Week Refinement and Finals

Refl ection of Studio D Sem 2 2020 project titled ‘Remnants’, the design of an acoustic performance shell, with programs including, back of house shell building, performance school, accommodation, sky restaurant and camping grounds.

Weakest aspect identifi ed A weakness identifi ed from this studio project was being unable to develop the concept to its full potential due to the brief size and time constraints. This was extremely challenging as there were many areas of the design that had been forgotten and undesigned fully. Another layer to this is that the design was much better resolved in plan rather than in the three-dimensional exterior form.

Improved aspects An area which could be improved is exploring ideas in more depth, perhaps with more explorative esquisses to generate more thought. I fi nd with a combination of hand sketching and quick model making I can visualise and conceptualise ideas with more solidity.

Most successful The most successful aspects to this project were the implementation and exploration of materiality and acoustic construction of the performance shell. A lot of time was spent computationally enhancing the shell in conjunction with reading construction books. Through the design process, a lot of scall scale model making and sketching techniques were used to explore spatial and sonic ideation.

Patterns identifi ed A specifi c pattern I identifi ed when refl ecting upon this project is my tendency to design in plan. This has positive repercussions allowing well thought spatial planning and consideration, however the diffi culty comes with overlapping the plan with the three dimensionalities of the overall form. Form generation became diffi cult, particularly when the geometries I was exploring were quite complex.

Weaknesses A core weakness identifi ed is my ability to develop architecture in the 3D form within time constraints. I fi nd it much more comfortable and easier to generate architecture through plan. In the fi nal Studio assessment, there was an overall lack of 3D representation, despite my entire process being a mix of sketching and model making. The diffi culty came from representing it digitally in realistic renders as requested by the tutors.

model photos from Studio D, sem 2 2020.