Chuanjing Hu

Journal Entry For

Module 11 - Sharing Your Project

Use the Design Journal Entry - Module 11 template as the starting point for your posting.

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:

The main Key or Unique Design of my building is to integrate into the environment by all means. The ideal location of the building is to set in a forest. The roof is designed as a leaf shape which makes the building blend as a part of the forest, looks like a floating leaf. The building largely uses curtain walls and glass opening on the floor and tress inside the building to create a sense that you are still in the forest. All the glass and curtain walls allow the building to use natural lighting which saved energy.

Your Big Successes -- I work very well to created curtain wall and glass ceiling and floor. And I think the model I built achieved my original goal of the structure. I think the big success for me is that I challenged myself of designing a building different from the normal shape structre like a square or rectangle.
Your Big Challenges -- The big challenges for me might be connecting the wall and roof, also the design of the restroom. Since the building has a roof with slopes in both directions and open glass spaces. So it is hard to connect the roof with the walls. The large use of glass space on the floor gave the challenge to design the HVAC, structure system, and plumbing model. When designing these systems, I have to avoid intersecting with the open glass space. Also, the structural system I have now might be hard to construct, the alternating way of using a long-span grid system.
Lessons Learned -- I learned to design different building systems, and it is important to think ahead of how they will interact with each other before you start. I finished my architectural model then realized the glass floor would be bad for the restroom, however, It is too late to change. So my building has no restroom on the second floor. Next time I would have a better design on that. Another thing I learned is it is hard to connect the curtain wall and slope roof.