Week 11_18/03/2012

In the past week I have been looking into the options I listed last week, along with developing any new ideas which come along the way. 

I created a model made from several packs of cards where I layered several games of solitaire on top of one another to see if any patterns started to occur in the 3D model. (Image below)

The plan view for the game looks slightly boring, and like a game of solitaire.  However the elevations show details of negative and positive space within the cards.  The stepped position of the cards was always going to occur, but the small clusters of spaces has an interesting appeal.  Some of the cards on the grid began to warp because of the bowed bamboo sticks slightly adjusting the position of the grid.  These 'deformed' cards gave me an idea to create a roof structure for the performance space, extruded features are good for acoustics within a theatre space.  Another feature for the theatre which originated from the playing card model was the idea of using 'vineyard' clusters of seats. (Image below)

Looking at the playing cards on the model also gave me the idea of looking into perhaps if the floor levels in the building could be sloped and deformed, similar to OMA's competition entry for the 'Tres Grand Bibliotheque' in Paris. 

OMA's Tres Grand Bibliotheque, Paris

I was thinking about how I could use the symbols and numbers on the cards into this idea, and thought that I might be able to replay the game, while adjacently building up another model depending on what card is drawn at what time.  For example each suit would have a shape, then whatever number is on the card would be the scale of that piece of the building.  The face cards would all have the same scale of 10, then Ace, 2,3,4,5... all obviously pre-determined.  Currently, I am looking into what kind of shapes could represent each suit, I know that they already have their own symbols but I think the shapes need to have something that links them all together.  Maybe the shapes are the same, but the different suit have a different thickness? Maybe the shapes represent the floor levels or maybe the room form? This is something which I hope to look into next week after the Intercrit. 

I am not sure that I want to use the model litterally to be placed on the site, but to take aspects from the model mentioned above, with the conventional zone ordering I have created previously.

Week 8_05/03/2012

The past week I have been contemplating ideas regarding the layout of the site in relation to the suit of the playing cards.  

I have created zones on the site for specific areas of the building programme according to their relationship with the suits on playing cards.  For example - 

Hearts represented the Church - I see this to have a strong connection with the Performance Theatre on the site, a gathering place for people before a performance, ideally the heart of the site.  (Image below showing zonal layout of the site and the building programme.)  

I don't want to use the suits of the cards to create forms for my buildings, just as a conventional representation for locating the zones.  

After discussing my theoretical design ideas with my tutor, we talked about the option of creating a series of investigations to consider how a particular idea from cards could be applied to the site either in plan or section.  

I have listed below a series of short investigations which I am going to look at to see how the project can develop.  

1. Placing the buildings conventionally on the site according to their connection with the suit on the playing cards. 
2. The 'House of Cards' idea of using playing cards to create forms on the site. (However I have expressed this idea before and I feel it was not very suitable as the shapes formed were very rectilinear and created from myself playing around with the cards). 
3. Derive an instruction or clue about the next move on the site from playing card games such as Solitaire. By continuing to constantly play the single player card games patterns must keep occurring, such as the recurring Red Black Red Black Red Black formation that the cards are forming and the collection of the cards beginning with Ace, in hierarchy order.  
4. Play the card game on the site see how buildings could begin to form, maybe each card represents a certain scale/size on the site which later becomes a part of the building, depending on the outcome of the game.
5. Play several games of solitaire and begin to overlap them to see if any pattern occurs or how the form could be translated onto the site into a section or a plan.  
6. Maybe there is a rule which could be derived from the size of a playing card and the certain observations made with number of cards in a pack.  Could there be a link here to determining the size of certain areas on the site.  

I mention solitaire quite often in the investigations above, I chose to use this game as it has strong representations when discussing hierarchy, for example, the player is constantly looking for the lower denomination of the card shown, while trying to collect the cards in their suits from Ace through to King to complete the game.    

Over the next week I am going to be continuing these investigations to see how the results begin to pan out and if one idea stands out to influence my design on the site.