Pre-meeting crunch

I got a sneak preview of a new-ish plan for the transit plaza today. Hughes Condon Marler is preparing a presentation for tommorrow between 2 and 6 at the SUB. It overlaps a little with my committee meeting, but I'm sure I won't need 4 hours to look at the plans, so I'm going to stop by.

I was lucky enough to get a jpeg of the new plan, and have been converting it to 3-D to get a better idea of what the changes are and what's going to happen to the plaza. The architects are still working with an idea of using intended traffic patterns to carve out the shapes of the building.

I've spent the past week looking at the old plans, and I noticed two things. The first is that the new plan does not show the carving away as clearly as the old one, and the second is that the current site preforms in the inverse way: that is to say, the entire space is defined by the parts that you cannot move through.

This may be an exaggeration. You can climb over the grassy knoll on your way from the Pit Pub to the Bookstore, but nobody does. The knoll serves the same function in the space as the raised stage in Herman Hertzberger's Apollo schools.

"At first sight it would seem that the potential of the space would be greater if the block could be moved out of the way from time to time and, as was to be expected this was indeed a point of lengthy discussions. It is the permanence, the immobility, and the 'being in the way' that is the central issue, because it is indeed that inescapable presence as a focal point that contains the suggestions and incentives for response in each situation as it arises. The lock becomes a 'touchstone' and contributes to the articulation of the space in such a way that the range of possibilities of usage increases" (Herman Hertzberger, Lessons for Students in Architecture, p. 153)

If the Grassy Knoll is to be removed, it should be replaced with something can address some of the same needs. I'm going to argue that the link between the at-grade plaza and the below-grade hub can have the same qualities of permanence, immobility and 'being in the way'.

I'm going to propose a diagrammatic plan for tommorrow (which I of course have not yet started work on) that organizes the plaza around an expanded stairway. I'm going to arrange elements to encourage use as an outdoor stage/theater and to create sunlit social spaces. I think the retail space and buildings in general need to be secondary to the stair, and I think it can be a great focal space.

What does the stair need to function as an auditorium?

• A focal point to act as a stage: This should probably be fairly large so there can be a variety of different kinds of presentations that occur. Maybe also the possibility of projecting behind it? Some kind of wall or corner? Frosted glass to present on?
• An escape route for people leaving the transit hub: No matter how many people there are in the 'auditorium', it will always be neccessary for people to use the bus loop even when there are presentations. It should be possible to get to the base of the stairs without stepping on anyone even when there are lots of people or walking across the 'stage' area.
• A slope: Obviously the stair will have some kind of slope, as it is a stair. But what slope? I think it's a good idea for it to be fairly shallow so that there is more stair to be an auditorium
• A comfortable place to stop: It can be hard to stand on stairs because they are designed for movement and not for resting. The stairs are going to have to be a bit deeper than the norm, and I would also like to incorporate some seating in a way that sitters do not have their views blocked by standers.
• Other programs built-in: The space needs to work even when there isn't a crowd using the auditorium. Most of the time it will be used by small groups or single people (alone, as compared to not in a relationship. hee.)

I'm going to try too put together a plan/section/something that addresses these issues.

Diagrams

I spent today working on diagrams.

This is actually three diagrams layered on top of each other. I'm hoping to come up with more, but I'm a little stuck at the moment. The coloured dots show premium inhabitation areas re: sunlight, the black dots show speed of movement, and way in the back is a map of the underground bus loop.

I love the way this looks now, but I wanted to get more than three diagrams to layer: the more information I can pull from the site, the better my decisions will be. I like this way of showing information, and I find that layering the different ones on top of each shows very clearly what parts of the site are appropriate for interventions.

There's something about crowds vs. individuals that needs to be part of this diagram as well. I want an area that can transform from being auditorium-like to a social area where people can chat. It could be a simple as a raised stage in one area, but I would prefer raked seating because I think it would be used more.

I spoke to UBC properties trust yesterday, and they said they would get in touch with Karen Marler at Hughes Condon Marler so I can get the real plans for what they are working on. They have to be ready for Tuesday because there is a public presentation, but I'm hoping to get them before that because my committee meeting is next Tuesday. If I don't hear from HCM tommorrow, I'll have to call them. I hate doing that.

longways/shortways

Since I'm not sure what is the most productive direction to follow right now, I spent some time today noodling around with Maya, looking at the material possibilities for my ASC's.

Some renders:

The first image shows the wood slats running accross the long section, the second accross the short section. While I would have preferred the second option to underscore the importance of the short section, the first seems much more likely as it creates more inhabitable space. I'll see what Thesis Advisor M thinks.

ETA: The horizontal slats suggest a screen, which would be fairly doable. Under what circumstances might I want the back of a seat to be a screen? When it's an envelope? What other kinds of screening devices might be good? What other materials might work? A trellis? With plants?

Monday.

It's time to move on to the next step of design for my project, and while I'm nervous that I haven't been following the inverted design process, I have made a number of decisions based on information I currently have about the site. I sent an e-mail to UBC Properties Trust Friday afternoon to ask them to release the most current version of the plans that they have for the site (although I'll have to get the real plans from the architect), but until then I'll be working with a mixture of what I got last time I visited and what I pulled off the U-Boul website. It isn't perfect, but as long as I use the site to produce decision making rationale, any variations between what I have for the site and the actual site shouldn't be hard to fix.

I produced a rough Sketchup model of the site to look at lighting conditions throughout the year, and took examples of shaded areas at specific times throughout the year, layered them on each other in illustrator, and created the following jpegs:





In these images the blue rectangle is the opening to the underground bus loop and the lines show anticpated traffic patterns accross the square. The architect chose to use traffic patterns to carve away from adjacent buildings: this is neccessarily repeated by the ambiguous spatial conditions, but I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or not. The ASC's have to be in low-traffic areas because they impede walking, but I wish it wasn't so similar to the guiding principles of the square.

The traffic patterns delineate certain areas where it would be interesting to apply ASC's:

This is based on a combination of paths and building shapes, with a little bit of the solar studies thrown in. Basically, the daytime use (on sunny days) will break down like this:
I realize that it isn't always sunny in Vancouver in the winter (and in fact is not even the prevailing condition), but I think designing to maximize sun exposure is a good idea if I am trying to include some of the programmatic uses of the grassy knoll. I also want to add some big chunks of concrete on the right side (it's north-east-ish) of the diagram (the solid black line) to take advantage of the solar gain along that wall.

Some other thoughts:

• I want to design the whole thing out of wood and concrete: wood to sit on, concrete for durability and to capture heat. The wood slats would be spaced so that the gaps are not perceptible when you are sitting but would serve to drain water off the surfaces. The slats should probably run parallel to the ASC sections to highlight their importance.
• There needs to be roofs of some kind over a significant portion of the site. I think they should be used extensively on the left (south-west-ish) portion of the site since this portion of the site gets the least direct sunlight in the high traffic portions of the day (3-5). The plaza is equal under overcast conditions (as the sky vault transmits light equally throughout the plaza) and it would be preferable to minimize cover of the sunlit areas (the right, or north-east-ish portion of the site)
• Materials of the roof are important. I'm toying with the idea of frosted glass for portions that have sunlight and clear glass in the shady areas. The frosted glass should diffuse direct sunlight.
• Currently the stairs run from the top to the bottom of the site, but I'd like to tweak them to the left to create a stage-ish area to the right. I'd also like to preserve as many of the paths accross the stair as possible and am thinking about slopes and movement accross the inevitable bridges.
• The shaded areas are keyed to time, and possibly should be keyed to programs of retail spaces adjacent. It makes a lot of sense to have a 'fast' coffee shop in the left building for morning commuters, and a 'slow' coffee shop in the right building for sitting around and waiting for your bus in the sun. It also makes sense to privilege the plaza re: sunlight, as retailers will probably be happy to exclude sunlight from their stores as long as patrons have direct access.

Materials

Olang made the point in my midterm presentation that while hybridization of form may create ambiguity in the short term, in the long term users become accustomed to the new forms and use them in prescribed ways: they become the new norm. He suggested I think about how to make the surfaces preform in unexpected ways to maintain ambiguity. One way to do this is through material use.

While I think that materials are really important, I'm not sure if this ambiguity is something the project wants or needs. I'm wondering if it's a good thing that users become accustomed to the new forms. What advantage is there in a second layer of ambiguity? I don't want the project to get bogged down in material studies.

Right now I see the project as part landscape/part furniture in concrete and wood, possibly with some grass areas. I want most of the seating to be wood because it dries quickly and is not cold to sit on, but I'm interested in the thermal effect of masses of concrete adjacent to seating. It's definately going to be inside/outside and I'm going to start with the stair that connects the transit hub to the main plaza area.

Since it's an inside/outside space, all the materials should be able to weather. I'm concerned about different materials because every material carries associations, and if I choose to make a seat out of wood instead of concrete it begins to direct use. I think I'm going to check out some books on materials and look at what I could use.

Post midterm festivities!

I've made it through midterm! I was very happy with how my presentation went, and only have two complaints. The first is that I'm not sure if the group I presented to were particularly hard hitting -- it's reassuring when you have a decent crit from a tough critic because you know they're asking the hard questions. My second problem is entirely my fault: I wish I had more to show them so they could have given me more design advice.

ARN was nice enough to take pretty comprehensive notes of the presentation so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting it all down, so I have three pages to flip through when I wonder exactly what was said. Olang, S, and JB seemed to understand what I was trying to do, which is a great sign, and they said some nice stuff: that the work I have already done is SOLID (caps courtesy of ARN) and that I've created a nice problem that's well mapped out.

I'm having a little trouble concentrating today and had intended to take the day off, but realized that I have no life outside of school and hence nothing to do except schoolwork. So here I am.

Getting around

I'm currently attending a First Nations Technology summit because of some course work completed last fall. It is unrelated to my thesis, but instead of listening to any of the presentations this morning, I spent the time thinking about what my next steps need to be and trying to work out some of the bugs.

I've been trying to reconcile my working methods with time constraints, and I've realized that while I want to be efficient, time spent working on things that I do not present is not neccessarily a waste of time. While I don't have a lot to show for the work I have done since my last committee meeting, I do think that I'm now at a place where I can go into production mode and start to get drawings, diagrams and models that describe what I've been working on this semester.

So, this is what I currently intend to produce for next week:

1. 3-D models that combine each of the culls, in a matrix
2. Section cuts from the centre of each of the cuts
3. A diagram that compares this section cut to the original Architectural Graphic Standards and shows how the 3-D model can be altered to match the AGS section
4. Diagrams that show the four sides of each of the 3-D models of combined culls and compares them for combinations

This is a ton of work, but I think it's going to be useful. I think that removing the envelope information from the Ambiguous Sectional Conditions (once called MA's) was a good use of time because I can reintroduce it after I assemble groups of 3-D models. Hopefully I won't have to cull again: I don't think that there will be many AGS' that can be applied to the 3-D models, so hopefully that won't produce too many options, and I'll focus on one hub that combines different sides.

When I have done this I'm going to need to produce a full lineage diagram that tracks exactly how I got each hub: the 'parents' of each level. I think I'll do this last!

I need to get the 3-D models done ASAP, so I'm going to find a quiet corner at this conference where I can get down and spend some time working in Maya.