LANDSCAPE STUDIO 1

LANDSCAPE STUDIO 1 - POTTER CAFE OPEN SPACE SEMESTER ONE 2016 THI KHANH HOA PHAN - 705931 INSTRUCTORS: ANDREW SANIGA WITH DARCY ZELENLO AND RAVI BESSABAVA

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BUNKER

FIRST IMPRESSION |

My very first personal impression of the Potter Cafe open space is its outdoor and refreshing atmosphere. The ‘natural’ hill form of the space, as I later explored, can potentially encourages users to play and engage with the site more actively. Thus, this initial impression of the site has influenced my final design of ‘public bunker’ substantially as I wish to keep this open and inviting quality of this space that was originally much appreciated.

| SITE SECTION 01

CONSTRAINTS

The most prominent concern is with its future functionality. This small green part of the univeristy is now used as a non-programmed space, which allows users to ultilize the space as per their liking; the question is to what extent it should be programmed to attract more users and whether this change in functionality is welcomed by current users who are using this space passively.

The exisiting elevation of the site also poses a challenge with accessibility to the site. Can this space be used by wider demographics and disabled?

OPPORTUNITIES

The potter cafe is indeed a prospective user of this space. Not only due to its close proximity to the site but also its strong influence sensually and visually on the spatial quality of this space.

The building typology suggests a range of ideas in terms of the coexistence of the old and the new, art and science or ‘the collision of ideas’.

| LINO PRINT

Figure 1: Intended cut as hatched in Rhino

With this task, I was challenged with the idea that the site is not a flatland. It possesses a volumetric and narrative quality and thus inform the design later on. I attempted to best CNC cut my intentional geomtry (Figure 1), and manually cut the grass texture afterwards, but failed because it was harder than I thought to manually engrave on the Lino piece. Nonetheless, it was a fun and fascinating experiment.

| FRACTAL GEOMETRY I decided to choose a digital object for assignment 2 because I was hooked on this geometry. The site possesses so much potential to explore the notion of Art and Science, of which fractal geometry seems to be an interesting topic to explore. The idea of infinite loop that create unimaginable structure was tested by using Grasshopper and Hoopsnake. However, I realized at one point that the purpose of this assignment is to go into the wild and explore things that we are not familiar with, or too familar with to ever consider it an interesting object. Thus, I decided not to be too rational and intentional with my process. With my GH journey, I keep exploring and exploring until I feel like the manipulation resulted in an ‘aesthetically pleasing’ geometry. Everything including the manipulating verb, honestly, only came after.

OBJECT MANIPULATION |

populate

Skeleton extracted from voranoi cells

/ˈpɒpjʊleɪt/ verb • • •

form the population of (a place) Cause people to settle in (a place) fill or be present in (a place)

decompose /diːkəmˈpəʊz/ verb • •

break down or cause to break down into component elements or simpler constituents Mathematics Express (a number or function) as a combination of simpler components

list of pointed was poplated within a fractal geometry

intersect

+

Surface patched from list of point generated

/ɪntəˈsɛkt/ verb • •

Divide (something) by passing or lying across it: (Of two or more things) pass or lie across each other

Final object manipulation

Form variation

(for site adaptation) *Definitions referenced from Oxford Dictionary

Populate

Deconstruct

Intersect

SITE ADAPTATION | Roof garden

Potter cafe space Can also become stage for performace when cleared

| OTHER EXPERIMENT

After Assignment two, I struggled to implement my object onto the site, bringing back all different layers of meanings to site as analyzed during assignment one. I experimented with the idea that betatron machine was historically used in particle physics to to provide high energy beam of electrons. It did not end up being my final design, as I realized the site has so much more ‘life elements’ to reconcile and this design only address one aspect of it. It was, however, a turning point in my design process as I decided to not look too far, and start look more carefully into the most basic life aspect - human circulation.

| SITE CONSTRAINTS

01

Seeing the site with volumetric quality as earlier analyzed, I decided to using the space that is up to level 2 of Physics Building as base for my design.

03

The most dominant users of this space will be Potter Cafe customers. Thus, this path was emphasized so that it makes clear visual and physical permeability to Potter Cafe shop.

02

04

Reconfiguration of potential path through the site. The design should be engaging enough so that users want to take this path instead of the exisitng one that also leads to Swanton St.

The two elm trees in front of the space not only provide shades, but also give the space its open and inviting quality. Thus, embracing this elements is unquestionable and was engaged with design in the early stage. Occupied space of these two precious trees was carved out, yet left a small structure so that the whole pavilion seems to ‘embrace’ the trees from Swanton St viewpoint.

| OCCUPIABLE SPACE 05

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Occupiable space after carving out pedestrian circulation

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Space for existing tree

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Space for existing tree

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|GRASSHOPPER DEFINITION 01 This subject provides a unique opportunity for me to explore things that are out of my comfort zone and usually not offered in my precribed coursework, Grasshopper and 3D printing are two of them. As I explore and enjoy this highly ‘architectural’ practice, I start pondering how can form produced by these algorithms be more meaningful to our life, other than just asthetically stand-alone piece of infrastructure? This has influenced my design substantially in terms of optimizing the form that will not upset surrounding passive users or existing trees, as well as choosing finishing materials to best address environmental issues that are getting more concern nowadays.

02

05

06a

04 03 06b 06 populate verb

decompose verb

intersect verb

| MATERIALITY I innitially intended to use glass or transparent material for skining to provide interesting shaddow effect, and timber texture for bone structure. However, when I looked at the site as a whole, this pavilion somehow feels heavy and to permanent, which I tried to avoid as I want to keep the openess quality of the space.

| MATERIALITY

I innitially intended to use glass or transparent material for skin structure to provide interesting shaddow effect.

| PRECEDENTS: MPavilion MPAVILION PROJECT Designed by Bristish Architect Amanda Levete Completed: 2015 Melbourne, Victoria.

I was inspired by the material system that was employed in MPavilion in Melbourne. The use of eXtreme light weight petals supporting ‘impossibly slender collumns’ made by composite material is very effective in creating an outdoor atmopsphere, which I want to achive for my deisgn.

Design Boom, 2015 http://www.designboom.com/architecture/al_a-amanda-levete-mpavilion-melbourne-queen-victoria-gardens-10-05-2015/

| MATERIALITY

As I wish to keep the openess quality of this space, I decided not to use visually heavy and view obstructing material. Thus, following the theme of ‘cell structure’, a special external skin surface for this pavilion was designed to meet the required criteria. For eye-level skin, I use mesh fabric to first, subtly define semi-enclosure space; second, to keep the structure lightweight visually and finally to allow rain water to penertrate through, collected by intermitent patches of greenary.

PLASTIC TUBE, PREFERABLY RECYLCED

MESH FABRIC

LIGHT WEIGHT TRANSLUCENT PLASTIC CAN BE CHANGED WITH DIFFERENT COLOR

| INFINITY TABLE

| FINAL DESIGN - PLAN

| FINAL DESIGN -ELEVATION

| FINAL DESIGN - ELEVATION

|SOCIAL SPACE

|SOCIAL SPACE

|PEOPLEMOVEMENT

LANDSCAPE STUDIO 1 - POTTER CAFE OPEN SPACE SEMESTER ONE 2016 THI KHANH HOA PHAN - 705931 INSTRUCTORS: ANDREW SANIGA WITH DARCY ZELENLO AND RAVI BESSABAVA

PUBLIC

BUNKER 27 MAY 2016