Studio 4: Internal Conversation

INTERNAL CONVERSATION

BY: COURSE: INSTRUCTOR:

Omar Hason Studio 4; Fall 2011 Ron Faleide

book

struggle

noun

1. a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

2. a number of sheets of blank or ruled paper bound together for writing, recording business transactions, etc.

3. a division of a literary work, especially one of the larger divisions.

4. the Book, the Bible.

5. Music . the text or libretto of an opera, operetta, or musical.

verb This book, if you can call it a book, is a summary of my fourth and final studio in the college of architecture. Typically a book of this type is seen as a portfolio of work I’ve done over the course of a semester. A bound set of pages designed to express my intentions graphically and create the impression that I know what I am doing. The problem created by making this type of book is that it typically leaves out the majority of the work done during the semester. It is beautiful and well crafted, but it fails to highlight the design struggle.

1. to contend with an adversary or opposing force.

2. to contend resolutely with a task, problem, etc.; strive: to struggle for existence.

3. to advance with violent eort: to struggle through the snow.

4. (of athletes and competitors) to be coping with inability to perform well or to win; contend with difficulty: After struggling for the whole month of June, he suddenly caught fire and raised his batting average 30 points.

conversation noun The problem with using the word struggle is it suggests that there is a second person involved in this process. As though there are two people present of which only one of them can achieve victory.

Perhaps that isn’t a terrible way to interpret my thought process, but suggesting an internal struggle makes me sound very troubled. I prefer to think that there are two metaphorical people present within my brain throughout the design process, each participating in an internal conversation.

1. informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.

2. an instance of this.

3. association or social intercourse; intimate acquaintance.

4. criminal conversation.

5. the ability to talk socially with others: She writes well but has no conversation.

Imagine in your mind you have two people, each engaged in a discussion to help you come to some sort of decision for every problem you encounter. Each person has dierent traits, concerns, and specialties, and they work together for your overall benefit. When applied to design, one person will make a suggestion as to the solution to any given design problem and the other will critique it. Through this process of creation and refinement, eventually good design is made.

To continue with this metaphor, it is important to mention that the two people have very dierent personalities...

left brain I represent the left side of Omar’s brain; I am in charge of use and analytics. Design wise my main concerns revolve around the practicality of a project. I study floor plans to maximize efficiency, I revel in the creation of proportion and structure, and I will NOT allow anything to happen arbitrarily. I like to think. I am logic. I make reality.

right brain I represent the right side of Omar’s brain; I am in charge of design and creativity. Design wise, my main concern is to create an experience. I strive for innovation and desire to make something people have never seen before.

Every user’s experience should be dramatic and memorable for only good reasons. I like to feel. I am imagination. I make ideas.

CONTENTS

1 2 A B

CASE STUDY HOUSE SPACE AND SHAPE SCULPTURE OBJECT IN THE LANDSCAPE

3 A B C D

OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER MACHINE HUMAN FLEX SITE

PROJECT 1

CASE STUDY HOUSE

CASE STUDY HOUSE PURPOSE CASE STUDY HOUSES are a series of houses designed in the 1940’s to the mid 1960’s. They were created during the housing boom following WW2 as millions of American soldiers returned home from the war.

Many of these homes remain un-built, but all of them questioned and pushed the living standards of the time through new and interesting design.

BRECKENRIDGE HOUSE

PURPOSE A BRECKENRIDGE HOUSE is typically a vacation home used for ski retreats in the winter and general tourism in the summer. Being a vacation home, the house must be a place where its tenants go to relax. It should be a home away from home. More importantly, it should oer an experience unlike any its visitors have ever had. Most tenants will be coming from a typical suburban setting, so this home should oppose anything they’ve ever lived in.

STAIR HOUSE CONCEPT THE CONCEPT behind the design of this home is derived from the necessity for dealing with the slope of the site. Rather than thinking about the slope on the scale of a building, this design began by thinking about how slope is dealt with on a more human scale.

STAIRS are a typical way to deal with slope on a human scale. This idea can be applied on a much larger scale too.

EACH STEP of the stairs can be interpreted as a module that is repeated, stacked, and staggered to climb the slope of the site.

TWISTING the modules then allows each of the boxes to have dierent views and light qualities.

PROGRAMMING the stacked boxes so the street level module becomes the entry, and the following modules become sequentially more private.

SCALING the modules allows them to be more conducive to the dierent programs housed in each one.

SINCE THE SITE has such a large slope, the manner in which the modules are arranged must be carefully planned. Because the site is in the mountains, it is also very difficult to make deep excavations for the building footprint. Avoiding blasting the bedrock inevitably present on the site becomes a main concern for this design.

SITE PLANS

GARAGE

KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM

BEDROOM 1

THE TWISTING of the boxes allows the building pads to be oriented well with it’s topographical location and minimizes the amount of excavation necessary to house each box.

BEDROOM 2

MATERIALITY FLOOR

WALL

THE MODULES have the ability to be pre-fabricated o site and then shipped to the site. The walls are made of cast in place concrete that is poured in acrylic forms to create incredibly smooth surfaces and sharp corners. Boards are used to make the board form concrete ceiling and are later sanded and polished to make up the flooring within the boxes.

The pattern that is then present in the wood flooring and the board form ceiling is also repeated on the roof of the module in the form of a threefoot material boundary of small channels of grass or moss.

CEILINGS

ROOF

GARAGE

THE GARAGE has a driveway oriented so that it is level with the main road. It contains a single hall with space for storage of skis and other outdoor gear.

KITCHEN THE KITCHEN houses all of the appliances needed to cook a full meal as well as a dining room, pantry, and bathroom.

LIVING ROOM THE LIVING ROOM is filled with modular seating that can be arranged and rearranged to best suit any use. This box also houses a washing and drying machine and a bathroom.

BEDROOM 1

BEDROOM 2

THE BEDROOMS each have their own bathroom and shower. The entry is encased with glass walls to protect those within the space from the outdoor weather.

THE STAIR HOUSE is a bold proposal for an area like Colorado that sees extreme changes in the weather on a frequent basis. The outdoor spaces provided on top of each box can be taken advantage of fully the majority of the year, but there are a few days in each year in which the exterior staircase becomes problematic. Rather than seeing this as a design failure, it becomes an opportunity for visitors to fully experience life in Colorado in a way they never imagined. Essentially, this design forces inhabitants to experience one of the most unique aspects of Colorado living; the tempermental weather.

PROJECT 2A

SPACE AND SHAPE

SCULPTURE AS EXPLORATION sculp•ture noun

1. the art of carving, modeling, welding, or otherwise producing figurative or abstract works of art in three dimensions, as in relief, intaglio, or in the round.

2. such works of art collectively.

3. an individual piece of such work.

SCULPTURE is an exploration of space and shape. Regardless of its origins, sculpture has historically been interpreted as an attempt to represent the human form. As time has passed, sculpture has become less about human form and more about exploration. It is experimentation with materials and perception. As the definition of what exactly sculpture is becomes more of a blur, it is certain that sculpture is something physical, something three dimensional, and is meant to be viewed and provoke thought.

A FAILED EXPLORATION OF PURE SPACE In an attempt to represent space, this sculpture was made of bent pieces of wire. Each piece was not meant to be seen as a shape, but rather was meant to describe a space. Ideally, these series of wires would represent the spaces between them, but instead the bends in the wire became the most interesting part of the project. The sculpture then was about shape, and not space.

A FAILED EXPLORATION OF PURE SHAPE Starting with a solid shape which described nothing but its own volume, this sculpture was then twisted to make a more interesting form. A side eect of this transformation is the space created within the turning object.

SUBTRACTIVE PROCESS This sculpture started as a block of foam. It was then carved and scored to create rifts and fissures. Its over all form is inspired by that of a mountain peak.

EXPLORATION IN CASTING This sculpture began similarly to the last sculpture, as it too was carved from a block of foam. This form was intended to be incredibly smooth and feel good in any given person’s hands. In order to make the sculpture smoother, a long and painstaking process was undertaken to create a mold of the foam, which was then cast out of plaster and sanded to smoothness.

IS THIS SCULPTURE? THESE COWBOYS AND INDIANS are typically classified as children’s toys, yet upon closer inspection are very sculptural in their nature. By covering dierent compositions in aluminum foil and then grilling them, new compositions are born from typically generic or ordinary shapes.

REPRESENTATIONAL SCULPTURE REPRESENTATIONAL SCULPTURE in this case does not mean that intent was to replicate something already in existence, but rather that it is a smaller scale model of a much larger exploration of the natural and urban edges present on an existing site.

PROJECT 2B RATHER THAN BEING FUNCTIONLESS, environmental sculpture can have a functional purpose when applied to a specific site. In this case the site is in Boulder, CO, just south of Canyon near the Justice Center.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCULPTURE

THE SITE has two distinct paths. One which receives very high levels of traffic due to its proximity to the creek, and one that is relatively unused because of its proximity to the street.

ABSTRACTING THE TREE CANOPY into rings and applying those rings to the street side path will make that path more interesting, while diusing the sounds of the passing cars.

THE RINGS are spaced according to their proximity to the street. As the path gets closer to the street, the spacing of the rings becomes more dense. As the path gets further from the street, the spacing becomes much larger to allow views of the natural edge.

LANDSCAPE AT NIGHT

THE SITE is a beautiful place to be during the day, but at night it has a severe lack of lighting.

THE RINGS that form a long tunnel should also make a beautifully lit space and create the feeling of a safe environment.

THE LIGHTS within the rings can respond to the noise levels of the cars passing by which influences the colors emitted and the speed at which they change.

PROJECT 3

OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER

WHAT IS AN

OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER?

AN OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER is a place where athletes from all over America gather to physically and mentally train for the Olympic games. It is a place that should not be taken lightly, since it becomes the home of the athletes that will be representing America in front of the entire world. It is a place of rigorous training and preparation that should provide the basic functions of any training facility, but excel in creating an experience for those housed in it.

PUBLIC COMMERCIAL RESIDENTIAL OFFICE

BUILDING HEIGHT LIGHT LOCATIONS

CONSTRUCTION NATURAL TRAFFIC RESIDENTIAL

ORIENTATION

BUILDING USE

NEIGHBORHOODS

SITE ANALYSIS

THREE STORIES TWO STORIES ONE STORIES

STREET LIGHTS PRIVATE LIGHTS

THE ATHLETE AND THE SPECTATOR AN OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER should be a place that functions well for the athletes and trainers using the building on a daily basis, but TOURISM is an aspect that is just as crucial to the success of the project. People travel from all over the country to see the existing Olympic training centers, almost as if to see the athletes perform in their “natural habitats”. This place must accommodate for visitors since it is a source of interest and fascination, and this accommodation should be manifested through the project’s architecture.

THE HUMAN AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE is first and foremost a human being. They have human needs and desires which must be satisfied so they may perform well physically. Every living thing needs shelter, sustenance, and rest. So places for these activities to take place must be provided.

HUMAN BEINGS also desire companionship, and athletes are no dierent. They must have opportunities to interact with each other as well as with the outside world. Places to meet and gather must be provided, and programs must be arranged and developed to encourage interaction between those who live at this olympic training center and those who are simply visiting or passing by.

THE MACHINE AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE is incredibly similar to a well oiled machine. They undergo training that rivals the tests performed on vehicles before they are released to the public. Their performances are monitored and surveyed in countless categories to ensure the athlete is performing to their maximum ability. It is possible for every part of an athlete’s body to be tuned and trained to its maximum performance level, similar to the interrelated parts of a machine.

MACHINES must be tested and evaluated by their operators, similar to how an athlete is monitored by their coach or trainer. For this reason where the athletes perform should be clearly visible to trainers and coaches from any place they spend extended amounts of time.

THE PROGRAM EVERYTHING ABOUT THE OLYMPIC TRAINING CENTER from the programmatic requirements to the athlete’s daily schedule can be divided into what is HUMAN and what is MACHINE. This also correlates with the site requirements of these individual programs, and allows a division of the site to take place.

THE SITE is zoned according to what is HUMAN, MACHINE, and what is IN BETWEEN. The MACHINE takes the “urban” portion of the site, creating an excavation on the built, traffic ridden edge. The HUMAN takes the “natural” portion of the site, capitalizing on the natural beauty of the creek’s edge. The space IN BETWEEN becomes a question of function.

What is between HUMAN and MACHINE?

PROGRAM GOALS

PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE

PROGRAM CONNECTIONS

PROJECT 3A

MAKING

THE MACHINE

THE MACHINE is an abstraction of a real working machine. Just as a machine in a factory would be made of many different components housed within a metal skin, architecturally this “machine” is made up of many different programmatic components that are all housed within a perforated metal skin. Materially it is made up of concrete blocks, glass, perforated and corrugated metal cladding, gypsum wall board, and stained concrete flooring. It creates a very clean and static aesthetic that is complimented by elements of motion.

PROGRAM SIZE REQUIREMENTS

COMPONENT

ARRANGEMENT

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

first floor

1

1

1

1

1

2 2

6

7

3

10 7 3

8

5

4

8

9

second floor

11 11 11 13

13

13

13

12

10

11 11

12

11 11

12

11

8

8

8

8

thrid floor

14

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

evaluation lab evaluation support rest room dining hall kitchen front desk visitor locker team locker private exercise exercise coach’s office video projection editing room meeting room

14

14

14

8

8

8

8

section a THE ATRIUM is the heart of the machine. A place that is activated by the program surrounding it. It’s transparency makes it welcoming to visitors as it bridges a split in the building’s components. From this point, very controlled halls lead to different portions of the building similar to fluids in an engine.

THE ATRIUM’s floor plates are clad with LED panels that display flowing information. While one level constantly displays things like the five day forecast, recommended trails, meal menus, and new exercise routines, the other displays information about the happenings within the building.

Information about individual’s successes would be displayed to spark conversation and competition between the athletes. Double sided projection screens in the projection room allow people to see exactly what the athletes and trainers see, further immersing them in the activities within the space.

section b THE EXERCISE ROOM is the portion of the building in which the athletes will be spending most of their time. A large three story room is conducive to the highly active nature of the space, and a raised platform provides extra floor area for equipment. The coach’s offices and meeting rooms look down on the exercise room. The lockers share a direct and private connection with the space.

THE TEAM LOCKER HALL is the strip of circulation in which the athlete begins to disconnect themselves from their human side.

The lockers are slowly elevated to provide space underneath them to be used as a private exercise room. Once the athlete reaches the level of their locker room, there is one last opportunity to look out to the creek through a fixed vertical window before turning to enter into the locker room where they will transition from HUMAN to MACHINE.

OPERABLE SKIN

THE SKIN that encases the components of the machine is operable in order to bring a dynamic element to the space caused by the movement of the screens as well as the light patterns created as the skin moves slowly and continuously throughout the day (DIAGRAMS A-C). The adjustable skin also allows for a variation in the spaces directly adjacent to the skin. While all of the screens are shut, the entire space becomes very private. When the screens open, bays of extreme privacy and publicity are created.

LARGE perforated metal sheets are pushed across two rails by gears whose teeth fit within the perforations of the metal.

A

B

locations of operable screens

C

6AM

THE SKIN is open to allow early morning light to enter the exercise space.

Privacy issues are avoided since the streets are still quite. Throughout the day, the screen will slowly shut and then re-open.

3PM

THE SKIN is now fully shut to protect from the heat of the afternoon as well as to create more privacy for the athletes while the city buzzes. As the day gets gradually cooler, and the sun and pedestrian traffic disappears, the screen will begin to re-open.

9PM

THE SKIN has at this point re-opened, and invites visitors to investigate the activities within the building while illuminating the surrounding paths and site.

PROJECT 3B

MAKING

A SMALL HOME THE RESIDENCE is the place that is most human in its nature. If the MACHINE is made of steel and concrete, then the HUMAN is made of wood and fabric. If the MACHINE penetrates the urban edge of the site, the HUMAN conforms to the natural edge. If the MACHINE shuts itself to the outside world, the HUMAN should open up to embrace it.

THIS CONTRAST is what fuels all of the decisions regarding the residence units, while still keeping in mind that this space has a very important purpose. Athletes need rest just as much as they need nutrition or exercise, so this space should not be an athlete’s room, but rather an athlete’s home. It should provide a relaxing environment away from the MACHINE and should take advantage of the pleasant views along the creek’s edge.

THE SIZE of the residence is also important to minimize. Since each resident athlete and trainer deserves their own room and bathroom, there must be at least 60 residence buildings. This is very possible to do with a square shaped building of the required square footage, but this arrangement does not allow for gaps in the chain of homes. That would mean an entire wall would be built along the creek, depriving the rest of the site from the pleasures of the natural edge.

THE BOXHOME in Oslo, Norway by architects Rintala Eggertsson was a precedence for the housing portion of this project. The home is only 204 square feet and has a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room. By lofting the bedroom and living room they are able to minimize the building footprint while still creating a pleasant atmosphere.

BUILDING FORM SQUARE buildings function well internally, but upon twisting them to the natural topography of a creek they begin to take up extra square footage and create awkward and unusable corners.

1 TRAPEZOIDAL buildings start to create curves naturally by stacking the slanted edges. To accommodate all of the program required, these building’s footprints are still too large and do not create dramatic enough curves.

2 LOFTED HALF-TRAPEZOIDS allow the buildings to have much smaller footprints and have the ability to conform to extreme curves along the creek side.

3

BUILDING FUNCTION

1

2

3

second floor

first floor

type A 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5

4

5

living storage water closet bathing lofted bedroom

type B

2 3 1 2 3 4 5

bathing water closet storage living lofted bedroom

4

5

second floor

first floor

1

THE RESIDENCES are made up of two building types (type A and type B) which are chosen based on the direction of curve necessary to follow the creek. The houses are then split into five groups of twelve units. Each group has an Olympic color associated with it, and the units are numbered one through twelve.

section a A

THE RESIDENCE is made up of two lofted half trapezoids constructed of gray wood. Small openings are placed on the upper portion of the walls facing the publicly accessible path.

The seam that connects the two spaces and the walls facing the creek become glass.

THE DYNAMIC COMPONENT is also added to the HUMAN side of the site. Just as the MACHINE has an operable/performative screen, the HUMAN has a much more organic and flowing operable screen. A single sheet of Teflon coated fiberglass is stretched across the stitch.

WHEN CLOSED, the sheet is a dividing screen between the lofted portion of the building and the portion below, creating a privacy screen and safety net (DIAGRAM A).

WHEN OPEN, the Teflon coated fiberglass flows freely in the wind, creating very organic light patterns within the building while becoming a kinetic element on the exterior of the building (DIAGRAM B).

B

PROJECT 3C

MAKING THE IN BETWEEN

THE FLEX SPACE was formerly interpreted as the shapeless space IN BETWEEN the HUMAN and the MACHINE. Yet as the project progressed, the need for a central gathering point grew. The FLEX space was then interpreted as a stitch that shared characteristics of the HUMAN and MACHINE without becoming an identity-less mass.

TO BECOME A BEACON or gathering point for the site, the building had to have a certain level of transparency.

More importantly the building should have a warm and welcoming glow internally during the day, and should cast light out of it during the night.

BLUR

INFORMING THE SHAPE of the building is the existing other two types of building. The building’s footprint is derived from the MACHINE, while the building’s height starts at the level of the HUMAN and extends up to match the height of the MACHINE (DIAGRAMS A-D).

STITCH

A

B

C

D

section a THE FLEX SPACE has been influenced heavily by the incorporation of environmental sculpture. In an eort to include the RINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE, the rings have been reinterpreted as ribs.

section b THE RIBS are then developed further by replacing all walls with a series of ribs whose density fluctuates with the privacy of the program. In places like the rest rooms, the ribs become so dense that there is no space between them, while everywhere else they are spaced to allow in light or to form some specific structure (bike storage).

THE BUILDING’S RIBS are made of wood and then are clad with translucent poly carbonate, which allows the building to glow at night.

The floor is made of green rubber flooring, which causes the building to glow green rather than generic white. The floor material is also conducive to multi-use.

MAKING FLEXIBILITY A

THE MEETING ROOMS fully explore the possibilities made available by using ribs. Each room is made up of a series of ribs which are then skewered by steel poles which span the width of the building and are set on some kind of track. Each of the ribs then is able to move closer or farther from the one next to it.

B

INFINITE ARRANGEMENTS are available and can create a range of spaces from incredibly private rooms to long spaces of semi-privacy. If desired, the ribs can be split in two so the entire building becomes one large multi-purpose space.

C

ACTIVE TRANSPARENCY made by light passing through the poly carbonate creates shadows that inform visitors of the activities within the spaces.

PROJECT 3D

MASTER DAY PLAN

THE SITE is articulated according to the original concept of the HUMAN and the MACHINE. The residence’s building footprints have been minimized so breaks in the wall of houses allow the rest of the site to have a connection to the natural edge. A small parking lot for visitors and nonresident employees is placed on the northwestern corner of the site. Off of the neighboring building’s existing curb cut and parking lot is a driveway for services and deliveries.

A COURTYARD is created between the FLEX and MACHINE buildings, and a grove of trees is planted south of the MACHINE.

MASTER NIGHT PLAN

AT NIGHT the site is very well lit. To create a welcoming atmosphere, the buildings have all been designed to light the site according to the nature of the program within the building. Lights placed in the concrete paving of the courtyard highlight the relationship between the FLEX and the MACHINE buildings.

THE NATURAL PATH is lit with small light bollards that shed light on the path without disturbing the adjacent housing.

THE RINGS IN THE LANDSCAPE helped to light the site in an engaging and playful way, which became an aspect of the sculpture that is incorporated into the trees on site. A cloud of fiber optics is installed in the trees bordering the parking lot and the tree grove south of the MACHINE.

THE COURTYARD houses six acrylic benches that are illuminated at night.

The trees within the courtyard are also infused with fiber optics making an incredibly dynamic and inviting outdoor space in both the day and night.

end verb

1. a final part of something, esp. a period of time, an activity, or a story.

2. the furthest or most extreme part or point of something.

As with most good things, this conversation must eventually come to an end.

Hopefully both parties are pleased with the solutions proposed and designs created over the course of this very long architectural conversation.

Hopefully logic prevailed in the quest for the perfect grid system and proportion ruled the aesthetic qualities. But, hopefully new and creative things were experimented with and unforgettable and unique experiences were innovated.

Most importantly, the end of one conversation simply marks the beginning of another.

thank you exclamation

1. a polite expression used when acknowledging a gift, service, or compliment, or accepting or refusing an oer.

Thank you for reading this semester-long compilation of work. And thank you to my peers who operated as sound boards during the design process and to my instructor, Ron Faleide, who organized and guided this entire project.

I represent the left side of Omar’s brain; I have applied use and analytics.

Design wise, I have made every project practical. I have studied floor plans to maximize efficiency, I have created proportion and structure, and I have NOT allowed anything to happen arbitrarily. I have thought. I have used logic. I have made reality.

I represent the right side of Omar’s brain; I have designed and created.

I have created experiences. I have innovated and created things people have never seen before. Every user’s experience has become dramatic and memorable for only good reasons. I have felt. I have imagined. I have made ideas.