Thesis Booklet/Auburn University by Tej Vashee

Walking: A lost Art

Thesis Book_Spring 2013 Auburn University Bachelor of Architecture by Tej Vashee

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Architecture Degree, Auburn University.

This book is dedicated to my: Mum Dad Brother Grandparents All my friends a

Table of Contents I. Introduction

Exploration

Thesis Statement

Montgomery Models

II. Thesis Document Thesis Paper

Bibliography

III. Fall Semester Project Project Description

Text

Site Documentation Drawings

Photographs

IV. Precedent Anlysis

Precedent Description Studies

Implementations

V. Site Documentation

Analysis Site Drawings Exploration

Photographs

VI. Program Analysis

Program Exploration

Initial Program Exploration

Bubble Diagrams

Site Context

VII. Process Studies

Concepts

Study Models Site Considerations Tectonics

VIII. Final Precentation Final Documents

Final Drawings Photographs

IX. Bibliography

103

X. Appendix

Additional Documents References

109 111

Introduction 07

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our reality is shaped by the patterns of our bodily movement, the contours of our spatial and temporal orientation, and the forms of our interaction with objects.â&#x20AC;? Mark Johnson

Introduction

The recent drive to re-build cities has been successful for most of the United States. There are few exceptions though; Detroit is a prime example of where the city has reached a failed state. Montgomery, Alabama is in the beginning process of this re-building stage and is trying to avoid the failures attributed to Detroit. Within all this discussion about rebuilding and renewing there wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t much consideration about the pedestrian experiences in this new context. However, they werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t entirely forgotten, as representations of people appeared on the periphery, in balconies and parking garages. In years past, the emphasis on modern planning has been on openness, access to light and fresh air. All these notions provide a strong image of a building and outdoor relationship. However, this changed quickly with the growth of automobile movement and the work undertaken to enable smooth flows from doorto-door travel, with highway designs. The pedestrian has now become a driver in the architectural scheme, travelling from one modern experience to the next.

Exploration

Re-construction of Montgomery street system.

Building implementation in new street system.

Thesis Document 13

Threshold Spaces The notion of movement and flow within the architectural realm of building design is an important one. Movement is sought with the construction of perspective space. A combination of differential elements along with a sequence of different spaces suggests a kind of architectural motion. While flow is the continuous and smooth movement that may carry a directional change caused by external forces. The movement and flow of pedestrians from the street to the building’s interior play an important role in the shaping of buildings and the city itself. It should respond to the different demands and components of a place.

“An architectural space must reveal the evidence of its making by the space itself” Louis Khan movement: Is sought with the construction of perspective space. A combination of differential elements along with a sequence of different spaces suggests a kind of architectural motion.

The building should be unmeasurable in its appearance but measurable in its means of design. Human conditioning plays an important role in the shaping of architectural space. The entrance to the building and the progression to and from the street creates some of these wonderful spaces (Threshold Space). The idea that this threshold space is an additional room within the city’s urban fabric and the building itself. Architecture creates incredible forms, rooms, and optic experiences. These not only provide an aesthetic beauty but also helps create social engagement, communal gathering and provides a connectivity to the physical realm of the pedestrian.

I. The walkability of architecture and how the car has shaped the cities of today. The recent drive to re-build cities has been successful for most of the United States. There are few exceptions though; Detroit is a prime example where the city has reached a failed state. Montgomery, Alabama is in the beginning process of this re-building stage and is trying to avoid the failures attributed to Detroit. Within all this discussion about rebuilding and renewing there wasn’t much consideration about the pedestrian experiences in this new context. However, they weren’t entirely forgotten, as representations of people appeared on the periphery, in balconies and parking garages.

Thesis Document

In years past, the emphasis on modern planning has been on openness, access to light and fresh air. All these notions provide a strong image of a building and outdoor relationship. However, this changed quickly with the growth of automobile movement and the work undertaken to enable smooth flows from door-to-door travel, with highway designs.

“The motor car has completely upset the form of the city. I feel that the time has come to make the distinction between the Viaduct architeture of the car and the architecture of the man’s activites.” Louis Khan

The pedestrian has now become a driver in the architectural scheme, travelling from one modern experience to the next. Almost like a tourist of modern design. It seems in this day and age architecture doesn’t appear to have very many walking enthusiasts. The early modernist revolutionizing his thought and practice regarding pedestrian movement was the architect Le Corbusier. His Villa Savoye in Paris was one of the first examples, with its elegant idea to introduce a ramp and open-air rooftop in the home that managed to create in the composition an endless series of spatial relationships.

flow: A continuous and smooth movement that may carry a directional change caused by external forces.

Le Corbusier’s mark on architecture was profound, and it has taken decades to come to terms with our shared building attitudes and how they feel isolated from one another. For the most part. architects and designers were looking at the art making world of land art and conceptual art of established masters, such as Braque and others. His contemporary, the Viennese based architect Adolf Loos, explored the notion of a continuous circulation system of interlocked rooms (Raumplan) at the domestic scale. Urbanistically he was more of a realist and planned insertions into the urban core. For example, he thought about the opportunity to provide families with split-level apartments in elevated ‘streets’ that would create topography that was quasi-public. Both understood that by elevating the street it would have repercussions with people’s behavior, and that this was a prototype for a walking urbanism.

walk: to advance or travel on foot at a moderate speed or pace; proceed by steps; move by advancing the feet alternately so that there is always one foot on the ground in bipedal locomotion and two or more feet on the ground in quadrupedal locomotion.

“The distinction between the two architectures, the architecture of the viaduct and the architecture of the acts of man’s activities could bring a logic of growth and a sound positioning enterprise ” Louis Khan Every building has a vital role in the shaping of the city and the Cincinnati Contemporary Art building by Zaha Hadid provides just that. From the exterior it resembles a conventional-appearing structure but it is in the interior that provides the active spaces. The floor plates open up to a tall courtyard with crisscrossing staircases.

“One may say that architecture is the thoughtful making of spaces. It is not, the filling of areas prescribed by the client. It is the creating of spaces that evoke a feeling of appropriate uses. ” Louis Khan It must have to do with an interest in movement and porosity. Zaha Hadid states that a defining idea is to draw public space into a building’s interior to make a series of public rooms in the city. London, providing a perfect example where the buildings tend to be fortified and public spaces comes about by accident than design. Porosity suggests a new kind of urbanism, composed of streams or flows of movement that cut through the city fabric. One of the key strategies in the design of a space or building is the strength of the circulation concept.

“buildings can almost be divided into two categories: first, those in which the procedure from the entrance to the room in which you will spend most time is crashing bore, a forgettable experience, etc; secondly, those in which the business of working your way towards our destination is a memorable and episodic experience. ” Peter Cook

Thesis Document

The stay in the room is predictable, so there is a will to escape from it and return to the rest of the building. Contemporary experiments with public circulation, streets both internal and external are increasing in frequency, and architects are starting to pay attention. A recent example of a commercial street that has been incorporated into the interior shows that there is genuine public interest and respect for building projects that extend the experience of the city street. The Hofe Funf in Munich is an example of the weaving surprise and delight of the everyday experience of walking in the city core; new courtyards and passages.

threshold: any place or point of entering or

A commercial development in the center of Munich it intersects five dominant pathways towards the center of the space, all used by strollers, bicyclists, parents pushing prams and a steady stream of tourists. The most impressive part of these spaces are the attention to the concrete flooring, and the natural skylit spaces that provide a warm glow of space to the shops and various programs along these internal public interior streets.

“The way architecture takes a bit of the globe and constructs a box of it. And suddenly there’s an interior and an exterior. One can be inside or outside. ” Peter Zumthor “Brilliant! And that means - equally brilliant! – this: thresholds, crossings, the tiny loop hole door, the almost imperceptible transition between the inside and the outside, an incredible sense of place, an unbelievable feeling of concentration when we suddenly become aware of being enclosed, of something enveloping us together, holding us whether we be many or single. An arena for individuals and the public, for the private and public spheres.” Peter Zumthor

II. A successful city is one that is able to provide social engagement and a physical connection to the pedestrian. The project in Munich consists of many elements that help provide a connection between the pedestrian to the street. With its ability to logically pave the way and circulate the pedestrians to and from the street it not only provides a connection but has extended the road/street, with the addition of paving materials other than asphalt. This type of urban engagement with site has been developing within the architectural field. This approach of knitting pedestrian and site issues is known as Landscape Urbanism. Peter Zumthor considerations to the urban environment is along the same lines, as he goes on to state “What I am thinking of are my human surroundings – although they won’t only be mine – and the building becoming part of people’s lives, a place where children grow up.

art: the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

“What i am thinking of are my human surroundings - although they won’t only be mine - and the building becoming part of people’s lives, a place where children grow up ” Peter Zumthor And perhaps one of the buildings will come back to them 25 years later, involuntarily, and they’ll remember a corner, a street, a street, a square – with no thought for its architect, but that isn’t the point. Just the idea of these things still being there – there are plenty of buildings like that I remember, not done by me, but which have touched me, moved me, given me a sense of relief or helped me in some way.” Peter Zumthor Today, in the context of global capital, urbanization continues to decrease the density of North American settlement. In consequence the architectural matters left in the wake of this process are often absorbed by tourism and culture.

Thesis Document

lost: no longer possessed or retained

Many cities in North America formerly known for their auto-dominant architectural culture are presently engaged in rebranding themselves for larger economies of tourism, recreation, and destination entertainment. This has in turn pushing architectural objects and fragments of the traditional urban fabric as optional excursions into themed environments. The architecture of the city has become a commodity and in consequence rendering many cities less and less distinguishable from one another. In place of regional and historical distinctions, many industrial cities have long since lost most of their inhabitants to their decentralized suburban surroundings. In place of traditional, dense urban form, most North Americans spend their time in built environments characterized by decreased density, easy accommodation of the automobile, and public realms characterized by extensive vegetation. In this horizontal field of urbanization, landscape has a newfound relevance, offering a manifold medium for the making of urban form, and in particular in the context of complex natural environments, and public infrastructure.10 The understanding that the street has great value in the urban context and is needed in the re-branding of the American city by becoming part of the building interior providing the connection lost with the addition of the automobile. Without the movement of people the urban environment loses its identity and according to Kevin Lynch the built environment has an important role in the inhabitantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daily life. People in urban situations orient themselves by means of mental maps and people who move through the city engage in way-finding. They need to be able to recognize and organize urban elements into a coherent pattern. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In the process of way-finding, the strategic link is the environmental image, the generalized mental picture of the exterior physical world that is held by an individual. This image is the product both of immediate sensation and of the memory of past experience, and it is used to interpret information and to guide action.â&#x20AC;? Lynch goes on to say that these mental maps consist of five elements: paths: routes along which people move throughout the city; edges: boundaries and breaks in continuity; districts: areas characterized by common characteristics;

montgomery: the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf

nodes: strategic focus points for orientation like squares and junctions; and landmarks: external points of orientation, usually an easily identifiable physical object in the urban landscape. Of these five elements, paths are especially important according Lynch, since these organize urban mobility. Juhani Pallmassa describes a similar understanding of the building engages us in the orientation of place.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Buildings and towns enable us to structure, understand and remember who we are. Architecture enables us to perceive and understand the dialectics of permanence and change, to settle ourselves in the world, and to place ourselves in the continuum of culture and time. â&#x20AC;? Juhani Pallmassa A clear mental map of the urban environment is needed to counter the always forthcoming fear of disorientation. A legible mental map gives people an important sense of emotional security, it is the framework for communication and abstract organization, and improves the complexity and intensity of everyday human experience. The city itself is thus a powerful symbol of an intricate society. Lynch goes on to say an environmental image has three components: identity (the acknowledgment of urban elements as separate entities), structure (the relation of urban elements to other objects and to the observer), and meaning (its practical and emotional value to the observer). It is important that these urban elements are not tightly designed into precise and final detail but present an open-ended order. Urban inhabitants should be able to actively form their own stories and create new activities.

Thesis Document

Lynch tries to influence urban designers with his work and goes on to say: They should design the city in such a way that it gives room for three related “movements”: mapping, learning, shaping. First, people should be able to acquire a clear mental map of their urban environment. Second, people should be able to learn how to navigate in this environment by exercise. Third, people must be able to operate and act upon their environment. Mobility is not just free-flowing movement but heavily relies on structuring and identifying the environment through the aid of mental maps

montgomery diversity: Black (49.6%), White (47.7%), Hispanics/ Latinos (1.2%), American Indians and Alaska Natives (0.3%) and Asians (1.1%)

One important point that Lynch raises is the extent to which our way-finding shifts from orienting ourselves to mostly “objective” urban elements to become increasingly subjective by means of modern day technologies (cell phone). Our ability to carve the city with our experiences and share them as easily as we can is helping or hurting the urban landscape. The urban environment poses some serious questions about the current inclination to dowse the urban landscape with information. The overall legibility of the city is hurt when every building, object, and place wants to communicate and announce its existence to us.

“Good architecture offers shapes and surfaces molded for the pleasurable touch of the eye. “Contour and profile (Mode nature) are the touchstone of the architects,” as Le Corbusier put it, revealing a tactile ingredient to his otherwise ocular understanding of architecture.” Juhani Pallmassa The ability for architecture to provide that orientating element and experience is what it should respond to. The notion where memory replaces the use of camera and the imagination is the picture.

III Urban Renewal and the regeneration of the city. Urban renewal is the process where an urban neighborhood or area is improved and rehabilitated. The renewal includes demolishing of old or run-down buildings, constructing new, up-to-date housing, or adding in features like a theater or stadium. Urban renewal is often part of the gentrification process. For the past fifty years the suburban edges of U.S. cities have been encouraged to prosper while the city centers have been allowed to emulsify. From the segregated suburban housing to the modern office parks, architecture in American cities has been moving away from the urban core. Urban conditions are very unique in the way people interact with one another considering they have nothing in common but still share the same public realm. Urbanity is inherently associated with courtesy, refinement, polish, civilities, courtesies and amenities. However it is a quality most American cities have lost in the second half of the twentieth century. Large scale civic spaces are great cultural and physical symbols that bring people together: Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Fifth Avenue, the Champs Elysees, and the Piazza San Marco. These remain fixed in the memories of millions of people as important places in their lives, even if visited only once. Such places become a shared focus of many peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives; they are places in which many of us are at ease with ourselves and with eac other.

montgomery education: High school graduates (80.7%), Bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree or higher (29.4%)

The most effective urban spaces, the ones that make us feel the most comfortable, have an almost room like quality. The street does not merely carry large volumes of traffic. Rather, the street harmonizes with the facades of the buildings along it. Opposed to shouting for attention as individual objects, the buildings work with one another to create a unified whole. There are people and activities in the space and the presence of windows, doorways, balconies, and porches provide places for people to observe and create a safe and secure public space.

Thesis Document

Paris provides one excellent model of urbanism in which the cross section is the key.Paris in the nineteenth centuryclearly shows the boulevards under construction and the cross section. This system was applied broadly across the city. A substantial part of the city’s greatness derives from the fact that the upper floors of the buildings in all districts are residential and that each structure has a mixed-income population. civil rights movement: The modern civil rights movement in Alabama burst into public consciousness with a single act of civil disobedience by Rosa Parks in Montgomery in 1955.

Before elevators, the most expensive apartments were one or two stories above ground.They had the highest ceilings and the most elaborate ornamentation. The next floors, with more steps to climb and slightly lower ceilings, housed the middle class. On the top were the garrets for storage and servants. With the introduction of elevators, the hierarchy became altered, but a wide mix still existed in each building. All of these residential spaces sit on top of public uses. The approach offers a biding principle for contemporary development of urban spaces. The painting, “Man at the Window,” by the impressionist Gustav Caillebotte helps usunderstand still further the importance of this. As spectators, we are inside a room and along with the man in the painting we gaze out at another room, an urban room. The young man has leapt up from his chair. A young woman is crossing the street. The man is clearly connected to both the interior and the exterior spaces, by his physicality and his gaze. The window is vertically proportioned; through it we see the same proportion of windows on the façades that create the urban room of the streets. There is a unity created in the visual fabric of this streetscape. From the streets, we see these windows that mark the spaces as places of human habitation. We are not in an anonymous place. We are in a neighborhood or quarter that is looked after by the many people who live there.

In the transient architectures of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cities, spatial definition changes constantly as space is activated as much by electronic as by architectonic artifacts. It is in tribute to the ephemeral nature of these inherently unstable images that the question of temporary exhibitions --- weather explicitly staged or occurring fortuitously witching architectural terrain --- becomes important to the architecture of events.â&#x20AC;?

IV. How can a Bus station and public/civic space can improve the vitality of urban Montgomery?

troy montgomery: located in the heart of downtown Montgomery, Alabama, and includes unique facilities like the Rosa Parks Library and the Rosa Parks Museum, the Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts and the W.A. Gayle Planetarium.

The revitalization of the existing intermodal bus system, along with the existing bus station and stops is the main goal of the project. Using each bus stop in the greater downtown area of Montgomery as nodes or fingers branching off from the main bus station on the riverfront help the public experience the city in different ways. This connection to the intermodal bus system and the streets of downtown Montgomery will help engage a better social interaction between the public and provide connectivity within the community which is clearly lacking. The bus stops will also provide a strong relationship between the street and the building exterior, providing spaces that can accommodate pedestrians in a much more inviting manner. The bus station itself will act as anchor for the bus system and provide an entranceway to the downtown area. The bus station will connect to the riverfront to help engage the river and bring the historic past into the project. The river has been a major part of the history of Montgomery and still is a great contribute to the aesthetic image of the downtown area. The bus station will also branch out along the southern part of the exciting site creating an urban park. This park will engage the public within the city and the public that have just entered the city as well. The programmatic elements of the station will help connect the park to the main bus station, thusly providing this notion of fluidity throughout the site. The idea of creating motion through the spaces will help create wonderful experiences for the pedestrian and help the continuation of this movement throughout the city. The inclusion of the nodes will help emphasis this point. The bus station will also act as the gateway to the city, engaging all parts of the riverfront and downtown area.

Thesis Document

union station montgomery: built by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and opened in 1898.Currently hosts the Montgomery Area Visitor Center.

The city of Montgomery has always been lacking an effective bus inter module system. With the addition of a new bus station closer to the city center, it may help the re-building process. The idea of creating a bus station close to the river front and within walking distance of the major downtown areas. The bus station is aimed to provide a continuation of the street and serve the downtown and the wider community as well. The current intermodal system and station is underutilized and neglected. The new bus station should attract a greater range of the public and allow for a meeting point once dropped off in the city center. Also it should be pleasantly located were travellers have an enjoyable experience and be able to attract more travellers. The building should be able to provide all the elements necessary for the pedestrian to orientate themselves, engage fluidity between the interior and exterior. It should address the urban fabric and allow for the smooth flow of people to and from the street. If movement is to be one of the generating factors of architecture, it will not take a single form of configuration. There is random movement, as experienced on a flat plane, free of any attraction or constriction. But there is also vectorized movement, namely, ramps, stairs, elevators, escalators, hallways, bridges, and so on, which interact with static spaces, often activating them through the motion of the bodies that populate them. Bus station is an example of the interaction between static and normative spaces and vectors of activity. In each case, these vectors constitute the â&#x20AC;&#x153;publicâ&#x20AC;? face of the buildings: they are also places of encounter, sites for the unexpected.â&#x20AC;?

Bibliography Nicholson, G. The Lost Art of Walking; The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism Lynch, K. The image of the City Childs, M. Urban Composition Jormakka, K. Flying Dutchman; Motion in Architecture Walker, E. Tschumi on Architecture Kahn, L. Essential Texts Hadid, Z. Movement and Porosity Tschumi, B. Event Cities 1 Tschumi, B. Event Cities 2 Pallasmaa, J. The Eyes of the Skin

Bibliography

Fall Semester 29

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The architecture of Le Corbusier and Richard Meier, for instance, clearly favour sight, either as a frontal encounter, or the kinaesthetic eye of the promenade architecturaleâ&#x20AC;? Juhani Pallmassa

Fall Semester

Concentrating mainly on downtown revitalization and adaptive re-use to bring back the downtown area to an occupiable area of the city. Using the other ideaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s as connecting piecies to the overall idea. American cities especially Montgomery in general have deprived social downtown areas. The question now arises how do you re-occupy the city? Aldo Rossi states â&#x20AC;&#x153;History is the central claim to the city and architecture.â&#x20AC;? In order to start rebuilding the main goal was to re-inhabit the downtown. Firstly by bringing the people back to the city center and secondly to keep the people there. The idea of revitalizing the Montgomery bus system was the first of two pahse proposal. The bus station would help attract people from the suburbs and once in the city the additional activities will help keep the people there. The proposal is located on the river front and would connect to the riverfront park the historic district and the downtown area. The idea of creating a hub for pedestrian flow once in the city center.

Montgomery Bus Station

Entrance Persepective from riverfront

The first task was to take the exisiting conditions and arrange the multiple building on the site and relate them with the surrounding buildings. The final arrangement allowed for the main building to front the river and create multiple views towards the city. The buses run to the back of the hotel and is fronted by a parking deck to allow for easy transition. The final piece of the group is a public park to the west of the site and would also front the river.

Perspective looking towards the park

Project Description

The second phase to the proposal would extend the interior canopy out towards the river and create a boat/water sport center at the edge of the site. The building would enclose the train tracks so the patrons would get easy access to the river through the building.

Perspective view from under the canopy

Waiting area overlooking the buses

Regulating lines dictated by the urban fabric

Analysing surrounding buildings

Circulation flows around the site

Major axis within the site

Ground Floorplan

Longitudinal Section

Project Description

Site Exploration A

Site Exploration B

Site Exploration C

Site Exploration D

2nd Floor

Transverse Section

Precedent Analysis 37

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.â&#x20AC;? John Ruskin

Precedent Analysis

In order to achieve a successful project research and analysis had to be done. Looking at various examples from Adolf Loosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pedestrian apartments to Zaha Hadidâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rosenthal center for contempary art the project evolved piece by piece. Taking the streets or elements of the street to the interior and continue the experience of the street. Being able to provide the everyday day experience of walking the city core. Le corbusier tried to address this through the practice of interior pedestrian movement ex, Villa Savoye in Paris. Adolf Loos also had a similar notion of a continuous circulation system of interlocking rooms ex Raumplan. The second part to achieving a successful project was the programatic and materialistic elements. Firstly looking at contextual examples in order to fit in the urban fabric. Secondly lokking at programtic examples to provide a pleasant experience and finally looking at river front building to provide a pleasant aesthetic and create multiple views along the building.

Precedent Description Villa Savoye

Central Ramp inside the Villa Savoye

Interior perspective of roof garden over looking internal ramp

Le Corbusier was able to connect each room within the house really well and provided a wonderful example of the architecturale promanade. The use of the ramp acts as the main circulation space and helps to seperate the spaces within the house. Isometric view ground floor

Ground floor

Exterior perspective of Villa Sovaye

Precedent Description

Funf Hofe

Ground floor

Interior Perspective looking down the walkway Entrance perspective showing contextual facade

Funf Hofe is an extreme example of bringing the streets to the interior. Herzog and De Meuron were able to create the experience of the outdoors along the whole walkway with the addition of courtyards and skylights.

Raumplan

Spatial seperation of Villa Muller

Simple description of Raumplan and Villa Muller

Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art

Transverse section

Interior perspective of the continuous staircase Exterior perspective at night

Ground floor

Spatial distribution within the building

Interior perspective of waiting area

Precedent Description

Buckhead Library

Ground floor

Longitudinal section

Interior perspective of main facade

Buckhead library extends throughout the site and is lit through a glazed wall

Shading device on the main device Exterior perspective of east facade

Amsterdam Museum

Interior perspective of the first floor gallery

Interior perspective over looking the main staircase Interior perspective of the entry way at the foot of the main staircase

Amsterdam museum designed by Benthem Crouwel consists of three floors. It is a long linear building but is still able to provide great lighting and spacial conditions. A continous staircase helps to connect the floors and bring light down

Ground floor

Interior perspective of breezeway

Precedent Description

Arche Nebra

Transverse section

Exterior perspective leading towards the main entrance

Arch Nebra design by Holzer Kobler consists of three floors. The ground floor is the connecting piece between the the upper floors and the ground several feet below. The upper floors are overhung to provide exterior waiting areas and seperate the private from the public.

Ground floor

Exterior perspective of the waaiting area under the main floor Interior perspective of the main lobby

Site Documentation 47

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Escape from the architecture ghetto is one of the major drivers and has been from the very beginning. â&#x20AC;? Rem Koolhaas

Site Documentation

Montgomery is a city with a rich history from the civil rights movement to the civil war. Unfortunately Montgomery has been regression in recent years and the city center has struggled to retain its former glory. Over the last three years the city of Montgomery has built and renovated several building to try and re-populate the city. In order to understand the city better studies were done. Looking at multiple categories from schools to municipal buildings it was easy to see the degredation of the city and the hardships the city was having to revive it. Further studies were done along the river front and next to the bus station and the old train station in particular. The space between the two buildings is a prime location on the river front and has great potential of connecting the city center, river front and the exterior part of the city as well. The connection of the Troy campus to the river front provides a channel for pedestrian movement and vehicular movement to the river front and engage the street along the way.

Analysis

Municpal Building Public Schools

Building Deposition Codes Historic Buildings Green Spaces

Healthcare Buildings Civic Buildings

Civic Space Codes

Current Site

Analysis

Lane Parking Codes

Site Location

Site Context

Layering Code

Riverfront Science Center Montgomery, AL

Parking Codes Calculations

Site Location Regulating lines from the excisting context creating views in both directions

Parking Codes

Site Context Facade Relation to Excisting Site

Perspective View Down the Street

Analysis

Parking Lane Codes

Site Wind diagram

Private Frontage Codes

Urban Plan Diagram

Street Light Codes

View of the site from the bridge

Street Vegetation Codes

View of bridge from walkway

Analysis

T5 Diagram

View of the site from the corner of the old train station

Tree Allocation Codes

Streetscreen Code

Looking down the street towards the river

Program Analysis 57

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Less is more.â&#x20AC;? Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Program Analysis

After studing the the site and city in Montgomery in general the program of a science center was the ideal choice and would fit into the city of Montgomery as the demand and need for it is high. The site location next to the bus station and old train station had great programatic demands. Firstly, being able to address each elevation as they all were exposed to different urban contexts. The river facing facade had a northern condition thus making it open. The east and west facades were enclosed by the two buildings making it more private. The southern facade faces the street and helps to close the vista at the end of the street as well thus making it very public. These site consideration along with the site footprint the building program evolved to a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s science center and an extension of the Troy campus. The science center would hold an auditorium, lobby, gallery spaces, as well as classroom and office space. This would serve the city, students and the children of Montgomery.

Initial Program Exploration

Studies of massing the programtic elements

Using massing diagrams to explore the different possibities of the building oreientations. Using different sizes and schemes to see what would fit the site best. Having the public towards the front helped zone the building in a more fluid way allowing the back portion of the building to open up.

Riverfront

Science Center

Green Trail

City Cneter

Site context diagram

Studies of massing the programtic elements

Court Square

Program Exploration

Main Gallery

Onsite programing trials

Final program diagram

Initial program diagram

Individual Study of rooms

Program Exploration

Individual Study of rooms

Initial program document

Program Exploration

Lobby: space for seating and places for large groups to gather. space must be large enough to accomadate and not feel enclosed. Lobby should be welcoming and at the main entrance.

Galleries: should allow for the flow of patrons, allow for a more intimate

expression. lighting is key and must be controlled so not to overwhelm the space. spaces should be interchangeable and pay homage to the river front.

Museum shop: space should be welcoming and accomodate flow of traffic. should be able to provide seating and visual appealing.

Circulation: empahsis should be made on public egress, should be easy

and welcoming travel through the building, allow for transportation of people and goods.

Classrooms: should not be cluttered or lacking visual appeal. space

should be enjoyable for the children and provide a good learning environment.

Offices/Admin: easy access for employees, provide enough daylighting to

make it a pleasant space. private space should be on secondary circulation to the public.

Bathrooms: should be easy accessible and meet the ada requirements.

away from the main circulation spaces but shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be hard to find. minimize presence when around them.

Storage: accessible for the employees, little daylighting needed, should

be able to connect to all floors, tertiery circulation flow and close proximity to vertical circulation.

Mechanical Systems: focus on sustainable and energy efficient

systems, able to use daylight to generate power and provide for the building, centralised unit to be branched aroun the building.

Parking/Drop Off: should be able to accomadate employees and pa-

trons to a certain extent and should be able to serve large school buses for children.

Process 67

“There is a danger when every building has to look spectacular, to look like it is changing the world. I don’t care how a building looks if it means something, not to architects, but to the people who use it.” David Chipperfeild

Process

Working through multiple designs from the initial bus station to the final science center on the adjacent site was very demanding. Each scheme varied in multiple categories from egress systems to aesthetics and materialistic issues and so on. The first scheme led to the renovation of the excisting bus station but that idea faded quickly as the practicality of it changing the mind set of the people was very unlikely. The second idea was to create a public space close to the main transportartion hubs of the city in order to help enage the city and the public in a way the city hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been able to. The science center evoved for a single story linear building to a threes story, three zoned building. The main ideas behind the schemes were to respect the site building on the river is a very delicate site and must not be overwheming. The northern facade faced the the river so that allowed for more exploration to create views and lighting for the building. The southern facade faced the street so shading schemes were implented to make the space pleasant and enjoyable.

Studies

Exterior perspective skecth

Solving floorplans through isometric drawings

Located on the river front in downtown Montgomery numerous site conditions had to be addressed. The current bus station didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t pose much contextual trouble but the old train station had great value and aesthetic to the city of montgomery. The embassy suites had their back of house down the street too and thus site orientation was a very crucial part of the project. To address the multiple issues the buidling had to be linear in nature to counter the size of the site and address all the contexual issues as well. The linear nature helped the building slip in the site without overwhelming the surrounding buildings and also created a terminating vista to the street. The connection to the Troy campus was achieved this way as the building never blocked the view out to the river but proviided a terminating view as glimpses of the building could be viewed along the street. The linear nature however proved a tough task in addressing the programatical elements of the project. The first issue was the connection between the two seperate parts of the building. Intial schemes helped understand the problems that were to be had and after many iterations the final solution came in the addition of a third zone. This zone was the service part to the building and would act as a median between the public lobby and the public gallery towards the river. The connection had not been solved yet as the transition through the spaces wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fluid and once again many schemes helped show what problems were to be had. The final solution was to seperate the main staircase to allow for the service space to also act as a gathering space.

Studies

Once the floorplan was coming together the distribution of spaces and floors within the gallery spaces was proving to be a difficult task. After the circulation paths had been sorted out the task was simplified but not solved.

Floor plan sketch

Studing the building through sections

Section sketch

The first schemes involved a ramp that would run from the ground floor to the third floor however after more site studies were made the ramp schemes seemed to be too expensive and bulky. The new site orientation raised the gallery space from the ground floor to the first floor. This move was made to help in-corporate the site and views to the river through vehicular access as well. The gallery space was now elevated and had great potential for lighting and views. The ramp was scraped and a continuous staircase was put in its place to provide a similar feel but in a more practical sence. This move helped orient the gallery spaces as all the axis within the space faced the river front. The staircase helped connect all the floors through it circulartion path, floor opens and lighting. The top floor opened up even higher to allow for greater amount of light to filter down and to increase the scale to the final view accessible for teh street and building together. The intial material selections were alabama limestone but after more research and site consideration concrete panels and concrete was the prefered choice for the urban context. The lobby space was completed glazed with operable shading devices to help change the space according the occasion. The final move made on the building was the kick out on the east gallery wall to emphasis the connection to the Troy campus and not only terminate the vista with the view but help address the bridge running from the bus station.

sketch of lobby space

Study Model showing the circulation system

diagram showing three zones within the building

Study Model showing roof studies

Studies

Circulation diagram

Study Model showing glazing scheme

sketch showing initial ramp idea

Study Model showing elvation scheme

Study Model showing the North facing facade

Final Presentation 75

Final Presentation

The final design of the childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s science center consisted of three floors and a basement level. The building was divided into three zones a public zone to the front, a service zone in the middle and a third zone holding all the gallery spaces. The public zone held the lobby, reception, museum shop and cafe spaces. The service zone held the bathrooms, mechanical systems, egress, and storage. The last zone help public and private spaces from classrooms to galleries. In order to keep the connection with the surrounding buildings the lobby space and the old train station related to each other in height and width. The rest of the building however was able to open up and take advantage of the views towards the river front and the northern glazed well help light all three gallery floors. The third floor opened up even higher to accomodate for large exibits and expose the structure. The staircase helped regulate the flow of the building and allows kept the axis towards the river to maximize views.

Final drawings

Ground floor

Final Drawings

1st floor

mezzanine floor

3rd floor

Basement floor

Side elevation facing west

Final Drawings

Side elevation facing east

Side elevation facing north

Final Drawings

Side elevation facing south

Longitudinal section

Final Drawings

Longitudinal Section Scale: 3/32”:1’

Transverse section

Final Drawings

Detail Section Scale: 3/4”:1’

Final Drawings

Detail Section and perspective

Site plan and perspectives

Final Drawings

Site Plan Scale: 128”:1’ Exterior Perspectives Looking Down Molton Street

Interior Perspective Main Lobby

Interior perspective of main entrance

Final Drawings

Interior perspective of main staircase in the gallery space

View looking down the street

Arial view form embassy suites

Final Drawings

View looking up from the river front

Arial view from the bus station

Section detail model

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Final Drawings

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Bibliography 103

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Bibliogarphy

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Appendix 107

Book Layout 1. Select Document Margins a. Go to Layout> Margins and Columns i. The four margins can be controlled independently of each other ii. When making a book, the interior margin will ideally be larger to account for binding. b. Columns are controlled in the same dialogue box. i. Gutter controls the spacing between columns ii. Five or six column layouts are ideal to allow a variety of different sized content to have a guide. 1. Six column layouts allow the opportunity to divide the layout easily into thirds and halves. 2. Set Baseline Grid a. Go to View> Grids & Guidelines> Show Baseline Grid. i. This will put in place a default grid. b. To adjust the grid, go to Edit> Preferences> Grids. i. Control the spacing of the grid in the “Increment Every:” option of the dialogue box. 3. Set Page Numbering a. Go to Edit> Preferences> General i. Select “Sectional Numbering” ii. This will allow the pages to run continuously when combining multiple documents in a book.

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Appendix

Building Codes ADA: Americans with Disabilities act a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability ANSI: American National Standards Institute. Has more specific requirements for making a home accessible F.A.R: floor to area ratio- An expression of the amount of development (typically nonresidential uses) allowed on a specific parcel of land. F.A.R. is determined by dividing the total square footage of buildings on a site by the amount of site square footage FHAA: Fair housing amendment act as amended in 1988, prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin. Its coverage includes private housing, housing that receives Federal financial assistance, and State and

Gross: includes everything in a floor area even if it is not inhabitable such as the interior of the walls IBC: International Building Code (IBC) is a model building code developed by the International Code Council (ICC). It has been adopted throughout most of the United States ICC: International Code Council. A member-focused association dedicated to helping the building safety community and construction industry provide safe, sustainable and affordable construction through the development of codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process

M.L.A: minimum lot area Smallest building lot area allowed in a subdivision , generally specified by a zoning ordinance. Net: occupiable space that does not include non-inhabitable spaces such as wall thickness and elevator shafts Zoning ordinance: the acts of an authorized local government establishing building codes, and setting forth regulations for property land usage

IRC: International Residential Code Occupancy: the use or intended use of a building or part thereof for the shelter or support of persons, animals or property

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Appendix

Fin Merci

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