Arch 1390 - Digital Representation Studio

Tuesday, 30 August 2011

Independent Study for the 2 Week Break!!

Group Members:

Matthew Sinpraseuth - http://matthewsinpraseutharch1390-2011.blogspot.com/

Kevin Lao - http://arthurklaoarch1390-2011.blogspot.com/

Natalie Seeto - http://natalieseeto-arch1390-2011.blogspot.com/

Architect:

HARRY SEIDLER AND ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS

Building:

AUSTRALIA SQUARE TOWER

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Referencing:

Image 1: http://www.sydneyarchitecture.com/images/2555344968_82097a8417_o.jpg

Image 2: http://www.dexus.com/upload/property/20013/Australia-Square---ext-day-H.JPG

Image 3: http://www.aerolite.com.au/light%20weight%20concrete%20building.jpg

Image 4: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3572/3649019197_100771e4a3.jpg

A Little Bit About Australia Square Tower

1961-1967.
It is a high rise Office Building.
The building is 170 metres tall.
The tower is 42 metres in diameter, with a central core of 20 metres diameter. The core contains elevator shafts, emergency stairwells and service conduits.
Each floor is donut shaped, with a clear span of 11 metres to the perimeter windows (glass shop front or curtain wall facade) and a total area of 1032 sqm each.
It is cylindrical in shape and it has a wide cylindrical lift shaft that contains approximately 11 lifts within the middle of the tower that runs straight to the top.
It has 50 floor levels.
The bottom level is retail.
46 of those floor levels are above ground and the other 4 levels are below ground.
The 47th floor is a revolving/rotating restaurant called The Summit.
The 48th floor, which is the highest level allows visitors to stand right on top of the roof to get a good look of the surrounding views - It is called the Observation Deck.
400 carparking spaces (below ground).
The tower is constructed of lightweight concrete, with 20 projecting vertical precast concrete columns tapering to the summit and supporting a combination of interlocking rib-structured reinforcement and radial support beams.
The 50 storey circular tower occupies only 25% of the site with a total floor space of 12 times the site area. The remainder of the city block was given over to the public; newly gained useable outdoor space, with trees, a fountain and outdoor restaurants.
Curved screen walls that are raised, separate the space visually and physically from traffic and parked cars in the surrounding streets. It is an area for people to linger and relax, attracting large lunchtime crowds.
Structurally the circular form of the tower is most efficient in resisting horizontal wind loads.
The projecting columns diminish in size as the building rises.
Its around 264 George Street - Closest Station is Wynyard.

Sunday, 21 August 2011

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Zaha Hadid Architects style of Architecture is very pronounce and unique in its own way. They have designed many wonderful and well known structures such as the Guangzhou Opera House and the MAXXI Museum etc and have won alot of awards as well. Although it is not a poster, it is a piece of very clear visual graphic image of the Guangzhou Opera House that seems to be made for presentation purposes. This type of image is made for selling ones ideas or used in general meetings and could just plainly be used for ordinary presentations. As for the Guaugzhou Opera House that i have researched, it had been shortlisted for the RIBA Lubetkin Prize.

This natural piece of structural building is very nice as it contains wide, bright, Chambers that are dedicated for Opera and perfomances. The image that have been chosen manage to capture the form and structure of the building very accurately. So basically the first thing we the audience see, when looking at this piece of graphic design, would be straight to the building as it stands out above the rest of the picture.

Any piece of Architecture should always conform to the surrounding environment and other elements that come together to make it whole and suiting.

A brief representatino about the Guangzhou Opera House:

It is basically a structure that rises and falls at the fot of the Zhujiang Boulevard, confirming Guangzhou as one of Asia's cultural centres.

Bringing together two adjacent sites for the proposed Museum and metropolitan activities, it forms an adjunct to the Haixinsha Tourist Park Island and a dominant riverside focus for visitors. Viewed from the park at the centre of Zhujiang Boulevard, the Opera House creates a visual prelude to the Tourist Park Island beyond. Viewed from the river, the towers of Zhujiang New Town provide a dramatic backdrop to the Opera House and offer a unified vision of the setting’s civic and cultural buildings. An approach promenade is cut into the landscape – an internal street beginning at the proposed Museum site at the opposite side of the central boulevard and leading to the Opera House. To one side of this promenade, a cafe, bar, restaurant and retail facilities are embedded shell-like into the landforms. Visitors arriving by car or bus are set down at a ‘drop-off’ point on the north side of the site on Huajiu Road, while service vehicles access the Opera House and Theatre Buildings at either end of the same road. VIP access to the Opera House is from the western boundary, facing Huaxia Road.

Experimental Grids for Poster

Independent Study Week 5

POSTER / GRAPHIC ART

Designer: "ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS"

Photograph:

Photograph: Dan Chung for the Guardian
"....Bursting into Neon Life... Zaha Hadid's Guangzhou Opera House"

Reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/28/guangzhou-opera-house-zaha-hadid

3D Visualisation Concept:

Image 1

Image 2

Video: Quick Tour of Guangzhou Opera House and Interview with Zaha Hadid.

Saturday, 13 August 2011

Week 4 - Project Reflection - 300 Words

The first assignment is about presenting a design based on our clients that were created using SPORES Creature Creator and their environments and the buildings that we have researched on our chosen designers, using Augmented Reality. At the start when we were experimenting with BuildAR, it was actually pretty exciting to play around with 3d objects protruding out from the piece of paper through webcam. It sounds a bit complex but once you can get the hang of how the software works, doing excercises and activities using this program made things easier. The part that i found difficult when first start using this program was that it wasnt the process of exporting it from 3Ds Max using an OSG file but as i didnt realise it at the time, was once opened into BuildAR, you had to adjust the x, y and z axis. Because when i placed my marker in front of the webcam, the object kind of showed up but kept on disappearing really quickly so i could not select it and adjust the position.

The Architect or Designed that i chose to research on was Zaha Hadid Architects. I have chosen it beause of its well known architecture and structures that comprises them. It has this really unique feel about them. The buildings that i did further research on was the Guangzhou Opera House, the MAXXI Museum and the Evelyn Grace Academy. I eventually based my clients and their habitats/buildings on these buildings, for example i related to the buildings curved shapes, and how it is round and smooth, others would be sharp and dominant. Out of the 3 buildings researched, the building that captured my attention the most was the Guangzhou Opera House and part of the MAXXI Museum. I will be incorporating these into my designs further on into the assignment. The buildings are really inspirational and full of beauty and wonder overall.

The design process started off with creating paper models based on a building or object designed by our chosen designers. Then we would remodel these paper models using 3Ds Max. Next we would be experimenting with creating Creatures using SPORES, and finalising on our chosen clients. Then we would try and build our clients environments based on their needs and draft up buildings that we would soon incorporate into our design. The environements were also based on theme words that were choses using our clients and our designers buildings.

Creating the environments and dwellings we had to use Crysis wars. THe ideas were generated from sketches and drawing the plans and elevations out onto paper, but has to relate to our clients. After completing the sketches i tried building it onto sketchup before putting the finalised one onto crysis. I experimnted with applying different textures and materials.

At the beginning, as i was coming to a decision on which designers i should choose, the tutor gave a suggestion on using Zaha Hadid so i gave it a shot. After researching on this architect, i was amazed by how well known and how many buildings these architects have completed and the many awards that they have achieved and accomplished. It is really inspiring overall.