The idea comes form the ever changing environment and how it effects the inside (program) and outside of the building (context). Based on the movement of such things as people, cars, weather, color and the static and dynamic pressures from within and around the building, the building reacts by projecting a different look in reaction to the changing context.
The building will respond to its ever changing environment through the use of computer programs that will change the opacity or shading of the glass, or the color and intensity of the lighting from the inside and outside of the building. This will be a direct reaction to the man made and natural forces that occur in and around the building.
During observation of the site at different times of the day I found the site to be very fluid or dynamic, but still conform to a static nature. I started to look at the way in which the natural and man made forces were affecting the site. I looked at how the natural forces of the sun and clouds caused the facades of the buildings to take on different looks depending on the angle in which you stood.
At night the site takes on a completely different look as the buildings become opposite of what they were during the day. Buildings that may have stood out against the sky during the day almost disappeared against the night sky, while others acted in the opposite manner, becoming more pronounced at night.
The next step was to look at how man made forces affected how the building was perceived. Did the patterns of the cars and people affect the look of the building? The conclusion I came to was yes. The buildings are looked at differently because the view is constantly in a state of flux due to the ever changing pedestrian and vehicular movement which flows through the area.
When searching for information on similar projects, I looked at “the Tower of the Winds by Toyo Ito”. Ito used recorded sound mixed with the natural sounds of the wind to create a symphony of light that is always changing based on what sounds are introduced.
Partial Site Plan
Space Planning Diagrams
Conceptial Programs by Floor
First Floor:
2) Open offices
3) Support areas for building Mechanical and Electrical
Third Floor:
Technology store which includes:
1) Technology information desk
2) Sales Area
3) Kid Zone
4) Phones
5) MP3 Players
6) Accessories
7) Support Area including storage and employee break room
8) Circulation – Both primary and secondary
Fourth Floor:
Technology Store which includes:
1) Technology information desk
2) Desktop computers
3) Notebook computers
4) Kid Zone
5) Accessories
6) Support Area including storage and customer restrooms
7) Circulation – Both primary and secondary
Conceptial Elevation showing massing and materials against the original buildings. The colors represent the changing surface of the exterior skin
Closeup of the exterior skin and the investigation of connection to the existing buildings
After my crit I looked back at my idea with the comments that were made in mind. The first comment that was made was about how to make the building more interactive from within and relating that experience to the outside skin and how that skin changes. One comment was that it could be by the number of customers who are in the store or when a purchase, but I want it to be more interactive with teh customer. The idea I have been thinking of is that the people in the store would be the dynamic, they would be in charge of what the glass does by having a station or stations set up that would allow the customer to become the composer of the skin. They decide what the colors are and what the opacity of the glass are.
The second area is how the exterior skin relates to the building interior. I want to design the building so that inside and outside are always intertwined and having the interior elements puncture the exterior skin so that one would still be inside the building but would be outside the skin.
The third area is on how to develope the market and also make it a part of the, as Herb put it the "sequence of experiences". The idea would be that the market would be the first sequence that would nourish the body and then having the technology nourish the mind. Each step of the journey would work in unison to create that sequence. I think that this would tie into how the interior and exterior work together to create a different experience depending on where are by interconnecting the market to the technology either by the actual or visual.
