Well since we started doing actual buildings in college (took 2 years), Im really lost in doing floor plans. How do I organize space? Ive been doing bubble diargrams and connecting what room should be next to what. I am doing a library right now. Last semester was an aquarium and it was an extreme headache for me to lay it out... How does on lay out a plan then shape it in form. Im used to moving shapes around, and doing stuff that what I found real easy to me in the first two years. It was all fundamentals... now that we have an actual building to do (I am an architecture major right?), Im lost . Where do I begin. I have a idea of what my building is doing... but I have no form and no plan established. I think this is my weakest aspect of me so far as a student... and I believe its because we are just diving into this huge programs with so much stuff going on. I would of kinda wish they would start off with small residences first and move up to libraries.
Mc Taco - I experienced some of the same frustrations in my first years of architecture school, too. I overcame them when I stopped thinking so much about the organization of the plan and began simply making beautiful things within the realm of architectonics.
There are many things that I understand now that I didn't when I was in your situation, and hearing those things just frustrated me more at the time. (Like "Think about the single organizing principle/parti/essence of your building and make all of your subsequent decisions based upon that.")
Your epiphany will come in your own unique way. Don't be afraid to let go and fly for a while.
take what you learned in the first two years of school. there was a reason you didn't jump into "real" building right away. bubble diagrams are alright, but don't get too stuck into them. i had a professor who said you could do ten bubble diagrams, but they will never be architecture. figure out what you want the building to be - discover the so-called animal of the building. don't get stuck in the plan. do sections, elevations, perspectives during the process. create rules, limits, etc. for the building - but break those rules if that is where the building needs to go - as the same above mentioned prof. told me not to kill the animal. when it comes to the technical items - locate the building cores (stairs, elevators, toilets, mechanical,etc.) and stack these items then create some kind of ordering system and the plan usually falls into place. it should visually make sense, don't put a curve or an angle in the plan because you think it "looks" cool - my best project in school was a simple rectangular glass box. the location of the structure, core, offices, window mullions, etc. all had a strict order to them, but i had a morphic ramp that transversed through the space. the order in the rest of the building made the ramp a more powerful element in the project - the animal of the project. BTW i find it much easier to design a library than a house (at least when you get real clients involved) - more freedom.
Starting a plan...
Well since we started doing actual buildings in college (took 2 years), Im really lost in doing floor plans. How do I organize space? Ive been doing bubble diargrams and connecting what room should be next to what. I am doing a library right now. Last semester was an aquarium and it was an extreme headache for me to lay it out... How does on lay out a plan then shape it in form. Im used to moving shapes around, and doing stuff that what I found real easy to me in the first two years. It was all fundamentals... now that we have an actual building to do (I am an architecture major right?), Im lost . Where do I begin. I have a idea of what my building is doing... but I have no form and no plan established. I think this is my weakest aspect of me so far as a student... and I believe its because we are just diving into this huge programs with so much stuff going on. I would of kinda wish they would start off with small residences first and move up to libraries.
so beaux...
as you were.
?
....
Can you tell us more about your program? What does your instructor expect from you?
without knowing more...I would say...look at precedent. See how various architects have approached the building type you're working with. Analysis.
What are you caught up in? Technical stuff like getting the s.f. right?
Really floor plans should be easy to play with. Isn't it a dream come true?
Mc Taco - I experienced some of the same frustrations in my first years of architecture school, too. I overcame them when I stopped thinking so much about the organization of the plan and began simply making beautiful things within the realm of architectonics.
There are many things that I understand now that I didn't when I was in your situation, and hearing those things just frustrated me more at the time. (Like "Think about the single organizing principle/parti/essence of your building and make all of your subsequent decisions based upon that.")
Your epiphany will come in your own unique way. Don't be afraid to let go and fly for a while.
take what you learned in the first two years of school. there was a reason you didn't jump into "real" building right away. bubble diagrams are alright, but don't get too stuck into them. i had a professor who said you could do ten bubble diagrams, but they will never be architecture. figure out what you want the building to be - discover the so-called animal of the building. don't get stuck in the plan. do sections, elevations, perspectives during the process. create rules, limits, etc. for the building - but break those rules if that is where the building needs to go - as the same above mentioned prof. told me not to kill the animal. when it comes to the technical items - locate the building cores (stairs, elevators, toilets, mechanical,etc.) and stack these items then create some kind of ordering system and the plan usually falls into place. it should visually make sense, don't put a curve or an angle in the plan because you think it "looks" cool - my best project in school was a simple rectangular glass box. the location of the structure, core, offices, window mullions, etc. all had a strict order to them, but i had a morphic ramp that transversed through the space. the order in the rest of the building made the ramp a more powerful element in the project - the animal of the project. BTW i find it much easier to design a library than a house (at least when you get real clients involved) - more freedom.
dont try to reinvent the wheel...use ideas by people smarter than you and claim them as your own...
indeed vado - submit to the tyranny of geometry for a while before you (hopefully) break free.
I never got over the frustration....
www.quondam.com\37\3613.htm
....hence "Complex Ichnography and Contradictory Contentment"
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