Design Journal Entry - Module 12 Wrap Up

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Your Name

Aigbekaen, Jovan

Journal Entry For

Module 12 - Sharing Your Project

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ACC Revit File Link

Created

Jan 6, 2025 12:34 AM

Last Edited

Jan 6, 2025 12:34 AM

Created by

Glenn Katz

Overview

Replace this text with your reflections on your design journey through class from a higher level and share your insights about the entire experience. What were:

Key / Essential / Unique Design Features that you explored in your project.
Your Big Successes -- what worked very well and what features you're most proud to share as examples to inspire others.
Your Big Challenges -- what aspects of the project created the biggest challenges and what would you do differently (in hindsight) to avoid or overcome these challenges.
Lessons Learned -- what sage words of advice would you share with other students who are embarking on a similar project.

Key/Essential/Unique Design Features Explored:

Succession of atria as distinct and unique moments for the building form, circulation, and operation for hybrid-natural ventilation

From the onset of this project, I desired to create a building based on designs that could fulfill dual ambitions of reducing energy consumption while providing memorable architectural experiences. In particular, I aimed to champion approaches that best facilitated passive design and systems, which through simplicity could allow for architectural expression to blossom unimpeded or diminished. This motivation led me to establish atria as essential features to not just incorporate, but to make them the central driving forces of the design. These atria evolved into becoming avenues for the procession of the occupants through the various building spaces, while also being the focal points themselves. The atria embodied connectivity of community, light, and comfort, through their existence as sites for flux and interaction, daylight penetration into the core, and hybrid ventilation through the stack effect.

Mass timber based structure

I was deeply inspired by the reference mass timber projects and designs I discovered in the early concept phase of this course. These projects provided the motivational seeds for me to immerse myself into timber-based construction. Through the many iterations of this project, from the initial forma to the final render, my designs evolved from dense forms that imposed themselves on the site, to light structural geometries that coalesced into an elegant and cohesive canopy.
A key moment in which the timber is expressed is in the vertical louvers that accompany all fenestration elements. While including these relatively wide and deep timber louvers on each fenestration element irrespective of the individual facades solar conditions and shading needs was a design choice that would likely increase cost, this dual functionality and ornamentation served to concretely extend the timber design motif from the interior structural elements to the facade. A building’s facades are its public faces; the points from which it is first introduced to and visually experienced by the visitors. I believe that my facade embodies the natural and tree-inspired design theme and conveys the theme of the design being a forest for exploration in form, function, and experience.

Consistent facade elements

another key design process and feature that I enjoyed engaging with was the prefabrication corner that I utilized throughout the envelope design phase. It was help to establish consistent dimensions and elements to utilize for fenestration in order to best facilitate the realization of modularity and prefabrication goals.

Timber constructed atria roof skylights

I am a massive lover of and advocate for daylighting through atria skylights (#loveloveloveskylights), and after viewing a skylight with timber mullions in a reference design, I was motivated to implement such a feature in my design. Interior daylighting of my building cores was a huge design ambitions that I directed my efforts towards very early on. It was very much a no atria with skylights, no building stance for me lol. The final product of this steadfast design decision was the formulation of daylighting features created that unique textural interplay with the floor surface through the geometric shading patterns that dynamically shift with the passage of the sun. This served to make the atria visually interesting while providing the benefit of maximal daylight penetration into the core and the potential for passive solar gain in the winter for heating.

Big Successes:

The front facade

As the primary face of the building, the front facade triumphs in conveying a modesty through simplicity, yet boldness through the angled walls and roofs. The slopes of all these angled elements were not accidental, but rather, were carefully formulated to induce visual focal points by directing the movement of viewers eyes to key areas of intrigue, namely the central wing with its curtain wall and timber louver fenestration elements. The facade experimented with symmetry, geometries, and angles, all while still remaining simple and cohesive. Moreover, the facade attempts to concrete reference the local design vernacular and historical construction materials. I wanted a design that would integrated into the context, while also driving the evolution of the local design styles forward. I think front facade did wonders to assist with this goal

Central/Main atrium

In some ways the facade was the hors d’oeuvres of the design, with the central atrium being the main, and arguable, most distinct moment in the design. As referenced above, I desired for the atria to be focal points in plan, program, form, and function. The central atrium serves as a grand and picturesque entryway that invites the presence of occupants. The expansive and unimpeded space creates an environment ripe for the fostering of interaction and collaboration, while still leaving ample room for cross circulation between the adjacent western and eastern wings. Moreover, but having an atrium that stretches across the entirety of the narrow form, from the south facade to the north facade, the central atria acts as a protective transition space between public facing exterior and the more private and excluded rear greenspace and gardens. Despite being an enclosed space, the curtain walls and the large skylight help to establish an intimate connection between the interior and the outdoors.
Another added benefit of the expansive nature of the central atrium is the opportunity for it to act as the host of large events and functions such as balls, galas, and exhibitions. The upper floor walkway is the perfect vantage point from which to view such events that could very easily be accommodated within the space. Moreover, the existence of dedicated entryways for the other building wings-which house specifically dedicated functions such as the exhibition spaces in the west and, the classrooms and offices in the east-allow for the other spaces in the program to be accessed and serviced independent of any activities occurring in the central atria. As such, this building proposal can essential function as three separate buildings, that while connected and cohesively linked by the envelope, can be functionally independent, with public affairs occurring in the west, private affairs in the east, and the central atria being the transition point along this public to private spatial continuum. So while some guests may attend a gala or guest speaker event in the main atrium, students, faculty, and staff can easily go about their day in the eastern wing without ever having to navigate through the event in the main atrium.

Circulation/Egress

Despite the long and narrow nature of some aspects of this design, little to no long and narrow corridors exist in the design. This was implemented without compromising circulatory logic or safety.
Circulation was something that I explored extensively to act as an site of the exhibition center experience. In particularly, the eastern and western egress shafts provide dramatic unique visual and spatial experiences for visitors. Both receive adequate daylight and allow occupants to move vertically through space in a more interesting way that engage visual and textural senses.

Structure

The mass timber structural system has the immense opportunity to be sustainable sourced. Mass timber has the benefits of reducing constructions costs and overall emissions.
Key moments in the structural design is the exposed timber columns in the atria as well as the exposed beams in the upper exhibition spaces. These details serve to foster a sense of the interior being a light and airy forest canopy. Importantly, these features were coordinated (for the most part) with architectural and mechanical systems to reduce clashes

Big Challenges

Trying to implement anticipatory design, rather than reactive design

It was difficult to trying to adopt the framing and perspective of multiple disciplines while engaging in a particular system design in order to avoid clashes. This was especially more challenging given my limited prior exposure and experience with some of the systems we engaged with in this course.

For example, while I have engaged extensively with architectural design and understand (for the most part) architectural parlance and ways of thinking, I was not so well versed in structural design or mechanical design at first. As such, initially the architectural layout was not conducive to be compatible for efficient and cost effective structural and mechanical systems. In particular, the unique layout of each of the three building wings (East, West, Central) initially made aspects of structural, mechanical, and plumbing designs customized rather than simple, modular, and repeatable. Addressing this challenge required extensive rework of the architecture throughout the quarter. Walls and even entire rooms were constantly moving around. And at some point, even entire floor heights were being reduced or increased. In hindsight, I would have been more intentional about wearing the hat of other disciplines to evaluate design choices before conducted extensive modeling.

Proper sizing and positioning of mechanical spaces early in the plan formulation phase

I am concerned that the mechanical spaces in my designs are too conservative and undersized. I think the potential cooling and heating loads required for this particular building necessitate more dedicated mechanical space, which require even more rework. This challenge could have been avoided or mitigated by over budgeting the mechanical space in the initial program budget to provide a buffer against potential future changes in plan or mechanical system decisions.

Designing within the footprint

I realized quite late on that my design proposal had exceeded the site footprint boundaries. In the real world, continuing on with such a proposal would be impractical as site boundaries are immutable constraints that you must work within. In the future be more mindful about constantly referencing and refreshing on the constraints (and design with the site view turned ON in visibility graphics lol)

Lessons Learned:

iterate, iterate, iterate!

It is unlikely that your first idea, proposal, or building form will be perfect. It takes a time for ideas to marinate and morph into something brilliant, exciting, and fun to work with. I encourage being audacious early on and exploring various different options and building techniques. But be mindful and efficient about how explorative you are.
Utilizing Forma is a great way for rapid iteration. With Forma you can quickly produce and assess a wide array of building forms in terms of footprint, solar performance, daylighting, and other metrics. Forma can really help you develop a sense of how different forms respond to the site conditions. This will help you develop an intuition for what works and what is possible. I felt that I was too conservative while using Forma, as I had already internally settled on a general building form that I envisioned beforehand. I thought I was set on this initial idea, although with time this initial idea drastically shifted.

Weekly Design Check-ins are not assignments, but rather helpful resources

Don’t treat the weekly check-ins as homework assignments or progress reports, but rather treat them as opportunities to critically evaluate your design approaches and absorb lovely feedback and ideas. The course TAs have a wealth of knowledge and expertise so the amount of learning and growth you can experience is boundless as long as you remain open minded.

Personal reflections and check-ups:

Continuously referencing and reflecting on whether your design is fulfilling your personal and established goals can help inform the direction you evolve in as a designer. I kid you not, I would sometimes dream about my design ideas and one time even woke up in a panic when I reflected and concluded that a particular iterations was deviating from the sustainability goals I wanted to pursue. While my immediate decision to obsessively rework my WHOLE design at 2am was definitely a CHOICE, in the end it was helpful to always be in tune and honest with myself in terms of critically evaluating whether my building was not only meeting my goals, but also fulfilling me as a designer and a student.

Please go outside and please sleep:

I am admittedly a heavy Revit addict, and would often spend hours on end shifting walls, placing windows, or crying over a failed Insight simulation. Please go outside and touch grass from time to time, and get your ZZZs in. And if you are really struggling with Revit withdrawal symptoms, just play in Build Mode in the Sims!