I n h a b i t

Inhabit was a project which preached the importance of the people within a space and the interactions they had with the environment. Highly noticeable was the hierachy of the building, reflecting the true identity of a corporate business. Undergraduates restricted to lower levels, while postgraduates and office spaces dominated the majority of upper levels. Ledges in the John Hood plaza led to the inspiration of a skate park intervention within the plaza of the building which carved its own identity into both the fisher and paykel building, as well as the owen g glenn. Its purpose to disrupt the major population of business and commerce students and staff, was paired with the intention to integrate a new ambience of inhabitants that would interact with the building. The fluid forms trying to mimic that of the Owen G Glenn building's facade as well as the major "islands" are reflective of the forms of the lecture theaters below; in a sense, releasing a bold statement and bringing attention to the undermined undergraduates' realm below. Slits in the concrete skating arena, allow thin shafts of light to penetrate the Earthly barrier, and into the domain below, the shadows of skaters hopefully inducing reactions and interactions with people below. This introduction of a new movement, both literal and figurative, illustrates a whole new way of inhabiting this space, potentially allowing access through to lectures via skateboarding, as well as the implications to the current inhabitants who are now forced to co-exist with a new breed of people. This intended upheaval of hierachy and disruption is a chaotic challenge to inhabitants' ideas of this space, and experiments with how inhabitants must reform and react to an intervention of architecture.

Threshold Project: A very late post.

Threshold design was based on inspiration from the reading, where the project sought to interpret a new level of communication, that was achieved during carnival where all hierachy was dismissed. The definition of a "threshold" is translated into a kinetic source of architecture which moves to mold the space that occupies both the interior and exterior of the studios and courtyard respectively. The threshold is designed to replace the studio walls, modeling into whatever shape is desired for functionality. Passageways between studio and courtyard integrate subtly into the new facade of the building, a sense of connection established at certain instants before being swallowed back into the mainstream wall, reflecting the temporary nature of the carnival. A flowing facade, variable to change in form, structure and functionality seeks to exemplify the carnival character in the form a threshold.

Where it all started

Should have posted this a while agooo. My two cents in what a 'grotesque portrait of an institute' is.

Double A Threes

Heres the final presentation screenshots and a few ideas down in ink.

Final is not so final

Just dragged the structure through into a space where it connects with others. A few tweaks here and there, like adding an apple at the top, signifying a beginning idea, where when something or someone says boom, apples drop from the big apple, and start rolling through the maze. I've connected to someone, by making their part of the circuit fire a rocket that hits a ball i scripted with a collision script. and it says boom. and then apples drop! To start my part of the entire scheme. Also added a mold made from 3Ds max that guides the balls, making sure they dont go completly crazy and fly everywhere. The molds have been set to a transparent texture so as we can still observe the structure.

Chocolate is in the air

Twiddling around again, this virtual concept of a maze seems to be getting more and more vertical. Experimenting with effects of it being within the air, looks more like an interruption of space. Also tried different arrangements trying to test the potential of this vertical virtual maze. Also kept the rotation scripts and changed the timers on each one to create a more of a randomness and insecurity in when each wall would turn and allow passage. Reflects the uncertain nature of an idea forming, and also the development of an idea. Started thinking of speed the ball passes through and all sorts, so i decided to alter lengths and also direction of rotation to create more of a visually stimulating virtual maze. Also changed texture by selecting all the maze walls and changing the texture together, creating a structure that kind of expresses different sides to it and other opportunities randomly throughout it.

Be my friend, 3Ds Max

Just playing around with 3Ds max. Finding trouble importing it in, as when it does, the form isnt exactly what I drew in 3Ds max. Made some hedge-like components to keep with the theme of mazes but I thought they didn't look aesthetically stimulating enough. I moved on to experiment with blocks again, with different textures.

Started playing with transparency also, seeing how the balls woud look flowing through the design, with invisible walls. Was alright. Nothing extraordinary.

A-mazed

Further development from the idea of "layers" in the project has lead me to design a sort of maze system. I believe that the disposing and re-introduction of design "junk" can be related to the process of finding your way through a maze. There are points where you get stuck, or do not even pass through, and also points where you must pass through lots of layers to get to the end and pass through. So i started experimenting with a concept of a maze and obstacle a certain idea has to pass through. Created something like this...





Then started changing the different walls of the maze... and tried running balls through the maze. Worked quite well when some pass through and others get stuck.

I like it when I've done something

So ideas are starting to form in my mind. I have continued with the idea of layers and also experimenting with different visual forms and virtual experiences I could incorporate into my trash can design. Ive experimented with lots and lots of balls falling into a space where it had see through walls so you could kind of see the course and the way the balls pass through the space and i was quite intrigued by this. I built an amateur machine to just start off and got some snapshots because the wegame camera wasnt working on the computer. Must get a video next time! I'm thinking of making a bigger version of this, maybe playing with the size and colour and texture of the balls and also to make the form the balls travel through more organic or experiment more with the form of it in 3ds max.

Woke up this morning thinking about..

Semester TWO. Design TWO.
Back to the virtual world this week, Designing something like a virtual rube goldberg machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Just started experimenting with little contraptions and looking through my office. The whole idea of this project is to look through our "trash"-ed objects or thrown away ideas and make something awesome. Was looking through the first week poster project and got inspired by the layers of paper i stuck on my face. started thinking of working in layers etc. Still on the concepts page.

Alpha Channel Sandwich with Scripting sauce.

The white looked a bit boring, so I created an alpha channel. Creating my own texture on photoshop, I imported it into SL, and attached it with the texture to emphasize a more digital moving texture on the upper level of the office.

Also added in a rezzer that welcomes and gives people notecards as they approach the welcome sign. Screens have also been completed with respective links and journal covers!



Looks quite nice at night I think...



And at sunset...

"A design will never be finished."

Starting to work on seats and big screen on the ground floor. Trying to incorporate the general theme of the building throughout even the seats and screen supports. I've decided to also add a sliding script within the seats and big screen so they can be separated into two separate meeting places, as well as the option of merging both into a communal area. This connection along with the other display screens adds a link to the office, showing how things work together and apart, similar to relationships between housing and different areas of human interaction shown in the housing studies journal.

Popcorn.

The screens are going up!

After creating a facade which leaves a opening for the seaside view, I decided to create display screens for showing the journals that we are meant to display. I worked out that I could probably work in a sliding script into the rods so that the screens are able to be moved along the facade and creates an interesting interactive aspect with the viewers. Again, the actual movement of screens along with the facade show a sense of movement illustrated throughout the structure.