To Curve or Not

by fcahill

This week I moved from the courtroom set and delved into the program and looked at how to work the circulation of the private (judge), the public (us), and the in-custody defendant.  I began the week with a tower approach but as I understood the program more and how I wanted the circulation to work it morphed into more of a bar design.  Through sketches and models I began to work with the necessary space-relationships to see how the ideas of open and continuous movement worked/didn’t work through my models and sketches.

These begin look at the paired courtset plan from last week’s model.

The courtset begins to look at private v public and the spatial relationship between 2 courtrooms.

The paired courtrooms try to focus on ‘movement’ and a separation of private v public.

A separation of private and public is reached but is there still the idea of ‘movement’ present?

Cascading

by Anna Raines

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The addition of topography opened new avenues for exploring the various facets of “slipping” developed in earlier ideation models. Four “court-sets” cascade from the street down a hill, looking toward the Charlotte skyline. Oriented North, this aggregation of court-sets aims to utilize the courtroom thresholds generated previously with the path of the sun to highlight the passage of time during the court experience. Glimpses and reveals between and through the massing model blocks articulate the quality of “spaces between”; the sense of successive frames simultaneously separating and connecting each space.

Intertwining Public and Private

by cchlebda

As I continue to develop study models and examine the courthouse program, I am becoming increasingly interested in blending or interweaving public and private spaces of the courthouse in order to make court and the law seem more accessible to the public. Though the private spaces of the courthouse (judge/staff/in-custody/etc.) have to be completely separated from public spaces for functional and security reasons, I am interested in finding ways to weave public spaces through the private spaces. One way I have experiemented with is to insert public spaces “in-between” private floor levels. Another way is to think about the courtrooms as nodes/bridges between private and public, since it is the only space in the courthouse where all parties (judge, jury, counselors, defendants, and spectators) are present together at any given time.

I developed a series of plans and models resulting in a kind of “finger” scheme, a series of alternating public and private wedges. I then took this a step further and started to look at how to bring the park/nature into the building. I also thought about the unique position of the jury (a combined public and private entity) and how their spaces might be positioned in the courthouse. In my plans, sections, and diagrams, I have been using blue to represent private spaces, yellow to represent public spaces, and green to represent outdoor, potentially vegetated spaces. The green is present in areas (in plan) where the public and private spaces start to intersect (coincidentally, blue + yellow = green); in other words, the building starts to open up exterior spaces where public and private spaces intertwine.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

by pdgaither

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This past week I have been developing several things. I began with further courtroom organization and developed a set of rules for myself while designing the court space, i.e. the jury box will always be in line with the witness stand, making the counsel always in line with the judge. I also looked at how the different parties of the courtroom move within the space. This set of diagrams informed a development of support spaces for the courtroom. I also looked at the overall design and look of the building. Very basic facade studies were done and a quick model showed how the building will reside within the landscape.

Further Concept & Progress Models

by workbymariahroth

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This week consisted of creating a module that can be manipulated in multiple ways.  This module is then duplicated in model form and then “slid” apart from each other.  Then in further models materiality started to play a role as well as slightly changing the proportions of the module.  From here I will develop the last model to further extent and with different materiality.

Form and Function?

by JP Mays

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This model was a combination of one of my rather blocky models and a more sculptural one.  The skin ended up being more figural and sail-like, which diverges too much from my weaving concept.  It was successful, though, in that it began to integrate an idea of skin with my interior volume concepts.

This led to a very organic investigation of connection to the site and the landscape, and how to weave that into a structural system to create spaces or vantage points.  I tried to explore the relation to the street, the nearby park, and views to Uptown.  So far, I’ve been pursuing this from the outside in.  Moving forward, I’ll be diving into the program and trying to merge my exterior, formal studies with a more direct programmatic approach.

Is It Possible To Freeze Movement?

by fcahill

I began this past week still looking at the individual courtrooms but progressed to looking at the court set as a whole within the site.  I continued to focus on ‘movement through built-form’ and fluidity by expanding to a slightly more flushed out concept model.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Slipping

by Anna Raines

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

My ideation models continue to explore the threshold concept begun in my site analysis, investigating the relationship between threshold and the court set. The expression of threshold at this stage has taken the form of “slipping” horizontal/vertical planes and light as the primary means of defining  the space of the courtroom and court set.

Layering law with community: Playing with more “legos”

by workbymichelletodd

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

Concept Model

by mcanadayuncc

Music – Community – Courthouse

The park amphitheater space will provide a venue for local music and will be the flex space of the courthouse.  Music brings people together as a community.  Ideally, this program will open the courthouse to the public as a less intimidating space and become more inviting.  How does music connect to law and the aspects of a courthouse? 1) Community. 2) 1^st amendment: freedom of speech.

Music and interlocking figures are the motifs most prevalent in my concept sketches and models to appeal to the idea of music bringing people together as a community.

Music: an art of sound that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the element of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.

Could this, with the exemption of the word sound, not be a definition of architecture?

What is considered music (architecture) and what is considered merely crude unorganized noise (anti-space), often varies culture to culture.

Music (architecture) is emotion.

Organization of specific sounds (materials) and tones (techniques) set within a certain time structure. It is one of the oldest forms of human artistic expression.

Music (architecture) brings people together. – community

Music gives a solid emotional foundation and a sense of emotional regulation – emotional shifts – “drug-like” – music (architecture) can alter sense of perspective, sense of time, sense of distance, and mood.

Music is a vacation from reality.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.