Review of FMP

REVIEW OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (FMP)

Student Name: Lucia Lanzalaco Pathway: 3D

Final Major Project Title: Placid Dynamics

You will need to submit this evaluation with your full project hand in 

1. Briefly describe the final outcome of your project and the progress you have made, and if applicable how it differs from your original Project Proposal:

The final outcome of my project are two identical viewing platforms/galleries, where people are able to gain access to an area that is normally off limits and there purely for visual purposes. Below these structures, seven small market stalls sit below and stay afloat on the dock. Each stall represents a different gentrified London borough. The stalls are open to sell different produce from local suppliers. At the back of all these structures, is another viewing platform but with a slightly different atmospheric feeling. An atmosphere where one may feel slightly trapped and excluded. This concept is slightly more complex than my project proposal, because there are much more underlying ideas and processes contained in my final piece in comparison to the proposal. I haven't exactly solved the question of 'do people want buildings to have an instant or long lasting impact on them?' However, I have kept a thread from my proposal weaved throughout my project, which is aiming to create a structure that could have the same effect as a painting or piece of music does on a person, both mentally and physically. As well as hoping to have created a structure that is a symbol of what architecture is now or could be.

2. What methods have you used to show how your learning has effected your project eg FMP Blog/ FMP Plan/ sketchbooks etc, and how has this helped with development of your work:

My sketchbook has aided me greatly in the process, as it is where one has a better connection within the design process because one is able to feel the motion of drawing and allow that to flow on to the paper. From my sketchbook, I was able to transfer my designs, not yet controlled to some extent by technology, onto software which sped up the making process to some extent. Having additional simple notepads did also develop my work further because I allowed myself to step away from the sketchbook that was design and research based, and I could solve design problems elsewhere. From this I could take the splitting and transfer that too the sketchbook. Blogging surprisingly developed my ideas further. As I carried on writing each blog post more ideas came to mind, but it was at these moments where I had to take a step back and refine ideas, rather than expand them. Gradually I managed to grasp that concept. Blogging also kept me on track with the process and not get confused with what stages I was at in developing my model.

3. List the targets met (from the original FMP Plan and any that were added later):

I have met my targets of reflecting on my blog weekly and documented the changes in my design process. I continued to check that my design was communicating a message to some extent. This is evident in my sketchbook where I have noted that I thought I was drifting from my project concept a great deal, and so I reflected back on my project proposal and tied my ideas back to my base theme. This also meets another target of wanting clarity and understanding in my concepts. I continued to question this, and questioned this among my peers, from this I got valuable feedback that fed into the process of my project.

4. Reflecting on your overall final major project, please discuss any developments which have contributed to the final outcome:

My trip to Rotterdam changed my outlook on how to approach design to some extent. The environment in the Netherlands influenced me to observe structures and spaces with more detail, simplicity and contradiction. So instead of taking in many complex details or concepts and forming them into more complex or extremely simplified ideas, I developed my ideas through taking a concept and relating it to a concept that is the opposite of the concept. For example, Rotterdam’s Markthal was an example of taking a simple stall and making it into a landmark location. I have taken this inspiration and made the middle dock into an area that is available to the public and not just there for visual purposes.

5. Please state what advice you received from others during your FMP, and discuss what you found particularly useful: you should refer to group reviews, one-to-one tutorials and feedback from evaluation groups

There were two peer reviews I valued feedback from. I was told to refine my ideas and process for ideas to communicate them more clearly and understandable. I adjusted my proposal for this and on the next review I had managed to refine my concept and the idea became stronger. This was vital feedback because as I went along with the design process I believed my concept was understandable, whereas it actually wasn’t.

6. Key points to take away – things to change about my approach (give at least 2) eg improve time management, what skills you have developed and how this will affect your future course/career and things to continue doing and to build on (give at least 2). What are you going to do next year? (NOTE – you may find it useful to refer to this document at the beginning of your next self managed project.)

Time management will need to be handled better, and I will do this by to not solely rely on technology when model making because there were too many errors that I stumbled across and weren’t always rectifiable immediately. Additionally, another change I could make in my approach is to use slightly more software in the beginning to possibly speed up the design process, since I spent quite a while in hand drawing.  I will continue to try and balance sketchbook work and written work better in the future on the architecture degree I will embark on. I will also continue to improve my hand making modelling skills as this is a key skill to have.

FMP | Construction - W7

Constructing the final model

I was fortunate to not have lost my laser cutting files for the roof because if I was to do them all over again I probably wouldn't have a final model!

The measurements for the roof were gained through measuring each point of the curve. I found this through measuring the X and Y measurements from the base line to the end points of the line I was measuring. I didn't use the method of measuring the degree from the base line because when I transferred this to illustrator, the lines' angles were allocating itself to the wrong directions.

(illustrator file)


1.2mm card 

FMP | Textures and software - W6

Market stall
Having continuously experimenting with drawing different forms, I have created a plan view of my floating market/gallery.
I decided to simplify the market stall because I found that I was drifting to far off of the real meaning of a market stall, which is that it is meant to be mobile and easily accessible.

Each roof of the market stall, would be in the shape of a London Borough that has been heavily regenerated or gentrified in the past and present. I have chosen to do this because it's evident that London is almost being used as a Monopoly board. This observation simply stemmed from my daily commute. I reach Tower Bridge and see a hub of terraced housing or flats that are very prominent in contrast to the increasing rise of high rise glass buildings, and of course Tower Bridge. How long will these houses stay there or will they be incentivised to leave? Overhead I can see the city of London and only then it dawned on me that Monopoly is being played on London boroughs. London is the monopoly board for the higher authority. Peoples livelihoods are a game. Highlighting small details like this may make them think twice about why the roofs of the market stalls are oddly shaped.

Base of market stall, using measurements of standard widths of decks.

I endured a tedious process in trying to configure the final overall plan view, because I wanted to create a plan that allowed people to flow freely throughout the structure without congestion. 
Here I have taken the visuals from the graph I made (mentioned here) and tried out different compositions of laying them out so people would be able to reach all elements of the space.

As I began to expand the widths of the decks, the design became too complicated in overlapping the bridges. In the end I simplified the bridges by using the original 3 original graph lines and enlarging them.

Each floating deck platform and walkways are at the minimum standard width of 3 metres, which allows approximately 3 people to walk in both directions on the bridge.

Prototyping

First prototype of decking bases at 1:75 scale. This scale was used so the roof would be at a length of 20cm. 

This scale was too large because it meant that the dock base would approximate at the size of 55cm x 60cm x 25cm. 

I then changed my scale to 1:100, which scaled down the piles to 13cm. This meant the river base would be 8cm above the ground and the floating structure would be 5cm above the water base. Initially, I was going to fill the base with materials that represented the geology of the middle dock, but after speaking with my peers I found that I was missing the point of the project, which was to convey the design and space.

A further issue that consumed much of time was trying to 3D print my solid works model. As it was a lengthy process to complete the software model, and then trying to use the 3D printer was an issue due to errors in my files and transferring files in different formats. Eventually I made the print to use for testing scale.

At this stage I was struggling to find out what material and method would work best in creating my roof with alcoves. Since I was not able to use foamcore due to the lengthy process of having to sculpt the material, even though it gave the best texture. I couldn't use plywood either because I had wasted too much time trying to get my plywood laser cut, when it failed many times.

I then spoke about this problem with the technician and was recommended to use AutoCad 123Dmake. This software converts any 3D model into 2D slices so you can build up your 3D structure. Using this software would make it easier and possible for me to create both the curved roof and alcoves in one piece. This was both a more efficient and hands on approach in comparison to 3D printing. 

I resulted to this software because I was also not able to use the CNC machine due to the complex nature of the roof. I would have liked to use this machine as it could achieve a raw wooden texture. The CNC is only able to over cut and not undercut which is what I needed. If I was to use it I would have had to create two parts to the roof and then sculpt out the inside of one piece and sculpt the exterior of the other piece and attach them together.

On the other hand, it didn't give a smooth finish on the curves on the alcoves. Attempting to sand down to give a smooth finish wasn't exactly triumphant. At this point I was reaching an issue with what material to use and became quite obsessive with the materials I was going to use with my model.

The use of cardboard created many gaps within the model, which led me to use LGC foam board, a more sturdy material.

Textures
Experimenting with the cement powder and sanding down the cement texture with wet and dry sandpaper. I really admired the effect that I made because it was very smooth yet it was the textures of cement but at the same time it had a steel effect, when I brushed it over with a wire brush.

On the other end of the model I used a gritty sand gel that gave a rocky bumpy texture when set. Over this I used acrylic to give it a moulded colour. All this experimentation is used to contradict the surroundings of Canary Wharf - glass and steel.

Since sanding down the materials would not achieve a smoother form, I opted to go back to using foamcore but using a thinner piece of foamcore. Thin sheets of foamcore meant that the curves would be smoother and tighter. I would also be able to sand the material much more easily. However, I could not use this material in the end because if I was to create a 15-20cm length roof, I would need 25 sheets of foamcore, which is very costly.

After all this experimentation I decided to not use any of these techniques because all the prototypes were using the form of my solid works model. This model was no longer the shape of the current form I created on sketchup. I decided not to create the current structure from sketchup onto solid works because using the software again would consume most of my time again and the project would most likely be put on hold, just for solid works. 

From the sketchup model, I deconstructed and panelled every curve and line of both the interior and exterior roof, and transferred the measurements onto illustrator. I then managed to laser cut cardboard for a quick prototype, but there were issues with the laser cutter and so I hand cut the roofs and piles for the prototype, hence the inaccurate model below.

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At the end of this week, I unfortunately lost my second sketchup model and illustrator files due to the loss of my USB. This was needed for further measurements and renders for the final outcome. However, I was able to retrieve part of my very first sketchup model that I had also lost in the beginning of the sketchup process, and so I built up my model again from the base of what I had. I did not let this obstacle obstruct myself in making my final model and continued with what materials I had.