Archinect - University of Oregon (Portland Campus)

midterm, oh midterm.

2006-02-17T14:41:20-05:00

midterm pics, feb 17, 2006

Confessions Part Two: Theory, theory, and more theory

2006-02-12T18:52:22-05:00

Since day one, my thesis critic has been trying to get me to incorporate my own philisophical/architectural theory interests with this project. For whatever reason, I was hesitant and struggled with synthesizing an interesting design. What resulted was a "regular" building, one that would most likely be a part of the architectural clutter, given its program, which calls for a building that makes its presence known.

I began to digest and synthesize the texts that I have been reading -some of which include Manuel Delanda's texts dealing with systems of self-organization, and began to apply these outlooks and understandings to the site. Below are some mappings looking at existing conditions, barriers, flow in and out and resulting patterns.

mapping of shipping container facility

mapping of public park

comparison between private and public spaces, with separation

the combination of the two diagrams scaled to the site, with the elimination of separation field, replaced with node ...

confessions of an architecture student: part one

2006-02-01T15:37:10-05:00

So i seem to have gotten myself into a bind as the shape my building is taking reflects my DIAGRAMATIC block mass model (see previous entry pictures)! Maybe this was because this was the easier way to go, or I just didnt see it... Actually, I think that its a different approach that I am taking. Usually I would go into the formal investigations, then find oppotunities for programmatic insertion... Not quite a cop-out JJ. This time around I think that through making a coherent building first, formal investigations can overlap later in the design process, as to not interfere with the (primary focus of) the function of the building. Here are some pictures of my project and some pictures of those that were in my crit group.

My pinup, note mass block diagram and plan diagram below and subsequent changes to plan and public space at the very bottom. Also, on the right, some studies into building/environment interface, taking notes from Piano's Tjibaou center in New Caledonia (Kana...

Why are critics sketches always better than the students?

2006-01-19T20:36:58-05:00

I chatted with our visiting critic, Alexander Schmidt about my master plan for my site and he had some really good points about how one approaches a building and how one approaches an urban plan. Rather than arbitrarily placing functions/designated spaces around a site (sort of like a one plus one plus one...) one must look at the big picture and start to create a theme or concept on the urban scale.

Urban Planning/Volumetric Massing

2006-01-18T18:39:10-05:00

I just love having surprise crits...like the one we had today. It actually went ok, the focus was on urban planning and the scale at which one must think when dealing with planning. It was advised that I look at the site as a whole say, using the notion of the campus, where then I can take the components of a campus and then zoom in and compose these constituent parts in relation to one another. All in all I was advised to begin with "big chunks then scale down then scale down." I agree. This master plan is very important as I am setting in stone the context in which I must respond, instead of using non-concrete words when describing the context (PERHAPS the mini-mall COULD POSSIBLY be placed near my site...). This would allow for less multitasking, juggling urban plan and building design. Alas, no pictures of the urban plan progress just yet, but here are some pictures of massing/volumetric layouts. By the way, each block represents a 40ftx40ftx20ft volume.

To white the box...or not to white the box...that is the question.

2006-01-15T18:38:21-05:00

It was brought to my attention on the pinup on friday that I must assume an attitude towards this building inform by this question: should the building stand as a background to the forground of that which is archived/displayed? Or, should the building stand as its own entity in the urban context, an object among the objects stored within? In addition, when we think of buildings for the institution of architecture, it is ironic that most of these buildings are really not representative of 'good architecture.' i.e. Lawrence Hall (University of Oregon) and Wurster Hall (Berkeley).

This recent charette dealt with the notion of 'inside out,' and perhaps the white box syndrome can apply on the interior spaces while exterior expression is meant to give the building its expressive identity. The user can potentially circulate within the transition of these two conditions activating the 'tween' space.

Charette underway...

2006-01-12T17:51:44-05:00

A couple of days into the charette and already, programmatic relationships have begun to take form subsequently informing interior spaces. The information given by the pathway diagram showed the potential overlapping of events within selected spaces. Since the theme is "inside-out" for this charette, next week we will then take our designs then focus on how the inside relates to the outside. The model below is just a sketch model of the entry library entry passing through the archive viewing space.

First Day...

2006-01-10T16:12:15-05:00

First day of studio. We began charetting and already, Jim has had enough. We're starting out by designing our proposals from the "inside out" visions, perspectives, models etc. to begin to shape the experience of the interior space.

the day before the first day...

2006-01-08T16:37:41-05:00

So, im about to begin my thesis studio tommorrow which might be different than most architecture schools. We are on the quarter system (summer, fall, winter & spring), so essentially our winter and spring terms put together are a little longer than most schools spring semester. And yes, that means a conventional term at our school is about 9-10 weeks, which isnt very generous for an architecture studio.

That being said, our terminal studio spans two terms to give ample time for our final project. Unlike the terminal studios in Eugene, thesis students are able to choose their site and program, which adds more preliminary work but is also shaped to the students interests.

I chosen my project to be located on the south shore of Honolulu, Hawaii. The project is an architectural resource center in the Kakaako district. An once industrial area for the city of Honolulu, industry is slowly being cleared out making way for new and contoversial developments. There has been much buzz ar...