Oksana Tabunshchykova Final Portfolio Project Architecture Studio (Arch101) UnderJerry Lum guidance
Final Project. Team Work Objective Design and install a full-size work that • Respond uniquely to the context of site • Reflect narratives of the human condition • Support accidental encounters and human activities • Provoke others to appreciate everyday aspects of place that are typically ignored or taken for granted
Program Specific Areas • Pathway(s): a defined entry that beckon; a path or pathways that unifies, connects, and organizes all nodes within an Installation as parts of a journey. • Experiential Nodal Environment Types: 1. Beauty, e.g. a intimate place imbued with opportunities to note fleeting beauty, empathize with things, and/or have a profound wistful awareness of the ephemeral. 2. The Unexpected, i.e. a discovered place imbued with qualities that contrast significantly from that of other places encountered previously. 3. The Unfamiliar, e.g. a mysterious and magical place; a tantalizingly threatening place; etc. • Activities to be Accommodated 4. A Place to Enjoy a Framed View that makes the mundane precious and sacred 5. A Place for One Person to Sit and quietly reflect, relax, study, or read for pleasure 6. A Place for Accidental Encounters and the opportunity to Socialize with Others
Site Analysis
The City College of San Francisco is located in a middle of the San Francisco Peninsula. The Peninsula is surrounded on three sides by water, thus San Francisco weather highly influenced by the coll current of Pacific Ocean. Batmale Hall, located at the northeastern sector of the City College Campus, has been built on a negatively grading hillside, sloping towards the east. The place is windy. Usually wind comes from the north but it may vary. South part of “village� site is sunny in the morning and during sunset. The northern part of site is the most sunniest spot.
Site veiws and potentiall view from the hill
Individual Model 1
I was inspired by my vacation to the New England. There was a lot of labyrinths from flowers or stones. Also I visited Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, that exhibited traditional crafts and the tools, clothing and collections people used for everyday life in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s and up through 1954. I combined the shape of labyrinth and weaving technique to create this model.
Successes You can see a lot of work put into the model The weaving pattern is beautiful and reminds about natural living in the past Openings create curiosity and has playful personality Weaknesses Pathway. It is not clear if walls intentionally narrowed or it is a design mistake.
Individual Model 2 In this model I was inspired by Cristo and Jeanne-Claude The Gates in Central Park New York City, February 12 to 27, 2005 My idea was create a path with fabric. As the “village” is quite windy place it would be good to enjoy sound of swaying fabric.
Critique
Weaknesses Fabric looks arbitrary Confusing design No rhythm and order Inspite of the critique, I like this model, because it seams light, playful and responding to the natural forces.
Individual Model 3 I decided to concentrate on the labyrinth idea and work to that direction. I guess this is my the best individual model in the second part of the semester. I was under influence of my vacation to the New England. Probably not intentionally I reflected it into my design. This space is created to evoke serenity and tranquil. This is a place where person can plunge into his thoughts enjoying light and shadows pattern that openings create. This pathway leads us into two deferent directions. From the left this is the space for several person to enjoy the view from the “window�. From the right side more intimate space. It is located in the middle and not reveals at the first sight. This is space for one person. The model is made from the paper that has beautiful pattern from openings and semi-translucent parts. Canopy on a top reminds the foliage of the trees in the forest.
Critique
Successes Beautiful shape of space Deep meaning in design concept Weaknesses I was not sure what views openings framed. Not very clear entrance.
Individual Model 4
I keep going with my labyrinth idea. So I used different fabric to approach to the real full-scale model. I tried to create nods as connections to the posts. This fabric is more dense so it could create sound from the wind.
Weaknesses Unfortunately, the model looks messy and not neat. If we imagine that we are inside. The canopy on the top overhanging. It create feeling of tensioning and desire to leave this place. I like this model because it could provoke fear that can be exited too.
Individual Model 5
This time I was more concern about framing views and orientation of the model entrance. I located entrance between two trees on the hill. Opaque surfaces hide the Batmail Hall, but openings on the top allow sun light penetrate to the inner space. This time “window� is looking to the bushes over the road.
Critique
Weaknesses Black marks stands out too much The craft of model is weak No joints
Team Work. Model 6
This model was created after we were divided into small groups for team project. I din’t like the site at the beginning, because it was a slope and I understood it could be very challenging to construct there. I worked under incorporating my idea about labyrinth with Calisa’s “building” and Ross stairs. Weaknesses I didn’t realize that the was the pathway but no framed space. It looks that it was made very fast without care. (But really to say, It was challenging put together small paper pieces on the “slope”.) Not enough details and connections. Too conceptual.
Our Team “OCLR�
Ross He was responcible for bookiping and construction work
Clisa She was a photografer, engineer and designer
Laurie She was a constuction manager and writer
Me-Oksana I was a designer and material selection person
Design process Inspiration We were inpired by an idea of a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a path and space at the same time. It is a place with double meaning. It can be space for meditadion or for a game. We wanted to create space that allows a person to step back from everyday life, to plunge into his/her inner world and to discover buteauty in simple things.
Proccess As it was a group work we tried to keep the main ideas from our previous one-person design. So as a base for pathway we use my idea about labyrinth, for tranquil space for one person we use Calisa’s design, Laurie and Ross were interested in hillside location to get an advantage of views and a slope. I liked Calisa’s craft and her frames that she used in one of her work. So I suggested to frame space with some sort of frame that will be repeated in a bigger structure (lets call it cabin or house).
Team Models
Calisa’s first iteration
Calisa’s last iteration for full-scale model
At the beginning the cabin was square, but after we’ve chosen the site we changed the shape to pentagon to respond curvilinear shape of the “village” and solve a technical issue too. As door had to be on a pivoting point in a middle, pentagon shape fits better to keep space without impact with the door. To make our work more productive we divided work. Calisa was busy with pentagon, I and Laurie were working on the pathway and the frames design. Ross had to work on the stairs part.
Laurie’s work that reminds me my labyrinth
Material selection We realized that that most challenging would be the cabin. We concentrated first on it. We chosen wood for cabin. 2x4x8 dry lumber for pentagon base 4x4x8 wet lumber for pentagon posts 2x3x8 wet lumber for pentagon top connections We didn’t know what wood we should buy, but the key points were: it had to be strong enough to hold big weight and resist the natural forces like wind. Meanwhile, I did research on-line about different fabric. We decided that burlap will fit our design the best because of natural color, rough texture and density of material. Burlap provides also with varying level of transparency. We wanted our design hide some parts provoking curiosity and reveal views. The final fabric was ceisal mesh. It is beautiful and delicate quality extrimly transparent. We did not buy all materials right away as we were not sure what would work. We bought materials in next steps:
1) for cabin base 2) for frames 3) for rotating parts 4) for cabin frames
It was a real challenge to make the final decision what
Challenges and Solutions
Leveling the Ground We delayed our contraction process because we were looking for solution for leveling the ground. Laurie new how to level ground and Calisa found out how to level only points. So we were digging the ground and moved dirt and mulch. This time I was a working person. It was hard to move and dig the dirt, becouse there were a lot of rocks.
There was a weak point right near the slope, so we did a stress test. We loaded the corner with patio stones, that we used as the base point.
Center pivoting connection for the rotating door in the cabin. How did we get from the concept with a nail to the full-size rotating door? That was a long way. We had mainly three ideas for this realization. One was to use set of bolts, washers and nuts. Second was to make a huge “lazy Susan“, that turn plates rack in kitchen shelf. And the last one to use bearing system. The last one we could not afford, the price was around $30 per one and we were not sure how to have a deal with this connection. Then, we decided try to do a “lazy Susan”. We even found parts for this, but price technical problem stopped us. This system would cost us around $30 that is not bad compare to bearings. But the question was, how to make a recess for metal balls. In addition, we would have to incorporate this system into the bottom of the structure. So lack of time and resources eliminated two ideas.
“Lazy Susan” idea
Wood for “Lazy Susan” idea
Another unrealised idea
Please watch our video with the rotating door http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qJzgFaqGUs&feature=youtu.be
Rotaing frames. For rotating doors or frames we created fairly simple mechanism to resolve pivoting system was devised of series of nuts and bolts that was pocked through a hole.
Wind Wind was a real disaster at the beginning for rotating doors. One door was broken after strong wind. We found solution with a garden stones. We use stones as weight underneath to hold the rotating frame structure. Weaknesses of these frames were big area that made the shape weak to resist wind. The solution could be build the supporting shape outside the frame. Unfortunately, the entrance door was smeshed by wind. There was no time to fix the problem or to find new solution.
Budget The budget was a part of our challenges and arguing. At the beginning our budget was $200. But after more attentive research about material prices we increase sum till 350. Unfortunately, we were out of budget around $150-200 dollars. So our total cost was $500. But Calisa took a lot of small pieces that we tested for her own needs. And the final sum is $400 dollars. Hundred dollars we spend for fabric, $250- for wood and the rest for screws, bolts, and other stuff.
Insights and Discoveries
After we install frames we discovered unplanned shadows on the screens. Calisa and I worked in SketchUp program to simulate our structures. It helps us to save time for counting difficult angles and play with pattern for screens. Before installation it was hard imaging precise how views would look like. We succeeded in framing views and it was a real discovery.
Critique
We had guests who accessed our work. In the whole, I felt that they liked our presentation and design concept. Advantages • good idea about labyrinth • framed views are very beautiful • good quality of the cabin structure Weaknesses • fames that frame the path has weaker design than the cabin, the guests said that liked only some part of them • some frames overlap not very successfully • the rotating door has the gaps that frame views that we didn’t plan and distract from the main focal point the view to the bushes and to the open ceiling
Presentation bords
Conclusion
This semester was the most unexpected during my college time. I learned design process from different points of view. I divided for my-self design process to the next parts. Design: the process of creating. I enjoyed looking for inspiration in everyday life. I was more attentive than usual. Sometime idea has came easy, sometime it needed time to be developed. I understood that design is not only talent, but also hard everyday work. Time management. To be on time with any work I have to check and asses next: if I am on schedule today. If not when I have to add more time or I have to reject some ideas. Difference between a small model and a future full-scale model. Real material add to a shape different line thickness, texture and color.
Natural forces. Test stability of material. For big structure in our design it was essential. For big structure we were very concern about thickness of wood, but for frame we choose as cheaper as possible. As a result some frames were not stable enough during strong wind. Tools and materials. Good tools helped a lot. Even we felt difference with screws. Powerful but light drill was invaluable. I can say that I want to forget “to achive the best result with the less coast�. Good materials cost more. It is bettere to spend more money and have less headache, than spend twice and do double work. Individual and team work. The team work was the most interesting, but sometimes the most challenging. It was important to find compromise and find good solution to solve problem. Be realistic. Understanding at the beginning that you have to spend time, effort and money would allow us to avoid of disappointment.