Layout of All My Peer Reviewers Buildings

In going back through and looking at some of the positioning areas of the buildings within the triangular area set out by Judy I have actually noticed for a few of my reviewers have not actually provided me with their real life location of their building (or rather I have not written it down if they have, in which case I apologize), these being: Richard Andree Wiltens, Nathan Hayes and Tatahi Rawiri-McDonald (who wasn't there for his crit).

The corresponding dots refer to:

Red - Yoon, Paul - www.archdes101.tumblr.com

Yellow- Stacey Ann - http://circe17.blogspot.com

Orange - Stonjanovic, Marina - mojamina@blogspot.com

Green - Paranjpe, Sukshma - http://sukshmaparanjpe.wordpress.com/

Light Blue - Song, Rosa - srs9292@blogspot.com

Dark Blue - Heidari, Shirin - shirinarchi@blogspot.com

Peer Reviews - Week 4 - Sukshma Paranjpe

Name: Sukshma Paranjpe

Student ID: Not provided

Blog address: http://sukshmaparanjpe.wordpress.com/

Although I couldn't find any pictures on her webpage, I will attempt to generally clarify the interesting work that Sukshma has produced this week. Like the previous people I have reviewed, Sukshma was part of the laser cutting group who were entrusted in creating a tram stop design that would be located somewhere along a proposed new Historical Tram route that would be within our large triangle expressed at the start of the year.

Her tram stop idea consisted of the tram stop being placed on The Strand, located on a large roof top span that was surrounded on both sides by rising building complexes and connected to a rough. cliff like hill edge on the back leading to the streets above. Her tram stop was to be inspired by the weathering process of these back cliffs and with the idea of her tram stop being orientated around the fact of it being the an Al Fresco dining experience with the tram stop being the terminal stop on the tram route. The stop, on the Parnell roof tops would aim to emulate the end cliffs being made from a descending flow of weather rock like glacial layers that drop from the cliff edge that would lead to the street behind to the rooftop area below.

What is impressive about Sukshma's design is her meticulous detailing with many of the small metal cross-braces being laser cut from a few forked section that are 2-mm wide, creating a life like process of construction even at a tiny scale. With its positioning between the surrounding buildings, Sukshma has further explained that at night one traveling or staying at the tram stop would skip all the industrial views of the area at night, with the Al Fresco dining experience constructing their main view and visual impact on the building rooftop, with a final mention that the entire structure is supported by rods that go from the descending floor slabs and metal connections to the facades of the surrounding buildings.

Peer Reviews - Week 4 - Marina Stojanovic

Name: Marina Stojanovic

Student ID: 1831033

Blog address: mojamina@blogspot.com

Firstly I would like to give Marina an A+ for her birthday and second of all I would like to talk about her building.

Above: Photos of Marina's final project

Marina again in the laser cutting group was instructed to create a project aimed to embody an idea of weathering and the designing and creating of a model that was to be used as a tram stop in the waterfront Parnell area for a new designated Historical Tram route that has been used at the new Party Central area in the City Centre. Marina like Stacey chose to have her train stop positioned at the park located in front of the underutilized Old Railway Station, with the station being elevated to the porch covered area of the main Railway Station entry, thus utilizing the rise, while only compromising 23 parking spaces with the foundations of the tram stop.

Marina's project from the start can be seen to be made from laser cut cork, with the outer areas of the cork removed as she explained that they had a really strong unpleasant smell of....well, burnt cork. Improving the office space of the previous project didn't apply to the laser cutting group with a completely different project that attempted to encapsulate the tram track designs as an original project aim. The weathering element as she describes is to do with the idea of the building being covered by rust and lichen, with the building form itself reflecting some ideas of becoming unravelled, bending and warping under elemental conditions while providing functional protection through the buildings cover and walls. Even the buildings positioning aims to follow that lichen aspect, growing out of the concrete/stone drive ramp sides like a giant lichen, clinging to what should be a solid, strong wall. She finally brings up the ideas of the building being weaved, with the roof and the walls linking and overlapping to create an interesting texture that really makes this project a standout one in the group in terms of material use and form.

Happy Birthday!!!

Review - Week 4 - Laser Cutting- Stacey

Name: Stacy Ann Vallis

Student ID: Not provided

Blog address: http://circe17.blogspot.com

Workshop: Laser cutting

Above: Stacy's final tram stop model.

From a look at Stacy's model, her conversation on the day and a general look at her blog it seems that Stacy has had a lot of information and development to resolve in coming up with her final model. With her laser cutting group from my understanding their task was to create a model and design for a tram station in conjunction with the ideology of a weathering, whether this be a surface or otherwise form of this theme. She talked about (and her blog expresses) the idea of material use ranging from different types of stone, rock, plaster, wood and bone in expressing this weathering idea that is incredibly apparent in her final work.

Stacy it seems particularly identified with the idea of brick and weathering looking at both a number of European buildings (the Vatican ) and many in India (done by the Anagram Group) that expressed a variety of different qualities that bricks allowed as a building and external aesthetic material. Her building his located on the park outside of the Old Railway Station close to the Auckland Waterfront in Parnell, retaining the original significance of the tram stop design with the nearby Railway Station while also reflecting and utilizing the same material choice in the use of brick between the tram stops surroundings and itself.

Stacy mentioned that she wanted to make the tram stop both a transition area for people commuting through the space in effect creating some form of triumphant arch way or processional area much as the Brandenburg gate or Lion Gate in Greece, an idea very reminiscent of the Art Deco/ Beaux Arts Railway stations and Ports of the 19th and early 20th Century. The brick she restates adds a contextual element to the tram stop with the form of the building in its general cubic form again expressing the visual form qualities of the Railway Station behind, adding to this reciprocal process. The tram stop from its street front offers a covered interior area that leads to the back with a square door frame on both ends framing both the street end and the Railway station in the back visually.

The building consists of a square interior area with corner located elevated walkways that perform much like viewing platforms for the average commuter, gifting the view to a certain extent. The walls are made from a very Delhi Anagram Architects type perfurated brick wall motif, with the wall intervals and brick angulations reducing the impacts of wind and rain from the West, with the brick placements acting as a shield to block off the elements.

In terms of the model, I quite like the way that the bricks ebb and flow in a very smooth continuous style, although in a certain way I was quite disappointed that this was not done intentionally, although I am not one to say that the end has to justify the means, with this unexpected twist (excuse the pun) being an interesting development bought along by the use of the nature of glue and the small pieces that make up the ultimate structure in a manner that aims to deconstruct and warp the initial Railway Station form. However as I pointed out to her on the day had she wanted to create quite a quite rigid structure, the main unbroken flat brick areas could have been made in auto-cad by using a large piece just engraved in with brick forms with the smaller areas manageably twisted to produce only the visible rotations of individual brick rows rather than the entire structure, although I don't dispute that I do like it more in its final model state. All in all, an interesting use of modular brick design that reflects quite a bit to my weeks project as well.

General Construction

Above: Putting my wooden frame structure together, I cut up my big piece of bought 90 by 45 mm post creating a number of vertical posts and cross bracings that were nail gunned by a industry nail gun using 60 mm industrial galvanized steel nails to keep it into place creating a very stable and extremely strong small structure.
Above: The picture shows the back of the L shaped aluminium piece and how the bricks sit on top of its interior, pressed up against the back, allowing the staggered line of cantilevered bricks that make up the unique nature of my 1:1 model.
Above: Front angled view of the cantilevered brick line held up by the aluminium L shaped piece. On the other side of the brick section I will leave a section of the L piece exposed to allow the tutors and viewers to see the inside construction while covering up the metal on the staggered brick side (right side) by use of mortar to give the illusion of a "floating" brick line.
Above: A picture showing blocks holding the cross section wood piece in place and the vertical sections clamped in awaiting nail gunning of the structure . The interior vertical block pieces are later removed.
Above: A front view of my brick section of my 1:1 model. Using a mixture of water and trade mortar I was able to mortar each layer together creating a fairly strong (although brittle structure which I am not too happy about) that also at the same times covers the inner aluminium piece not allowing it to be seen on the right, while still leaving the left aluminium bit exposed to allow the viewers on crit day to see the interior structure.
Above: Another front view of the brick wall shows my attention to detail in fully covering the interior L shaped aluminium piece and the covering of the brick ties allowing for an aesthetic quite clean finish to the 1:1 detail bit.
Above: the back of the brick section has exposed the brick ties that are embedded between the 2nd and 3rd layer of the staggered brick lines, while also from the back the small edge of the aluminium L layer is seen although in real life this would be pinned against the waterproofing and the wooden frame, being invisible to the viewer.
Above: It took some planning in the cutting of the bottom holding aluminium piece as I had to account for gaps for mortar to be placed between the bricks allowing the entire structure to be stuck together. Below is picture of the edge of the staggered brick line still in the workshop and its connection to the barely visible glass pane behind it and how the spaces between the bricks would render the glass layer almost an invisible weather shield allowing that gifting of view both in the office and the train stop spaces.

Brick Laying and General Construction

Above: The finished detail of how the aliminium joint between my glass and the wooden framing covered by the waterproofing (black piece) is joint and sits behind a section of my outer brick facade.
Above: A pre construction setup of how all my pieces would be coming together for my final 1:1 detail in the Architecture workshops.
Above: A setup of how the brick ties will sit within the layer between two rows of bricks and be nailed/screwed into the brick below and the wall behind. (in planning ahead I have decided that the best of course of action would be not to screw the ties into the wooden framing at all for this project even though in practice you would mainly to allow it to be carried more easily. Instead to still portrait this idea I will allow a bit of spacing on the left of my brick wall on the wooden back frame to screw in one of the ties to get the point across that in its actual construction it would be nailed to the main supporting structure).
Above and Below: A row of brick ties being positioned into suitable places for later mortaring outside of the brick section. (Behind it is the waterproof barrier attached to the wooden framing).

Technical Details Arising in my 1:1

In illustrator I composed a small cross section of what my 1:1 model for this fortnightly project would look like and where I could get it. In essence the process would begin with creating a timber framing from a 90 by 45 timber post (about 1 meter), then attaching a waterproof barrier to it by use of screws. Further by attaching an aluminum bracket to the waterproofing I could by use of glue or silicone keep my glass in place behind the brick facade. The brick facade would be created by stacking bricks on top of each other with the main focus being in creating a cantilevered brick line that would look like it is being held in the air by the use of mortar (which it couldn't as mortar tends to fail under tension loads but rather works on compression) but actually would have a L aluminum piece underneath keeping the brick line in place and covered with mortar. The brick section would be tied to the timber main framing by use of brick ties bought at most hardware stores and all the bricks mortared together.

Above: Detail of the joining of the aluminium piece to the the wooden framing and the glass piece.

Above: I visited Ullrich Aluminium yesterday on Great South Rd and after a bit of trouble finding it I got there and looked for a L shaped piece that would be able to hold up my staggered brick cantilever section. I was successful, however they only sell large 3.8 meter long lengths of it so I would have found it impossible to fit in my car. Luckily the guy in the store took me round the scrap box and I managed to find both a L shaped piece and a aluminium joint to hold my window pane up that were a suitable size and at $5 tip for the guy to help me was well worth having to buy an insanely large piece that I wouldn't use and couldn't transport.
Visiting Placemakers on Cook Road I was also able to get a number of my other materials including brick ties (above) that use screws to join the bricks to the timber facade as well as my desired lengths of my 90 by 45mm timber posts and trade mortar for my brick laying.