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CONTENTS SITE 1

FRAME 2

LANDFORM 3

ASSEMBLAGE 4

NARRATIVE AND COLLAGE 5

SUPERIMPOSITION COLLAGE AND PLAN 6

FINAL PRESENTATION 7

SITE IMPROVEMENTS:

• CONSISTENT COLOUR SCHEME

• TITLE BLOCKS ADDED TO EACH MAP

• BOARDERS ADDED (WHERE EVIDENCE OF BOOK SCAN USED TO BE)

• ORIENTATION • CLEARER SURROUNDING

BUILDINGS • BAR SCALE ADDED TO

ALLOW FOR RESIZING

FRAME

‘FRAME’ WAS MY SECOND PROJECT UNDERTAKEN IN DESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS. IT WAS ALSO MY FIRST EVER ATTEMPT AT MODELLING. ALTHOUGH I FELT THAT I ACHIEVED THE BRIEF, IT WAS CLEAR THAT I HADA LOT TO ACHIEVE TECHNICALLY AND THEORETICALLY AFTER ATTEMPTING THIS DESIGN. INSTEAD OF THINKING OF AN IDEA AND ATTEMPTING TO MODEL TO THAT IDEA, I SHOULD HAVE ATTEMPTED TO MODEL FIRST AND FORM AN IDEA BASED ON THIS. ESPECIALLY DUE TO THE FREEDOM OF THE BRIEF AND NATURE OF THE ASSIGNMENT. THIS MODEL WAS EXTREMELY TIME CONSUMING DUE TO THE VARIOUS PARTS AND ASPECTS THAT HAD TO BE TRIALLED TO ACHIEVE THE OVERALL EFFECT. I LEARNT A LOT ABOUT MATERIALITY AND STRUCTURE THROUGH THIS MODEL HOWEVER WISH I HAD EXPERIEMTNED WITH BEAMS, LATHES, JOINTS AND FRAMES THAT DID NOT REQUIRE GLUE TO CREATE A BETTER FOUNDATION OF THIS UNDERSTANDING FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEMESTER.

LANDFORM THIS MODEL WAS MY FAVOURITE TO MAKE.I ALLOWED MYSELF TIME TO CREATE AND RECREATE MY MODEL INSTEAD OF ONLY BEING ABLE TO GO WITH MY FIRST IDEA – WHICH I FEEL IS REALLY EVIDENT IN THE END PRODUCT. MY TECHNICAL SKILLS WERE ABLE TO IMPROVE GIVING THE END PRODUCT A NICE CRISP FEELING. I EXPERIMENTED WITH CONTRASTING COLOURS IN THIS MODEL TO SEE THE EFFECT IT HAD ON THE SUBTRACTION AND EXTRUSTION AND WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS. IN MY PORTFOLIO I HAVE VERY OBVIOUSLY ADDED AND ALTERED MY TITLE BLOCK AND ANNOTATIONS TO REFLECT MY PROGRESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF PRESENTATION I’VE GAINED OVER THE SEMESTER AND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS FOR OVERALL AESTHETIC FOR A VIEWER AND TO COMPLIMENT MY DESIGN.

ASSEMBLAGE: DISJUNCTION

ASSEMBLAGE (DISJUNCTION) POSED ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES TO ME AS ALL MY MODELS PREVIOUS TO THIS HAD BEEN BASED ON COMPOSITIONAL STABILITY AND BALANCE. IN CHOOSING DISJUNCTION I ATTEMPTED TO SUBVERT THIS WAY OF THINKING AND PRODUCE A DESIGN THAT EVOKED TENSION, FRAGILITY AND DISCOMFORT. IN AN ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE MY ORIGINAL WORK, I HAVE ADDED BORDERS TO THE PLAN AND SECTIONS TO MAKE SURE EVERY ASPECT LOOKS DELIBERATE AND A TITLE BLOCK.

Starting small and slow, the rain grows. It gets bigger. Louder. The thousands of people begin to run, sacrificing documents for their hair in the downfall. The paths and the gardens, once bright and full, are now being pounded by the rain. No one to shelter it. The population congregates under anything they can find. The proximity of bodies causes tension; no one speaks as they meet under the roofs, alcoves and eaves. Eyes glued to phones that can’t withstand their surroundings, the tension grows with every nudge, another body trying to fit in the limited space. The deafening sound of the unrelenting drops slamming on the tin above them and the ground around them. Until, release. The clouds open. The public part without a goodbye.

NARRATIVE AND COLLAGE

SUPERIMPOSITION COLLAGE

SUPERIMPOSITION PLAN

This superimposition collage was the first time I attempted gimp. I had initially attempted to do it on trace and using a light box however realised it would be impossible to capture the detail of each individual component. Although it may have been possible to create a layered singular item, I knew I would struggle when trying to create my plan. I used a combination of layering, removing background colour and creating transparency to produce the final result. Although at the time I did not completely understand what I was doing; I am now extremely pleased that I did not limit myself to aspects I could trace and kept all the detail possible in my collage. I feel if I didn’t do this my plan would not have been able to emerge as successfully as it did.

The plan that emerged out of my collage was found by using a light box and tracing at first all details I could make out. I did not omit anything to make the task ‘easier’ for myself, however I now see that there are a lot of interesting moments I missed out on my immediately attempting to create a defined pathway through my design. I feel this really limited my options for the resulting space. If I had incorporated the textures or continued to work with the lines in my pathways I think my final design could have been a lot more compositionally interesting than it turned out to be. Although I am happy with the design I produced; I realise there was room to further explore components such as subtraction and extrusion and creating experience or program out of the space and design I had made, instead of forcing it into my design with structures.

FINAL PRESENTATION PROGRAM: MEET MATERIAL: CONCRETE

FINAL PRESENTATION

FINAL PRESENTATION

FINAL PRESENTATION AND REFLECTION

WRITTEN SPEECH: Turning my superimposition plan into my final design, I Had to negotiate my brief and what already existed in the area. I didn’t want to impede on the activity already occurring in the area so I made a spatio-temporal diagram to visualize and understand how it is already being used. The patterns that emerged show a strong link between people using the area between 12 and 3 in both March and May irrespective of the cold weather; however, although there were people in the area, they weren’t utilizing the space to meet. Although this could have indicated a relationship with the weather, other popular areas in the university for ‘meeting’ such as the areas near the Sidney Asia Centre, the MSD and long royal parade were still getting heavy use during these times where union square was abandoned.

In order to mitigate this, I have included various things in my design to encourage, facilitate and enable people to meet in the area. Landmarks

• Pyramid structure • Subtracted ‘nook’

Utility • Planter boxes around the seating areas to be filled with edible flora, in an attempt

to encourage use of the area as an outdoor meeting space for meals • Solar panel seating areas where students can meet for group assignments or

special interest group meetings – this was especially in reaction to the overcrowding occurring across the campus at areas with power points

• Reflexology path Privacy

• Areas within my design provide areas of privacy for meetings • Alcove area where 3 people can comfortably sit • Pods around the trees that allow separate groups to occupy space away from

major corridors used by the majority of people moving through the space Experience

• Although I didn’t want to obstruct the popular walkway, in my superimposition plan I saw opportunity to direct the users along a designated path to experience the area, instead of simply walking through it.

• I wanted the transition to be seamless from the concrete structures that surround the MSD so that people would overflow from these sometimes crowded areas into the new space I have created. Thus I have applied similar types on concrete to the structures on my design

(SPEECH CONT) Considering the area is a university I wanted to create an open space that would also facilitate the meetings of special interest groups, societies and teams; which is why there is so much open space, however separated into areas so that each group can conduct their meetings separately. Although this program was very straightforward it produced a challenge in attempting to cater for meetings, but not impede the mobility of the population that were using this space as a passage throughout the day. This limited my ability to form structures in the area, however still needing to give the space direction and accessibility for this program that it is currently lacking.

RETROSPECTIVE REFLECTION FOR FINAL PRESENTATION: Although I met the brief, I understand there are still areas for vast improvement. My model I felt did not showcase the visual plans and drawings I had created and could have been improved upon greatly. Furthermore, the actual content included in my design in retrospect were perhaps an attempt to ‘force’ program onto the area, if I were to do the design again, I would focus on encouraging the program by creating possibility and potential within the design for users to utilise the area as most appropriate for their purposes.

AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE SUBJECT: Overall, I believe I have produced work that I am proud to submit and have completed to the best of my ability, however, over the past 12 weeks there have been various areas I have understood I need to improve upon and continue developing. These include but are not limited to:

• Technical skill: GIMP, use of materials (glue and foamcore) • Immersion: Although I attended all lectures, completed all readings and even looked to

design publications (Dezeen) and books, I now know that this cannot be enough. High quality design requires total immersion in both content and understanding of what we are doing and our designs reflect our inspirations that we must seek out ourselves.

• Time management: Allowing ample time is critical for development, the designs that stood out to me were clearly the ones that more time and care had been taken on. Design isn’t a subject that can be rushed or crammed, but requires refinement and development throughout the process of design to achieve a final model.