Portfolio Design Studio 3

All praise to Allah who guides whomever He wills. If it was not for Him, studying architecture in RMIT would be an architorturing journey. Thank you Ya Rabb.

Design Studio 3, semester 1 2008

Studio : Image
Project : Library
Tutor : Sean McMahon

This semester has been quite the opposite to my previous semester's work. Now it was all about aesthetics of the facade, whereas then, it was 100% planning according to the program given. It was quite an experience, and unbelievably less stress.

The brief was to design a library. Program, site, urban planning, etc were all up to the students. However, the main focus in the studio was ornamentation. Usually the term ornamentation will be associated with medieval architecture, those old gothic buildings and what not. At least that was what I think before. Others might not agree, and they don't have to. Architecture is quite subjective in many ways.

Back to topic, this studio makes me realize that ornamentation does not necassarily mean medieval intricate design, because ornamentation simply means decoration. Therefore, whatever that makes a building beautiful, that's ornament.

It does not have to be structural, however in certain cases, there are architects who designed the structures to be ornamental, such as the Birdnest stadium in Beijing.

One of my favorite buildings is Airspace Tokyo by Thom Faulders Architecture. I've used it as a precedent for my design project.

Below are some of the renders I've produced for my final.

exterior views

detail view - facade close up

cafeteria / bookshop (ground floor)

discussion area (first floor)

void area (second floor)

reading/magazine area & children's area (first floor)

display area from computer terminals (first floor)

Oh yeah. We were also asked to do some research on libraries for this studio. So it was not just suka-suka / hentam sukati design. I visited 6 libraries all over Melbourne and surrounding suburbs (it was funnn) and sat there, asking the librarians how a library should be built, what do they suggest, observing the similarities in all the libraries that I've visited and what not. You can't really escape the research bit. It is vital to know everything that you need to know about what you are designing before going into the design process.

Well I guess there is nothing more that I can type here. Just trying to keep all my posts here short. People don't really read long articles, unless it is REALLY interesting. I wasn't able upload my drawings because the file size is massive. So maybe next time. Or come to RMIT Building 8 level 12 for the end of semester exhibition for architecture students (starting 25th of June 2008, 6pm). My work is somewhere up there. I hope no one will steal my 1:100 human models. They're super expensivvvveee.

Till then, wassalam wrm wbt.

(this post is supposed to be formally written, just like an online version of my portfolio. But, nevermind lah.)