Jeffrey Sipprell
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April 27, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 3
On Tuesday we began the installation of the felt in the space. It's going a bit slowly as we're trying to figure a number of things out - specifically at the connection between wall and ceiling. We eventually realized that we're going to need to drill more plates to support all the weight at the top. So, here's a few photos.
Felt Assembly 1
Felt Assembly 2
Felt Assembly 3
Felt Installation 1
Felt Installation 2
Felt Installation 3
Connection 1
Connection 2
Finished Stair
Posted by jsipprell at 11:22 AM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 2
Another round of photos from the last couple of weeks. The felt order has arrived and we have put most of the clips on to the walls - a big effort by many, including myself, in hammer drilling - which is basically jack hammering a wall with a drill. Definitely requires some time in the sauna afterwards. Putting the clips into the wall was not a walk in the park either - a lot of tapcon heads were snapped off when the hole wasn't exactly right. All you could do was curse and move on. This weekend hopefully marks the end of the drilling, mounting, placing of conduit and sanding of entry stairs (pretty much everything that makes a mess).
I did a mock up of the door jamb area which was mildly successful - we learned a lot from it to deploy in the final layout. Photos below.
Posted by jsipprell at 5:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2006
Deltacon - Final Aggregation
So I haven't had a chance to post stuff from my final project last quarter. It certainly wasn't my best work here at UCLA, but some of the drawings and renderings did turn out very nicely. I don't want to repeat anything that I posted in the previous entry on the project, but I'll quickly summarize some of the key points and concepts behinds it's final manifestation.
The project was conceived as a tool to actively engage the existing water networks - both in terms of restoration and obstruction (damming). Through formal studies into several geometries, I choose the modified pentagon as a way to create non-linear growth strategies that would allow different spaces that were dependant upon a multitude of connection types. This would allow the system to form up into lines, for obstruction, or loose networks, for restoration.
Sprawl Aggregation
Dam Aggregation
Other Aggregations
However, the project was driven from within the unit as much as it was from without. After the establishment of the core platform and dam/filtration geometry, there was an attempt to create a family of housing types that would respond to its own internal programmatic organization. That is to say, there was a deliberate attempt to create a flexible living space that would form itself through the constraints of the solid house programs - namely kitchen, bathroom, shower, and laundry - basically all of the services that would require water. As this was a project that was concerned with the water networks of the global delta space, so to was it concerned with the internal water networks of the individual house space.
Each of the four programs was isolated, designed, and placed on the vertical pylons which were driven into the ground when the house was deployed as a dam (more on that later). A potential buyer could then arrange where these programs were distributed and thus create a somewhat custom shell in the middle for their primary living space. While it wasn't an infinite system, it allowed for some variation to occur within the larger aggregations. Ultimately however, the variation was too limited and this method I think worked against the ability of the project to be a true organically grown system.
The flexible shell and water based typologies would slide vertically depending on the type of usage within the system. When the system was based on restoration, the house was raised, allowing the water (and recreational boaters) to pass through the filtration pontoons. When acting as a dam, the system lowers down to the water, it's belly opening to release a bladder system that would absorb the water and become an impervious dam.
The renderings did turn out nice though as I continued playing with Maxwell Render. Here's the rest of the drawings/renderings.
Community Axon Rendering
Community Axon Rendering in Site
Dam Axon Rendering
Dam Axon Rendering in Site
Eye Level on Platform
View from Roof Terrace
Interior View
Posted by jsipprell at 6:01 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 1A
Construction photos taken by a fellow student before we painted it green.
Posted by jsipprell at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
Music Center - Massing Strategy
As previously blogged, the site for my final project in Greg Lynn's studio is downtown across from the Disney Concert Hall. It's a Music Center that is to contain 2 very sizable opera size theatres, one medium size dance theatre and one small black box theatre. Our initial exercise was to develop a parti and massing strategy that deals with the constraints of the site and program.
The strategy I presented, which was well received, was a hybrid of Millenium Park in Chicago and Yokohama's famous Port Terminal. One of the large opera theatres would become a large outdoor pavilion situated at the end of an urban park - sitting between the large mass of the Disney Concert Hall and the mass I intend to create at the other end of the site with the rest of the assigned program. The intention is to create an anchor on the other end of the site while allowing the conceptual draped form of the building and cascade down into the pavilion/park and reach out to Disney Concert Hall - thus creating an urban campus within the downtown area for the musical arts.
The project is a bit too horizontal right now and needs to get much more pronouned in height - particularly on the tower end of the site. Greg has suggested that I relocate the Hollywood Bowl and drape form over it as a way of beginning to deal with issues of scale and program. Here were some drawings:
Posted by jsipprell at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Synesthesia - Construction Photos 1
Couple of images from the first week of construction on the school's lecture space. We prepped and painted the space the green accent color that will appear behind the felt - it is really saturated in there right now.
Posted by jsipprell at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
April 5, 2006
UCLA Spring Schedule
Not a huge courseload this quarter as I'm only taking the bare minimum of studio and one elective - which is the buildout of the auditorium space reported on last quarter. Greg Lynn has released the details of our final project which will be sited in Los Angeles across from the Disney Concert Hall. Here is what the brief had to say:
Based on the design vocabulary you have developed the last two quarters including facades, interior volume, structural design, fenestration and promenade among others, quickly develop a massing proposal and a cross section due next Monday. A complete pitch should be made regarding the approach to structure, circulation, urban massing, functional relationships and adjacencies and building exterior and interior imagery. In addition to this, a massing model and diagrammatic plan and section of the buildings should be completed.
Based on the massing proposals and their revision the next two weeks will be devoted to designing a rigorous mathematical and geometric approach to the architectural design project. Just as a reminder, the initial ambitions for the research studio was: in the first quarter assimilate and simulate baroque effects through digital techniques; in the second quarter control and combine these techniques to formulate a palette of materials, lighting, structure, form, mass and texture as well as a discourse of beauty; and finally in the third quarter apply these principles to an architectural project.
The design proposals will be a new Los Angeles Music Center on the site directly adjacent to Disney Concert Hall. The program is vast and the functional and technical issues of designing these spaces is complex. As a starting point, you should select plan and section typologies that are given and locate them in the project to gain a sense of orientation, scale and spatial proportion. The programmatic areas are given as guidelines and rather than start with specific areas it is best to begin with existing opera, theater, dance, drama and experimental theater typologies.
The site includes the complete area between Grand Avenue & Hope Street and Temple Street & 1st Street.
Posted by jsipprell at 9:10 AM | Comments (0)
