THE DESIGN PROCESS: PART 2

"The Design Process is cyclical, rather than linear. It can be entered from any one of the 5 pillars and all 5 pillars can be worked on simultaneously" - Piet Louw.

The design Process generally has:

The Analysis/Investigation

Conception

Resolution

Which Piet Louw describes as NEED, PROGRAMME/PERFORMANCE, CONTEXT, and PROCESS. All five of these 'pillars' are dynamic and in constant flux, hence the need to work on them simultaneously and impetulance of where you start.

I am currently in the Conception phase of my second semester project: The Design of a Multi-use building in Central, Port Elizabeth. The Requirements of the project is to provide on site parking, in this case basement parking on a sloping site; a retail ground floor; a minimum of 4 floors of office space; and an option to have residential floors; and the building has to work structurally, comply to the building regulations, employ sustainable technologies all whilst having visual appeal design that adds or changes the streetscape of the CBD.

Here are some pictures of the site and area:

Ariel Site View(picture obtained from Google Maps)

Site Context(pictures obtained from Google Maps)

3D View(picture obtained from Google Maps)

Exploration of Service Core configuration(Author)

(Author)

EXPLORING PARKING SOLUTIONS

Structure, Ramp, and Service Core Investigation.

Exploring Core and Office Space design(Author)

Feed back has it that the service cores are too big, the passages too long resulting in offices having no views and being disconnected to important spaces(long passages are tedious), and the noise transfer through the atrium needs to be investigated further.

Exploration of Form and Section(Author)

The exploration of form and the section are to include sustainable technology and structure from the conceptual/inception phase. The building envelope is integral in determining the form that the building takes.

An exploration of possible parking solutions in Section(Author)