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Design 2 - Trashcan

Inspiration for the Office from Arch + issue 188 tubular structure

i incorporated this theme of complexity throughout my roof and wall textures

my initial office incorporated tubular shapes. but my final office exhibits this shape to a lesser extent.

This is a impression of futuristic architecture in the Arch + 188 issue. the vertical and horizontal tubular forms emphasize movement and technology

FINAL OFFICE

the colour of my office is naturally cold - where the overall colour is grey. however, the highly polished grey concrete aggregate columns change colour from night to midday due to the warmth of the sun's rays. according to the New Zealand Building Economist, concrete is the cheapest option when compared to wood and steel. concrete being 30 times cheaper than steel, 4 times cheaper than wood.

the ground is semi transluscent to stick to my initial theme of transparency. the wall panels have been slightly flattened out to allow the texts to be easily read.

THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE

the appearance of my office is aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. the transparent rectilinear lines on the roof and walls provide a radiating glow from within. thus, during the night, my office lights it's surroundings.

there are three entrances to the western wall of the 3rd level. the entrances open due to touch and slides up over the roof. this allows more than one avatar to enter the office at once. there are also entrances on the south east corner and north west corners of the sunken hole. this allows people to enter from two different areas. i also thought of developing a walkway along the edge of the steep western mountain and link up my office to others. however, noone wanted to join up.

the floors are of concrete slabs again with the transparent rectilinear lines allowing the glow of the water from underneath my office.

under the office on the ground/sea floor, the glowing pads floating on the water allow connect the northwest entrance to the southeast entrance. if the avatar were to fall into the water, they could take the elevator up to the sea/ground level.

the orange glowing elevator in the center of my office is the main transport between the floors. it is wide enough to accommodate a maximum of 3-4 avatars and the stairs between the levels are for use by larger groups of people entering the office.

Further Office Development 3

a view from the scenic resting space on level 3 during midnight, sunset, midday and sunrise. From a cold/dark lighting of the night to the warm bright lighting from the sunrise, the visitor will experience a range of emotions with the atmosphere changing from solemn to serene.

Further Office Development 2

Changing the texture to represent the theme of technology with a highly polished concrete and metal texture. i used a circuit board-like texture for the roof to emphasize the high tech theme of the office.

My Three Journals

ARCH+

http://www.archplus.net/home.php

Editors:

Sabre Kraft, Nikolaus Kuhnert, Gunther Uhlig

Publisher:

AVZ GmbH

Arch+ is a design magazine focused on modern and contemporary designs from accross the globe. Each issue focuses on different types and styles of designs. The Magazine is from Germany and is entirely in the German language.

The New Zealand Building Economist

http://www.becon.co.nz/

Publisher:

The New Zealand Building Economist

This journal is published every quarter of the year: February, May, August, November of each year. The journal contains costs of various parts of the building including residential and light commercial buildings. The unit rates are set by independant practising cost consultant quantity surveyors.

Environment an Planning
http://www.envplan.com/

Editors:

A: Nigel thrift, Trevor Barnes, Jamie Peck, Eric Sheppard, Sarah Whatmore, Henry Yeung

B: Mike Batty, Helen Couclelis, Chris J Webster

C: A Jordan, A Rodriguez Pose

D: Stuart Elden

Publisher:

Pion LTD.

Environment and Planning is a family of 4 journals which focus on all the aspects of the evolution of space and spatial arrangement, from environment and nature to theory and design.

Further Office Development 1

Different lighting conditions - Sunset, Midday, Sunrise, Midnight

Progress on the Office

Initially i made two elevator pads oscillating between the levels. After using it a couple of times, i felt was too inconvenient for masses of avatars to travel from level to level. therefore i decided to make a staircase between levels 2 and 3. i have also put the website of my journals onto the previously planned tubular walls. the picture below shows the columns containing information on Environment and Planning A,B,C and D. These websites are interactive and are approximately 4 metres in height.

the column to the left of the picture below is the Arch+ website and the elevator lift is directly in front of it so when an avatar comes up the lift, they would be confronted by the Arch+ website as i felt that journal gave me the most influence in the design.

below is a diagram showing the rectilinear and curved lines in my initial office. as you can see the rectilinear lines are only present along the length of the columns and the cut in the 3rd floor. The rest are of curves which, i felt reinforced the element of water on the sea/ground level.

Initial Vision for the Office

This is my office for the Architectural Media Course at Auckland University My vision for the office is to create an inhabitable space that was not confined to 4 flat rectangular walls (as with conventional buildings). I also wanted my office to be fururistic given the possibilities of building on a virtual game like second life. Throughout the designing process i was interested in the idea of transcience as well as the unpredictability of irregular forms.
I was influenced by issue 196/197 of the ARCH+ Journal and its impression of the shape of architecture in the future with its irregular forms/shapes.
The futuristic designs in the Arch+ issue had very distinct tube-like shapes and
the walls of my office are influenced by this shape. The half tube columns link together to form a meandering wall around the square floor. I also thought of the entrance to the office space to be tubular in form
however, this shape and texture proved to be very visually distracting for the office
I thought of having the light for the office radiate out into the environment for the effect of transciency
the effect turned out to be visually appealing
the meandering walls were discoordinated and needed to be angled correctly.
the office is split into 3 levels: the top level
the middle level
the sea/ground level
Therefore i thought of the entrance to be from the sea/ground level through an elevator in the centre of the office floor

the transparent columns holding up the office above

the office is very bright during the day so the textures need to be changed
the floor texture is of a clean low-reflection tile texture
the meandering walls look rectilinear from the side and in effect appear to be strong. a different texture would be good for emphasizing the strength of the columns however the theme of transcience would be lost.
An interesting view of my office above the water
An interesting view of my office under the water
an interesting view of my office under the water