The spring quarter in “Picturing Domestic Space: Sociocultural Perspectives” offers a chance to act on newly formed concepts of a domestic space. Patience and motivation not only taught new insights about specific rooms but also has provided ideas and design tips that can be used to further career goals in architecture. The topic/theme about domestic space for this project is more about the schematic design and process rather than the social significance or a specific feature about domestic space. This project inspires the chance to directly learn about the architectural elements of the design process
This project involves reading, note taking and design aspects that further educates about architecture and the design process. The visual segment focuses on hands on experience, using an architectural design software called SketchUp. SketchUp is a program similar to the Computer-aided Design (CAD) software that offers a much quicker process in coming to a final design product. It is a free and easy to use software that will lean to attempts to figure out the CAD programs format which requires more adequate and precise measurements for its schematics. The task for this section of the project is to have a complete or portion of a design a week to present for critiques. The designs will consist of LEED Certification, tiny homes, efficient sustainable homes, or a personal preference type of design. The note portion found during the project deals with research on the construction of a building that includes basic design tips or ways to start a design, building codes and regulations to ensure maximum safety on an acceptable level based on characteristics of the structure, history related to architecture, materials used within a structure, building permitting, LEED certification, sustainability, and The Tiny House Movement.
The books that will inform this project’s work, explains theoretical thought processes needed to conjure up an idea for a design and also provides lessons that teach techniques for site selection, building components, the design and the construction. Building Construction Illustrated 4th edition (Ching 2008) teaches the characteristics of the building materials, solar geometry and more with detailed illustrations. Another book Building codes Illustrated (Ching 2012), teaches about up to date codes for a project and to avoid costly mistakes. Architectural Graphics (Ching 1975) provides a progressive drawing workshop to help with three dimensional drawings with the proper tools and drawing techniques.
The time distribution throughout the 10 weeks of the quarter will consist of hourly sessions(s) for four days of each week. During the weeks there will be a number of assignments or task needed to be done before the next weeks work load. A portion of the weekly 30 hour minimum will be spent on my research, another segment of the time will be devoted to the required reading from the three book selection, and the rest of the time I intend to use it towards the visualization portion of the project; working on SketchUp designs, conceptual designs, blue prints, or three dimensional structure sketch practices. I don’t have an exact schedule of how my weeks will go have a rough layout, here is a copy of the Project Schedule (it may seem a bit unorganized because the weeks are intended to evolve after feedback from the critiques); the plan is to have the weeks scheduled with the visualization and reading portions every week with X number of categories for research. For example throughout the week I will maintain a daily session in SketchUp, read portions of my books and research on building codes/ regulations and materials used for a construction. The time spent on the visualization sessions can be determined by the size of the design and amount of effort put into them. For the readings there will be a time mark of three hours or more on the reading days depending on the week’s lesson and work load.
In week ten I will let my spring quarters work present its self throughout the progressive quarter of improvement on conceptual designing skills. For the final presentation it is required to have a posed client to have a professional feel including building codes, climate conditions, used materials, mechanical and electrical systems, and the inspiration if any. The starting of this assignment begins at the second half of the quarter and ends in week 10. For the evaluation of my quarter, the structure of my final presentation and the progression of my work will determine if it was successful because; one of my goals this quarter was to improve on my public speaking skills and show what I attained about architecture during the quarter.