There it goes!

Here is the final board!

Click on the link to check it out!

whalecovefinal

Nearly there

I test printed my presentation boards and only found a few things that I really wanted to change.  I needed to lighten up some renders and pictures, fix a floor plan and make the site plan really pop.  Hopefully in the next few hours, the final will be off in the print room.

Test render

Revit is proving to be difficult

Just a quick update to rant a little.  Revit is proving to be difficult.  The little things like walls not wanting to attach to a free form roof are taking way to much time.  The deadline approaches.  Spaces in my building have become a bit bigger to incorporate more bathrooms and circulation spaces.  The barrels are sent into the hill which can be seen by either staircase.  It is a beautiful thing.  Time to go to my happy place.

Which program are you using?

I am working in Revit, Rhino, Autocad, Sketchup and 3ds max.  All are working to a simplified goal of putting the building into Revit and using Rhino to do simple modeling.  I will use Maxwell and Vray for rendering engines.  My plans are taking shape and the building is forming down the cliff.  Using cryengine has pretty much seised as we can’t import any form into it at this time.

The public is key

The winery that I am designing will have a huge public aspect built into it.  Along with beach access which will be built right into the side of the cliff, there will be multiple tasting rooms, guest units and places to rent out for small parties or weddings.  I continue to work on the layout of spaces in section while working the plans to my desired liking.  The program is being shifted about and I am still trying to decide between one building and four.

Ted talking and ground floor walking

I listened to a Ted talk today on the Seattle Public Library.  The designer and I seemed to define the program spaces and building layout in the same manner.  The way that I split the program into four parts and decided to go vertical reminded me of the different layers in the library.  I started to work on how to put the pieces into the cliff and relate them to one another.

I worked the section a little to relate the look of the floor plans into the section plans.  I wanted the building to relate to the environment and the views as well.  That’s why there are some major cuts in the buildings.

Where is it?

Today I began research on where my winery would  be located.  The professor gave us two vague sites and also stated that we could choose our own if our program led us to it.  Because my program is dependent on a slope, I started to look at cliffs that led down to beach locations.  Only a couple showed up in the close vicinity of the two given sites.  I chose to go with whale cove.  It has a great cliff face, wonderful views, access to the beach and a road leading to it already.

Creating Terrain in Cryengine 3

We have started using the cryengine 3 program to help us with our architecture.  The main goal is to put our building into this program so we can walk around it in real time, viewing it from a human perspective with adaptive lighting.  This can really help emphasize our design.

We broke up into groups and worked on writing a tutorial for for certain aspects of cryengine 3.  The link to our terrain instructions are located here – Cryengine 3 terrain tutorial.

“Ru(M)inations: The Haunts of Contemporary Architecture”

Zombies and architecture don’t seem like they would go hand in hand.  John McMorrough makes this connection all to real.  He states that the current architecture is just a retrace of previous work.  With the advancements of computers and technology, why does architecture repeat itself.  Shouldn’t it be evolving and getting better and better?  Does it look the same?  When designers go through the design process they look up precedent studies.  It is very hard to design a building without being influenced by what you have seen or studied.  Is this the start of the Zombie architecture?  I think that it all begins with being born.  You design what you see and experience.

Are we currently in a zombie architecture movement?  I think that we are in a transition.  There are zombies still out there but the ones that are removing themselves are starting to gain some headway.  We have to find a way to design and cut ties from our previous thinking.  There needs to be a greater way of desining.  Architects can’t just do what they are told or even what they have seen.  I believe that we can rise above this zombie movement and take over with a new design process.

There is a lot of responsibility that we take on in our designs.  We need to take a hold of this new technology (like computers), use the past as foundations, and grab some inspiration from new sources.  I believe that we can break from this zombie architecture.  Let’s grab inspiration from all around us.  Trees, nature, dreams, collaborative thinking, automobiles, computers can inspire a new set of designs.  We need to make this shift before we all become zombie architects.