[thinktank pt2]

a center for identity

final model

This model was a mass-glass study undergoing the idea of lifting up the higher education program to create an underneath public pavilion. It was an attempt to provide density to the building while still allowing it to be open to light and views. There is also an addition of a roof study to bring about an overall unifying factor.

Remember your design philosophy

Can we create a sense of ownership and belonging within this place of higher learning?

program analysis

hotspot logic

The program organization was developed highly on based on the idea of the hotspot. The hotspot was my main way of tackling by design philosophy of creating a sense of belonging. Through previous studies, I found that merely calling an “open space” in the apex of a multiple programs does NOT make it a collaboration space.

So with this in mind – how do I activate an “open space” to make it active?

My answer: drop a hotspot in there!

By centering this philosophy around the hotspot – the goal is to create collaborative areas with a purpose. Let’s draw people into these collaboration spaces by providing them an aspect of something they need: a gallery space, a maker space, meeting rooms, etc.

I believe pairing function with program and then adding furnishings meant to encourage collaboration were the first steps I could take to truly activating a space.

microcommunity analysis

In an attempt to understand what a microcommunity meant to my project – I had to question the traditional learning model. By inverting the regularity and ordinary expectations of a higher university, I hope to create a building center full of activity and collaboration.

 

Explorations were done in:

  1. The inversion of the traditional learning model
  2. Creating homes for different types of users through hotspot programming
  3. Zooming into the maker microcommunity for specific adjacency understandings

Section Concepts

microcommunity analysis

a look inside

In order to really dive down to the human scale and understand what these microcommunities are, I took perspectives from inside one – specifically the maker space. Visual adjacency is just as important as physical adjacency, so I wanted to analyze how one would feel in this makerspace microcommunity.

where do i go from here?

1) Respond and listen to the site.

2) Remember your precedents. What atmosphere and what activity are you trying to create within the project?

3) Don’t forget what you’ve done and where you’ve been. There’s so much to learn from everything that I’ve done and lends me to what I should do for the future. Iterate, iterate, iterate!!

4) Don’t forget about the roof!! It’s just another piece of the puzzle. It’s the overarching, unifying factor of this place of belonging. Treat it with some more love.

final thoughts

First thought?

What a quarter.

Moving on…

I don’t think I have ever struggled and battled with a project this much. How do I feel? Incomplete. I can confidently say that there is still so much I don’t know about my building, so many unanswered questions:

  1. Are you gonna do something with that roof?
  2. Can you actually commit to parking??
  3. Can we take a look into the other microcommunities?
  4. What does the connecting bridge space really mean to you?
  5. Master plan?
  6. DESIGN THAT PUBLIC PAVILION ALREADY.
  7.  CIRCULATION?!

So many unanswered questions, and I have so much motivation to answer them going into next quarter. I can also say that I’m really happy where I finished-not finished for winter quarter. My experiment with a new graphic style (yellow is fun), creating design philosophies, and being open to the idea of “failing faster.” I believe that the main design philosophies of creating a sense of belonging and inverting the traditional learning model are so important in creating a center for collaboration. I found myself again and again coming back to my puzzle. I’m so thankful for the conceptual puzzle as it truly allowed me to dig deep into what this program could mean for Chula Vista and what a “hotspot” really is. I can’t forget where I’ve been and what I’ve done because these steps will only help me further shape this project.

I believe I’ve only begun to take strides into the potential of this project. I’m eager to see what my partner and I will dish out spring quarter. I want to dive deeper into the micro-scale of things. I want to mold this idea of belonging spatially, and focus in on how collaboration and project-based learning materializes themselves.

There’s no way I can say that I’m even close to finished. [thinktank] is definitely a work in progress, and I’m more than excited to see where pt3 will lead.

[thinktank]:To be continued…

This post has 1 Comment

  1. cabrinharch on March 28, 2017 at 10:15 am Reply

    What GREAT energy in your post, and your reminders to yourself are fantastic. You presented very well at best of show going from overall building form to the micro-community. I would encourage you to listen to your initial “learning model” diagrams more, as you began to fit this concept into the building form things became more regularized with all of the fixed learning spaces aligned along one wall, and a very large potentially empty open space….so large you had to put a raised platform in there! Your initial diagrams do well to distribute these enclosed rooms around the perimeter, which then act was implied / suggested boundaries that form the more open collaborative spaces. The missing piece of that diagram is really getting into your hot spot – defining how different program of the hot spot would really give a different character and atmosphere to the collab spaces; and therefore the different micro-communities. In the end, much like your precedent image! I look forward to spring too!

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