Project 3 Design

After metres and metres of white trace this is what I have...

Below are images of the design i have been working on. My idea incorporated 30 classrooms however all the interior walls folded away to give a multi-purpose space. The chairs and desks are all relocatable and their position in the plan is merely to denote a possible layout for classrooms but the layout is totally up to the teacher. All classrooms are located on the ground so there is no access issues for wheelchairs etc.

My design replies heavily on environmental aspects, i.e. ventilation of the space and daylighting of the classrooms. The stack on the building does this beautifully, allowing natural daylight to enter the room and reflect back into the space off the wall (hence giving the space diffused light). The stack also ventilates the spaces by the simple method of stack ventilation, which is where cool air enters the space via windows and the hot air rises to the highest point and is pushed of the space.

The primary structure of the design is a Portal frame, i am looking into a timber portal frame (to reduce the embodied energy which steel uses). The exterior is cladded in different species of timber, this is to give the building a little more appeal than just one species of timber (This aspect can be seen in the inspiration i have collected and posted in previous blogs).

Daylighting and ventilation has been a very important aspect of my design, as well as functionality.

Project 3: A Sustainable School - Inspiration

After the review the other week, Alex, Ash and I broke our masterplan into 3 parts and we are each looking at different part to design. We are refining our masterplan together and gather inspiration for the design of our buildings, which will have similar characteristics.

After doing some researching of image on the net I found the following images, which had elements i liked.

Project 3: A Sustainable School

While looking for inspiration on the net i found this rather interesting piece:

Aboriginals   

A second view of the soul of Almere is given by Johan Bouwmeester, inhabitant and civil servant at the municipality. He saw the location of Almere for the first time 30 years ago, when it was still an empty side. For him Almere is like a dream, growing layer after layer in the time, a succession of land and water, and all the dreams and fears of the inhabitants. The soul is the relation between people and networks, the sum of expectations and aspirations of people.

Every city is a promise, especially Almere, People of Almere are dreamers. It is a city where you can smell the human potential. Even at the start, amidst the frame of the buildings and rudimentary roads, you could feel the energy.

In Almere nature and culture are interwoven, more than anywhere else. In this city, constructed on a new spot, it is an act of culture to put brick after brick. It is the same energy which Johan encountered in the fast growing city Gabarone in Botswana. It grew from 500 inhabitants in 1968 to 80.000 in 1988 and 220.000 now, with the same feeling of human potential as Almere.

When making a map of the soul of the city, it is not about a factual map with roads etc, a one dimensional map. One should need a map as the aboriginals do. They not only put roads on the map, but also history, the reflections of past encounters. 
Basically Johan tells us: the soul of the city is my soul, and my soul is the soul of my city.

This image was could be incorporated into the planning of our school

Information sourced from:http://www.erasmuspc.com/index.php?id=18324&type=article

Project 2: Masterplan - Submission

Below are images of Project 2: Masterplan, which we presented.

Project 1: RARE Architecture - Video

The Video which we created and submitted for Project 1: RARE Architecture can be viewed at:

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0PLOk7rPl0A