Auditorium: graphic standard recommendations

The interior graphic standards book provided some initial stage designs and adjacency diagrams. I searched on the web for some more helpful, detailed books but everything costs $60+. I can't spend that money right now(I still owe Eric money for the hotel in Atlanta). 

The good news is the UNCG library had a fantastical stash of auditorium and theater design books. Floor plans, sections, elevations, details, acoustics, adjacencies, lighting, program elements, the list goes on, its all there in my 100 pound stack of books. If anyone else is designing an auditorium let me know and I might let you look at my stash. Maybe. There are plenty of others that I didn't pick up, basically because I had reached the weight capacity of my arms with the 4 I had acquired. 

This is going to be pretty exciting...

I finished it, for now. Deserving of its own post:

Black equates to near flatness.
The truest blackness in urbanity
counts fewer stars at night,
replaced by the headlights of cars,
and the ambience of street lamps.

The truest blackness in urbanity counts
cracks swimming through asphalt
roads, on concrete sidewalks, up
brick building facades, inside rotten
burned out complexes devoid of life.

The organic has survived! An Evolution!
The cityscape of growth and decay both
glow with great spontaneity, indiscrete
autonomous destruction warranted by
gluttonous expansion dictating weary.

The search for intense stimulation,
an armature for simultaneous
anesthetization hellbent on a death
march to satisfy man's curiosity
equating to blackness and humanity...

Becomes the darkness.

Sketch a Section

The tubes are starting to take on a life of their own! The horizontals can serve as the cross bracing between the verticals and as the transition areas which are quite the focus of our concept...

These people are relentless

I just thought I would share with everyone this email that has been sent to me 6 times by 6 different people. It is a dire emergency that I know this information and that I am presented with it everyday I check my email until I graduate (even after the dates have passed). UNCG does a good job spamming its students, maybe the web advertisers should hire whoever's in charge of sending these emails out. Holy crap, seriously, its' annoying as hell. I'm pretty sure the admininstrative staff is tired of getting responses from me, usually along the lines of "you might actually kill the Earth if you send the same email again to every student on campus. Maybe you should test my hypothesis." These people have a serious communication problem.

"Just a reminder of the 3 events this week especially for those who will be graduating in 2009.
Smooth Transitions from College to Career:UNCG Recent Alumni PanelRecent alumni share true stories about life after UNCG and succeeding in the work worldTues., March 31, 2009, 4:00-6:00 pm, Alexander Room/EUC
Insurance: What You Need to KnowInsurance now that you're on your own - what is necessary and what to watch out forWed., April 1, 2009, 4:00-5:00 pm, Kirkland Room/EUC
Basics of $$$: Managing Your Personal FinancesHow to get ahead while avoiding financial pitfallsThurs., April 2, 2009, 4pm-5pm, Alexander Room/EUC
Refreshments provided
RSVP encouraged - respond through SpartanCareers at www.uncg.edu/cscQuestions? Call 334-5454"

Ugh. Please stop.

Quotes I've recored from folks I've been listening too...

Recently I've found people making references to architecture in their comments, whether through direct communication to me or to a broader audience I was a part of...lecturing for example. This is one of those stories...

I ran into a music major when I was at University Graphics getting my concept poster printed a while back. He initiated the conversation by commenting on the weather, "Its hot outside" he said. Yeah, it was amazing, one of the few nice days we had in between ridiculously gloomy days of rain and cold weather. Apparently the fellow found it uncomfortable, and felt compelled to share that he had a genetic disorder where his body did not sweat and cool itself properly. Suddenly his choice of attire made sense (long sleeve shirt and pants, black none the less).

Anyway, this lead to talking about what we were in school for, what we were getting printed, what we wanted to do when we got out of academia, etc. He was nice guy, odd but I suppose I'm pretty odd too. As I was walking out he said he would like to some day put 12 percussionists into a room and record the music they would make together. He said it was the closest marriage architecture and music would ever have. Oh really? I thought.

I laughed, it was the fake laugh I do when I'm trying to act normal. I told him good luck with that. Contrary to stereotypes and popular belief, we[I suppose I can't speak for everyone] are all not a bunch of chiefs trying to get our own battle plan across with the ferociousness of an entire high school marching band trapped in a 10 x 10 room. Nothing would ever get built (in case you haven't noticed, we are surrounded by buildings).

In an ideal case, I like to think of the process more as a symphony orchestra, the architect(s) conducting, making sure the strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion fall into place nicely...

Modeled Structure

Here's an example of a the tensile tube structure we intend to use throughout our building to hold the weight of the skin (to some extent) and floor plates (for the most part). The tube will continue upwards and outward at the top becoming the grid shell, terminating into the ground (in some parts). Jessica was nice enough to model this in 3-D AutoCAD, thanks! 

Within these tubes the core of the building will be located: mechanical, electrical, elevators, stairs, bathrooms, etc. They won't always be designed with that stuff in mind so wait to see what we come up with next...

Humble Opinion Disintegration...

So for a while now, I've been excited for the opportunity of designing the [main] atrium space for our building as the individual part of my project. Unbeknownst to me, a group mate also wanted to focus on this area. My approach was from the sustainable stand point where as she is focused on the environmental psychology. There was a possibility of collaborating but I'm being honest when I say its been a slow, difficult process making decisions as a group and I didn't want to forfeit the part of the project where I could be [me]. Does that "me" in brackets bring back any memories from 3rd year studio? Anyway, we flipped a coin 3 times and I lost in a game of chance. 

The atrium, a sacred entrance, the intersection on the axis of community and education, a nexus of transitions on UNCG's campus connecting all of the other local colleges and universities and to cities around the country, a landmark within a landmark...my baby, the heart and soul of the building...

I suppose there is still yet opportunity...the 20k square foot auditorium, an opposite end to the atrium. Now I can honestly say that I am approaching 2nd year's Northridge project. I designed the auditorium and roof that extended out from the top, hovering over the entire building. 

It was pretty paramount...

Perhaps this is a chance to improve on what I've done in the past, to see how far I've come since my 2nd semester in this program.

I found an article on shipping container usage:Shipping Container Projects!

Shipping container auditorium? Could be sweet...

Kunsthal Museum designed by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture (Rem Koolhaas)

How about that, a road that passes through the building...

The other 3 images are shots from what appears to be an auditorium or presentation/lecture hall. Others soon to follow...

A little help from the prof...

With the development of a potential concept, transmetamorph, our group made a matrix of major program areas to give us a graphic standard for labeling the many different transitions that were possible. While we will not be developing all 49 types, it was a good exercise for the group to start talking about the human experiences that we wanted to help guide us in not only our overall design of the building and site but also in the individual part of the assignment as well.
Our professor, Travis, was nice enough to sit down with our group and talk us through some of the problems we were having. We have our program organized diagrammatically and along the site but we'd had trouble translating that into floor plans since we didn't really have a formal building design (shell) yet. He advised us to start of placing the core elements in the plan: toilet rooms, elevators, stair shafts, mechanical, etc. Grouping these together he sketched out a few example schemes in relation to users being able to see out and direction of potential day light exposure.
The next problem was figuring out the structure of the building. [In the image above] top most: column grid structure, middle: grid shell structure with the floor plates hung from above, bottom: gridshell with separate column structure underneath. The middle example, was highly advised against as it brought on the most design complications.
We were then directed to the Sendai Mediateque project in Japan. The structure in the building existed as a series of seemingly random placed vertical steel lattice columns which rise from the ground floor to the roof. The tubes exist not only as structural elements but places where core pieces (stairs, elevators, mechanical, etc) could be organized, among other things (ex. shaft of light). We immediately jumped at the opportunity to take this structure and combine it with the grid shell structure. The bottom sketch on the image above portrays these structural tubes connecting, transitioning, and becoming the structural skin of the envelope. The floor plates can now be supported by both the tubes and the skin, allowing for more refined design opportunities occurring through section.

Post architecture school...?

I think I found where I want to go after architecture school...

Master of Design Research (specialization in media or City Design, Planning and Policy) SciArc! 

[Design] research has become increasingly more interesting to me...

Perhaps I finally found the real life equivalent to the strange joy my mind gets out of playing football games (I think I'm more interested in the accumulation of statistics then actually playing). 

Weird.

What has Jimmy been up to besides studio?

Response part 2: Zumthor, the hypocrite (and maybe a communist)

Zumthor sound's like a romantic and his tone is reinforced by his background as a cabinet maker, a craftsman with an affinity for the joinery of materials (unmatched according to himself one might conclude from reading). It was enjoyable to hear him talk about the importance of materials and how they come together in a building. Its certainly an area I would like to know more about as everyone knows I'm lacking severely in the reality department there. A building at peace with itself has no other message then what it is, its genuine truth, a synergy of materiality and human experience...

He speaks of architecture through human memories and perception via the senses. He also goes to great lengths to compare his favorite music and poetry to what his architecture represents through similes and metaphors. For all this talk about "signs and information", these artistic vehicles, this architectural rhetoric, it seems kind of odd he would criticize it and those who use this "medium" to talk about their own work considering thats about all he has been successful at in his book. Contradictory? Just a bit. Are not memories and the senses also "mediums" for experiencing architecture? Contradictions, Mr. Zumthor, indeed exist

What of man's monuments? Are they clouded in this useless information and signage as well? The Statue of Liberty, the Washington monument, the Great Wall of China (not the fast food), the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, the Berlin Wall? Architecture involves the human experience but it is by no means limited to that which the human body can experience in the physical presence of such great wonders. My god, the Twin Towers!!! The substance of their architecture, the details and human experience as put by Mr. Zumthor, was far outweighed by what it represented to the citizens of the United States and to the Western World. I find it rather ironic that I watched those monumental titans crumble to the ground live on television, a medium that was perhaps throwing up "smoke and mirrors."

I watched information in the form of a plane crash into information in the form of a building. I was a witness to information in the form of murder, pain, confusion, anger, and a million other things all happening at once. I felt them, we all felt them. That one singular experience evoked more in me then any architecture I've ever physically experienced in my entire life. Was that not all real?

(our most recent president to exit the oval office might suggest that Mr. Zumthor's statements put into question his patriotism to this country)

real:
a) being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory
b) being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something
c) substantial: having substance or capable of being treated as fact; not imaginary
d) veridical (true, pertaining to experience, perception, or interpretation that accurately represents reality as opposed to unsubstantiated, illusory, or delusory

vehicle:
a) medium for the expression or achievement of something
b) specific channel or publication displaying the advertising message to a target audience
c) a conveyance that transports people or objects
d) medium for expression of talent or views

medium:
a) means or instrumentality for storing or communicating information
b) surrounding environment
c) an intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication
d) (biology) a substance in which specimens are preserved or displayed

perceive:
a) to become aware of through the senses
b) become conscious of
c) In psychology, philosophy, and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information

awareness:
a) having or showing knowledge or understanding or realization or perception
b) In biological psychology, awareness comprises a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply understanding, just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive
c) state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer

Official Building Envelope Structure and Materials

Ladies and gentlemen, these are the official materials and forms of our building exterior (and part of the interior).


Savil Garden

Zaha Hadid project below (a)
Hadid (b)
Greatest concrete bus stop ever
Architectural membrane
Structural steel skin example

Zumthor Reading response among other thoughts

Excerpt (pg. 16-17):

"Everything merges into everything else, and mass communication creates an artificial world of signs. Arbitrariness prevails. Postmodern life could be described as a state in which everything beyond our own personal biography seems vague, blurred, and somehow unreal. The world is full of signs and information, which stand for things that no one fully understands because they, too, turn out to be mere signs for other things. The real thing remains hidden. No one ever gets to see it."

He goes on to say that the "real" things are earth, water, light, landscapes, vegetation and man made objects such as machines, tools, or musical instruments, existing as they are (not "vehicles for an artistic message"). These things are at peace with themselves, apparently.

I disagree with Zumthor's implied statement that the "signs and information" are unreal. If I'm not mistaken, we seem to be living in the Digital Age (Information Age). We are surrounded by, engulfed, bombarded, and absorb these "signs and information" almost every second of the day. Cell phones, email, blogs, texting, instant messaging, video phones, tv and radio (and their internet counterparts), wikipedia, advertisements, news from everywhere in the world you could possibly think of, social networking and online dating sites, pornography, higher education even!...the list goes on for quite a while. The access to an almost unlimited amount of information that the industrialized world has is unprecedented in the history of man. It would be impossible to absorb even a fraction of a percentage of this information in an entire human life time. And, it all seems very real to me. I could spend hours on the internet, checking my email, going from random site to random site, absorbing and learning things I'd never known before.

If architecture is inclusive of a greater idea, a contextual response to the day and age in which it is executed and performed, what would buildings be like if they responded to this? A multitaneous experience that could be different and the same, stimulating and anesthetizing, grotesque and beautiful...can architecture, through the built and unbuilt environment, do what the internet and information age has done? An architecture that expresses things beyond human experience and architectural detailing, a black hole perhaps?

The real things are percieved in the same exact manner as the signs and information (neurons and synapses firing in the brain). And honestly, there is nothing at peace in the world that we live in, whether it be humanity, nature, or the universe: it is all pure chaos. Nothing is at peace with itself, even Zumthor's preciously detailed, perfectly jointed boxes are always experiencing some level of chaos.

Building Development

Random thoughts while running

These are images from the design firm Cooper Cary related to a competition for the Center of Civil and Human Rights. While I believe the diagrams are successful in conveying information I'm not really enthused about some of the perspectives shown.
As you can see in the above image, there are tons of people. The whole exterior gathering area is filled with people. It looks absolutely ridiculous. Am I going out on a limb when I say they didn't develop that exterior gathering space and instead of doing so, they filled it with "entourage"? Are they trying to visually convey that people are physically a part of the building's architecture? Honestly, I think it looks like a holding pen for livestock. It also seems odd that they chose that particular graphic to cover the facade of the building. I'm not sure of the mood the firm is trying to convey but it doesn't strike me as an empowering image which is what should be there.

Anyway, I've never been a big fan of the ghostly apparitions that pass for people in perspectives. If you're going to put people in a perspective make sure they look like they are really there. I mean holy crap, this is a big design firm. Is there no one who can do this properly?

On another note I'd like to get my thesis project published if it turns out the way I see it in my mind's eye. As a matter of fact, I think I have a secret passion for design related research and conveying that information through a medium (blog, design project, book, etc). After reading some of the publications of OMA/AMO, this has become yet another item of high interest. I was thinking about concentrations today while running: populations, household sizes, the density of cities. What about barrier architecture (U.S. border with Mexico, North/South Korea no man's land)? What about invisible architecture (metamaterial on a building's scale)?

Thesis Proposal – Refueling Station of the Future

1) What is the project?

Quoted from the competition flyer
"Gas stations have always been part of American car culture by providing fuel, maintenance, service, directions for lost drivers, restrooms, food, and convenience store items. This relationship between the automobile and the gas station is about to change as new fuel options including electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels come to market. These new fuel options will transform the gas station into a "refueling station." These refueling stations have the opportunity to look and operate in a way that is vastly different from the current gas stations, both on the outside at the pumps as well as inside the convenience store. RDI invites you to develop a new concept that will address these changes and create a new store concept that will provide a better experience for the customers, be friendlier to the environment, and redefine how we view the gas station."

2) Who does it affect?
The gas guzzling citizens of the United States are the primary audience but perhaps we can extend the scope to everyone on the planet. More specifically, the site(s) will be strategically picked in Greensboro, North Carolina (my hometown!). The stratagem will be created through a program analysis.

3) Why is it necessary? What is the significance of this project?
We've made our mistakes as a country. We've allowed corporations and similar entities (U.S. government, American car industry) to control our appetites for oil for too long. We certainly can't place all of the blame on them either, we have to accept responsibility for our daily lives and actions as well. We must change, evolve our way of life in order to survive. With a new president that believes the U.S. can be petroleum free, whom has taken the initiative to fund various projects and give incentives to those who want to make the U.S. a greener, more sustainable country, it will be necessary to provide the infrastructure for this tsunami that cannot and will not be stopped. This refueling station will be a huge part of this infrastructure, just as gas stations today are vital to our ability to travel.

4) What will your design response entail? What do you intend to do?
I will be addressing the criteria listed in the answer to question #1. I will also attempt to simultaneously develop a business model for the refueling station through the design process. Before I am able to start the design process though, a rigorous programming analysis will have to be conducted in order to achieve optimal design. This analysis is still yet to be finalized but it will involve researching the following information:

*note* each major area will include statistical data in the form of graphs and diagrams associated with the research in order to facilitate the scientific part of the design process

*gas station's historical context and development
*oil crisis in the 1970's and its effects on the public
*development of alternative fuel (ethanol, algae, etc)
*development of alternative vehicular travel (hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, electric, etc)
*existing alternative fuel infrastructure (what around that is similar or can be incorporated?)
*existing gas stations through the acquisition of plans from the city of Greensboro (this will help to establish a traditional program that can be manipulated into the refueling station of the future)
*potential use of GIS software to aid in spatial analysis

If someone killed the electric car, then its rising from the dead and so are some of its buddies...

Load off my mind

I got accepted into graduate school at North Carolina State University today. Unfortunately I don't have the vocabulary to describe how I feel. The closest thing I could find that would be most appropriate and analogous to this was a motivational poster I'm familiar with from my ridiculous travels on the internet.

Concept Poster?

Thesis Rant, open to the public

An excerpt from my letter to Anna:

"...I still, unfortunately, stand by what I said earlier. I feel the professors I have had stressed thinking and designing outside the "box" or the interior. After you left, I made a list of the major projects I've worked on since transferring in as a second year. Of about 10 projects I consider to be of medium or high importance (duration, detail), 4 of them were strictly interiors projects. The rest either were not related to interiors or an interior was only a portion of the project. I also feel like the projects that I have thoroughly enjoyed have included disciplinary areas besides interior design, where we have studied and designed on larger scales then zeroed in and focused on an interior involved in that scheme.

What I'm saying is I don't want to be limited to a shell or a box where I fill it with program and spec out materials and furniture. I would feel ill served as a student of design to be limited to this type of thesis project, a project where one should be allowed to focus on something they are interested in as a designer. Certainly the long list of design professions which the faculty seem to think we can work in once we graduate should apply here too (I'll attach the copy handed out to us in professional practices).

Another item I would like to point out is the mention of us not being architects or architectural students. Interesting questions came to mind after some thought.

1) Is it safe to assume that the faculty assumes the students have an insufficient amount of knowledge of structure, how buildings are built, or how the envelope of a building comes together?

2) What is the purpose of the two materials and methods courses?

3) What does this approach to thesis projects say about the potential lack of technical knowledge the Interior Architecture department is failing to impart on its graduates?

I did not take the above mentioned courses here at UNCG. I have an associates in applied sciences in Architectural Technology from GTCC. We had design projects but they lasted the entire semester and were heavily oriented towards the technical side of building. In my two years of study, I completed several houses and two commercial buildings. Part of the curriculum included studying types of construction and calculating/sizing structural members. Several of my peers went on to get jobs as CAD operators and designers for local architects and engineers (including myself).

The International Building Code with North Carolina amendments, which I became familiar with at my previous school, practically sizes members for you with charts and graphs for wood framed construction. I'd also like to mention that you don't have to be a licensed architect to build a house in North Carolina (under a certain price or size, I can't remember). With that said, if an unlicensed, informally educated North Carolinian can draw up plans for a house with the aid of International Building Code lawfully, we can do it too AND we can do it better.

The only reason I can see for thesis projects being restricted to a shell is that the faculty feel there isn't enough time to complete a project that includes the site, the building, and interior design (along with the programming and analysis).

Would it be too much to ask to let those who wish to pursue other areas, (besides interiors) do so and to create their own sites and shells to a greater extent (more then minor additions for example) then is currently allowed? I'm not talking a a full set of construction documents with the whole shebang (A,M,E,P,S,C) but perhaps at least as much attention to these areas as we've payed in previous studio projects. Does the pursuit of the other areas even have to require technical drawing? Can they be pure design, conceptual manifestations, places we use to catapult into "real" interiors? That situation would be no different then most of the studio projects we've completed thus far.

My final defense of my belief: we were not taught to design in a shell. We were taught to design everything cohesively. The thesis project restriction is at a paradoxical conflict with the pedagogy of the department. Considering this is our capstone experience as seniors, its rather ridiculous to start giving us rules now since we've been able to break and tear them asunder in every other opportunity we've been given.

I don't expect to change anyone's mind. I just wanted to share my perspective on the subject. I am only student among great thinkers and designers, faculty and peers alike. I don't feel as restricted as I did before because I've got ideas that I think can work with the current rules. I'd like to talk about them at some point after I gather my some more information...."

Wordle conceptualization machine

There are several key words important to our project: education, community, culture, transition, and rapid transit. After compiling 500-2000 words of definitions and meanings for each key word, I submitted each "mass" to the Wordle machine as a pathway for "finding the key words within the key words."

Rapid Transit

Culture
Transition
Education
Community

21 soul

The sonorously iniquity of silence

Among anonymous minds; speckled

Fundamentalists darken through decay and

Hastened by the catatonia, reversing

The embarkment of progress, they are lured

By the grandeur of salvation, through

Righteous vengeances and embellished promise.



This is a condemnation of ways past, an anti-eulogy

For faces elapsed, destructive voids of a never

Ending cycle of violence and pain, anti-creation

For anti-planetary gain, though knowledge prevails

Through the proclamation and cry of original transgression

A reckoning of truth begotten in solstice sails

And stars’ gone supernovae, showered by the collisions of energy flares.



And through this seizure of vivacity, a black hole

In humanity, it radiates hate and erupts ever so silently

But the non-tolerance befits uncertainty, and its loyalty scathes

The conscious of so many who believe the nightmare and vision

Of millions who would conceive such a travesty in the name of man

The imagination of the unimaginable figure, an advancement posturing

His given name, like fools to the meat grinder, it is all the same.

Material Study

Rested and Recharged

View of the sun setting from on top of Breezy Point (beach house!).

Picture of the water tower at Holden Beach with the sun setting.

The water tower, visible from 2 miles away.

Kaylin, my girlfriend, being stalked by a giant bird.

Sunset from the bridge (inner coastal water way).

Turkey vultures grubbing on a baby shark.

Family of sandpipers.

Sandpipers grubbing on crustacean goodness.

A giant hornet attacking my cranberry juice.