Swimming Hole: Design Development of Facade & Landscape

1. Further Research

1)  Exterior finishing material  Rock

①The material is the rock from the painting 'the Swimming Hole'( Eakins, 1885).

(the Swimming Hole, painted by Thomas Eakins,1885)

Since the source of this project is a scene describing a natural environment, I plan to select some elements of this painting to add to my design, such as rocks. I used the rock as my exterior wall decoration, a rock hidden among the trees, which is a very natural scene.

② Possible facade example: 

Rock House / 33bY Architecture

The outer surface is composed of regular long thin Windows and horizontal Windows.

2) Other Materials: 

①Steel, glass, reinforced concrete: common materials in modern architecture.

② Their facade:

Cube Hotel / SU Architects

Or

ANNSO Hill Hotel / STUDIO QI

2. Facade development

1) Import Sketchup from CAD

2) Modelling 

① Key points of exterior surface design:

---The dining area of the restaurant is as fully glazed as possible to make it open and transparent, allowing guests to enjoy the surrounding scenery.

---The internal side of the winding corridor connecting the guest room area and the hall should be completely open without walls. The external side of the wall should be built with thin Windows or hollow bricks.

---The guest room balcony area is grated with black steel.

---Skylight is opened at the top of the stairs to increase lighting and space richness.

To sum up, the side facing the lake or garden should be as wide open as possible, and the side facing the road should be as wide open as possible.

② Vertical setting

There is only one floor for the lobby and cafe area, two floors for the standard parts area and three floors for the suite area.

3) Whole effort

3. Landscape

1) The existing landscape of the site

Green circles represent taller trees, 

Orange circles represent some shrubs, 

White circles represent hillsides.

There is also an old concrete platform on the hillside.

2）Landscape strategy

• Staying the trees, some of the bushes, and clear out the messy bushes.
• Maintaining the general slope of the hill, eliminate part of the hill to build a small number of parking spaces
• The terraces on the hillside are surrounded by vines. To create a new landscape, the railing at the edge of the platform is covered with vines.
• The building's opened courtyard has a sink and loads of trees on the other side near the kitchen.

3) Whole effort

Reference:

The existing landscape map of the site is from Google.

González, M. F. (2017) Rock House / 33bY Architecture. [Online]. Available from:  https://www.archdaily.com/888121/rock-house-33by-architecture?ad [ Accessed 03/09/2020].

Han. S. (2019) ANNSO Hill Hotel / STUDIO QI. [Online]. Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/920134/annso-hill-studio-qi?ad [ Accessed 03/09/2020].

Han. S. (2020) Cube Hotel / SU Architects. [Online]. Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/944504/cube-hotel-su-architects?ad [ Accessed 03/09/2020].

Swimming Hole: Design Development of Floor plan (II)

1. Further Research

1) Spiral stairs

Stairs width less than 1M

2）Restaurant plane

PRY1 Retreat Hotel / Research Studio Panin

Ground Floor Plan

The restaurant and bar are located on the ground floor of  'PRY1 Retreat Hotel'.

The dining room is divided into two parts: one for the kitchen and the other for the dining area. The kitchen is basically divided into the storage room, cooking area, dining area.

2. Floor plan development

1) Continuing with the previous floor plan layout

I inserted the guest room into the floor plan.

2) Inserting staircase 

At the three nodes at the head, tail and middle of the L-shaped accommodation area, the common areas are inserted into the stairwells and activity rooms as the transfer and communication areas for hotel guests.

As the standard room has only two floors, it can be evacuated by the spiral staircase, and the spiral staircase has the characteristics of beautiful shape and space-saving, which is suitable for the hotel stairs. Therefore, I designed the first staircase as a spiral staircase with an outer radius of 3.9m and an inner radius of 2.5m. 

The other stairs are standard two-run stairs.

3)  Altering form

Maltseva, Kaganovich and Lorentz (2018) note that the design should not only be beautiful, energy-saving, economical, in line with ergonomics and ecology, but also consider the full integration of architecture and nature, which can be in the form of integrating nature into urban civilization or embedding objects into the natural environment.

In order to further realize the idea of a building embedded environment, I modified the shape to create an irregular courtyard.

4) Hall layout

As the previous prototype shows, the height of the hall is too low for the flat dimensions of the hall. I also hope to design a dining area on the roof of the hall and the cafe, and the cafe is next to the hall, which can be set up with a spiral staircase leading to the roof. As a result, the hall should not be too high. Finally, I chose to insert a glass atrium in the centre of the hall (the atrium is the landscape), which not only increases the lighting but also divides the space and reduces the lack of height of the hall.

5) Coffee shop layout

The cafe consists of a dining area, a bar and a kitchen. The kitchen is divided into two rooms, one for storage, another for a food processing area. The bar is located between the kitchen and the dining area and is connected to the kitchen through a window opening. The goods enter the storage room from the lower gate, and the delivery time and the guests' mealtime are staggered.

In addition, I will have a dining area with some landscape on the roof, because it helps people to have a better sense of nature. Thus, I will have a spiral staircase leading to the roof of the dining room. 

6) Summary 

References:

González, M. F. (2017) Rock House / 33bY Architecture. [Online]. Available from:  https://www.archdaily.com/888121/rock-house-33by-architecture?ad [ Accessed 03/09/2020].

Maltseva, I.N., Kaganovich, N.N. and Lorentz, T.A. (2018) The integrating of architecture and nature into environmental objects in mountainous terrain, IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering, vol. 365.

González, M. F. (2017) Rock House / 33bY Architecture. [Online]. Available from:  https://www.archdaily.com/888121/rock-house-33by-architecture?ad [ Accessed 03/09/2020].

Peer Website Review

My classmates and I exchanged opinions on each other's website,

Her website address: Here

1. What do you think of the homepage?

I like the home image, because of the soft colour in the picture.

But I don't think there seems to be a need to explain to anyone why to chose this picture, and may also need to add some explanation of the overall site theme.

2. Is the navigation bar clear and easy to use?

Yes

3. What did you think of the galleries/portfolio pages? Consider the design, ease of use, and how well the work is presented? 

The picture is clear and easy to be seen. 

But I think there is a lack of interpretation of the work.

 

4. What do you think of the biography?  Is it well written? Is there any spelling or grammatical errors?  Does it give you a good impression of the person?

The personal introduction is clear and clear, but it lacks some explanation for her major or design idea.

5. Is there a contact page? Is this well presented and easy to find?

Yes, easy to find it.

6. Do all social media links work?

Yes

7. Any other comments?

I don't understand why the project outcomes should be made into a store model.

Swimming Hole: Artist Statement

1. To write an artist's statement consider the following questions

• What is your work about? Are there dominant themes?
• How do you create your work?  What medium and methods/techniques do you use?
• Why do you make this work and what are your influences?

2. Content:

I am an architect. I have conceptual designs for hotels, galleries and art galleries, and I have been engaged in residential design during my work. Architectural design is a process and system that starts from its own function, the spirit of the site, the needs of users and other aspects to achieve a kind of integration of architecture and natural landscape and create a comfortable, beautiful spiritual experience, which is also my expectation of the practicality of architecture. In the process of design, I usually use pencil or pen to add tracing paper to develop my initial ideas through my sketching skills and then deepen my design on the software, such as Photoshop, Sketchup, AutoCAD, Adobe Illustrator. 

For me, the design has always been a journey full of wonderful scenery. From the initial idea to the final shape, it is a process of self-struggle and thinking, as well as a process of communicating with customers or others. Although I haven't built work so far, I hope to see one in the future.

Swimming Hole：Prototype & Model Research

1. Prototype

1) Metarial 

I applied to A3 PVC boards, paper, an art knife and glue to make the physical model. 

When I was in China, I used a kind of the white board to make the model. I seem to remember that the board is called the PVC board. When the delivery arrived, I found that it was not the same material as the board I imagined. But I don't have enough time to wait for a new board, so this time I try to make a simple model with PVC board and see how it works.

I bought 5 mm thick PVC board.

2) Making process

I forgot to take a picture of the process. 

I first drew a line draft on the PVC board according to the previous design, then cut pieces according to the line draft, and finally stuck them together with glue

3) outcome

This is a simple 1:300 model, which indicates the relationship between volume size and height. It is made of a PVC board that consists of a few millimetres of styrofoam sandwiched between two white smooth paper faces.

3) Reflection

After making this model, I found that the PVC board I bought was too thick and it was not easy to make fine models because this PVC board is easy to cut the edge is not even and there is no way to smooth it. Maybe my handiwork is not efficient, I need to find videoes to learn how to make the model again. But this kind of core is easy to peel off the foam plastic material may be suitable for surface modelling. 

For this model, I felt that the vertical height of the hotel's public areas (the two large squares on the model) was too low relative to the horizontal.

2. Model Research

1. English name of model material (from website)

Perspex

Sulphite Paper

Card Stock

Paper Board / Chip Board

Madeira balsa

Foam

2. videos of making model

1) 'Architecture Model Making Tips - Part 2'(30X40 Design Workshop. 2019)

This shows what materials are used and how to make a physical building model by making a model.

It's always easy to look at this designer cutting model material, but When I cut model material, I always cut it aslant, and then I need to sandpaper to polish it.

2)  'A comprehensive guide to using foamboard to make wargames terrain' (TheTerrainTutor, 2014)

This video shows you some modelling tips, such as how to cut a model, how to make a surface, etc. It is very practical.

Image references:

Reddy, G. (2017) Materials commonly used for scale models. [Online] Available from: https://www.gcreations.co.uk/materials-commonly-used-for-scale-models [Accessed: 19/08/20]

Pereira, M. (2018) The Best Materials for Architectural Models. Online] Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/904379/best-materials-for-architectural-models Accessed: 19/08/20]

Video references:

to be updated

Swimming Hole: Design Development of Floor Plans (I)

In this blog, I will introduce the process and development of my floor plan design and my research on it.

1. Architecture: form, space, & order' Ching(2014)

1) Architectural from

As ' The design of Cities' of Edmund(1974) states( cited in Ching, 2014), 'Architectural form is the point of contact between mass and space … Architectural forms, textures, materials, modulation of light and shade, colour, all combine to inject a quality or spirit that articulates space. The quality of the architecture will be determined by the skill of the designer in using and relating these elements, both in the interior spaces and in the spaces around buildings.'

The image is a screenshot.

2) The formation mechanism of space

The image is a screenshot.

2.Building Orientation Research

1) Room orientation: For hotels or residences, it is important.

The position of the sun in the UK

According to Naturalnavigator(n.d.) states, 'in the middle of a UK summer, when the North Pole is tilted towards the sun, the sun will rise north of east, and we are not talking about a couple of degrees. It will be close to the northeast in Britain in late June. Similarly, in late December it will rise much closer to southeast than east. The difference between sunrise directions in midsummer and midwinter is a whopping 90 degrees!'

2)Summary:

Based on the short summer and long winter in England, I chose the guest room facing northeast. But, the site is northwest facing, so I took the guest rooms parallel to the base, but the overall layout of the rooms was offset by some Angles.

The guest rooms are arranged in a single row, facing the water on one side and the garden on the other.

3. Further research of the previous case

 1) ANNSO Hill Hotel / STUDIO QI

The guest room of the hotel is transformed from a regular square room into an irregular room with multiple views.

This is the interior space I wanted, with all-white walls, while the interior may be plain coloured, which will highlight the view from the window.

4. Development of Floor Plans

1) Electronic map

(Fig. 1, the screenshots from Sketchup software)

Green block: park;

Red block: site

Blue block: Solar river

Grey block: road

2) Axis Net: 8M *8M

'A grid organization consists of forms and spaces whose positions in space and relationships with one another are regulated by a three-dimensional grid pattern or field.'( 

Because the size of the guest room is 8M*8M. I first create a set of the axis net, whose size of a unite is 8M*8M, covered the whole site.

Red lines: Axises

White lines: Site

3) Initial site layout

I would like to design a hotel with buildings and gardens interspersed with each other.

①The first version:

②The second version 

The upper part is the L-shaped guest room area, and the next part is the staggering public area of two squares.

4) Guest room layout

One of the most important parts of a hotel is the guest room.

1) Suit layout

(The orange block is the suite area)

According to previous orientation studies, the suite area is aligned with the sun, so the interior of the room must be shifted at an Angle

So I'm going to show two options, and pick option two.

①

All the functions of the scheme are divided into cubicles, which doesn't give me the sense of unity that I want.

②💕

On the basis of full functionality, this solution is more suitable than the previous one for the feeling of internal unity.

2) Standard Room layout

(The yellow block is the standard room area)

According to the previous orientation study, the standard room is facing the sun, so the normal layout will be fine.

References:

Naturalnavigator, (n.d.) How to navigate using the Sun. [Online] Available from: https://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/sun/ [Accessed 19/08/20]

Han. S. (2019) ANNSO Hill Hotel / STUDIO QI. [Online]. Available from: https://www.archdaily.com/920134/annso-hill-studio-qi?ad [Accessed 19/08/20]

Ching, F.D.K. (2014) Architecture: form, space, & order, Fourth Edn, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.