Gestalt or Form follows Function?

I have been working over the gestalt dockyard and as time progresses I become less and less interested (which is sort of expected with anything really). I have been debating with myself whether gestalt architecture works… All the architecture that I find myself inspired by is really thought out and very “un-random”. Projects that have taken all the knowledge of what the building is, what it needs to be, who it is for etc is used in the design.

A TED lecture by Joshua Prince-Ramus really hit home to me how much I really appreciate “clever” practical architecture. His lecture about the needs of a new theatre and how the design process followed these needs. Buildings such as these I find far more attractive than buildings made to look good, they seem to have more charm and something that could be called soul.

 

 

I made a small quick list of buildings that all have a purpose, so things like a greenhouse, a market place, a library, even a bus stop. These were all potential buildings which I all think could be deeply inspiring to design for. I picked a public bathhouse as something to start with and began to list the various needs and how they can be attributed to the design.

A few points on the specification were that it has to be light, so lots of windows perhaps even out in the air, it should be as large and  as spacious as possible so high ceilings and maybe open plan, it needs to be efficient in heating and retaining heat, it should be socialist so lots of places to sit and chat and a general shape to encourage socializing, it needs to be safe, so clear visibility for lifeguards and quick access, it should be clean and promote fitness.

These points are in my head and referred back to all the way through the designing process and hopefully what results will cover all of them.

Here are some screen shots of initial drafting on sketchup after I had scribbled a few basic plans in my book.

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I had looked at a few public baths through history such as Roman baths and how they made use of space and I liked the arches which seemed to elevate the feel of the baths and maybe had the effect of lifting the roof higher which gave more air space which in return makes for a more pleasurable place to be and affects people’s social behaviour for the positive. Public baths have declined in popularity since private bathrooms came about but there’s something grand and beneficial to society in these I think. Who wouldn’t want to hang out in a magnificent building, relax, have a massage and socialize.

Sketchup book learning

I bought a book on sketchup called “Google sketchup for sit design”. I thought I could work through the book and learn how to properly use sketchup like professionals do. I skipped through or repeated a lot of what I already had learnt from video tutorials or worked out from personal projects. The first part of the book I really went through using it was the “correct” way to create 3D models from 2D, so drawing out in 2D lines. Then adding colour in 2D so that when a 2D object is pulled into 3D it is covered in colour automatically saving time colouring after the models complete (new thing learnt there). It also mentioned ruby scripts briefly but I have not been able to successfully download any that they recommend. I ended up with a simple design layout for a house in a setting. The book is very architecturally directed and sticks to the style of the author I think, it is very useful and I have much more of the book to get through, flicking through it I can see it will teach me things I do not know about already.

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Sketchup Components

These are some print screens showing how the component function works in sketchup, it allows me to create many objects and edit them all at the same time.

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Every object that is repeated at all should be made a component in case any changes are needed to be made to it. If any changes need to be made to a component without the others being affected I click the “make unique” option to alter the component alone.

sketchup video tutorials

When I first downloaded Sketchup by Google I used Googles own tutorial videos to get to grips with the basic layout and techniques to using the program. The videos go over the main ideas behind Sketchup while building a simple model and I learnt as I made the model alongside the virtual tutor. You start by making a simple house then a more complex house by creating a box and extruding it to a cube, creating a simple roof by drawing a line along the midpoint and using the move tool to lift it up. Creating simple doors and windows and then experimenting covering the basic 2D to 3D devices such as push/pull and the follow me tool.

Another tutorial was for making an interior, creating a 2-walled space creating a window as a component (a method that can be used to create many identical objects and model them all at the same time) and basic measurement techniques then filling it with furniture and objects from the component warehouse (Google’s virtual warehouse of objects)

The last Google video tutorial I used was for making a component object, like I had done for the windows but it was a piece of furniture so differed from the other architectural applications I had been learning slightly though is necessary if when modelling I want a unique piece of furniture or for example a window of a certain proportion which does not exist in Google’s warehouse. So using the same tools as before but used slightly differently a small table could be made easily.

This introduction to Google Sketchup through these videos was exciting, I feel like I can create anything I want in 3D form, the interface is so user friendly and quick that it is basically sketching in 3D, ideas can be created as quickly as they are thought up.