Department of Architecture and Landscape_The Pennsylvania State University

                                                                            

ARCH 132:Basic Design Studio II 

Spring Semester2013 (Section3)                             La Coe, Guzman, and Weinreb studio.

 

"the body in the forum"

      

forum, n.

Pronunciation:  /ˈfɔərəm/

Etymology:  < Latin forum

1.a. Roman Hist. The public place or market-place of a city. In ancient Rome the place of assembly for judicial and other public business. b. as the place of public discussion; hence fig. 2.a. A court, tribunal. law of the forum: the legal rules of a particular court or jurisdiction. b. transf. and fig. (Cf. medieval Latin in foro interno, in foro conscientiæ).

For your project, you are to design and build elements that address the inadequacies in the sensual experience in the forums including comfortable seating, acoustic and lighting controls, and sight lines. These elements would conventionally be referred to as: seats, acoustic panels, and shading devices. Please think unconventionally, minimally, transformationally, transcendentally, widely, sensually, spatially, and aesthetically. You are encouraged to combine reused/recycled materials and new materials in the creation of functional and durable elements.

While your particular sites are the north and south forums of the Stuckeman Family Building, these elements must be designed as potentially manufactured items suitable for other similar site conditions.

When starting any architectural project, the first phase involves: documenting and analyzing the site; listening to the client’s needs [and by extension the program and user groups]; and researching materials, construction methods, and historic precedents.

CLIENT + USER SURVEYS

The client and the users are not necessarily the same. The client is the one who pays for the project. The users are,… well they are the users. A team of two students will conduct the client and user surveys. Develop your questions, bounce them off the section, conduct the interviews, and compile the data into a poster presentation using Adobe Photoshop and InDesign.

Your clients are Nathaniel Belcher [school director], Mehrdad Hadighi [arch dept. head], and Ronald Henderson [larch dept. head].

Your users are the students and faculty of the Stuckeman School. While you also have experience in the forum, you must seek out feedback from at least twelve other students and twelve faculty equally balanced from architecture and landscape architecture. Introduce yourself, your project, and be prepared with a list of questions about their experiences in the forums. Be sure to allow them to relate freely as well. Do not duplicate students and faculty on team surveys.

Refer to the work of Edward Tufte [all books] for the graphic representation of information. Include photos and diagrams of the forums.

SITE DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS

Site analysis typically takes place at several scales depending on the size of the project. A small project, such as yours, would ideally take into consideration: the Stuckeman Family Building, the two fori, or forums, and adjacent spaces. AutoCAD files and pdfs of the Stuckeman Family Buidling are on Angel à ARCH 132, Section 3: BASIC DSGN STUDIOII à Lessons Tab à Stuckeman Family Building drawings folder. Since the fori span two floor levels and are open to a third level, all studio levels are a part of your larger site.

The site team will create a Revit model and a physical model of the Stuckeman Family Building. The Revit model will be of the entire building. The section will insert designs into the forum areas of this model as they are developed. The physical model will be a section through all four floors of the SFB. The red dashed lines on page one show the extents of the section cut.

See last year’s model of Geary Hall model for an example of what is expected.

MATERIALS RESEARCH + PRECEDENT RESEARCH

This should be your motto as the research teams. Everyone is depending on this research to make informed decisions about the designs and construction. Use the internet, the library, the librarians, Material Connexion, books, and periodicals. Find lots of stuff, compile research binders, go on field trips, and order material samples immediately!