Here is my approach to the airtight project for Neil Denari's Fall Quarter Topics Studio. Attempting to get us to abandon common notions of what a 'building' is Denari wanted us to view the project as a piece of industrial design. He also required the the project use steel for the structure and aluminum for the skin, using the plane as a model. Like many other projects I kept my piece to one side of the airplane taking advantage of the airlane's symmetry, allowing one side of the plane to be viewed free of any obstructions. I looked at the program as providing two distrinct environments; one being the outside environment meant to allow potential clients to view the plane and an inside environment (immersive environment) which was visually cut off from the plane, except for key moments that expose specific views of the plane. To bridge between those two opposing environments I created an in-between space which functioned as the model viewing area and gathering area before and after the 'intake experience' (interior of the structure). This area was both inside and outside and provided a space in which the model of the plane could be viewed next to the actual plane. Taking advantage of the sloped seating area for the auditorium the 'intake experience' sloped over the model viewing area to provide the connection to the airplane entrance. The auditorium was used in two ways; when inside the 'intake experience' it functioned as a viewing area for a short film on the new boeing 737 and while outside the the screen was used to dramatize the entrance to the plane by showing images of the boeing 737. This was to be carried out by a surface that could switch between being opaque (when viewed from the interior) and translucent (when viewed from the exterior). Due to time limitations I really did not have time to develop the interior of 'intake experience' in which I feel that the project missed one of the main objectives of the project, that being the creation of an immersive environment. Denari really tried to emphasize 'economic' design which he described as getting the most out of the smallest number of design moves. In both projects for Denari it seemed that the majority of the class struggled through the first three weeks or so just trying to get a grasp of what the project or program actually was. This usually meant that many iterations of the design would be abandoned and Denari used these early iterations to critique design habits that each of us held and really tried to get us to let go of previous notions of 'building'.

TAD(S)
scott

plans

view of entrance from above

view from above

view of entrance

model viewing area/exit