Bethania - 4/22/08 Follow Up
morning!
Great meeting last night.
Perfect way to cap off Earth Day. Big thanks to Gabi and Tim for providing
good food and drink. Next meeting will be Tuesday 4/29/08 at 630pm.
RTKL.
4/22/08
Meeting: We made a lot of progress last night
in defining the character and goals for the program. We touched on the
four major concepts from the previous meeting Identity, Community/Connection, Hierarchy of
Spaces/Ideas, and Efficiency/Economy. There were
several good precedents that got the conversation moving. (As always,
please upload any work or precedent that you brought to http://www.afh-dc.org ) Some of the
major points from this meeting were:
-
Childrens Language: What
scales, forms, ideas, etc., relate to the way that children perceive the
world? What would a child draw or how would they explain a building or the
things they do?
-
Patterns: There are many
traditional patterns and forms in Indian architecture and planning.
Research the mandala.
Watch out for the crotch!
-
Interactivity: One way that
kids make something their own is by interacting with it and having the ability
to use it in ways they imagine or make up. How can scale or interactive
elements start to give ownership to the children in certain places.
Openings or forms that can be used for framing views or
pass-through’s.
-
Hierachy of space/use: The
idea of playing with forms and levels as a way of breaking up/down spaces.
Could the children’s dwelling units have a raised plinth in the floor slab that
delineates sleeping area at night, and also function as a desk during the
day. How can the idea of personal storage be connected with
this.
-
Courtyards: How do the
courtyards relate to the public/private nature of the site? Courtyards are
very traditional elements in Indian design. How can we re-define
this? Are there smallr ‘break-out’ courtyards for personal space in
addition to the main public courtyard?
-
Site Wall: Can the site wall
peel away from the site boundary line and bring the outside in? Some
benefits of this may be to keep the traffic circle out of the compound (bus
still to be parked inside), creating a buffer, and/or providing a “public retail
(sic)” space adjacent to the street.
-
Public character vs. Private
character: This is still an orphanage, so economy must still be
considered. Perhaps the larger, more public spaces/buildings get a much
more “funky” character and the smaller, more private spaces receive personal
attempt at character. In this sense, scale and use of the space would
dictate it’s funky nature.
-
Cricket fields are oval.
Weird. Ok, we will arrange a field trip to go watch a game in the
area.
Alright, if I forgot anything,
please add or correct as necessary. There was a lot of good discussion
last night.
4/29/08
Meeting: Well, there has been a lot of
great banter and progress so far, so let’s keep going. Bring in more
precedents. Keep doing bubble diagrams. But for next week, as we
continue to talk about character of the site and concepts, let’s start to define
the program elements in terms of use/structure (i.e. the community building is
one floor with vaulted ceilings, the dwelling units should be two floors with
views into the courtyard). The program has remained fairly consistent with
that which was given to us, so let’s start to think about how we can add to that
something special.
Please add to
this!
Also, we (AfH DC) are really trying to push the use of the
website for posting and creating an on-line forum. This is very important
for us as a group, and for client feedback. So please try to use this as
much as possible. The more we do, the more feedback we get. The more
feedback we have, the more we can tailor the site to the way we want to
work.
Thanks everyone. See you next
week!
MARK
PALMER |
Designer |
mpalmer@rtkl.com
RTKL
Associates Inc. |
1250 Connecticut Ave.,
NW
Suite
400 |
Washington, DC 20036
202 912 8184
Direct | 202 887 5168 Fax | www.rtkl.com