Midterm Post

Midterm Mark-Ups

Explanation:      
 The idea behind the building is a mirrored image of the cites circulation. There are alleyways that connect the city streets together.  These alleyways and sidewalks are what people use to walk throughout the city of Charleston.  While cars use main streets and one way side streets to travel through the city.  So with in the building the circulation, streets mirror the primary movement throughout the building.  Alleyways represented in the building almost have their own primary circulation rather secondary only. The idea of vehicle transportation vs. the people walking, which is a vertical horizontal version of circulation becomes more vertical on this site.  The building will take up most of the site, leaving a small alleyway in the back to separate it from the existing buildings. Since alleyways are used throughout the city to connect circulation, a main alleyway  leads one into the main circulation of the building becoming the main entrance.  Once  one enters the main circulation which is a  tube structure connects all of the public circulation. So one can occupy the public spaces while school is not in session.  The entire building is pushed to the ends of the site to make the public space in the center of the site.   
Summary of jury comments:      
The main thing I understood from their comments was I need to have more of a open public space.  I need to not just make an alleyway for the entrance and back of the building, it needs to have more meaning behind it.  If I am going to represent an alleyway it needs to be more clear.  The overall building also needs more design behind it. Also the plans and sections need to show more of what my building is doing.   
What to do from here: 
Now I need to go back to the city and look at it in more depth. Since alleyways are a big part of my project I need to look at them more to see how the work so it can be represented more in my building.  I need to do some diagramming of the city that would help the form and flow of the build more. Also i need more structure showing with the building. 

 

Midterm

The Culinary Arts School is focused on bridging the common gap experienced by culinary artists and the public. This space is experienced as hunger. For the student it is a desire to express creativity and thought and to translate it to others through food. For the consumer, it is the desire to experience that food. Food becomes the bridging element between two. The design of the school captures focuses on this dynamic as the hunger manifests itself as a large and open lobby where circulation meets and crosses to weave together program. Slices of program are revealed through cuts in enclosure, small moments to whet the appetite. While the lobby becomes a mixing pot of ingredients, the circulation volume becomes the knife that divides more private program elements from the public spaces. As you ascend the stair, slices of program continue to be revealed, bits of ingredients that get left behind on the blade. This slicing strategy carries on to the East façade where the large spaces are stacked to reveal the program of the school where knowledge is explained at the top floor and comes down to the second in practice within the teaching kitchens before it is finally presented to the public on the bottom floor.

Criticisms:
Reconsider the circulation to run north-south instead of parallel to the preexisting alley way. Design the outdoor space outside of the entrance. Try not to lose the ephemeral quality of the lobby present in the renders.

Next steps:
Return to the early diagrams of the layout in plan. Many of the qualities in circulation and the lobby are lost in the most recent iteration of the design. Continue to develop a structure that is not confined to a domestic scale. Develop enclosure.

Midterm markups

Charleston, South Carolina may be recognized for its historical modernity, but the architecture speaks a subtle language, visible to the common eye, but perhaps noticed and significantly emphasized only upon the relation of one building to the next.  Associations neglectful of scale, color, texture, volume, and placement, can be organized by the definition of an edge, a distinct accentuation provided upon any perceptible change. Whether it be for the placement of a window, a door, a corner, a balcony, or an impression, the architecture draws perhaps too much attention to the existing condition by overlapping system upon system, and by hindering any attempt for one movement with the interception of yet another. In the discussion of an edge, there grows the need of a position on definition, meaning we must decide from

the start through which architectural approach we can relate a turn of corner, a facade, or perhaps, a joint. By the designation of an edge, there arises the relative focus of resultant geometries. Much as one moment can be interrupted by another overlaid exterior detail, so, too, can that moment be defined by its link. An ‘edge’ in this sense thus becomes a “hinge,” a connection or a “joint,” a moment indicating change but existing upon impermanent similarities. Still, an edge may form the sole connection of a dispersant breach, a result only visible by the proximity of two contrasting things.

At a broader context, the ornamentation of the architectural edge mirrors the liveliness of the surrounding urban environment. Charleston is a city of food and a social hub for a variety of people. From this knowledge, we find motive for such an expansive program and for a circulation system that accommodates both the public and the student. And with such a large influx and container of people, there essentially comes the need for all-encompassing structure, a variable system in scale and design that provides for the visual interaction across a divide, and for the physical connection along a hinge.

The jury's comments:
Take the structural speculation a step further, and start to find the big gestures that are going to organize the building as whole.
Consider the hierarchy of structure--what holds weight all the way up, versus what is simply a room division wall. 
Look at how the angles can be more controlled, rethink the shape of these culinary spaces.
Find a unifying factor for the facade....hint at the partition that will occur immediately upon entrance, but relate the facade more to the regular context that surrounds.
Shape the overhead to allow for light to filter in.
Consider circulation, and where each stair or elevator takes the occupant....shouldn't go from a lobby right to a room.
Add another fire stair.

D6 Midterm Mark Ups

P2 Midterm

Explanation:

Education is the stepping-stone between humble beginnings at in the home and commercial success. The site is anchored between two streets. E. Bay Street is a commercial street full of bustling shops and delicious restaurants. The parallel road on the other side of the site is called State Street, which runs through a quiet residential area. This context gives the program a unique opportunity to unite these two juxtaposed environments. The question than is how to tie these two together? By placing the administration programmatic elements on the residential street, it gives enhances the effort to bring new students from the homes into the school. Likewise, the public service portion of the school is located on the commercial street. In the center is the education portion, anchoring the means of the journey with the end. There is a large lobby area that begins to encompass the alleyway that unites the two streets alongside the building. This exterior space acts as a piazza, creating exterior circulation opportunities on each level, much like the single house plans of Charleston.

Judges Comments:

-Programmatic organizational ideas were not strongly represented

-structural system wasn't modern enough, needed to be relevant to both our time period and Charleston

-liked the main lobby area that interrupted the alley and created a large public area

-the project as a whole needed unity and a stronger driving idea

From here:

-I want to reevaluate how I'm organizing my program and really emphasize my big idea for the way the spaces are organized. I wish to make these ideas so prevalent in my design that no one would accuse me of not considering the program organization.

- I need to reconsider my structural system and make larger gestures. I liked the effect that my varying sized lateral and vertical elements had, so I want to explore that further.

- I think that I should move away from the 3D world for a little while and focus on my plans and sections as a way to develop my design.