ARCH Studio Project

       I love traveling and seeing the world but it doesn't come free. I work a 9 to 5 job that pays the bills and is fortunately in my career field. I'm blessed to say there is a lot of growth and opportunity for me there. During school I work as much as I can but sometimes it's tough and here's why.

Starting a New Project

Project 1:

First step concept models

Rough foam board concept models

We start by thinking about Program and the general areas that would be defined as public or private. For example Living room vs. bedroom. On the far left you can see where I highlighted these areas in pink and yellow.
Then we have Spaces. In the model just below that you can see I began to create voids where the pieces pulled apart.
Next, Structure. I decided I wanted the model to have a continuous structure and even bay sizes.
In the next model down you can see the Circulation starting to define some of the architectural moves and the general way in which I would like people to move through the space.
Finally we study the Materials we might use. This is the last model in every column. So, we started with the first row, (there was actually 6 in total) and of those we chose 3 to continue studying and worked our way from there.

When we finally pick a design, we begin creating rough drawings. Floor plans, sections, elevations and usually 2 or 3 of each. In this case I was down to 2 designs and I had not chosen one yet. (That's why these drawings are so sloppy.) I just don't have pictures of the one I didn't choose.

Drawings get marked up, we fix them, print em' and do it all again. and again. and again.

In the midst of all that we are required to take a tech class which is broken into 2 parts. A physics based portion and an environmental portion. To me, it does add a bit of stress to the plate but it's also an opportunity to step away from design for a moment and challenge myself with something else. I have  always struggled with physics but I took to this type pretty well. Thank goodness!

60 Building flash cards for final exam

We also have an architectural history class that is unlike anything I've taken before. For each exam we are expected to know the name, date, architect and location of 50+ buildings and be able to write a short essay comparing a few of them. This class is the hardest for me. I had to listen to my recordings of the lectures at least twice to remember all of the information. I have never made so many flash cards in all of my academic career.

Anyyywaayyy, we continue making models. To the left here is an iteration I was heavily leaning towards. In the end it lacked experience and space. That's OK! Sometimes they don't work out and you just have to keep going.

To the right was my other option. It may be hard to see here but circulation moves in a figure 8. This is interesting because one third is open, the middle is semi-open and the rest is closed, providing a more interesting experience through the space.

Finally, we reached the end! I was really bad about taking pictures this semester.. I don't have one of when I was actually done but I'll be better about that in the future. This model was made with 4-ply white and black museum board which is like a thick paper. It's all glued together with quick dry Tacky Glue. Shhhhh. Some professors are sticklers and only want you to use Elmer's Glue.

Project 2:

I suppose I'll end this post here. This was my final project for the semester with all of my work. I didn't include the first 6 or so models. They were all Styrofoam and too early in the process to contribute to the presentation. Project Gaia incorporates greenery and the ecosystem into the architecture. Similar to the Bullitt Center in Chicago, I would design the building to produce more energy than it used. Our objective was to create and maker space for the public. My maker space was dedicated to researching ecology and ultimately new ways to help the earth.

Thank you for stopping by!

Love always,

Bekah💖