Katie Taylor Final Portfolio Architecture 20 Fall 2016

Katie Taylor Architecture 20, Fall 2016 Final Learning Portfolio

Table of Contents Favorite Building Multiview Drawing Plans and Elevations.........................................................................4 Tiles and Pattern Exercises............................................................................................................................9 Tiny House Realspace Group Taping Project.................................................................................................6 Tiny House Individual Design.....................................................................................................................10 Improved Tool Project………....................................................................................................................10 Improved Mid-Century Modern Architecture.............................................................................................10

Bonus: Question Box Strengths: I implemented multiple tools (i.e. Array, Follow Me, etc.) in Google SketchUp to help me better my understanding of the nuances of the program. Thought critically about the boxbreaking challenges faced by Mario.

Weaknesses: The curve in the question mark could be a lot cleaner.

Favorite House Plan and Elevations

Strengths - Drawing my own house helped me to understand elevation drawings and refine my drafting skills. I have a better grasp on what elements of the building should be highlighted in an architectural elevation.

Weaknesses - The walls and detail have little contrast to the weight of the rest of the drawing.

Opportunities - I will take measures in my future drawings to differentiate between architectural embellishments/details and the actual structure.

Risks - Were I to submit these plans to a contractor, he would have trouble making sense of the drawings; my measurements are largely estimated.

ROOF PLAN

Favorite House Roof + Floor Plan Strengths - floor plan demonstrates higher understanding of drawing skills/ symbols: see doors and wall thickness.

Weaknesses - lines are shaky, could use some cleaning up. I also failed to include the fire escape seen in the roof plan and elevations in the floor plan.

2ND FLOOR PLAN

Tiny House Group Project Blue Group

Strengths: My group and I were able to accurately plan our tiny house in realspace – we developed a more thorough understanding of how space is represented in a two-dimensional, scaled format. I feel I am more able to translate raw numbers (e.g. “10 feet,” square footage, etc.) now that I have seen it to scale.

Weaknesses: We ran out of tape fairly quickly.

Risks: My group took a risk by including a curved edge in our plan – it was difficult to convey what we pictured using only tape and a concrete surface.

Opportunities: I learned a lot about working with other people on designs during this exercise. I really enjoyed hearing other creative perspectives and putting them to use in the design itself.

Pattern Exercises Strengths - Greatly furthered my understanding of Google SketchUp Weaknesses - I am still having trouble ensuring my components are uniform and exist within a group; also, making the second/third colors for a lot of these were very time consuming/tricky.

Trellis Strengths: By modeling a trellis in SketchUp I learned to implement the array tool in a recognizable architectural setting. My skill using the array tool was proven invaluable throughout the semester.

Weaknesses: I wish I had included both an exploded axon and an elevation or other perspective without the rendered trees, just to be a little cleaner.

Tiny House SketchUp Model (Individual)

East Elevation

East Section

North Elevation and Section

South Elevation

West Elevation

Floor Plans

1ST FLOOR

2ND FLOOR

Improved Tool Project

Strengths: With this project I learned how to look at an object and objectively determine what was necessary in order to improve the tool. For the first time learned about the ins and outs of and how to model an exploded axon. In SketchUp, I learned to use the Soften Edges tool and Sandbox, as well as how to model curves. I also refined my skills using the FollowMe tool.

Weaknesses: The edges could be a lot smoother; I could have spent more time modeling the curves. I also had trouble with things like the middle section of the glass, where you can see the error in the model: the model of the improved glass is striped at the stem, where it’s narrowest. I believe this to be the result of the trouble I had connecting the bowl and the base of the glass – I had to draw a separate set of curves to connect the two pieces. In other words, I don’t think I grouped enough.

Opportunities: I noticed that wine glasses are prone to being topheavy and came up with a plan to offset the imbalance using sand. An homage to the hourglass, my wine glass lowers the center of gravity of the average wine glass to below center, resulting in a wine glass that is reliably stable even at the end of the bottle!

Risks: The improved glass is indeed improved upon the old version, although it is perhaps a little gimmicky. This particular piece would be quite expensive to produce because of its unique shape and the fact that sand must be sealed inside the base before it is distributed. I also worry about the design itself: I feel the base may be too narrow in the improved design to truly stand up (so to speak) to the weight of a full glass of wine.

Improved Mid-Century Modern Architecture Mies Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House

My Update of the Farnsworth House Van der Rohe’s Original Design

Strengths: I learned about the Field of View tool in Sketchup while making an animated walkthrough of a model of an existing building. I also applied my knowledge of reading a plan and translating it into numbers I could input into a modeling program.

Further, I thought critically about problems set forth by a building and worked to remediate those problems through an improved-upon design.

Left: Original Farnsworth House front door Right: Original kitchen

South Elevations Weaknesses: I had a lot of trouble grasping just how much time it would take to model two entire buildings, so my update is not quite as drastically different from the original as I had originally hoped it to be. That said, including an envelope heating system at the very last minute was, in my opinion, quite inspired an innovation. Jď Š

Original Farnsworth House

My Update

Opportunities: I have a broader sense of what modeling a building really entails, now. This project opened up a lot of ideas in my head; I feel I only just touched the surface of what I could be thinking up in terms of building improvements.

Risks: My update may be flawed as far as the heating design goes; I am no thermal physics expert. Moreover, aesthetically speaking, raising the building may take away from its sleek and unobtrusive appearance. (Plus, if the temperature keeps rising, bodies of water growing ever deeper, it may even be best to put the whole structure on an elevator!)