MIAD Architecture Piece
|
Exhibition Text
Title: South Milwaukee Ecology Center
Medium: Lead Pencil on Paper Size: 61 cm x 48 cm Time of Completion: April 2018 Inspired by artists from various studios such as Guz Architects and Chang Architects, the South Milwaukee Ecology Center intends to act both as an educational ecology center, as well as an open facility to house several community-based environmental programs. Influenced by the increasing issue of pollution in Milwaukee, I designed this building to encourage change for a healthier city plan. This building would be placed north of 6th and College Avenue, as the current lot has no distinct purpose. |
Critical Investigation/Artistic Inspiration
The majority of my artistic inspiration for this architectural project originates from my personal experiences within Milwaukee, opposed to having my inspirations originate from any specific artistic movement. Taking inspiration from personal experience over an artistic movement was considerably new to me, and furthermore forced me to take a different approach to the planning phase of this project, as instead of initially researching a specific artist or medium from a certain point in history, I instead had to reflect on both the emotions and values that I wanted to implement into my architecture piece.
My primary influence to create the South Milwaukee Ecology Center stemmed from my experience participating in a middle school project formerly known as Future City, in which students were encouraged to design a financially and environmentally efficient city for the future world. During this project my class in particular was given the opportunity to visit an ecological center in Menomonee Valley, of which actively participated in the Neighborhood Environmental Education Project at the time. This experience exposed my class and I to various projects and processes that Milwaukee was currently implementing into their city plan in attempts to develop an increasingly healthy environment, and furthermore a healthy community. Such projects we were exposed to included the development of an intricate aquaponics system, the creation of several convenient rooftop garden designs, as well as various other “green” building models. From this experience our group was successfully able to incorporate these preservational projects and models into our own city for the Future City project. Furthermore, I’m again able to reflect on notes from this time period, and utilize my knowledge of “green” systems in order to design a successful ecology center that also benefits the surrounding environment. I ultimately decided to use this experience as a primary inspiration for my architecture project, as I am still immensely interested in decreasing the excessive amounts of pollution within Milwaukee, while I also thought that this opportunity I had in middle school could still be considerably beneficial to the successful development of a building that can efficiently reflect such passions for the environment. From this personal experience, I was then able to explicitly coordinate my research, so that I would be primarily exposed to architects that focused on creating buildings with similar goals as my own. This gradually resulted in the discovery of several studios such as Guz Architects and Chang Architects, of which both contained a multitude of architects that had environmentally beneficial designs for their work. The most influential works from these studios include: “Cornwall Gardens” by Chang Architects, “Meera Sky Garden House,” and “Fish House” both from the studio Guz Architects. Yet other inspirations come from architect Vincent Callebaut, as he frequently implements “green” factors into most of his building designs, with a majority of my influence originating from his “Agora Garden.” This building in particular helped me explore various methods of introducing a similar “green” aspect into my own building in dynamic ways. |
|
Planning Phase
My first and final "sketch."
|
This first sketch displayed here is actually my final sketch for this project, as I was luckily able to easily create the look I desired for my architecture project. I found the format of the building was considerably simple, yet also left considerable amounts of room for customization and intricate details to be made. More specifically, intricate details such as building texture and the inclusion of various items that would allow the viewer to understand the center’s purpose could be implemented into the piece, of which was my initial intent. I desired to create a building that was open to detail, but considerably simple in format, as I was unsure of the amount of work I’d be able to complete in the given time frame. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to ensure that my building could speak for itself, and that the items I drew into my design would allow the viewer to visually see the building’s function, without necessarily needed me to explain it. I aimed to achieve this goal, as previous projects of mine were admittingly too abstract, and were hard to analyze without an explanation being given. This sketch is the early layout of my piece, meaning that this was taken before I truly developed a strong amount of detail within my work.
Although these aren’t legitimate building sketches, these two drawings (or two sets of drawings) were simple ways I practiced creating geometric structures in a two-point perspective before I decided to work on my final project. The first of the two sketches was simple techniques I practiced beforehand, as I thought they were vital to the successful development of my final work. While the second set of sketches were drawings I recreated as practice, with the original referenced artworks coming from my two-point perspective projects that I made during freshman year. The third image is my original freshman photo, and is simply there to be compared to my practice buildings that I made in preparation for my final sketches. This process of practicing drawing two-point perspective structures was ultimately considerably beneficial to my success on the actual final architecture piece later on in the design process. |
Process
1. After practicing creating various buildings in the two-point perspective, I began working on my final architecture piece by first creating a one inch border along every side of the paper, of which was done to ensure my final drawing would appear to be more realistic, as the edges would appear to continue past the borders on off of the page. From here I then continued this process by attempting to divide the paper in half to the best of my abilities, and then placing a horizontal horizon line across the center I had established on my piece. This ensured my final project would look considerably more realistic, as the horizon line established perspective, while also given the building depth despite the medium only being two dimensional. It was after this that I then placed two vanishing points only both edges of the horizon line (of which I had drawn past either edge of the paper) so I could efficiently develop geometric shapes that had realistic proportions.
2. Following the establishment of my vanishing points, I then began sketching out the general outline of my building, by sketching a considerably basic rectangular structure along the center of my piece. It was after I created this large rectangle, that I then sketched two more - smaller - rectangles along both sides of the centermost rectangle. This was done to establish the setting of my building, as I planned to place it in a real location, and ultimately decided that my drawing should reflect the place I intended to put my building if it were to really be constructed. This also adds to the realism I desired to present within my piece, while also adding a minor amount of extra detail to my entire sketch. Although I did not intend to develop the two side buildings nearly as much as the center building, as my assignment was not to recreate buildings that already existed, but rather to design my own unique structure. |
|
3. Once the rough outline of my building had been established, I then faintly segmented the building into different sections, of which was done to format various rooms and floors of my center. Not only did this make my sketch appear more realistic, but it also allowed me to make my sketch more dynamic, as including multiple rooms and floors in my piece would introduce an increasing amount of detail into my final project. It was during this time that I decided to leave the roof of my building flat, as I realized that giving my center a traditional roof would prevent me from being able to implement a rooftop garden into the sketch, which furthermore would have destroyed my desire to create an environmentally beneficial ecology center.
4. After I successfully segmented my building into different sections through the use of a very light application of lead along the sketch, I then started looking at my inspirations and incorporating various aspects from those buildings in order to establish a connection between my work and my inspirational artists several works. However, in addition to establishing a strong connection to my inspiration, doing this allowed my building’s function to become more developed and clear, as the aspects I incorporated from my inspirations would aid in the ecology center’s function to act as a “green” establishment. It was also here that I began developing texture, as I needed to create distinctive appearances to the different areas of my building, so I could then ensure viewers could easily see the different items along my building without getting lost while looking at the piece as a whole.
5. Once I knew the general format of my building - and furthermore how I could incorporate my inspirations into my final piece - I then worked to outline the basic shapes of my building by creating simple rectangles and squares to symbolize the different sections of my piece. This process was completed the same way I sketched the overall outline of the building shape, except these aspects of the building were considerably smaller. This part of the process wasn’t extremely difficult, however, I always had to ensure that my ruler was correctly lined up with the vanishing points, as I didn’t want to ruin my perspective - and furthermore the authenticity - of my piece. Doing this took up a little more time than I intended, but ultimately I was fine with taking my time to make sure my architecture looked realistic and refined. I also took the time to develop a basic shape for my sidewalk, of which was done to establish a strong setting for my building, so my viewers could get an idea of how the structure would appear in real life, if it were to actually be constructed.
6. From here, I simply returned to the various shapes I had created, and began adding considerable amounts of detail to them. It was also during this time that I began shading my piece, and creating a more vivid set of texture within the various objects that were placed alongside and on my building. I shaded through the process of blending, and referred to a gradient scale to make sure my shadows looked accurate and generally clean, opposed to looking smudged and sloppy.
7. After I had finished adding intricate details to my piece, I looked at my project once more to ensure that my shading was completed properly in the different areas of my building. If certain shadows or lines looked smudgy or undefined, I would go back and redo them properly. This ensured my piece looked refined, and furthermore that it had a considerably large amount of detail to it, of which heavily contributed to establishing the function of my building, while also presenting a certain amount of visual aesthetic. It was shortly after this that I also allowed certain lines to become curved and more organic, as I understood that a real-life building wouldn’t solely consist of rectangles and squares. This additionally made my piece appear to be more realistic.
8. Finally, once I was considerably pleased with the amount of detail I had placed within my piece, I cleaned up the overall composition by erasing pencil smudges and cleaning up various other mistakes along my piece. Although some mistakes were irreversible, and had to be left alone as I feared accidentally destroying my paper. I also cleaned up the shadows and certain lines a final time, as upon further inspection, my piece had become a little messy after it had been worked on for awhile.
4. After I successfully segmented my building into different sections through the use of a very light application of lead along the sketch, I then started looking at my inspirations and incorporating various aspects from those buildings in order to establish a connection between my work and my inspirational artists several works. However, in addition to establishing a strong connection to my inspiration, doing this allowed my building’s function to become more developed and clear, as the aspects I incorporated from my inspirations would aid in the ecology center’s function to act as a “green” establishment. It was also here that I began developing texture, as I needed to create distinctive appearances to the different areas of my building, so I could then ensure viewers could easily see the different items along my building without getting lost while looking at the piece as a whole.
5. Once I knew the general format of my building - and furthermore how I could incorporate my inspirations into my final piece - I then worked to outline the basic shapes of my building by creating simple rectangles and squares to symbolize the different sections of my piece. This process was completed the same way I sketched the overall outline of the building shape, except these aspects of the building were considerably smaller. This part of the process wasn’t extremely difficult, however, I always had to ensure that my ruler was correctly lined up with the vanishing points, as I didn’t want to ruin my perspective - and furthermore the authenticity - of my piece. Doing this took up a little more time than I intended, but ultimately I was fine with taking my time to make sure my architecture looked realistic and refined. I also took the time to develop a basic shape for my sidewalk, of which was done to establish a strong setting for my building, so my viewers could get an idea of how the structure would appear in real life, if it were to actually be constructed.
6. From here, I simply returned to the various shapes I had created, and began adding considerable amounts of detail to them. It was also during this time that I began shading my piece, and creating a more vivid set of texture within the various objects that were placed alongside and on my building. I shaded through the process of blending, and referred to a gradient scale to make sure my shadows looked accurate and generally clean, opposed to looking smudged and sloppy.
7. After I had finished adding intricate details to my piece, I looked at my project once more to ensure that my shading was completed properly in the different areas of my building. If certain shadows or lines looked smudgy or undefined, I would go back and redo them properly. This ensured my piece looked refined, and furthermore that it had a considerably large amount of detail to it, of which heavily contributed to establishing the function of my building, while also presenting a certain amount of visual aesthetic. It was shortly after this that I also allowed certain lines to become curved and more organic, as I understood that a real-life building wouldn’t solely consist of rectangles and squares. This additionally made my piece appear to be more realistic.
8. Finally, once I was considerably pleased with the amount of detail I had placed within my piece, I cleaned up the overall composition by erasing pencil smudges and cleaning up various other mistakes along my piece. Although some mistakes were irreversible, and had to be left alone as I feared accidentally destroying my paper. I also cleaned up the shadows and certain lines a final time, as upon further inspection, my piece had become a little messy after it had been worked on for awhile.
Experimentation
|
A majority of my experimentation stems from my work around the more decorative aspects of this piece. This includes building texture, object placement, as well as the overall shading of the piece. I experimented with these aspects by visualizing all the possible locations for the various items on my piece, and then attempting to decide which place would enhance the overall look of my work. Although this type of experimentation isn’t considerably exciting or unique, I feel that these aspects of my piece - no matter how small - help my architecture stand out from the other works. I took heavy consideration into deciding how the layout of my building should be, and furthermore I took heavy consideration into deciding how the placement of each item on my building would contribute to its function. This, alongside my experimentation with texture, helps my building appear more realistic, and can allow the viewer to successfully imagine the placement of my architectural piece on the real-world lot I’ve described within my exhibition text.
|
The placement of my building was another aspect of this project that I experimented with. I continuously researched possible areas of interest where my architectural piece would best make sense, and furthermore contribute the most to the community. Initially I planned to place my building somewhere in downtown Milwaukee, however, after my research phase I ultimately decided that an ecology center with partial focus on educating students and other community members wouldn’t thrive in an area without room for students to explore various environmentally safe processes and “green” design models. In addition to this, I felt that placing a building downtown wouldn’t be wise, as the crowded streets and limited space would damage the plants that I intended to implement into my ecology center’s design. Not long after this initial idea was abandoned I thought of the lot not far from my home, of which consists of useless gravel piles and a broken down shed. I liked the idea of placing the ecology center here - not only because it was close to my home - but also because I felt that my building would benefit society and the surrounding environment much more than the items on the current lot could ever do. After I thought of this idea, I explored the lot in person, and ultimately decided to use it as a permanent location for my building, as it was a large enough area to hold a bigger building with various components for educational purposes, while it also was near a variety of different schools and other community centers, of which makes it easy for community members and students to visit the location and explore. This also made my building appear much more realistic, as I could personally see the site where it would be built in real life.
Reflection
Considering the amount of previous experience I’ve had with two-point perspective, I would say that I’m a little disappointed with the overall complexity of my piece. Yet such complexity and detail is difficult to achieve when I only intended to design one building, opposed to previous assignments where I was asked to sketch entire cities. However, despite my disappointment with the overall amount of detail in the work, I do feel that my craftsmanship considering the main building I designed is very decorative and visually pleasing. While the background buildings were only drawn in to fill space - and therefore not given extreme amounts of detail - the center building within the piece is extremely intricate, and I ensured that I was extremely meticulous with my work. Although, there are some portions of the piece I feel I could improve on, I am happy with the work I have presented at the moment. Yet, another factor of my piece that I’m not particularly pleased with is the amount of unintentionally markings left on my paper as a result of my arm rubbing the lead around my building design. This ultimately destroys the visual aesthetic in some areas of the piece, but I have since developed proactive methods that will prevent future artworks from having a similar amount of roughness to them. While considering my theme, I feel that my building successfully establishes a distinct purpose, and furthermore conveys my desires to be both functional and environmentally safe.
Connecting to the ACT
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4) What was the central theme or idea around your inspirational research?
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions based on your evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
- Through the specific inclusion of environmentally safe building components and materials, I can see apparent connections between my own architectural project and the works of my inspirations, as they too frequently incorporate aspects to their building with the intention to improve the surrounding environment. Yet, in addition to this, other comparisons can be seen in the ways we both utilize form and shape in order to create a visually pleasing building.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Throughout my research, several authors frequently discussed the various inspirations and goals that the architects inspired to showcase within both the design and format of their building. However, specific methods and approaches to the actual process of designing respective building was less frequently discussed in a majority of articles, despite this intricate process being considerably important to the successful development of any given building.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- The primary conclusion that I discovered through my research was that a majority of architecture has a specific goal that the creators try to incorporate and achieve through the usage of various building designs. Previously, I had simply believed that most buildings were only created to have visual aesthetic, instead of including various design-related features that aided a specific function of the building in question.
4) What was the central theme or idea around your inspirational research?
- The central theme that I focused on throughout my inspirational research was the implementation of environmentally safe building aspects, that in turn wouldn’t harm the functional aspects of the building. In addition to this, I studied common - yet detailed - architecture designs, so that I could successfully create a building design in the given time period, without losing my overall visually quality.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions based on your evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
- Through the research and readings I evaluated, I was able to determine that it is through a combination of various techniques involving the conservation of space that aid in a building’s ability to efficiently function, and also contribute to the environment. Leaving room for the environment to grow and develop is vital to the success of a “green” building, while synthesizing innovative techniques to avoid impeding on the established environment furthermore allows the building itself to additionally remain functional.
Bibliography
“Chang Architects.” Index, www.changarch.com/index.html.
-
Frearson, Amy. “Agora Garden by Vincent Callebaut.” Dezeen, Dezeen, 22 Aug. 2016,
www.dezeen.com/2013/04/05/agora-garden-by-vincent-callebaut/.
-
Frearson, Amy. Stepped Garden Tops House by Vo Trong Nghia and Masaaki Iwamoto.
Dezeen, 6 Aug. 2016, www.dezeen.com/2016/08/02/nha-trang-house-vo-trong-nghia-masaaki-iwamoto-vietnam-stepped-roof-garden/.
-
Gibson, Eleanor. “Sledding Path to Loop around Roof Garden of Beijing Civic Centre by Andrew
Bromberg.” Dezeen, Dezeen, 10 Apr. 2017, www.dezeen.com/2017/04/11/andrew-bromberg-loops-path-roof-garden-civic-shopping-centre-architecture-aedas-beijing-china/.
-
Virdee, Satwinder. Dezeen, Dezeen, 5 Aug. 2016,
www.dezeen.com/2011/03/09/sky-garden-house-by-guz-architects/.
-
Wilkinson, Guz. “Guz Architects Gallery.” Guz Architects, www.guzarchitects.com/#.
-
Winston, Anna. “Cornwall Gardens Is a Huge Family Home with a Stepped Garden on Its Roof.”
Dezeen, Dezeen, 24 Nov. 2017, www.dezeen.com/2016/08/22/cornwall-gardens-house-chang-architects-singapore-architizer-2016-a-awards-stepped-garden-swimming-pool/.
-
“The Urban Ecology Center Our Branches.” Urban Ecology Center,
www.urbanecologycenter.org/.
-
Frearson, Amy. “Agora Garden by Vincent Callebaut.” Dezeen, Dezeen, 22 Aug. 2016,
www.dezeen.com/2013/04/05/agora-garden-by-vincent-callebaut/.
-
Frearson, Amy. Stepped Garden Tops House by Vo Trong Nghia and Masaaki Iwamoto.
Dezeen, 6 Aug. 2016, www.dezeen.com/2016/08/02/nha-trang-house-vo-trong-nghia-masaaki-iwamoto-vietnam-stepped-roof-garden/.
-
Gibson, Eleanor. “Sledding Path to Loop around Roof Garden of Beijing Civic Centre by Andrew
Bromberg.” Dezeen, Dezeen, 10 Apr. 2017, www.dezeen.com/2017/04/11/andrew-bromberg-loops-path-roof-garden-civic-shopping-centre-architecture-aedas-beijing-china/.
-
Virdee, Satwinder. Dezeen, Dezeen, 5 Aug. 2016,
www.dezeen.com/2011/03/09/sky-garden-house-by-guz-architects/.
-
Wilkinson, Guz. “Guz Architects Gallery.” Guz Architects, www.guzarchitects.com/#.
-
Winston, Anna. “Cornwall Gardens Is a Huge Family Home with a Stepped Garden on Its Roof.”
Dezeen, Dezeen, 24 Nov. 2017, www.dezeen.com/2016/08/22/cornwall-gardens-house-chang-architects-singapore-architizer-2016-a-awards-stepped-garden-swimming-pool/.
-
“The Urban Ecology Center Our Branches.” Urban Ecology Center,
www.urbanecologycenter.org/.