As the final review rapidly approaches, I’ve been refining elements of my design and thinking about ways to improve the experience of the building. For the most part, the ideas are there, I’ve just been making improvements. The following is a set of drawings I produced for our preliminary pin-up on Friday. They represent the current state of my design and an narrative sequence of vignettes that I would like to render for the final review.
I have worked to refine a rendering technique that can be used to accurately portray this structure as a public space filled with light. The pin-up will be to gauge how these renderings and diagrams work together with my models and floor plans through presentation. I am looking to combine these elements and designs in a specific way to portray my building as an open courthouse through place and metaphor.
My current design efforts have taken a bifurcated track lately, focusing simultaneously on the site and the exterior envelope of the building. Sitewise, I have been trying to develop a parametric hardscape design, seeking to define the placement of the diamond-shaped pavers by a series of paths through the site. This ties in nicely with the final requirements for our Computational Methods class, and so I will continue to work on this until the end of the semester.
By sketching over a photo of my mid-term model, I am also trying to flesh out ideas of building skin at a finer level of detail than I had achieved by mid-semester. I am currently pursuing a cladding scheme for the courtroom volumes that wraps a facade peppered with long narrow windows. Perforated weathering steel (COR-TEN) or copper panels completely screen these apertures, mitigating sunlight from all directions. This also will create a monolithic appearance for the volumes, while still providing natural light and views. This goes back to some of my very first concept studies for screening the courtroom. Looking back at another (diagrammatic) model, I am continuing to try to establish lookouts/elevated public space, in addition to folding the building into the landscape.
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.
Building in site
This set of images deal with the massing model that I developed for mid-term that is an old scheme. There were kinks within the plans that I was working out as far as circulation and manipulating some of the support spaces. The short of it ends up being that I have developed a new scheme that I believe takes the ideas that I have had all along and reconfigures them into a better and more developed design.
Above is the entry level plan of my new scheme. The first level is comprise of my flexible space which is a digital library, the jury assembly room, alternative dispute rooms, in-custody drop-off, restrooms, and misc. areas. I also have a courtroom on the first floor on the left side of the plan. The plan is broken down into three areas, left side courtrooms, middle atrium area, and the right side deals with vertical circulation and support spaces. I now have a tower scheme while keeping the idea of the interlocking courtroom which can be see below in the second floor plan.
As one can read from the plan above, the observers (located on the south of the building with north up in this instance) sit directly behind the jury which is an idea that I have had since the beginning. Also located on the second floor, I have placed an interior garden. I have placed this as an area of repose within the building and to also bring a connection of the outside in.
Here is an image of the 3-d massing model that I have developed. I was experimenting with the push and pull of the facade and material studies have been done on the facades which can be seen below.
These past two weeks I focused on refining my plans with the feedback I received at my mid-review. This also meant working in section and elevation. I began by addressing the courtroom (and breaking the box) and then moved to the support spaces and in-custody movement. From there I finalized a site location and building form.
I am currently trying to figure how the building works with the landscape and the surrounding connections and influences of Bryant Park and Greenway through site development and material. My next step is researching skateparks and seeing how that can help influence the site as it is a pivotal part of my overall design (as my flex-space) in making the courthouse a destination.
Level 1 Plan
I spent the past week working through the problem of designing two different, crisscrossing vertical circulation paths (public and private) that could never touch in my reconfigured atrium. Initially, all of my schemes involved long stairs that would stretch across the atrium and over each other, but I kept running into problems of not having enough headroom under crisscrossing lengths of stairs. Also, because the public and private sides of the building reverse at Level 2, even when I finally got the stairs to work properly, I ran into issues extending a walkway across the atrium from the public elevators that were located on the opposite side.
Finally, I discovered a breakthrough solution–having the stairs spiral around each other, like a double helix, and moving the public elevators to the center of the atrium, rather than one side or the other. This way, I wouldn’t have any headroom issues, the public and private paths would never cross (just spiral around each other), and the elevators would only need paths to span across half the atrium on any given floor level. In my most recent (and likely final) iteration of this idea (depicted here), the stairs closest to the eastern wall of the atrium are stacked on top of each other, and the stairs towards the center of the atrium crisscross to achieve some of the dynamism I liked about my intial crisscrossing schemes.
Public Atrium Stair at Level 1
Public Atrium Stair at Level 2
Atrium at Level 2; Public Elevators can be seen on the left; Private Stair in the foreground with the Public Stair in the background
Now I have an atrium that truly reflects my concept: the intertwining of public and private spaces.
Since the mid-term I have been specifically looking at refining my concept so that is more closely resembles a concept model I did early on in the semester. A concept model that I felt had more to it than my design at mid-term.
I have specifically looked at refining the floor plan so that there is more “slippage” and “stepping”, an abstract influence from historical/typical courthouse entrance steps. I believe that the form I have created now does this in multiple ways. First within the floor plan itself. Each courtroom is divided into three sections: judge, jury, attorney & observing. Each of these sections is raised up from the previous, creating a stepping effect in the courtroom as well as the surrounding circulation. Secondly, the exterior landscaping I plan on implementing will reflect this stepping. This landscaping will be designed to be used by courthouse patrons or passers-by on the street if they so desire. Finally, my planned material palette will reflect the stepping. The facade wont just be one massive material but broken up so on is fully aware of the location of the interior courtroom on the exterior of the building.
As this semester has progressed I have realized many things about my design process. I now know that my first instincts are probably most “correct” when it comes to designing and that I should stick to them instead of slowly creeping away. I think what I realized most is that occasionally I need to take a good step back and look at what I am producing and ask myself if this is really what I initially wanted, if not what can I do to change that. I am finally content with my scheme, as I wasn’t at mid-term, and excited to finish out the project with interesting materials and landscaping that enhance my design.
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.
This week, I’ve been working mostly on implementing my new idea for crisscrossing public and private circulation paths within a more centralized atrium space. It’s been kind of a trial and error process of testing various slopes and angles of staircases to try to get a combination that actually works (leaving enough headroom under the stairs as they crisscross). These are some images of the design where it is right now. I’ve moved into Revit, which is helping me quickly test different stair types. I’ve just been using the program’s default materials, railings, stairs, etc. for now. My focus has been on developing the shape and functionality of the space, and I will focus on details later. The atrium still has a ways to go, but it’s getting there.
Atrium from Level 2
View from Alternate Dispute Resolution into courtroom
Level 3 Courtroom – Witness’s View
[space + justice] 
