Arch101 final portfolio

Arch 101 Final PortfolioCity College of San FranciscoSpring 2015By Chima ChidiInstrctor: Jerry Lun

To my team,

Thank you for the hardworking attitude and your great minds. Without you none of this would have happened.

-Chima

Arch 101 Final Project: Rendering Nature: making the invisible perceivable

In this semesters final project Arch 101 students were to explore and create small-scaled environmental installation

designs on an individual basis; and then in teams of 3-5 members select a “town” or “country” site and collaboratively

design and install a full-size scaled installation in either the courtyard immediately outside of Batmale 245 & 246 or on the hillside adjacent to the courtyard. At the end of the allocated 9

weeks for installation building time, the final project culminates in each team giving a presentation to a Guest Jury

who provide useful critiques and assessments.

Description

General Program Requirements• 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.

Arch 101 Final Project: Rendering Nature: making the invisible perceivable

Program Specific Requirements• Pathways

– A defined entry that beckons– A path or pathways that unifies, connects and organizes all Nodes within an

installation as parts of a journey

• Activities to be Accommodated

– A place to enjoy a framed view that makes the mundane precious and sacred.– A place for one person to sit and quietly reflect, relax, study, or read for

pleasure– A place for accidental encounters and the opportunity to Socialize with others

• Experiential Nodal Environment Types

– Beauty– The Unexpected – The Unfamiliar

Site SelectionAt the beginning we selected three possible sites for building our installation. The first choice site was located in the “country” adjacent to the walkway right off Marston Avenue that leads you down towards Batmale 245 and 246. The second choice site was located in the “country” near the end of the hillside, which is immediately outside of Batmale 245 & 246 and beyond the courtyard. The third choice site was located in the corner of “town” which is immediately outside of Batmale 245 & 246. In the end as a team we ended up going site choice 3. The first choice site didn’t work out because we lost a “designoff” competition to Team JEFNY for its usage. The second choice site didn’t work out because we found it hard to build on due to it’s mulchy sloping terrain and precarious position.

Site 2

Site 3Site 1

Site Analysis

Even though we ended up with our third choice site we were still happy, it had a lot to offer us. We really liked it’s location within a very open area, it’s potential become an intimate space, it’s flat concrete flooring and the sculpted stone artwork adjacent to it.

Site Specifics• Solid Concrete Flooring• Relative protection from

the elements• Provides views into the

Architecture department• Some views of Mission Bay

and the hillsides of Visitacion Valley

• Adjacent to sculptural artwork

• Cornered site

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Iteration one for site 1

This model was the team’s first iteration for site 1. It was also the first design idea I proposed towards our installation. Inspiration came from a snail shell, the golden section and the dappled light that comes down through the branches of the first tree nearest to the walkway. Whilst designing this model I tried to employ Lou kahn design language because his plays with light, form, and space are truly beautiful. The idea behind this model was to create a roofed inwardly spiraling walkway, with walls that become higher as you reach the center. Along the way to the center you would encounter rectangular windows that provide specific framed views of the forest adjacent to Marston Ave and let in natural light. The arrangement of windows also follows the contours of the Visitacion valley hillsides. Once in the center, one would be in the tallest space of the rotunda walkway and there would be a seating area where one could experience an opened roof letting in dappled light provided by the overarching tree branches above. `

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Iteration one for site 2 (Iteration 2)

Iteration 2 by team member Will

DESIGN ITERATIONSIteration two for site 1 (Iteration 3)

Iteration two for site 2 (Iteration 4)

Iteration 3 by team member Giana Iteration 4 by team member Will

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Iteration one for Site 3 (iteration 5)

This model was the team’s fifth iteration and the first for Site three. It was also the second design idea I proposed towards our installation. Inspiration came Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” which is a large-scale light installation directly outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Trees in a forest also inspired me. The idea behind this model was to bring the idea of a forest to manmade courtyard. In the model the sticks represent thin columns and the columns are arranged closely so to create pathways, or inhabitable spaces. The columns also serve as barricades to inhabitable spaces that can only be visually experienced within the design. The purpose of the barricades is to create wonderment within visitors—leaving them to only imagine what that space must be like. The columns would also be at different heights to represent trees at different ages and also to cater to the roof in the corner of the courtyard. The reason we ended up not using this idea was because, we weren’t sure how to support 9-10ft columns vertically on the concrete ground without digging into the concrete.

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Iteration three for site 2 (Iteration 6) Iteration 6 by team member Giana

DESIGN ITERATIONSIteration two for Site 3 (Iteration

7)

Iteration three for Site 3

(Iteration 8)

Iteration 7 by team member Will Iteration 8 by team member Kenneth

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Iteration four for site 3 (Iteration 9)

This model was the team’s 9th iteration and the fourth for Site three. It was also the third design idea I proposed towards our installation. Inspiration came from Kengo Kuna & Associates Starbucks in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.. Natures own shelter; The Cave also inspired me. The idea behind this model was to create a inhabitable space in the corner of the courtyard that could excite and be intimate. The asymmetry and angles of the form serve to represent nature’s non-perfect design. The skin of tessalating wooden boards that cantilever over the top and flank eiter side serve to represent nature’s chaotic design.

DESIGN ITERATIONS

Final Iteration

In the end we decided to use Iterations 7 and 9. We thought they best suited our design intention of bringing nature to the manmade courtyard environment. We also thought that they played off each

other in a interesting way.

CONSTRUCTION PROCESS/METHODS

Materials • 1-in x 2-in x 8-ft wooden boards• 2-in x 4-in x 8-ft boards• 16D nails• 1-1/4-in x 2-3/4-in roof truss ties• 8-32 x 1-in Round phllipshead screws• 3-in phllipshead screws• Cotton Fabric• Polyester Chiffon Fabric

Tools

• Power drill• Circular Saw• Miter Saw• Hand Saw• Wood Chisel• Wood File• Clamps• Hammer• Staple Gun

Challenges • Figuring out how to get the vertical

boards of the curving panels to stand up still and straight.

• Figuring out how to get the tower to stand

• Having no nearby outdoor power outlets to use on the weekend for construction

• Broken Drillbits


We constructed the curving panels by firstly cutting slots into wooden 2-in x 4-in x 8-ft boards that were to be used as base supports. After getting the base supports built 1-in x 2-in x 8-ft wooden boards were vertically slotted into the slots that had previously been created. The vertical 1-in x 2-in x 8-ft wooden boards were supported by perpendicular corner braces that connected it to the base support with some screws. After we constructed all the curving panels we then used a staple gun to apply fabric to them.


With the use of several 2-in x 4-in x 8-ft wooden boards, some 16D nails and some corner braces we constructed the form of the gazebo by assembling 3 separate frames and then joining the three separate frames together. The thinner wooden boards that tessellate and act as skin were constructed by drilling two 1-in x 2-in x 8-ft wooden boards together with a round screw and nut. After that they were individually drilled onto the frame.

CONSTRUCTION METHODS

The tower was constructed by creating a tripod system with truss ties that supported several drilled together 1-in x 2-in x 8-ft wooden boards.

CONSTRUCTION 100% COMPLETE

Design Intentions & Inspirations• Our design intentions stemmed from our mutual ideas about the significance in the project’s title. We believed

that the significance lied in the fact that as a team we were assigned the task of rendering something that we sometimes take for granted. As humans we are sometimes so fixated in our dealings that we don’t really take time to contemplate the natural surroundings that were precedent before things like technology and finances. In addition to this, as humans we really only have a scientific understanding of nature as opposed to an empathetic understanding of it. We also believed further significance lie in the title because as a team we had to figure out how to embody nature and manifest that feeling into a tangible form. I believe our design has addressed the idea of rendering nature by bringing the idea of a forest to the courtyard.

• Our array of curving panels creates the essence of a border that surrounds our site like trees do towards the

interior reaches of a forest. The varying heights of the curving panels serve to resemble trees at different ages and the fabric that hangs on them is meant to represent the softness of leaves on a tree and further provide contrast to the wooden panel like leaves to do for to the wood of a tree.

• The towering structure serves to represent a mother tree within in a forest, whose branches and trees canopy over the younger and smaller trees and provide shade. The fabric and string strung up at the top of tower that connects it to some of the curving panels serves to represent the leaves and branches of a tree.

• The frame of the gazebo is almost rectangular in shape but creates a sort of 225-degree angle near the entrance that angles down from the top of the frame to it’s bottom. The frame is also shorter in length on one side to try and create an air of asymmetry to the design. The angle and asymmetry exhibited in the design are used to try and replicate the unperfected design of nature’s shelters. The fabric that is hung up on the frame is meant to exude an air of softness and represent the leaves and foliage that almost accompanied all of nature’s shelters. Furthermore, the intersecting and tessellating wooden boards the protrude from the frames side and cantilever from it’s roof serve to reinforce the idea of natures chaotic design.

• Our design also sought to engage the senses of touch, sight and smell though the materials used and the way it was orientated. We wanted the our visitors to experience firsthand the freshness, transparency and softness of our design.

Design Intentions & Inspirations

TOUCH


Sight


Smell


The beauty The unexpected The unfamiliar

Jury’s Critique

Strengths

• Exhibits moments of architectural beauty

• Good level of craft• Fulfilled majority of the program

requirements• 100% complete• Merging of individual ideas

Weaknesses• Ignored the actual corner of

the courtyard and didn’t activate it

Opportunities• Activate the actual corner of

the courtyard and integrate it into the design

Threats• Ignored the actual corner of

the courtyard

Final Thoughts

This project was a unique experience because I’d never done anything like it before, and since finishing I have an even greater hunger for Architecture. It was also unique because of how incredibly collaborative the design and construction processes were. In the end I feel like we accomplished most of the program requirements and achieved our team goals so I have no regrets. The only thing I regret is that we didn’t active the literal corner of the courtyard somehow. I guess that idea of activating the literal corner didn't cross our minds as we were designing away. What I took away from this flaw is that you should always try and work with all pieces of the site. To the future students entering Arch 101, the only thing I can say is believe in yourself and in others.

Arch101 final portfolio

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