_FINAL

For this project, we had to build an office space for the newspaper called The Mercury. The Mercury is a local newspaper for Knoxville, TN, and the meanings behind the name can be interpreted as the God or as the actual substance. Our job was to deal with the site, the existing building, design a cafe, stage, and screen.

When we were told about this project my professor, Scott Wall, told a story about mercury, and his experience of breaking thermometers and seeing how the substance moved. Unfortunately, due to health scares, mercury is not used as much anymore so the younger generations do not have an understanding of playing with mercury. I wanted to relate the idea of the story behind mercury and make it more relatable to younger generations; so I choose water. 

I wanted to play off water by building up my landscape to resemble the three states of water. The trees within the site are white pines, native to the area, used not only to block the sound of the interstate, but to also be experiential while waking through. I used the term Väyäla, which is Finnish for choose your own path. I wanted the public to get lost within the sound of the trees and the different paths they can take from either waking to the cafe or to the office building.

The next state that I worked with was water, that was simple considering rain is a natural thing. I decided to have the site slope towards the existing office structure, and to have a ditch besides the highway to collect the water coming form that hill. All directing this water to a reflecting pool in front of the office structure. My idea was to put algae within the reflecting pool to clean the water, to either use or to just look at. 

he third and final state is solid water. I drew from the ideas of dry gardens in Japan and how they use rocks to represent water. The solidity of a rock in general makes one feel stable and strong, almost existing as structures themselves. I think the large boulders are easy to get within this area, and the large scale will be a nice characteristic for the site.


Moving on to the actual structures, the cafe and the office building where simple in geometric form, but they created a nice experience. 

For the cafe, I wanted to embed the idea of water within the cafe, so I decided to attach it to the boulder in the back of the site. The wall facing the rock, is a plastic film that roles up in the summer so one can touch the rock, and rolled down in the winter so you can still experience it. 

The office building was created to be both private and public space. In the back there is a archive and a gallery open split by a partition, used for the public. Then within the building their is a two-storie boulder, done to bring in the ideas of water but to also split private versus public spaces. When you walk past the rock you see a front desk to the left and to the right a conference room. The rock is not only used to split the spaces, but also to ascend to the second level by stairs. The second level holds 5 desks, a space for pin-ups and conversation, and bathrooms. The front side of the building is all glass, covered by a tin roof. This is done so when it is raining you can hear the sounds of the rain drops, and have it cascade down the front of the glass giving it a glossy effect. 

All in all, I think I could work more on the buildings, so I can create beautiful spaces to match the site that I have designed. 

Following this project, we had to make a final video to end our class. In essence, I wanted to capture the first year experience by having people tell me stories, while also showing peoples faces and hands while they are working. I did this because I think the main goal within design school is to shorten the span from what you think to how you can actually create it. 

_02

At the beginning of this project, I had a bookshelf cut into a cement block only available to the first years. It was going to be filled with books chosen by the college’s professors to create a more personal connection between the students and the teachers. With an area below filled with folders for students to share, save, and collect their work over the year.

As the project progressed my original idea morphed into a different site and plan, but the same idea as to be hidden within the architecture building and can only be found if someone stumbles upon it or searching for it. The light played a huge role in my original design and that was carried through as a huge component for our final design. Also the use of the site was a huge deal in the sense that we tried to use subtle nuances found in the site and to be translated into the design. In both my original design and final the idea of camouflaging it, and making it seem like the bookshelf wasn’t added but meant to be there.

Of course there were a lot of changes from my original design to the final. Instead of hundreds of books it was narrowed down to one, with a distinct script that needed to be followed. The ideas drawn from the book include mystery and journey. The journey of the man in the book was through a jungle hiding and maneuvering himself in order to not get hunted and killed by a rich Russian aristocrat. Relaying that idea, we used three sides of the four-sided bookshelf. Two sides have simple slits, one side more then the other, matching the lines created by the rails. They are covered by frosted plexi-glass in order to create that sense of suspense, making people walk around the bookshelf trying to figure out this mystery that is before them.

Realizing there is a small box on the side made of different material, that when pushed pops open revealing The Most Dangerous Game.

The study of light, material, and journey was a huge aspect through our process of building this bookshelf and is an integral part in making this design worthwhile. 

Same with the last project, Arch 122 made a video that went along with the building of this bookshelf. This documentary is about what Architecture students say during the duration of a project from design, to construction, and ending with the final. 

_01

The beginning of this semester started off with learning about the space around us. Our surrounding space, the majority of the time, is the architecture building. We began to look at floor plans and asking questions about the spatial sequence around us what makes our building as great as it does. Under further investigation, and many diagrams later, we realized the use major and minor space, regulating lines, grid, and many more spatial sequences that reside in this building. The main purpose of this assignment was to be able to tell the majority of our information through diagrams, because, just like a picture, a diagram is worth a thousand words. 

Following with our studio work, our other class was exploring the architecture building within 24 hours. The purpose of this class, is to create a story through video. The main story line that I wanted to create was the experience that a student has coming into the building and heading to their desk at different times of the day. Our building is amazing in the fact that no matter where you are you can always tell what time it is, which brought the whole movie together. At the end of the day you see the student moving backwards, as she is moving backwards time moves backwards ending with shots of the building in different times of day.