Print it out to mark it up

by workbymichelletodd

With the final days of the semester approaching, our studio had a collaborative pin-up so that we could provide each other insight on what we think would improve and enhance our projects. While input from peers is very important and can be very valuable in driving the design process, sometimes a pin-up is valuable in that it forces you to step back and be critical about your own work. It never fails that something looks differently from 10 feet away than it does on your computer screen or 2 feet in front of you pinned up at your desk. To prepare for the pin-up on Friday, I created two rendered images that reveal my technique that I intend to use for my final project. By having to print them out, as well as my plans, views for perspectives,  and sections, errors and improvements can be noticed more readily than if they are kept on the computer screen. With this pin-up I have realized corrections I need to make in order to make my presentation that much better for the final review.

Counting down the days, tallying up the edits

by workbymichelletodd

Now that it has set in that we only have 22 days until our final review (including Thanksgiving), it has become very evident that what issues remain in my design need to be resolved. The majority of my process has been allocated to designing the courtsets and how they function as individual volumes while also providing a sense of cohesiveness. However, because most of my time was dedicated to resolving issues associated with that aspect, my entry volume had been neglected and it had become that it was stagnant and safe. The entry volume was not captivating or dynamic like the rest of my design and in result was weakening the overall presence of my building. So, for the past week I have been looking at ways to clad the volume and punch openings to make it read more dynamic. While that provided improvement, it did not provide solution.  With this in mind, I went into the weekend ready to attack this entry volume head on, determined to find a solution that worked with the concept of my building, while reading as a prominent entrance. I went through 5 iterations of working with facade details and after that 5th iteration, I came up with an entirely new design for the entry volume. Once I came up with this solution, I worked with the model on the site so that I can begin to address the landscape around the courthouse.

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Building in site

The Art of Refining

by workbymichelletodd

When speaking of design, many think of the process for approaching design. While process is referred to as an entity, it is often not spoken of in finite divisions of process. At this point of the semester the portion of process where the design was originated and was rapidly changed has transitioned into the phase of refinement. I have finally approached a plan that I am confident in and so now it is about making the spaces designed that much better so that the project can be a strong example of my design capabilities. At this point in the project, I have introduced an atrium to house my central stair and have began to think of materials to fortify the symbolism behind my building as well has create a cohesive, yet expressive exterior that reflects the functionality of the interior. In reflection it has seemed that the beginning phases of design, such as conceptual thinking, are easier because it is very evident where improvement is needed. As the project is progressing, I am finding that I am becoming attached to certain aspects and gradually I am realizing that this can be detrimental to the progress of the project. Sometimes it is critical to step back and re-analyze what defines the project and really fortify those aspects.

 

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.

The Process of Programming

by workbymichelletodd

While I have concluded on a desired massing, the struggle now lies within figuring out a programmatic sequence that will allow for comfort and ease within the building as well as create a massing that is similar to what I desire. Because the volumes of each floor are push and pulled, the circulation becomes complex. The logical way to start planning was to create a central core of circulation that includes the elevator, as well as bathrooms, so that each floor has one central node about which the courtrooms are planned. This core begins to function a vertical axis about which the building is planned. The second key aspect that becomes even more complex because of my desired massing is the separation of circulation for the in-custody defendant transport and public circulation. Because these two paths should never cross, they must be developed as their own entities, which makes the programming more difficult.

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Variance in privacy and promoting walkability

by workbymichelletodd

For the design of my courthouse, my approach has been different than my typical strategy. Instead of working in plan first, I worked in 3D form through modeling. Now that I have decided on a massing that seemed aesthetic and capture the essence of my idea, I have moved onto plan. Working in a reverse order from what I am used to has posed its challenges considering I want to remain as true as possible to the form I have developed, but because of programmatic reasons, the design is shifting slightly. While working with the programmatic spaces, I am trying to sort out the spaces by privacy. The greater the privacy needs, the higher the floor. To help carry the idea of walkability from the future urban plan into my courthouse, I am also trying to key in on the circulation of my building. With the introduction of a entrance volume that projects into the public realm of the sidewalk, passer-bys can be lured into the building, where they can access a kitchen that will provide jobs to the people who live around the courthouse. This kitchen will provide a space that allows people to interact with the building even if they are not there for legal purposes.

In these diagrams, the orange objects are courtrooms, the light blue spaces are jury deliberation rooms, the red is the circulation column, the yellow are the judge’s chambers, the light grey are support spaces and the dark blue is the kitchen. The image on the far right is a composite of all of the plans.

“Do you Plead Guilty to Being a Jerk?” An insight to courtrooms

by workbymichelletodd

To be completely honest, I had no clue what to really expect when I went to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse to observe trials. Maybe this uncertainty was fueled by the romanticized situations perpetuated by t.v., in which I had convinced myself, that cannot be real life. While the cases were not as dramatic as a show, say “Judge Judy,” there was still quite a bit of interesting events that ensued in court.

Let me begin with the general scheduling of a courthouse. Everyone, well almost everyone, goes on lunch between noon and 2 p.m. Within these hours, everything seems to seize and desist in the courthouse. What was remaining were the lawyers scrambling to balance getting lunch, with getting facts, and finding that one more person to represent. There were a few security officers roaming around keeping the place in check, but all in all, things became rather stagnant during those hours. Once lunch was over, there was an influx of people entering the courthouse, waiting outside the courtrooms, and an urgency to get trials moving.

The second general observation: security at the courthouse is almost more rigid than at the airport. It seems as though their detectors are a little more sensitive to metal. The organization of security was very clear, escorting the different types of populations and sorting them by signs, leading the public one way and workers through another. There is a definite variance of the number of officers present in each type of court. The greater the crime, the greater the presence of security, and typically the higher the floor you are on (in acceptance to family court).

On to the court cases. The first set of cases that I observed were what I was originally informed was going to be traffic court. Soon to find out, this was erroneous information (the clerk of court didn’t really seem connected to the proceedings of the building). It turns out that they were hearings to set court dates as well bail amounts for suspects already in jail. All suspects, but two, were shown on t.v., in which the judge spoke through a monitor, rapidly going through paper, handing down court dates, asking for pleas, and assigning bail amounts. Most of the criminals seemed to be in their situation because of probation violations. Within this courtroom, there was a rapid set pace. To keep up with the vast quantity of paper work to be filtered, there were 3 clerks to help. There were numerous lawyers standing around waiting for their clients papers to surface in the stack just to make a brief statement. Within this set of proceedings, the judge also decided if suspects/criminals should be appointed a lawyer, an interpreter, or both. The scale of this courtroom was smaller, the ceilings were lower, and the circulation seemed to be controlled to the periphery of the courtroom rather than the center. The volume in this court seemed to be greater than all of the others, but because of its smaller size, it was still easy to discern what the judge was communicating (which, by the way, he had the greatest sense of humor. He even asked if someone plead guilty to being a jerk).

The next set of proceedings that I sat in on were misdemeanor drug charges. The first thing that I happened to notice when I walked in was that all of the arresting officers were present where you would think a jury would be present. The layout of this courtroom seemed a little different than the previous courtroom. Instead of the judge’s bench being centered in the room, it was off to the side. Also, there was a witness stand included in the room, unlike in the first room. The circulation was directed differently, bisecting the center of the room, controlling the circulation to be down the center. This courtroom also included a greater amount of doors leading into the courtroom, varying in function from judge’s entrance to emergency exit. The security was more rigorous in this courtroom with a greater amount of bailiffs present. These bailiffs actually seemed interested in the happenings of the public observants. I was even questioned about why I was drawing plans in my sketchbook. I then proceeded to explain my purpose and apparently the bailiff was joking, but he had me going. The manner in which court was conducted in this room was a little difficult to follow. It seemed as though lawyers were making deals and submitting them the clerk instead of proceeding through a judge. There was a lot of chattering, which made it difficult to hear what exactly was happening. Combine that with the larger space and higher ceilings, there was a poor reverberation of sound.

The last set of cases that I observed were federal drug cases, including crimes such as distributing cocaine. The layout of this courtroom was the most elaborate. There was a larger amount of doors to control the circulation of those in the trial. There were fewer people present from the public. Most of the people who were sitting behind the bar were family there as leverage to persuade the judge to assign a lesser sentence. While both the defendant and the public prosecutor (in this case the District Attorney) were present, they were not their to present evidence for conviction, but evidence to determine the sentencing. The criminals were put into shackles to be processed immediately following their arraignment. Because the courtroom seemed to be used for arraignments, there was no fixed jury seating.

Overall, the general synopsis of how the courthouse is organized is in the following way: the higher the floor, the fewer the public observants, but the larger the  courtroom, the greater the security.

Layering law with community: Playing with more “legos”

by workbymichelletodd

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Following through with the approach of creating massing of my courthouse through a “lego” modular, I have pushed to create effects in my massing that reveal a sense of layering between the different volumes. Through my process, I have come to realize that all forms of law support itself and removing one part of law can create instability. With this thought, I began to find solutions that create a sculptural design so that it seems if one volume were to be removed, the building would no longer function and stand on its own. This philosophy also applies to the merger of law and community, revealing a symbiotic relationship between the two.

Legos are a lesson in process

by workbymichelletodd

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It becomes interesting to see how childhood past-times link into later life. As a child, I passed many hours playing Legos with my brother, constructing and taking down. This approach has now proven to be beneficial in my quests to determine massing of court-sets.

The first two concepts that were completed, had a primary focus on how to achieve daylighting in a courtroom, something that can seem counter-intuitive to preserving safety and security. However, these two forms became to domesticated in appearance and seemed to cary no meaning to the site and the surrounding community.

From here, I took on the approach of designing my concepts in a similar manner as playing with Legos. I build volumes and create combinations of volumes until something seems to work well with what I am trying to achieve in my building. Upon deeper thinking, I concluded what I wanted to achieve in my building. I want to reveal an order in terms of privacy, with the most public spaces facing the public in terms in height and footprint. I also wish to achieve a strong correlation to my site analysis. The use of shifting linear forms in my site analysis led to my aspiration to have shifting volumes to create shared spaces, overlapping volumes to create outdoor spaces, highlighting the three different court types, and allowing for large surfaces to be oriented to the north and south to allow for daylighting. With these generic parameters, I have created a sequence of massing models to create a path to finding the best solution.

Walkability and Success of a Community

by workbymichelletodd

When first approaching a creative site analysis, I was overwhelmed with all of the raw data that speaks of the community of Ashley Park, but not for Ashley Park. While the demographics are helpful in studies, what I found to speak to me after visiting the site was how vast and discontinuous it seems even though there is a relative close proximity. This realization led me to become interested in the walkability of the site and how that can be connected into the success and well being of a community. With the future hopes to promote pedestrian activity comes the ambition to create a community that is more urban and helps promote a stronger community. The aims is to introduce walkability as a branch of community by promoting interaction.

With this in mind, I began to construct a creative interpretation of the site analysis. Because Bryant Park and the Charlotte School of Law Building are anchors and more staid on the site, they are a more permanent and prominent color indicating how they create strongholds on the site. To indicate the retail/commercial aspects, the pieces are indicated in a red hue. The residential components are yellow. The lighter the red hue, the more removed it is from the residential areas, relating a decrease in walkability. The lighter color of yellow indicates less dense, single family housing; the bolder yellow indicates high density residential areas. By placing these colors together, there is an interaction revealed, indicating the strong sites to introduce a potential courthouse that can compliment the area. By constructing this piece on a plexi, there is a stacking effect showing the contrast between the existing (bottom of the plexi) and the proposed site modifications (on top of the plexi).