our objective was to build upon the feedback we had gotten on the first wall. Therefore, I changed up my design a little bit, and added more elements to add more of a cohesive design to it. Some drawbacks were that the intricacies of the so-called wall did not show up in the final shadow, which was a bit disappointing. I was looking forward to what it would look like. This was a developing portion of what my completed space would look like, as that was the main goal we were going for. As such, it showed developing progress, as well as a heightened sense of what exactly I was doing. I wanted to reach a point that was clearer to my objective as well as a clearer design. However, once I was finished with this iteration, I remembered what a classmate had asked me about thinking where I was going to put this, and I realized I needed to start thinking about this idea more; that I had to remember to make things unique, but also keep in mind the practical applications of my ideas, and not to let things grow too ahead of me. I have to keep them restrained enough so that I can eventually make this come to life.
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Iteration 3: Third Narrative: As you enter into the tower, the essence of being in a fairytale suddenly comes to life. Walking up twirling stairs, such that you cannot see the top, leads to an ethereal sense of wonder. Shadows and hints of light come through, from small windows peeking out into the sunshine. Trailing a hand along the smooth, stone wall, a fairytale springs to life. You can just imagine Rapunzel throwing down her hair, or hear the echo of a dragon roar, maybe even the sounds of Snow White singing. As you slowly walk up the stairs, you reach a landing, leading to a window in which you can look out to the beautiful view outside. The stairs are at a comfortable level, leading to a feeling of ease walking around. The spots that the light shines through makes you walk around all the time, leading to a sense of mystique. Slowly going to the top leads to new
views,
directions,
looking
and
in
all
leading
to
places that capture just the right moment to look outside. As
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we get nearer and nearer to the top, we realize that the spaces in which the windows are spaced is getting larger, giving a sense of expectation, in which we want to see what is at the top. At the top, there is a blast of light as there is a huge window. Leading out from the window is a balcony in which you can go out to and see the sun. The window and the balcony are the south facing portion of the wall. The tower is cylindrical in nature, and has a pointed cone roof, also lending aspects to the fairy tale aspect of the tower. The roof is also made out of shingles, which look like stone. The whole effect is to make it look like a safe spot to those who may want to have some time for themselves and reflect. On the top floor, there will be furniture which will reflect what the person wants to do, and will reflect the aspect. The outside will have an elegance of its own, and so will the inside. The windows are spaced at approximately 4.5 feet apart, but will exponentially increase as it nears to the top. They will be in a circular pattern, reflecting the stars inside. Outline:
Walk into doors, bigger than the average person – 8 feet tall
Look to your right, see stairs
Before you get onto stairs, look to your right, this will be the first window
As you walk up the stairs, you will get to the first a window in 9 steps, leading to a distance of 4.5’
The first landing you will reach will have a window looking outside at approximately 6’.
This will be a place to rest your feet, as there will be a seat, and there will most likely be an option to sit with your feet dangling off the edge.
The intended path will then repeat 3 times, each leading to a different view outside.
As you get to the top floor, you will be drawn to go outside as soon as possible. The balcony allows that option.
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
The window will be able to be opened, and the elegance of the window door will lead an extra experience of wonder to the experience. Storyboard:
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Iteration 4: Narrative: Walking inside you initially look to the front. It is difficult to
see
the
room
beyond.
Intrigued, you walk closer to see what is on the other side. Trailing your hand past the walls, the webs add an interesting feature when
the
sun
is
reflected
through them. You look back, all you see is a huge window, inferring not the light. When you look forward it is so dark. The idea of going further trades your mind, compelling you to go further and further in. You take one of the pair of stairs going to the other side of the room. This side of the room has an obvious depression
in
the
roof,
compared to the other side of
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the building. There are two small shafts of light coming from the roof, sometimes intercepting but not always. As we walk to the other side, we see that it has the same continuous theme of the webbing in the other room. However, that is where the similarities end. The windows on this side are much curvier, relating to the curved nature of the walls. As we walk in, we can immediately see that it is much narrower at this end, rather than the opposite end. This creates a sense of intimacy and closeness,
contrasting
with
the
large
space at the other end. Feedback: I got some crucial feedback on this iteration.
One
thing
said
that
the
excessive glue made it look entirely messy; that I could have done something else instead to make it look better. There were come issues that I could have resolved fairly easily, which I did in the next iteration. These issues included: small windows, making it seem as if it is a result of poor craftsmanship; the front “door” or entrance’s threshold was too high, as it coincided with other windows as well, making it seem as if you could get in through every window, which was not my intention; the sloped floor was also very low, leading to the idea of the “reading nook” not being promoted. Overall, I learned a lot from the feedback that was given by both my classmates, as well as Professor Lum. What I learned, I used in the next iteration for my space of wonder.
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Iteration 5: For this iteration, I started with the feedback I had gotten from the previous iteration. The first thing I did was create a highly sloped floor, which plays back to my original idea of a high reaching place. What I then did was cut out windows in the walls that matched the curve of the floor as well as the wall; this lead to a pattern emerging, as I did the same for both sides of the space. I then added stairs to that floor, leading up. The stairs are positioned with risers leading up to the top of the area. There is a “reading nook� type
ledge
which
the
stairs
lead
to.
As
mentioned previously, I did take suggestions from the comments and one thing was the entrance to the space. For this, I created an entrance that followed the shape and curve of the walls. The light-heartedness from the lightfilled area leads to the darkness coming from the floor, as there is no direct sunlight that reaches it immediately. The entrance is the South-facing wall, and will receive the most sun throughout the day. This way, the idea of the light slowly going into dark and then becoming light again will show through most of the day. However, the shadows from the sun going to the other side of the space and meeting the other windows will happen only at one point in time; each set of windows will have their own period of time that this will occur. This creates the one-time wonder effect, and allows for multiple experiences to be had.
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Feedback: When we got back to class, I got some essential feedback. I had to figure out a way to make it stand up on its own. I had no idea so I asked my classmates for some help, and they gave me the idea of creating trusses that will help support the room so that it will not fall down. Another piece of feedback I got was that the design of the stairs could be more cohesive and work with the overall design and layout of the space. He gave me some ideas on that as well; creating a zigzag layout on the stairs or create a set of stairs that have a stadium-like appearance. Additions to Iteration 5: When I searched up trusses, the first ones I saw
were
bridges.
Once I looked further, I realized
there
were
some for bridges. As there were none that had the exact shape I was going for, I started
sketching.
Professor Lum had given me some ideas on what it should look like, and I started from there. I had tried to use chipboard to
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make it but it proved not be a completely flexible way of making the trusses. So then I migrated toward using toothpicks. They were very easy to use, and were the perfect shape to make trusses. Most of the trusses online were triangle based as triangles are widely known as the strongest shape. Therefore, I went with that idea, and glued multiple pieces together. As I based it off the original design, the pictures off to the side and above show the final product. It works very well and helped the structure stay up, which was my initial intention, and it looked cool as well. The pathway was very gradual as well, because I wanted to prolong the experience that a person would have as they walked up to the ledge at the very top. I created two quick study models based on another portion of my feedback, and I definitely like the zigzag style much better, mostly because of the fact that I wanted to keep the stairs confined to only the raised, sloped floor, not extending onto the flat are of the floor. Therefore, I decided to go with that. With that, I am planning on creating windows at every node, in which there will be a window at every landing, creating a one-chance moment. The reading nook will once again be in the center. I’m excited to see what it will look like by the end with all the components put together. Iteration 6: With the previous feedback in mind, I created the last and final model for the journey of wonder. Narrative: As you walk up to the space, you realize there is a step to get into the space itself. This is known as a transition area; in which it combines the outside
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with the inside. The ceiling of the area juts inside, creating a small shelf inside. This just serves to emphasize the mixing and connection between the outside and the inside. As you walk inside, you immediately notice this huge wall/floor, with an incredible amount of stairs leading up to the unknown. You see small pinpricks of light drifting throughout the space and are invoked with a sense of urgency, to discover what is up there. Because of this feeling, you start to go up the stairs. As you go up, you realize that it is a very gradual slope, leading to a sense of ease to offset the urgency felt previously. As you walk up the stars, you realize that you are coming closer and closer to an opening in the wall. The light shines brighter as you get closer and closer to the wall, and you realize that there is a window there that can be seen outside of. This allows you to take in the perspective of a normal heighted person. This is repeated four times in the space, going higher and higher at each interval. The stairs leading from the last window are very few but close between, leading to a steeper slope, creating that feeling of urgency again. As you walk up, you notice that there is a blank wall in front of, preventing you from falling down. However, on your right there is a huge ray of sunshine. You are required to walk up a step again, creating parallelism between the floor and the rooftop, creating a connection. This step leads you out into open air, creating a sense of freedom and relieving you of the urgency you had just felt. It feels like a refreshing taste of relief. The sloped walls beside you give you comfort without being too obstructive and making you feel claustrophobic. It is a sensation of feeling and wonder. Process: I added the elongated stairs to prolong the sense of wonder, as it is clearly going to be dark most of the time. However, wherever the landing is, which means wherever the area that the stairs touches the outer wall, There is a wall which allows you to look out into the world, and observe it from a different perspective and view. This also allows a smaller proportion of the area outside to show, so that the experience fills you with wonder, and makes you want to
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continue looking and walking up the stairs. This would then mean a better overall experience. These are repeated four times throughout the space. At the top of this winding staircase are a few steps which lead out into a balcony type area. This was originally my idea of a
reading
nook
space,
but
I
expanded the idea, and so now it is not so much a reading nook, but a space to relax and look out into the world. There are tresses that support the structure of the building itself. The verticality and the sheer truncation of the cylinder, along with the comparatively small base, allow it a degree of wobbliness and unsupported area. Therefore, structure must be provided. As shown in the previous iteration and added features, that was what my truss was meant to be based on. This time, I included two trusses being connected as I felt that would support the structure more. This was meant as my companion piece. However, while making the model, I noticed that something was off. I had failed to properly shape the truss so that it would rest comfortable on the cylinder-shape and support it. Therefore, I decided to add extra shapes so that it would be more supported. The simplicity of the cylinder-shape versus the complexity of the truss was a very complex and eye-catching view. It made you more intrigued to search out what was going on, and explore more. Feedback: Most of my classmates really liked the idea behind my project. The craftsmanship left a little to be desired, but was considerably better than the previous ones I had made. The
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path of the stairs changing was a better design decision,
though.
However,
something
that
came up was that the logistical part of the stairs would not work. As someone would walk up the stairs, they would get stuck under the risers of the other stair above them, and would be stuck there. A solution to this would have been to systematically and logically increase the depth of each set of stairs starting from the bottom; the bottom would be the most away from the wall and each set of consecutive stairs would be in a little closer to the wall. This would allow for a comfortable walking path up the stairs. In relation to the stairs, I did not like the very limited lighting of these set of stairs, so something that Professor Lum said was to create “bubbles� as in chmapagne bubbles, to replicate and enhance the shadow and light features I liked from the previous iteration. To create a connection between the multiple objects, instead of creating just a plain jutting out ledge, I could add circles in there, leading to a more cohesive space. The companion piece, which we were required to make, got a doublesided feedback. On one hand, they liked the complex nature of the trusses. However, they did little to support the structure itself, so they piece
were in
a
decorative
many
ways.
However, the structure was not very supportive and it would then be prone to fall over at the tipping point,
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where the truncation met with the floor. Therefore, I had to find a way to fix that. One option was, if I wanted to keep that compelling shape, to attach trusses that were, in theory, parallel to that shape; this way that eye-shape would be supported. However, if I did not want to keep that shape, I could make a trusses that would connect my current trusses to the side of the building itself, keeping that truncation, but not adding any extra shapes.
Semester Reflection Overall, over the course of the semester, I believe that I have become a better designer, through both my vocabulary, as well as learning how to design for a specific purpose. I have learned how to judge both my strengths and weaknesses, and how those weaknesses can turn into opportunities, which can then turn into threats. It’s a circular process, and it is required to go through to make sure you are meeting all your deadlines, and all the requirements. Starting the night before on a project is also never a good idea, because it, for me at least, reduces my creative juices and makes me do things that I never would have done normally (glue on windows for example). I have come to question what I see around me, and how it can be done to become a better designer. Al of the little things that we have done, including gesture drawing, as well as multiple iterations, and study models has enabled me to quickly understand the point of what we are doing as well as the multiple ways an original idea can be enhanced and altered. Learning to appreciate the strengths of my ideas and not backing down when it seems like a good plan is something that I really appreciated and it will definitely help me down the road. I had not realized that I could learn from my classmates so much before this class. I learned how to think on a bigger and more abstract scale. I learned how to use different
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materials, as well as the different materials to be used. I learned about the idea of beautiful craftsmanship (which I cannot do as well at this point in time), as well as in some cases, what not to do based on other’s designs. Overall, I have learned a variety of different ways to look at a project and understand how I can go above and beyond that; how I can achieve more, and how to live up to my potential.
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