Precedent studies

After searching on the Internet, I found some Ideas for my art gallery, in particular the sky lights and they way it allows light in and at the same Time connected with an upstairs house. Steve Holl has inspired me, the minimalism, the style, its so contemporary, the way he introduces the play of light and shadow into a building, the way he defuses light is brilliant. Also I do like other Architects which I have Incorporated pictures below.

Go see an art gallery! okay! I will! :)

I decided to go view a few art galleries, in total Ive seen six contemporary art galleries, I was very careful to note down how they have made use of the natural light and positions of the walls, were they blocking harsh light, were they there for the purpose of circulation? one thing I found in common to all of them is that they were simple, and white. I found that nice but Little boring, also the cliche of the warehouse..there's gotta be a better way. I also studies how some galleries had other levels above which could have shield the light and I carefully looked to see how they had places windows and sky lights. It wasn't long until i started to wonder around the gallery and see where it would take me...the circulation..was it doing its job, what was doing that..the walls? the paintings..I was consciously aware of that as I wondered. I didn't take photos, but mental notes.

The Art Gallery/house/shop

In assignment three we are asked to design an art gallery for an art dealer in new town Sydney, which is a moder open-minded artistic area of Sydney. After site seeing, I picked the site 1, which has Franklin existing at the moment. We decided to study the surrounding buildings, thew stricture, the ski lights, we did a site analysis, figuring out where the north, east,m south and west is. Studies the buildings and style next to and adjacent to the building. We also enjoyed strolling around the area to get the feel of the place.
After quite some consideration I decided to choose site one, I think it was perfect for my art gallery and it also apposed some challenges which I was quite eager to try and solve, after all, its part of been a good architect.
Now, do I want something modern or something simple that respects the heritage and style of the old buildings of new town. A class discussion was raised and although I understand the idea of keeping the buildings facade decorum to the opposite buildings I thought to my self, Do I want to make a difference in the street, do I want to start a trend, do I want a make a bold statement? the answer is.. YES.

Room & Narrative - Elevations, Plans & Isonometric drawings

The drawings I did for my project on room & narrative where at a scale of 1:100 and it was hand drawn. In these drawings you will see the elevations, plans and isonometric drawings of my design produced through my second narrative. Again, as I mentioned below in my previous blog entries..that my house was to resemble the man, ordinary yet odd, curious...on the outside and on the inside...deep evil. After my presentation on Wednesday I thought about what my tutor said and I see the point, I should have made the house look as inconspicuous as possible, with big large fake windows, a facade..a face..the mask that the man wears in everyday society, only to reveal inside just how tiny and narrow the windows really are and the lack of doors, I should have had a fake garage door too..normal houses have garages, in actual fact I had all of that, the face walls the doors even below and windows..to make it look like it was open and honest but really there would be walls within walls, I'm disappointed that I changed my mind..I guess its all a learning process. My narrative was a little hard to do my design on, I guess I could have benefited if i had a different narrative, again this is all experience, we learn from our mistakes, the most important thing is that I actually learned from this, it take many many years to develop what I like to call the genius in me, that architect's brain which I would do anything to develop, patients is the key.

My model - Room & Narrative

This model was made by myself and chose to make its from ballsier wood and it is at a scale of 1:100. I have taken photos of the elevation, the plan view of the top floor and the bottom "hidden" room also known as the torture room, and close up of some rooms, I have taken photos of the corners of north east and north west for my 3D view. The house is embodying the exterior of a tall solid, normal man, the expression of this man standing tall, with narrow eyes and a hat to make him more mysterious, to the eyes of the audience hes Joe Normal, and therefore the house is plain and has the simple functions of a regular home.. but Inside is where the monstrosity lies..in particular the core of the house which is everyone of his abducted worst nightmare. the black hole is the elevator that is also constructed in my model taken the hostages to the floor below in the 'torture room' with no windows, no doors which means..no escape.

My Narrative has been Edited..

My idea of a depressed alcoholic didn't go to well in the presentation, maybe its a cliche or boring, either way I spend quite allot of time thinking of my new and improved design according to me recently edited narrative, although it does seem like a total waste of time to scrap everything, since I only have a week to do it, but I have a feeling this has been an experience that has given me more ideas of what is a good narrative for a house and whats the opposite..
I think a narrative should be interesting, it should have a sense of spice in it, something..almost weird maybe unbuildable but the point been that the idea must show in your design analytically.
My story still involved the man in the painting, yes he is still alone or so it would seem...
this man, dressed in his suit and hat shielding his eyes in a very protective, mysterious antisocial man walks in a bar for the usual, just by looking at him, he seems like the regular Joe normal, but is that always the case? In my story this man may appear as normal as they come but in actual fact he has another side to his personality, maybe its the reason he chooses to be alone always..in the public eye...
This man lives in a two storey home, a normal brick home but its whats inside the house that is really freaky. Maximum security rooms, with very high narrow and long windows..just to allow some sunlight and ventilation for the housemates..as in jail mates, these are the young woman that are abducted by him, they circulate inside the top level with one single elevator, controlled by only him with a touch of his thumbprint in the middle of the House.."the black hole". The elevator is symbolic for the black hole...of him taking his victims to the torture room below, where they are surrounded with thick masonry walls with no windows or doors to escape, the walls wrap around the hostage like his arms when he abducts them, this room lies below inside the house walls, protection, insulation...no body knows its there, unless you have already been there...this is the core of the house, the core of the man where deep evil is unleashed....what the man really is inside is reflected in the core of the home.
However, On the out side, the house almost embodies him, straight up and down, almost wearing a hat (the roof) the walls would be tall, giving a feeling of never reaching up, like been lost, like a tiny insect in this big bad world, the windows are narrow, allowing no escape, like his eyes, they are there and looking from corner to corner, but not letting out what is happening inside..
the stairs are very symbolic, firstly they are at the corner of the hose, they are positioned to make you walk up the stairs to the first level where the from thick door stands. There isn't much to hold on to, just grand stairs almost wrapping around the corner, teasing the curious, and of course a trap from the young woman walking up these stairs to sell chocolate or cookies to the man...the steps star wide and appear to get smaller and smaller, a feeling of almost feeling insecure, then..almost like a saviour with arms opened wide (the balustrade) and the large landing appearing to the left makes the young woman fell the comfort and proceed to the door, little do they know that they are about to enters through the doors of hell.

Progression with Design for "Room & Narrative"

After we came back from the holidays we did not have a tutorial and so I progressed with my work, I did not make final drawings nor worked on my model although I had already established the materials I was going to use for my building, I had woked out the mood of my character and thought hard on how to reflect it in my building, I knew it was going to be hard...but I managed to some how come up with something, a collection of moods, the next step was how to actually show them as Architectonic...now what was that term? According to my research...Architectonic is a formation, a style, the science of Architecture, construction..but what is it really? We are told to write a narrative about something rather, then design a building in regards to that narrative, like asking a client what they want (hearing their stories) then designing according to what they want, but not in a literal sense but more of an analytical sense, using walls and windows and compositions of rooms and positioning and sizes of windows and doors...every line must have a purpose and has to relate to the story, does it make sense? yes. Is it hard? yes, becouse Ive never thought of this before, my background in TAFE never gave me this feeling of control over a design, it never gave me the opportunity to think analytical about buildings, just logical and what I mean by that is..I design a building according to the clients brief, boundaries and meter square Im allowed to draw in. I am thankful to be in a course that I am finally developing creative thoughts outside the box that challenges me and pushes me to think way beyond limits Id never thought I could before, its early days...There is Art in Architecture, I am realizing it, when I was once disappointed in my earlier studies thinking that the Art was lost.
Developing ideas is hard work, my idea in my Narrative is that a man has lost his best friend in the war and he mourns and is falling into deep depression, he goes to this bar which later becomes more of his home, becouse hes anxiety keeps him from sleep, he sits at the bar at night, wasting his life away, becoming an alcoholic. Now how do I design a house for an alcoholic who is depressed and alone? I thought of it all, the walls would be tall, the room would be boxy almost like they would crush him. I thought of the feeling of been trapped drinking like a fish, a room with glass all around it, like the people in the paintings with no escape like a fish tank. The lack of doors unable to escape this monstrosity talking over his life. The uneven floor giving a sense of been unstable, like the foundations beneaf his feet, is crumbling, almost as if hes falling down or been sucked down by the evil forces.
The room would be almost like a box, and all around from top to bottom would be glass, but the bottom there would be floors about half a meter high, almost "stage like" reason why i want this is becouse looking at the painting is almost like im watching a play, as the characters are showing so much expression in their faces..
below I wanted the structure to be visible from the outside and not covered by walls, the floor must be square but constantly changing direction, going around and around almost like a drain, these would be a set of stairs or more of a ramp that goes down, that ends at the bottom, the door will be below at the end of this tunnel like space.. the end of the tunnel could mean the end of his life or the breakthrough as in "hit rock bottom before then gets up and finally can stand on his own legs and walk away form this... its a journey of life...