Open Sesame

Open Sesame

Conceptual Puzzles

Under the guise of a fun game, Puzz Buzz is a means to create architectural relationships and a basic master plan scheme. The game can be played by anyone and everyone willing to join in, regardless of their knowledge of architecture or lack thereof. The game centered on the creation of hot spots and allows players to build a scheme according to their own architectural goals.

The act of playing the game begins a conversation.

What makes a hotspot and what might one look like?

Vertical and horizontal relationships can begin to work in conjunction and can create hot spots.

Variety in programmatic element sizes allows for the creation of unique adjacencies and overlaps.

"How can spaces be designed to encourage interaction and collaboration? "

The typical educational model promotes separation, but an amount of openness to allow for a collaborative environment. By creating programmatic overlaps and incorporating different boundary conditions, a variety of different spatial interactions can begin to take form.

Program / Concept Development

In starting my design process, I chose to look at how to break apart the program into smaller elements in order to reconnect them back in a more unique manner. The current typical school model keeps students separated and doesn’t encourage a collaborative environment among students, and this is the opposite of the openness I envision in this new school model. So, a focus of mine was to explore different boundary conditions and how they can shape different spatial relationships in order to facilitate a variety of different interactions.

Section Concept

Massing Concept

With the massing models, I decided to focus on creating a more centralized volume to contain all the programmatic elements of the school. Breaking up the form too much might create isolation between elements and discourage the interconnections that could occur in a more unified body.

Plan / Program Diagram with Massing

Immersive Perspective

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