Sunday, May 9, 2010

Architecture Final Project

We will be using this blog site for the remainder of the year.

Research and Planning: So far we have been sketching floor plans of existing structures like Nottingham high school and our homes and now we are trying to determine a floor plan shape for our final project.

These are your constraints:
  • Your design must be 1400 square feet or less
  • Your design must have the minimum requirements of:
  1. One bathroom
  2. One bedroom or sleeping area
  3. one kitchen cooking and cleaning area
  4. Storage space for the above listed areas
  5. Two entrances
  6. Doorways,hallways, and stairways that would be accessible to a person confined to a wheel chair
  7. An area to accommodate HVAC, electricity, and water distribution
Our assignments so far in term 4 (as of May 9, 2010)
  1. Sketch Nottingham High school from memory
  2. Reaction paper to Winston Churchill Quote: "First we design our buildings and then our buildings design us"
  3. Sketch floor plan of our home
  4. Sketch floor plan of Nottingham using AutoCAD given a Google earth satellite image of the school
  5. Calculating square footage activity
  6. 4 ideas of our final project shape (exterior walls only) with perimeter dimensions to convey designs that will be within the 1400 square foot size constraints
Our assignment for Tuesday May 11, 2010:
In the last class, we were to design four possible shapes of a floor plan for our architectural design. This is an example of designing using the exterior

The Goal: Today we are going to design the interior space and see what sorts of shapes emerge. Please refer to chapters 7, 8, and 9 on room planning for this activity.

Here are the steps: ( To be demonstrated in class)
  1. Determine a bedroom shape and size (chapter 7)
  2. Determine a bathroom shape and size (chapter 7)
  3. Determine a cooking area shape and size (chapter 9)
  4. Assume that your utility area is an the basement so you may omit this room from your design
  5. Use the grid paper provided and a scale of 1 grid space equals 1 foot
  6. Draw with a straight edge, each room independently (bed, bath , and cooking)
  7. Remember to include entryways into each room that are at least 3 grid (3 feet) spaces wide.
  8. Use scissors and cut out room design so you have three seperate cut outs
  9. Begin to move these three rooms around to create a floor plan design.
  10. You may have to place hallways or other areas (living areas) to join these rooms together. If so, then the hallways must be at least 3 grid (3 feet) spaces wide (chapter 8)
  11. You also have to determine where you can place two entrances (chapter 8)

How you will be marked: By the end of class, you want to have at least 1 (hopefully 2) floor plan(s) using this method. You can tape your room cutouts onto another piece of grid paper or drawing paper or you can sketch out your design(s) into your sketch book. If you meet this goal, you will get a passing grade (65-80%).
If you do two or more designs and include notes, wall thicknesses, window openings, and furniture placement in each room, then you will be in the A to B range (80-100%)
Due date: The completed cutouts or sketches are due next class.