arch 101 final learning portfolio youhua giana jin spring 2015

ARCH 101 FINAL LEARNING PORTFOLIO Spring 2015 Instructor: Jerry Lum Youhua Giana Jin

ARCH 101: FINAL PROJECT BRIEF

Rendering Nature: making the invisible perceivable Project duration : 8.5 weeks

“The landscape is a kind of text, a constructed ground of signification that inevitably speaks of the culture and the natural forces that made it. Specifically we tracked the ways in which landscape is formed through the natural forces of light wind, and habitation… Tracking is a means of making a construction within a natural landscape in such a way that it actively engages that landscape”. – Victoria Meyers, principal at Hanrahan and Meyers

The Site: This is a Site Specific Project. All design and construction shall respond to the site to make the invisible perceivable. We have to consider climatic conditions, sunlight, wind, precipitation, and views to our design. At least having three significant site options in our school of the courtyard (“town”) or hill (“country”).

Specific Areas: •  Creating the pathways to connect all nodes in the installation and to unify

them. •  Fabricating specific environments such as ‘beautiful’, ‘unexpected’, and

‘unfamiliar’ types. •  A place which enjoys a framed view or creates a relaxing place for sitting or

studying or a walking around social space.

Op$on #1 – three trees on the bo0om of the hill

The site selection

Here is the loca$on

The site selection

Op$on #2: open space on a small hill

Here is the loca-on

The site selection

Op$on #3: the corner of the courtyard (our final site)

We carefully considered the details of each site - the positives, the negatives, and the potential. We wanted to create a visually appealing atmosphere by transforming the original dull, messy, and cluttered corner of the courtyard. Our design goal was to turn a neglected corner into a very attractive place where visitors could walk through, relax, and experience the feeling of the space. We wanted to create a sitting area where they could relax and enjoy the view of the beautiful landscape of the distant hills, where they could be quiet and hear the sound of the wind, and smell the freshness of the air around them. We wanted to give them a very warm feeling and a peaceful place to be. By turning our site from an inconsequential space to consequential space, we hoped to make our design significant and meaningful.

Original condi,on A.er clean up Top view of the courtyard

Itera$on #1 Itera$on #1

Individual Design: Week 10 – March 16-‐22

Itera$on: #1

The itera$on #1 was inspired by Tate Harmer and the Dartmoor Arts students’ design. My design was for the Op$on 2 site which I explored by using the sec$oning principle to render nature into the design.

Individual Design:

Iteration：＃2

Week 11 – March 22-29

Individual Design: Week 11-‐ March 23-‐29

Itera$on：＃ 3

Individual Design:

Itera$on: # 4

Week 13-‐ April 6-‐12

Individual Design: Week 13-‐ April 6-‐12

Iteration: # 4

Individual Design:

Week 13 – April 6-‐12

Itera$on: # 5

Individual Design: Week 13 – April 6-‐12

Itera$on: # 5 Itera$on: # 5


Itera$on: ＃5


Iteration : # 5

My inspira$on for itera$ons 4 & 5 is from the Centre Pompidou Metz which was deigned by Shigeru Ban. I employed the Chinese tradi$onal bamboo craS to my design. These bamboo pa0erns are fascina$ng to me.

Team Design

Will’s design for the courtyard

Week 13 – April 6 -12

Team Design

Kenneth’s design for the courtyard


Team Design

Chima’s design for the corner of courtyard


The Final Team Design

We chose both Will‘s and Chima’s design for the final.


Established Site and Design Week 13 – April 6-‐12

Our team plans the design space and organizes our start. We are going to go shopping soon.

Warm up Week 14 – April 14 This was the initial week’s start-up installation work. Our task was to complete 25% of the project. Our team went to Lowe’s to check out the materials and tools we needed, and we bought a few pieces of 2’’ x 6’’ x 8’’ lumber to experiment with. We first had to practice using the power tools hand tools before we started building anything. After the testing was positive, we planned shop for more lumber at Lowes.

Each of us prac$ced using the power saw to cut boards on the fist day.

•  Always wear safety class when cutting wood. •  Make sure stand is flat and stable. •  Use the clippers to hold the wood. •  Always cut the outside of the stand, not the middle. •  Start the power saw first, then follow the line to cut. •  Pay attention only to working the power tool at all times.

Week 14 – April 14

Experimental Day

Shopping Day

•  This was our second time going to shop at Lowes. •  We bought:

•  many 2’’x 6’’ x 8” boards for our panel construction •  joining materiala such as ‘roof truss tie’ (1 ¼’’ X 2’’ X 2 ¾’’), and •  ‘nooks and eyes’ for connecting the panels.

Week 15 – April 20-26

Making the wood panel founda$on process

1. Measure

2. Saw by hand 3. Saw two pieces 4. Chisel mouth

5. Chiseled 6. Screw two pieces 7. Screw L-‐angles 8. Finished panel

1. measure

Week 15 – April 20-‐26

Making the panels Week 15 – April 20-‐26

•  When making the panels foundation, the measure is important so always double check after sawing.

•  When using the saw, keep pulling and pushing evenly. •  The American saw is pull and push, but the Japanese saw is only pull one way. •  Try to root the wood batten in a stable way. First, we used a small wood block to screw it

together. But we found that was ugly. Someone mentioned using a screw. We thought that was a great idea. Why didn’t we think of that in the first place. I think because this was learning by practice and experience.

•  By the end of this week, we finished making the panels. We each worked around 20 hours this week.

Shopping for the Shelter Materials Week 16 – April 28

Today, we shopped for the shelter materials. Chima designed the shelter. So he explained all the sizes and materials we needed to purchase. We figured out how many pieces wood we needed.

•  Wood: 2’’ x 6’’ x 10 FT - 4 pieces •  Wood: 2’’ x 4’’ x 8 FT - 12 pieces •  Corner Brace: 1 ¼’’ X 3 1/16’’- 12pieces •  Metal Pan Phillips #10 x 1’’

Experimenting How to make the triangle base of the pole

Week 16 – April 29

Today, Will and I figured out how to make the triangle base of the pole. The pole joins are from many short pieces connected together. We used different techniques to test how to make it work. We sawed a triangle of cheap boards for combining the wood batten from three angles. The triangle was too thin and couldn’t support the batten. So we tried to saw a thick piece (2’’ x 6’’ wood), but it didn’t work because it was too small to hold for sawing. We used a chisel to chisel a square. It also broke it because following the wood’s growth texture broke the wood easily. We had to find a better way to solve this problem.

Making the Triangle Week 16 – April 30

Today, Will and I worked together to make the triangle. We tested this yesterday, so we knew how to make it. We didn’t have a worktable, so we only had the metal clipper tool from the school. I thought about using the tool to bend the metal at a right angle. It did work very well. We employed the metal angle to root the wood poles to make them stable. This technique was quite good.

Exploring the place Week 16 – April 30

Chima and I started to build the shelter. Kenneth explored the sitting area. He is going to make benches for sitting.

Working on the Shelter Week 16 – May 1

We are making an asymmetric shape for the shelter. During the building process, I found that the challenging part was sawing angles by hand. Due to measuring by hand, the wood cut wasn’t very straight and measure wasn’t perfectly accurate. So when we used the saw by hand to cut the wood, it was not very straight. We tried to do our best to close as expected.

Continuing to Build the Shelter Week 16 – May 3

•  Today Chima and I built a larger asymmetric form for the shelter. •  We used the corner brace to connect the middle supporting piece. •  We employed the 1 ½’’ screw to join the bottom parts together. •  For the middle supporting piece, we chose the Round Combo with Nuts to join both

sides. It goes together very well. •  This week, we each worked around 20 hours.

Building the pole Week 16 – May 3

Will and Kenneth built the pole. They concentrated to think and decide how they would make it.

Continuing to Build the Shelter Week 17-‐ May 5

•  Chima and I still continued to build the form of the shelter. •  We employed the 16D nails to join the wood construction together. •  Work hours： 12:00pm – 6:00pm.

Shopping Fabric Week 17 – May 7

•  Four of us went to the Discount Fabric store to choose fabric, and we bought 16 yards of white poly Chiffon and 10 yards of cotton fabric. We wanted a high quality fabric for our design.

Finishing the Shelter Week 17 – May 7

Making the patterns Week 17 – May 7

•  After Chima left for work, I worked by myself and made many two pieces join together for the pattern of the shelter surface.

•  Above these I made patterns and was done in a couple of hours. I enjoyed making

these patterns. •  Today work hours: 12:00pm – 6:00pm

Putting the pattern on the shelter Week 17 – May 8

Today we put the pattern on the shelter surface. After that I also helped Will to cut fabric and wrap on the panels. I have more experience doing fabric work than my teammates. So they wanted me to do that job to completion. It really requires patience to do this work.

Work hours: 3:00pm – 7:30pm

Finishing all the construction work and wrapping the fabric Week 17 – May 10

Wrapping the fabric on the shelter and walk way Week 17 – May 10

Today was a very, very long day of work. we worked from 12:00pm to 10:30pm. We had to follow our schedule to finish completing the installation on time. So, our team worked very hard to get it done. At the end we were so happy to get it done with good quality. Thanks to all of us.


Week 17 – May 10

Finishing day Week 18 – May 11

We worked very late last night and I arrived home after 11:00 pm. Everyone was so exhausted. But we still need a few more hours to finish wrapping the fabric on the panels. So, Chima assigned me the job to work today. I worked by myself from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. It was such a windy day and so hard to work with the fabric outdoors. Around 6 o’clock Will and Chima came over to help. Finally, we finished all the installation.


Installation Completed – Night views Week 18 – May 11

Let’s enjoy some of our design details…

Enjoy the top views

Details

During the guest critiques, Professor Andrew Chandler pointed out that the pole join is beautiful and the opening of the shelter is very important architecturally and this is the most beautiful part of our design. Chima designed the shelter. I made the suggestion to keep the opening because the surface pattern is beautiful and from inside framing the sculpture of the back wall gives a phenomenonal view. Chima adopted my idea. Thanks!

Our design family: Chima Kenneth Giana Will

The first half of the semester was spent learning the design concepts of building. During this period I digested and processed new learning and knowledge helpful for improving my level of expertise and design ideas. Examples of great architecture helped me to think of the evolutionary process of design. In a short time I learned to put design concepts into practical construction. This is the most valuable knowledge I have learned. In practice, my team and I faced a lot of challenges and difficulties, but we worked together to save the day. Architecture is not only on paper, but also in the construction. There is a process to make fantasy and realism combine to create and produce a modern design. After the completion of the final project, I think that architectural design and practice are inseparable. For example, when we completed the final design - a great architectural design, we still needed to turn it into reality. We were bound to face many difficulties and had to have the determination to resolve the difficulties to create our best design. Building is not only about the beauty, but also satisfying different practical needs. We wanted to create a great design and build it, but we had to fully understand the essence of the design in terms of the many unexpected construction practices. The combination of design and construction must come together in order to create good work. I deeply feel that in a particular place in accordance with the environmental factors it is necessary to adjust the design and integration. Through this semester, I learned that architecture is a thoughtful process that looks to the past and the future and integrates beauty and practicality. I am happy that I learned this to improve my professional perspective and knowledge.

arch 101 final learning portfolio youhua giana jin spring 2015

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