Swimming Hole: Further Research of Design Information

I intend to explore the integration of architecture and nature through hotel design. 

1. Target Market: For Hotel

1) Thinking based on the status quo of the site

①Target: For whom was the hotel designed?

Tourists who walk or drive around the city centre, those parks near River Solar, or attractions near the site.

②Why?

This is based on my own experience. When I passed this island on my way to Abbey Park, I found that it was a little bit desolate, but the scenery was nice. On this stretch of the  River Soar, there are few buildings for tourists to rest in, and I felt a little tired on this stretch and needed some rest facilities.

So it's a good idea to build a hotel in the middle of the river that can serve guests for short periods of time (a day, two hours, or a few hours),

2) Some research data on hotels

① According to the Valuation Office Agency( n.d., cited in Designingbuildings, n.d.) in the UK, most hotels can be classified as:

For the target mentioned above, the hotel on my base are small independent hotels

3) How does it affect the design?

For the convenience of visiting residents or non-residents, the hotel should have an open coffee shop and an internal activity lounge where guests can socialize and relax. As a small independent hotel, there should be a certain number of suites and standard rooms within the hotel, the ratio of which is 1:1, because the tourists to the nearby parks or attractions are mostly families. As there are also some parking spaces nearby, the hotel only needs to provide a small number of parking spaces.

2. Function arrangement & Scale

Based on the analysis of the target market, I set the functions and scale of some hotels.

Site area: 8,400㎡ (with a small green area and some trees)
Building storey: 3 floors
Building height: 10m

Guest area: 1000-2000㎡
                  standard rooms: 4m*8m, per room
                  suits: 8m* 8m, per room
                  hall: 120㎡( with reception)
                  activities room & garden
                  lift & stairs & walkways

Public & stuff area: 500㎡

                               coffee shop: 150㎡ ( with toilet）
                               linen room: 30㎡
                              office: 300㎡
                              Kitchen: 50㎡
Parking spots: per spot 6㎡, the number of parking spaces equals the number of rooms.
Main building material: reinforced concrete, steel, glass and rock.

3. Skill & Technology

1)Software skills

I will use AutoCAD and Sketchup to design and draw architectural drawings and apply Photoshop to make presentation boards.

For example: drawing a floor plan.

Firstly, I opened the CAD and set up the work interface. 

Then, I set colours and layers for lines with different structures and effects.

(In the CAD, different colour lines are used to represent different structures on different 'layers'. )

Next, I set up the axis network and drew the wall according to my preliminary architectural draft.

Then, I derived building shapes and Spaces in Sketchup and modified my CAD drawings accordingly through various tools. such as the 'Extend','Trim'  and so on.

Next, I add architectural details such as doors, windows, homes, etc.

Finally, according to the architectural drawing specification, I added some text, landscape, and small labels.

2)Modelling skills

For research and practice on modelling skills,  I will post a blog about 'Prototype' to show this.

3)Building drawing skills

I will draw basic architectural drawings according to some architectural drawing specifications, such as floor plan, elevation and master plan. 

References:

Designingbuildings (n.d.) Hotel. [Online] Available from: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Hotel [Accessed 01/09/20].