The Plan

PRECEDENT PLAN

Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, arguably one of his greatest works which shaped the framework of contemporary architecture.

I chose the Guggenheim Bilbao not solely on its impressive appearance but because it provided me with the opportunity to freely experiment with preset, interesting shapes and form.

Frank Gehry's work strives to emulate and express a sense of movement in both the circulation and form of his architecture. With the potential moving elements and already existing circulation of the new school of architecture in mind, I needed a precedent plan that was flexible to compliment my complicated ideas about circulation and a 'central space' within a bridge.

The precedent plan of the Guggenheim Bilbao will be a interesting aspect that will shape the school of architecture and will be a different kind of challenge versus re-imagining a more rectilinear and simple precedent plan.

PLAN DEVELOPMENT

PHASE 1

I began the development by retracing the floor plan as I saw it on tracing paper. With the general bubble diagram I had in mind, I attempted to stay truth to the essence of the task and to be spontaneous when assigning the spaces required by the brief.

The result worked fairly well, but I wanted to manipulate the shape of the plan to better suit the urban context and as such, integrate a greater application of originality and innovation.

PHASE 2

I continued the plan development by studying the site's context with the resources I had available to me. Particularly, I tried to explore how might the form of Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao might connect to the buildings surrounding and inclusive of the square house.

I tried to go about this by tracing the map of the urban environment in addition to the Guggenheim plan to layer both drawings and examine the relationship between them.

I found that in order to suit my ideas of circulation, the precedent plan needed to be significantly rearranged by controlling the its form to be slightly linear, yet curved all at once.

PHASE 3

Thus, based on previous results, I began to redraw the plan in a more thin and condensed variation, significantly moving elements and the 'arms' of the Guggenheim so they were 'acute'

Through this re imagining, I was able to identify which space and shapes needed to be moved closer together or reconsidered when thinking about the pedestrian circulation and the flow of the overall architecture of the plan.

Evidently, I started edging closer to a desired plan form and spatial distribution by experimenting which components to curve and move around.

The plan colour coded to identify the spaces required by the brief and to later infer the relationship.

PHASE 4

I drew another iteration to visualise what the plan might look like once I had moved elements and constructed spaces I desired.

A revised shape enabled me to insert the sketch into the urban context to see how it might interact and connect to the environment in a much more accurate depiction.

I drew one last thinking drawing to critically think about the precedent plan I had manipulated.

FINAL PLAN ITERATION AND CONNECTIONS

Final Plan - each of the spaces surround a common space at it's centre and wraps around the urban context to foster the relationships of the new school of architecture through an open environment.

SQUAREHOUSE

The Bridge will ideally connect to the Squarehouse via its outdoor veranda (see affected red area). This will allow the opportunity for the the two buildings to become entwined with one another. The Squarehouse also boasts two levels of verandas which may become an interesting development as the architecture develops.

ROUNDHOUSE

Since I had an idea for the Roundhouse being a central space of social interaction for the cohort of 100 students, I conceptualised the Bridge to rest just above the building and curve in a manner which compliments the Roundhouse's circular form by protruding the central common space platform to resemble the shape of the 'Beergarden' which rests a few levels above the ground plane. The Bridge could extend the stairs closest to the roundhouse's Beer-garden as a another form of entry into the school.

I had also thought of a concept of utilising the northern flight of stairs of the roundhouse to provide the Bridge with another entry/exit which will reside near a proposed Library + Computer Lab space should I choose to extend it.

BLOCKHOUSE

In a similar veil to the Squarehouse, I wanted to use it's staircase to connect to the Bridge through its plateau. This would seamlessly intergrate the new architecture into its existing urban context without causing too much interprution to the natural environment. 

Additionally, these stairs are positioned closer to the main walkway which will enable the school of architecture to become visible and potentially negate the threat of the school of architecture having an entrance which destroys too many trees - allowing me to move it closely to the Roundhouse entrance and further facilitate a sense of community.

POTENTIAL CONNECTION TO LAW BULIDING???

An idea that keeps recurring in my ideation process, a connection to the law building is one that I haven't been able to be fully shut down. As such, I wanted to address the potential that I could make the connection between the two buildings with the strongest points in favour being strengthening the relationship between the faculty of architecture and law, extending the library and thus its spaces, and finally, providing a sense of ethos, pathos and logos which encompasses law into architectural education.

Perhaps a draft model of a connection may be needed before I make my final decision.

SECTION

To begin tracing the section, I started from the beginning by using the fundamental Guggenheim plan and establishing a datum line.

Sketch of using the plan as a section.

Of course there are still flaws to be resolved in terms of the spatial distribution of the spaces and scale. However, the section, plan, circulation and perspectives in conjunction with the theory as they stand are a solid foundation to progress and work together to create a balanced form of architecture that can be significant and distinctive.