Monday, September 3, 2007

Technology Model

When looking at the original site plan and photos of the site I started to look at the traffic patterns of the vehicles and the people. One of the ways in which I am going to bring people into the site is to relocate the T stop so that it will now come up in front of the building directly in line with the main entry. I am working through the rest of the detail sketches along with a new site plan with analysis and will post Tuesday evening. I found that the more I sketched the more I found that I needed to look at. They got pretty messy so they are being cleaned up so they will make sense. I am also trying to insert the model into site photos, and am having a problem with the software. Once I figure out the problem I will post those.


Daytime image with no opacity. The building is located in the correct North orientation

A daytime view with just the glass having differing opacities

Nighttime looking at the changing color and opacity of the glass.


Another nighttime view with different light and opacity.

Looking East towards New Olde South Church

Nighttime view from pedestrian level

7 comments:

enno said...

Nice progress Tim!. The night time shots appear to work, but the daytime view raises questions: why are the panels like this (size, distribution, do they slide?, etc - what is the material in between them, what happened to the market idea, the ground floor seems low)what is the countinuous canopy good for?
Keep pressing - you can study/answer the questions with the sections. Work on the programming of the facade as well. What did you learn from this model?

enno said...

Tim,
I am only halfway kidding when I am asking you, if the way you lit the model with the Christmas lights (distribution of large scale colored light sources)contains a design intent (or is it just a cute way to illuminate the model?)

annie j kemp said...

My questions and comments for you are: Scale of the glass panels- Are they in relation to anything inside the building or outside? What do they relate to? (I also have a major scale issue I am trying to figure out so it helps me, too) I also just want to see if I am understanding this right- the various glass panels would be all over the entire facade and different pieces would react differently at different times? Is that right? What are the elements that they are going to react to? (I bring this up because in your outside daylighting image, the front has so much direct sun, I wonder if the facade would change opacity to shade the entire space.) The model just shows one scenario, right? Is the canopy for the market or is it going to still be inside? I just want to make sure I am understanding your model correctly. Good luck this week.

Tim Riffle said...

Enno,

The use of the lights was more of I couldn't find anything else that could provide the changable color which is one of my design intents.It turned out to be easier than making ten different panels and changing them out after each photo.

The Market area is about 15' high at the edges and jumps to about 25' in the center. I am looking at the sections to decide where it needs to go. I think what makes it look so low is that it is recessed 5' into the ground. The canopy serves as a sun screen around the building and will become clearer as I investigate the sections. I want it to let in some light but not so much that it becomes a heater. It could also serve as an outdoor extension of the indoor market.

Annie,

The glass panels at this stage of design are all one size and each would change according to some type of reaction from interior and exterior forces, such as a customer playing with the computer that would control the colors or glass opacity at night or the sun during the day. Each panel would/could react differently depending on the forces being applied.

Hope this answers some of the questions. The sections and some other details should make things clearer.

smunger said...

Tim, I really like your use of Christmas lights, don't be surprised to see them in my project in the future, (its easier than post-processing light),

I do see a disconnect between the panels and the building plates, I like the idea of the plates and their interaction with the patrons, but the building seems too open for the plates to work as you describe. Perhaps rather than using a full curtain wall, you use a more massive structure behind the plates to give contrast.

enno said...

Tim,

Why is the market recessed in the ground? This seems counterintuitive and creates a number of problems (disconnect with the sidewalk, odd views out from below, space wasted for stairs and ramps, etc). I also don't see how this is related to your topic.
Back to the lights: the reason why I liked them was that they convey an idea about the interior that the the daylight view dos not have at which point Steve's observation of the disconnect between the panels and the slabs kicks in. You have two choices: find an architectural/programmatic expression to carry the notion of the lights into the design, or ( I should really be saying "and" address the problem of the panels that are floating in avoid in front of the slabs.
Canopy: the building will provide more shade than you ever want - the problem you have is to get the light as deep within the footprint as you can - the reverse of what you a trying to do.

Carlos said...

I have to agree with the panels comment. Maybe you could establish some kind of rythm with them, you know play with different sizes and depths. I think the differnt color lights look good, it starts to build some character on the spaces and the facade.
The canopy, I can see that you are trying to address the pedestrian scale of the building but it might block the sunlight too much on the ground floor.