ProForma: Webcam to Model

The previous post has led to check on another great product which was done by a Phd student from Cambridge University. It contribures more towards model study, but it is also possible in helping towards your presentation sheets. The guy is a genius, kudos to him. Hopefully the product is cheap when it comes out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEOmzjImsVc

http://www.archdaily.com/41684/proforma-from-webcam-to-3d/

Holographic Presentation

I was reading through Archdaily and I came across this new technology. It is a new way of presenting your work, which reminds me of computerized holographic pictures in movies. It is so cool that I enquired for the price and if the product is available in the UK. I bet it is expensive but I just had the urge to know. There is a comment stating a 12 by 12 is $799, which is like 1/4 of 3d painting but it might be different here. What is a 3d painting anyways? Anyways enjoy the video.



You can also watch it at:
vimeo.com/8078523

Jardins, Jardin Design Competition

Jardins, Jardin is an event dedicated to trends in Urban garden and outdoor design. It is a competition to find innovative and practical solutions to make a Green City. We are given a limited space of 15msq with no particular site. If the design is chosen, it will be built in the Garden of Tuileries for the exhibition in June.

Somewhere during the week, I couldnt sit and work through my thesis cause I got bored, so I strayed towards a competition website and found this. I saw this competition few weeks back and had an idea lingering around but didnt have the time to pursue any further. As I realized how lazy I got for the pass few days, I started modeling my idea on Sketchup and follow it through. Although it took 2 days, it kept my brain going instead of tapping furiously on the keyboard to activate 'Wolf Rush' and 'Anti Air Shots' in Dragonica.

My design approach was to reflect on the continuous change that is happening towards the urban fabric. I was trying to look at how a garden might be able to adapt itself to the change of surroundings, owners/clients or trends. Hence, I came up with 'Flexi Garden'. If you look at a city from plan view, it is living painting that would never stop. My design was to provide a green canvas, that is capable of adapting itself constantly. It can be moved around to suit the site and being detach to fit smaller pockets around the city or a house garden.

It has wheels at the bottom to provide easy orientation towards a new area if needed. As a whole, the garden is 3.8m by 3.8m but when it is detached into 4 smaller components, it becomes 1.9m by 1.9m each. This way, we are not restricted to just a square but making a linear garden possible. There are sitting areas, and the narrow pathway is also intended for people to sit on. We can plant or put any ornaments depending on a persons taste, creating a unique flexi garden of your own.

Going Back A Decade - Functionality

Coming from a background where houses are all made out of timber and with some concrete, it is easy to overlook its functionality as it becomes obsolete as it is an everyday feature. The purpose of the design was never mentioned and I took things for granted for everything that was build around me. It is only now I realized, when I started studying Architecture, it all became obvious, and it is when I started looking at the finer details of the construction, the design as a whole is actually simple yet very effective. I am starting to understand how function can create its form, instead of cramping function into a form where the limitation of space can disrupt the orientation of spatial spaces. I like how the timber is not fabricated, showing the design in its rawest of form, providing protection and function. The design in a way is very pure, ornamented with timber crafts by local carpenters for those who are capable of affording decorations. Here are just some examples I briefly look at to understand the traditional construction in my country.

Quick Conceptual Render

This is a quick render to understand how my initial design and ideas works on site. Unfortuntely, it was undoubtly full of flaws, concentrating on forms was a habit that I need to get rid of. It became clear, although, from a local's perspective, it looks something that represents the city's symbol, it does not create the appropriate functions within the space. The form limits the function of circulation, interaction etc. I am still at a developement stage and the renders were made not only to understand the spatial spaces and see whether the design actually works, it was also to get more comments and initial ratings from the architecture community website. I have taken a step back and concentrated more on functions, still incooperating local vernacular but with more details and emphasising on the experience on site. Development work will be shown next.