A R C H 1 0 1: Final Learning Portfolio | Gaby Villalta

Spring ‘15

C O N T E N T S

- Brief project objective

- Folding, Tesselating, or Tensioning- Iteration 1- Iteration 2- Iteration 3- Iteration 4

- Team Arch-immersed- Site- Final Design- Construction- Team Project Reality/Conclusion

- Advice to incoming Arch 101 Students

- Conclusion

P R O J E C T O B J E C T I V E

“Rendering Nature: making the invisible perceivable.”

Inspired by our semester topic, the students from both sections of ARCH 101 are instructed to first explore and develop small-scaled environmental installation designs on an individual basis. Later, once in teams of 3-5 members, we are to select a site, either in “town” or “country” based on the sites that were available to us, and then collaboratively design and install the full-size work on either the courtyard directly outside of Batmale 245 & 246 or on the hillside, adjacent to the courtyard. We then are to assess and review the challenges and success of our team construction, and concluding with a final presentation accompanied by a jury’s evaluation.

F O L D I N G, T E S S E L L A T I O N,O R T E N S I O N I N G

Iteration 1

Though I was not expecting that we would first start off doing individual work, that did not hold back my excitement to get started and brainstorm designs. For my first iteration I came up with a simple yet innovative design that is completely made up of hexagons. I was able to incorporate both “folding” and “tessellation” techniques as well as fulfilling the project requirement of having 3 spaces within the structure. In order to create these 3 spaces, I ended up intertwining the individual sections of each hexagon. I feel that my design really gives off the feelings of tranquility and a simple essence

2

With my second iteration, I wanted to make something with more solidity while still maintaining the intertwining of the individual hexagonal forms. Unfortunately by doing that, my design really lacked the excitement my first iteration had with the rhythmic features. But this is not necessarily a failure, but an opportunity to improve on complexity instead of simplifying too much. This did give me a clearer idea on how I wanted to form the 3 different spaces though.

3

Took two steps back instead of 1 step forward. I’m burned out and I reached the point where I got a little lost and I’ve come to a halt on what I want to do with my design. I pretty much made something just for the sake of doing it, with no direction or reasoning. I’ve felt no success in this iteration, to the point where I actually feel a little disappointed in myself and can’t even pull anything positive from it.

For my next iteration I think I should go back to square one and evolve off of my first iteration, which I felt confident about and had much more potential.

T E A M A R C H - I M M E R S E DSamia, Frank, Shen, Randy, and I luckily didn’t have any competition when choosing our final site. What a loss for everyone else though; our site had so many great features to it, including a breathtaking view of a small part of the city, tons of trees, interesting shadows created by sunlight, and strong winds. It gave us a lot to work with.

What was so special about this specific sight was that aside from all the other sites, it was the most hidden and you would think that it wouldn’t be seen by anyone, but from the parking lot and soccer field, t’s clearly visible, drawing attention to our architecture department.

F I N A L D E S I G N D E C I S I O N

After coming together to combine our ideas, we decided that we would use Samia’s design for the most part. We felt that her design exhibited the clearest ideas for the 3 spaces required. We also incorporated Frank’s triangular canopy, which not only served as the perfect roof, but also had a piece of each of our designs since each of us had triangular figures in each of our individual designs. To keep things in order we decided that we would break our structure into 3 parts of construction: frame, lattice, and canopy.

C O N S T R U C T I O N

First things first, we needed to cut our wood pieces and then construct them into our frame. We hadn’t gotten much done the first week of construction besides the base, but with the help and push from Samia’s father, we were well on our way.

Each piece of wood that was standing up was 8 feet, but due to their height and weight, they couldn’t stand on their own. This led to us creating supports. By adding these, it helped improve the stability of our structure to prevent any type of damage.

C O N S T R U C T I O N (c o n t’ d)The next step was to fgure out how we were going to assemble the lattice. We ended up buying whte nylon webbing and cut long strips, then weaved them all together. Glue seemed to not hold pieces together, so what we did was use a lighter to melt nylon where it needed to be attached to the other piece. The melted nylon acts as a stick substance that held together once it dried. By having some parts uncovered, one is able to feel slight fear looking over the retaining wall

Last part of our structure to get put up was the canopy. As a small model it seemed doable, but we soon found out that it was much more tedious than we expected. Constructing the individual traingles wasn’t too bad, but then they kept falling apart, so we had to reenforce them. After assembling all of them together the next issue was “how are we going to get it up?” After attempts of getting it up, it seemed to be getting worse because the more we tried to raise it, the more we had to keep reassembaling. The best solution was to raise the canopy in 3 sections. We also ended up tying it to limbs of the tree, since this was really the only way it was able to stay up.

P E R S O N A L S P A C E

Our third space in our structure was a personal space. Apart from the rest of our structure, it was the one space that was semi-closed off. Also, we noticed that compared to the open space, when standing in the personal space, you couldn’t feel any wind at all. It’s a very tranquil place where one is able to sit and be alone, whether it’s for relaxing or studying. Since there’s nothing to observe in the space, it’s your auditory senses that are put to use. Around you you hear the trees moving in the wind, birds chirping, and wtht he help of makeshift windchimes, you are able to hear wind in a different form. One is able to really focus on what is really around them.

T H E T E A M P R O J E C TR E A L I T Y / C O N C L U S I O N

Working with others is not an easy task. You face clashes of ideas and egos. Though my group struggled a bit with trying to be on the same page about things, which I feel hindered our project productivity, we were still able to come to an agreement with what we were doing. With the help of the jurors, we were able to get constructive criticism, which individually helps us as designers. In the end, we came together to produce an incredible structure considering the fact that no one us have any type of construction background. It was the perfect project to expose to each of us what is ahead in our future.

A D V I C E T O F U T U R E A R C H1 0 1 S T U D E N T S

Don’t take this class...just kidding! My advice would be to not procrastinate!! Because you will cry all the time and be too stressed (like me.) I think the key in succeeding is time management. Make sure that the iterations are done when they are assigned, not weeks later, if not you won’t gain anything out of doing assignments that are half-assed and late. Also, not everything has to be perfect!! Though it’s understandable to be a perfectionist, that shouldn’t be what is being focused on. You’ll get too caught up in making everything immaculate and you won’t get the right lesson out of the process. Process over quality of each tiny thing (quality can come later in the semester once you’ve had a lot of practice on model making.) Lastly, don’t take criticism so personal, it is not meant to put you down, but to help you improve your work.

C O N C L U S I O N

I’m going to be quite honest, Arch 101 was nothing like what I expected it to be. I came in thinking it would be straight up about buildings, buildings, and more buildings; I was wrong. In this studio class, Jerry Lum was able to teach me, as well as my classmates, how to expand our minds and to think outside the box. I struggled at first trying to fully grasp the idea of not thinking so literal, but coming to an end of this semester I believe that I’ve been able to got a hold on how to think more broadly. Stress; A lot of this semester was filled with stress, having to balance a handful of classes along with a studio class. Though at first I didn’t think this, but the stress wasn’t necessarily such a bad thing. The stress of the studio class taught me what it’s really like, it prepares you for the university classes as well as life all around. The final project assigned to us was the perfect amount of exposure to how university level studio classes are. Aside from the actual education, I could not emphasize enough how grateful I am to have had such a wonderful group of classmates by my side, through all our ups and downs (aka us sobbing about late night procrastinations) we were always there supporting one another. And last, I’m thankful for the opportunity to have had Jerry Lum as a professor. Thank you for being an amazing professor, an inspiration, pushing us to do our utmost best, and most of all for being a real pal.