Midlife Crisis

by cchlebda

Two days before midreview, my project underwent a midlife crisis.

After I finished my model Wednesday night, I reevaluated my design and realized that my courthouse, while highly functional, was incredibly boring. It had no “soul”–nothing that made it unique. It could have been any courthouse, anywhere. So, I went back to some of the original concepts I had at the beginning of the semester and thought about how these could make their way back into the project (“intertwining public and private spaces” and the idea of pulling the park over or through the building). I started sketching ideas that kept the existing functionality of the latest design iteration, while making the building much more interesting.

I realized that in my past few iterations, the lobby was like a completely separate building from the courtrooms, and I even had a thickened “wall” of circulation separating the two. When I modeled it, the lobby also seemed out of scale with the rest of the building. Moving forward, I want to bring the lobby/vertical circulation into the courtroom part of the building, giving the user more of a “choice” than just walking down a really long corridor to his final destination. I also want to experiment with different, crisscrossing paths within a central atrium, which will literally “intertwine public and private spaces” in an interesting way, similar to the public bridges that I was already starting to experiment with in the previous design’s atrium.

Level 1 – New Scheme

Level 2 – New Scheme

Mid-Review Process

by workbymariahroth

This past Friday was a crucial point within the semester, it was mid-review time!  I believe mid-review is an important stepping stone within the semester for a couple of reasons.  One it gives myself the opportunity to produce a fair amount of work on my design and then to take a step back and look it from afar; compared to staring at a computer screen or hunched over my desk working on models.  Two it gives my peers an opportunity to see my work and for me to see theirs, which I find can often be lost in the craziness of studio.  Third, is that new critics come in, observe my work, and give feedback.  I believe this is the most beneficial aspect of mid-review.

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Following my review I believe I have a very decent idea where to need to progress to throughout the rest of the semester.  I know I need to get back to the “slippage” and “steps” that I originally created in a former concept model.  This concept although appears slightly in the interior form of my courtroom does not progress the the exterior of the building.  An aspect that was lost throughout the introduction of all the other functions of the courthouse.  I believe that though this change will not be easy, but I am already on the correct path to make it happen.

 

Response to Progress

by workbymichelletodd

This past Friday was a critical point for the process of this project; it was the day of the mid-review. Up to this point I have gone through numerous iterations of pushing and pulling volumes in the attempt to create a building that appeared more dynamic than static, considering that my main objectives of this building are to convey some of the nature of law as well as promote walkability within the community. I have come to the conclusion over the past few weeks that law is a entity that pushes and pulls within itself. It is always responding to different conditions within the principles of the judicial system. I decided to focus on walkability within my project to promote ease for the local residents to engage with their community and be able to interact with a critical underpinning of community, which is law and the judicial process. From those two concepts, I have been pushing to create a building that spoke with a similar nature.

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As always, it is a good idea to occasionally have reviews from people who are not so involved with the project. This allows for opinions to be expressed from a different vantage than you may personally see with your project. In the process of this project I have pushed to create a building that has different plans for each level and each level responds to the prior so that the building looks different from every angle. However, from the review of the critics, it seems that I need to control and refine my concept. While the basis to my idea is good, I need to bring my ideas together and design a building rather than design 4 separate floors that create 4-1 story buildings stacked together. This advice has opened my eyes to the necessity of really expressing the common elements in plan through exterior strategies. I really need to dive into my plan and strengthen elements to work together so that their is recognizable familiarity from the exterior, which will make the building have a more comfortable environment within context and with the visitors.