Structures Review

I’ve uploaded my summary sheets from Monday’s review
here.

Over all I think the review went well, I’ve been trying to revise and clarify my building layout lately and after Monday’s review and Wednesday’s desk-crit with Suenn I’m feeling more on track and full of ideas I want to put into my building.  Sometimes all it takes is a 30 minute sit down with someone.  My strategy to clarify my parti is to use groups of program and turn them into clusters that move through the building.  Some of the clusters sit along the structural grid to serve as sheer walls but they are all positioned in a way that people are able to wander around and through the clusters in a similar way that the open space around the freeway columns creates non-linear paths.

Some of the most important comments I got from the review on Monday were:

-aligning structural grid along one of my “boxes” of program I have in my building to help create organization in a non-orthogonal building.

-keep the walls free and use a smaller secondary support system for the curtain wall

-Utilize V-Columns in certain areas instead of everywhere.

-Consider filling in the “v” on the exterior columns to create shade on the west facade.  I believe the shape used to describe this was a “windshield scraper from fred meyer” but I’m thinking something a little less “red plastic” and more concrete.  Anyways the comparison made me laugh

-I made my floor plate showing steel i-beams in two directions, I only need to use a one-way system and then represent girders beneath

-use the roof separations for clerestories to wash light down into the space (could work from north or south)

-And finally, apparently I did a good job of making my i-beams and underfloor air plenum to quite a believable scale (yeah!)

So, from this point forward I’m looking forward to the presentation on passivehaus strategies on friday in studio.  I did a lot of work with the “ECS” portion of my project last quarter in terms of deciding what kind of mechanical system and then drawing it (I have a section somewhere…) but I’m interesting in figuring out what I can glean from friday’s presentation.

Here’s a quick photo from my model….