FINAL POST

Well.... Learning centre is complete.
One thing I will need to remember for the next project is to KEEP IT SIMPLE!
I think if I had tried to design a local smaller scale learning centre, rather than trying to design the equivalent of the state library... I probably would have ended the semester feeling a little more confident and positive than I am feeling right now. 
I wish that I had focused in on a couple of key areas eg. making the community kitchen more of a working community kitchen rather than a stock standard. 
I have tried to complete this project as best I can.... given that I work full time and am probably a little out of touch with some of the latest programs (photoshop etc).  I felt a little out of my depth when it came time to pull together the final presentations.  This I vow to improve on, in addition to getting back into the swing of hand drawing and sketching. 
All in all I think the basics are there, and it helps when you have a passion or a little fire inside you that makes you want to design a building that provides inspiration to people and makes their experience of the building one they want to come back again and again and enjoy.

WEEK 13

I felt a little better prepared this time going to the tute and I think the response I got wasn't too bad.
Brett felt as though I had gone past something which he felt could be explored a little further:

Rather than continuing on with the floor plans the way I had above, he suggested to come back to the ideagram on the left and consider using this to create a little city of rooms and zones.

FEELING A LITTLE MORE POSITIVE - WEEK 12

STARTING FROM SCRATCH - WEEK 11

So after Brett's suggestions from last tute regarding going back to the site and analysing exactly where my building should go and how it will fit in with the cliff, I put some work into starting from scratch.

I needed to analyse the contours and work out exactly what the cliff does so that my building can work with it.  The cliffs edge is by no means a straight.

I have been keen on having a glass canopy over my building since the beginning, and I this has been an idea that was inspired by the folie.  Our folie was constructed with steel and glass.  It was fairly simple with the main features being the fixed triangular windows which take in views of the Story Bridge and the glass floor.  The  glass floor inspired me to have a real vertical connectivity within my library design and the materials are something which will also carry through. 

Brett also suggested looking into the pedestrian paths of tavel through and within my building. 
So while considering this I managed to stumble upon a book by Paul Laseau and this inpired me to have a bit of a play.

I then continued to try and work out what the different floor levels would work, how they would connect and what kind of activites would occur in the different zones.

HOPE WAS FADING - WEEK 10

Well after a couple of weeks of struggling to find a. the time and b. the courage to put pen/pencil to paper, I finally started to explore the possibility of quite a circular building with many curves within the interior.  Unfortunately after the week 10 tute, I became to feel as though hope was fading...... and that the chances of getting some kind of impressive building together by due date was becoming impossible.  I joined this theme group because I was way out of practice with my hand sketching, and although I once was able to pull off beautifully hand drawn perspectives that were painted with guach and rendered with pencil.... 10 years of doing other things like raising a child, getting married and for the last four years working in an office where I have used Revit on a daily basis, has put me in a position where I now have some kind of stage fright when it comes to hand sketching.  All that aside,  now having realised that Brett actually wants us to draw without the use of Revit and that I probably won't pass the subject unless I change my ways, I have tried to put pencil and pen to paper and try to be one with the yellow trace.

So after realising that the revit drawings needed to be put on the shelf, I took on some of Brett's advice about adjusting some of the levels so that some overlap rather than having a central hollow core to my building. 

I did try to work with a circular type form however I got to a point where  I just could not seem to work out how my facade would work.  Usually I am ok with working from the inside out and allow the functions to dictate the form, however on this occasion I have decided to can everything and start from scratch.  The circular type building is just not working out for me.

Below are some scribbles from the circular days.