DESIGN DEVELOPMENT: SITE PLAN

From the last review, it was suggested that a much bigger site would be needed in order to maximise the maize production potential of the project. The site plan below shows how the three main parts of the project are connected. The vocational blocks of buildings are closer to the the street at the bottom right and the educational blocks which are separated between male and female are located further into the fields. The central space is the main public space for the entire village and it is what connects literally connects the educational blocks to the vocational ones as all paths lead to this space.

Site plan development 

VISUAL SKETCHES AND KEY SECTION

I have been working on what could be the most appropriate presentation style for the maize farming secondary school project and I've decided that I would go for a hand drawn and sketch-like presentation format. This is a very original approach I feel and it would best befit the design thesis project.

The first view I worked on is one that captures as much of the school complex as possible, which is, from the  girls' section of classrooms and it shows a bit of the main central library/public space and also a little bit of the processing buildings at the back.

In doing this, I first traced the outline of the buildings from a model made in Revit and then I sketched over it, afterwards, I fixed it a bit on Photoshop and added a bit of material textures to very specific parts. It's just a mock up but there would have to be improvements on certain aspects like perspective angles and consistency of line weights. It was fun to do and I look forward to the final presentation.

Base sketch of view

Finished view

I started to look at the central space/public library in detail and I made a section to show how the dome-like structure comes together. The structure is one which is completely open underneath and the function of the space could be very diverse from school assemblies to village meetings to weddings and so on. While the space on the upper level is a public library which can be accessed by both the students of the school and the members of the community. The highlight of the structure is the plastic bottle mud wall system which I have been exploring since the beginning of the project, however in this case, the plastic bottles are made into a dome-like structure through which light can come in a very interesting way and create an ambient atmosphere for the users of the space.

Cross section of public library

STORYBOARD UPDATE

There has been just a few modifications to the storyboard for the narrative of the design thesis project. There is now more emphasis on the background activities that occur in each of the scenes. This would help in getting across effectively, how the diverse spaces of the maize farming secondary school works.

Updated storyboard.

MIXED REALITY STORYBOARD

This is the first storyboard proposal for the mixed reality part of the digital design module which is directly linked with the design thesis project. The aim is to successfully augment the virtual model of the design thesis with the real time aspects such as people and site.

Storyboard.

SITE ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

The next stage of the design was to begin to look at the site in context and how the proposed building design could fit in with it's surrounding. A standard site model was made in order to study the topographical characteristics of the portion of the site and the relationship between the existing buildings and the landscape.

Site model

Site plan panel for review

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

The main considerations when approaching the design are directly related with the goal of having a biophilic, low-cost, and environmentally friendly design with high quality spaces that fulfill or respond to the needs of the community. Others include gender segregation in internal spaces due to the Islamic background of the village. I started the design process by exploring the aforementioned areas through model making.

These explorations were what informed the first proposal for an integrated design for the maize processing secondary school. Below is the sketch of the plan and a rough sketch of the initial thoughts on the materials, form and character of elevations. In this plan, the fields where farming activities are scheduled to take place is what connects and at the same time divides the two typologies of functions which are the educational and the processing/vocational functions. The processing spaces are closer to the main street while the educational spaces are farther away and closer to existing residential blocks.

Sketch plan

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