Taylor Hawkins Learning Portfolio

Arch 101 2013

The

Insp

irat

ion

.

Where do you find inspiration? That is a question I had never been asked until I started Arch 101, and a question that I do not think I could have answered until of late. I have never been so aware of the beautiful architecture surrounding me as I am now. I have walked past this building to get to work for over a year and I have paid little or no attention to it. The week the final project was assigned I was on my way to work not having any idea how to even begin this project, when I passed by this building, for the first time I stood and admired this feat of modern engineering for over fifteen minutes, the transformations are truly unique: the columns, the angled entry way, the offset edges all spoke to me in a way no other building had before. I had found my inspiration for this project, it was the beautiful city that I live in.

Tessellation was an area of architecture that the group all drew inspiration from. The flowing overlapping shapes was how we planned on gaining complexity in our model while maintaining the organic flow

we desired.

Tessellating is a collection of pieces that fit together without gaps to form a plane or surface. -Iwamoto

I had found my inspiration, but creating a unique spatial experience from these inspirations was the real challenge. Feeding of my urban surroundings I began to make physical and digital models; I took the city high rises and turned them on their sides, truing the journey form vertical to lateral. The tectonic language of skeletal frames was something I found interesting and wanted to incorporate, as a group we wanted to emphasize what was inside our model over what was out, leading to the incorporation of some sort of tessellating skin. All the while taking this urban inspiration and transforming it into something organic.

The Team. This project also had another

interesting dynamic thrown in: working as a team. With five very different minds attempting to work in collaboration with one another all drawing inspiration from unique areas of life, it became an exercise in patience. It took hours of deliberation and disagreements for the team to come to a consensus on the model, deciding on bare frames with a spiraling tessellating inner skin, which would take you on a mysterious and magical journey of transformation through nature.

The Site.

We chose this site for a multitude of reasons; the gentle slope of the grade, the two large trees, and the amazing view were all things we wanted to incorporate in our model.

Before we started building we considered which materials would work best with our small budget while still attaining the affect we desired. We deciding to use 2X4s ripped in half and the wooden chair seats and backs cut into triangles. The chair seat and backs worked out surprisingly well, due to the curving shape they had, making more interesting curves than we had initially anticipated.

The build was the most rewarding part of this

project. The team really pulled together and

everyone picked up a tasked and stuck with it

until the project was finished. The creative process was apparent

throughout the construction; we made

many changes on the fly, taking out parts of the design that didnt work and finding new ways to improve on our model, never losing sight of our

original intentions.

The Outcome. The tessellating journey through nature is threating and mysterious. The sharp angels of the triangles lead you in the through the model while adding a certain level of peril to the journey. The frames gently rise and fall at different levels mimicking the sloping grade while also reacting to the two tress in the middle of our site.

The triangular movement starts on the ceiling, constantly moving, making up the wall and then the floor before wrapping around the second tree and fading into nothing. The ropes around the frame give the impression of walls while still allowing one to take in what is outside; until finally you come to the end of journey and a breathtaking view is your reward.

The jury concluded that while our model had a certain level of complexity, the three prominent characteristics: the frame, the

triangle and the rope, did not mesh together as well as they should, suggesting

that perhaps the loss of the frame may improve the overall flow of the project.

Also, incorporating one or two more materials into our triangle wave would

improve complexity.

Team collaboration was key to the success of this project, if one person would have neglected their job the project would have come to a screeching halt. I was impressed with the teams level of creatively, work ethic and comradely and hope that I get the chance to work with all of them in the future.

The End.

The journey you take through our model is similar to the journey I have taken this semester in 101, there are different paths to take, you can even turn around and go back the way you came, but if you make it to the end, you are rewarded with a breathtaking view. The view I have now is of my future.