Assignment one pt 2

DEFINE PROBLEM:

BRIEF

Who? the Client is Dublin City Council and the target are 3rd level education students, who are going to study interior landscape design,and the local community who

are going to enjoy the comunity garden on the roof top and use their own allotment. Results of survey and charts explained in the next paragraph.

What? the brief has 3 functions: A) School of interior landscape design B) community roof top garden C) administration and exhibition spaces

When? Works to commence in May

Where? 31-36 Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin 7

Why?The building occupies a space which used to belong to Dublin City Council and was used as a market place.

it was an important sapce for the local community: there a re a lor of residential buildings in the area and the market represented a focal meeting point for the

locals. Later in 2008 DMOD architects won the bid for the redevelopment of that site: construction works finished early in 2009 and the use of the building was going

to be offices. Despite being a commercial project, I don't think an office block is a good space for the community because most of the people living in the area won't

have access to the premises anyway. A place which used to belong to the locals has now closed its doors to the people of the area and only serves solicitors companies.

Another problem is that the entire third floor is still empty and it's currently a building site: this means that there is no need for more offcie space in the area

because no one is renting it, despite being a very central and attractive location.

How: use of sustainable ad durable materials, retention of existing structure approach.

RESEARCH:

 in order to better understand the target for my brief I sent out a survey to students of various institutions including Griffith College, UCD, KLC London and the Technical Institute for indoor gardening of San Francisco. It gave me information about the demographic group, their needs and wishes and their opinion and thoughts about the importance of indoor gardens. I have also conducted a primary research on three different typology buildings: the university of Salford Centenary Building - the building is divided in two separate wings with a central circulation space and glazing at both sides - , the school of architecture of Nantes - a system of external ramps leads all the way to the top floor/ the ground level is very well thought through as it cares for the students of the colege but also invites the community to join the premises with a hip cafeteria and an exhibition gallery - and at last the Zollverein school of design - very similar to the building im working on, both in size and shape/ there is a missed opportunity here fo a striking roof space: it could be a garden, a restaurant, a bar or simply an event/show space, but at the moment it's simply a lid to the building box.

I’m including the charts of the results of the survey to illustrate how I got to my target and my users’ needs.

IDEATE:

The initial concept for the design would be something related to nature. My initial ideas are  about scale and proportions. The idea is that:  an indoor garden brings the big trees from the big outside world into a small enclosed building > therefore nature becomes OUT OF SCALE. The initial visual concept would be that of recreating the feeling that the human eye gets whenever we look up to big tall trees. There is a big difference in scale and proportion and I think that this difference could be recreated using interior architectural features, like walls, floors and ceilings, but also through the use of materials, colours, light and textures.

Assignment one pt 1

Number 55

Studio Project.

The building I've chosen for my final studio project is located on 31- 36 Ormond Quay upper. It was completed in 2009 by DMOD architects. It is currently in use as offices and there's a shop on the ground floor. It is a four storey over basement building with two terraces and possibility for a roof garden on top. The south and  east facades have a limestone cladding, the north and part of the west ones show red bricks.The brief I've chosen is for a School of Interior Landscaping and Horticultural studies: it will also have a community roof garden and administration facilities. The brief relates entirely to my thesis so that helps me alot, especially when it comes to design the indoor garden in its technical details. The submission for the second chapter of the thesis was due last week and it was about technical requirements and details on how to build an interior garden.
The building is very user fiendly: it is a very new construction so it complies to all the newest Building Regs in terms of universal access design.The structure is rather irregular: bearing walls, stairs/lift core and a columns layout which varies every two floors.The research submission is due on the 30th. I have collected a good amount of responses through a survey I sent out to my friends, acquaintances and lecturers and students of UCD school of landscape architecture here in Dublin, KLC school of interior and garden design in London and The Technical Institute for Indoor Gardening in San Francisco.

        

Number 34

The genius of design - a summary.

"Something can always be better". Design is about problem solving but also aesthethics.It's a reflected image of its time, it depends alot on the economy, it dictates

trends and fashions. Good design has changed capitalism with mass production of goods and has introduced a globalisation in terms of materials and needs. Designers are

well inspired by craftsmen; the question is whether or not a quality craftsmanship product can be replicated by machines in mass production.At the beginning of the

Industrial revolution of the 19th century there was more appreciation for mass production as it was regarded as a new thing that could produce more goods for less,

thus serving more people. Notely the Draby iron pot in 1709 is iconic in those terms. later in 1839 fabric patterns designer W. Morris introduced the designers'

copyright and he went back to craftsmanship.Design has to be affordable for everyone, be "democratic". The object has to have a function first of all. The Bauhaus

school and Le Corbusier put function first ( the house as a "machine for living").
After the Second World War people started selling their "antiques". An iconic object from this era is the George carwardine Anglepoise lamp, born by a fusion between

design and engineering.
As opposed to european design, american design is more focused on the mainstream, rather than being exclusive (Dreyfuss designed "Joe and Josephine", figures based on

the average americans in order to deisgn around those measurements). from this time is also the invention of the roulett by W.Byam.
Blue prints of war - It explored design on the war front, such as weapons, which in the end are designed like all the other objects in terms of their ergonomics and

funciotnality. At this time Hitler understtod the power of design and communication and used it at his advantage as part of his regime propaganda.
60's & 70's - Chemistry led to Plastics, the greatest invention of this time in terms of materials. Everyday objects like the Tupperware kitchen  design were born at

this time. The 60's are also known as teh "plastics decade": plastic was fashionable, affordable and disposable.R.Day, Alessi, J.Colombo and V.Panton are all great

designers who contributed to history through the use of plastics. After the war Japan took on the leading role in the industry of electronics. Sony designed the

"Walkman" in 1979 which gave users freedom and liberation and promoted a more mobile way of living. Unfortunately for plastics they did not stand the test of time:

plastic it's a very brittle material, it ages very badly and it's not eco-friendly. As a reaction to plastic sustainability now is the main focus for designers.

Number 21

Visit to Tile Style.

Interesting class trip down to the biggest tiles showroom in Europe. Loads of information about natural and man made stone and all the process behind an impeccable tiling...

Number 13

Daintree building

Short stroll down to Pleasant place to look at the most sustainable building in Ireland.

Number 8

Open House weekend , Sunday - Dublin

For my thesis research John suggested I'd go visit the buildings at the Botanic Gardens and this time...I did have my camera,yaaay!
I had already been at the Gardens in first year, loooooong time ago, so it was good to go there again! They were as beautiful as I'd remember them, although I didn't see any fluffy pretty squirrel this time!
The tour they gave us was about the big green houses, in particular the restoration of the Palm House built by  James Boyd.the biggest challenge with green houses is that they expand with the heat and the change in temperature. When I say they expand I mean they expand A LOT! We're talking over 15 cm!!! So they invented a system of heating the glass over and over till it reached enough elasticity to cope with the unpredictable Irish weather and the humidity coming from the plants inside. Brilliant! In the past the interior tropical climate (oh, it was so nice to stand in there...!) had caused metal corrosion leading to a state of dangerous decay and instability of the columns. So they took the challenge: the whole complex was dismantled, removed off- site for restoration, returned to site, re-erected and new services were installed!In the finished building the rear stone building was retained and restored with new visitors access for the disabled and renewed service access to the internal Palm house gantry walkway (which plays an important structural role as it is used as reinforced lateral support that transfers the load onto the reconstructed rear wall, taking some stress away from the columns). The two side wings of the house were simultaneously restored along with the work to the central Palm House. To protect against new possible corrosion they used advanced modern painting technology which is more environmentally friendly and has a low permeability rate. The tour then moved on to the library, unfortunately they did not give us access but we stayed in the atrium and learnt about the very valuable collections they have (there's a book which , ten years ago, was worth over 10 millions Irish pounds....!) the thing that I liked the most about it tho it was - obviously - the use of the Golden Ratio in the glass partition of the facade. No wonder it looked beautiful...!