Synopsis
In the lecture on the first day of class, we were told what our project was for the entire term. We were to design a library for a certain site designated by our professor within a set of requirements. This project, however, threw me off. I'm not really sure what the design of a gate for the library we haven't designed yet had much to do with anything. My guess is it was to get us back into studio work from spring break. I felt it just took away from library design time.
Assignment
Main Idea
The details of this assignment was sketchy. It was basically: design a gate. Okay. Being the environmentalist I am, I thought about how I can incorporate flora into the gate. I also wanted the people to have an experience as they walked through the gate instead of just past an opening in the wall. Therefore, I gave the gate a depth as well as a width. Thinking back to the vegetation I had to put with the gate, I decided to make the "roof" iron bars entwined with flowered vines. Such a green roof called for at least some greenery on the floor. So I made the floor small concrete tiles, each surrounded by grass. I originally had benches facing the circulation path but the professor reminded me of the "gauntlet effect" which is what a person feels when he or she has to walk down a path with people hanging out on both sides facing the circulation path. So, I wiped the bench from my design. But I still wanted a place for people to sit so I placed stone blocks at the base of the stone pillars so people can choose how to sit, but the design encouraging them to sit facing parallel to the path. Since there was no designated site, I placed the gate in a downtown setting. So I set the gate back from the sidewalk to let people stand there, off the busy sidewalk just outside the gate, to wait for a ride or just hang out.
My Presentation
My main problem was the iron bars to run over the gate and off the sides as the fence. My secondary problem was how to simulate the vegetation. At first, I tried a very thin wire. It did not work at all. It was too flimsy to hold even its own weight. I went to the craft center and looked for a wire I could use. Apparently they had wires of all sizes and shapes but not in all colors. I found a wire of proper thickness and decided to purchase the brass colored one as opposed to the gold one. This wire held very well and I proceeded to worry about the vegetation. After a few suggestions offered to me, I chose to take a bunch of the original wire I had and ravel them together at the base and have them expand out at the top for the canopy. Then I thought of ways to show the grass at the floor. I went to the computer and produced a matrix of squares spaced apart from each other. I was going to color the spaces green but I realized that since the overhead vines were not green, the grass should not be green either. After presenting, I thought maybe I should have colored it since someone thought the floor pattern reminded him of a bathroom or kitchen before being told it was actually grass in the spaces.
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