Newtown Multi Cultural Community Grounds from James Wong on Vimeo.
[project done in conjunction with Daniel Po]
Part B – Architectural Proposition (3 weeks):
A very detailed brief was given to us and we had to develop a well thought through proposition to address the requirements of the brief.
In essence the brief asked us to design a high density multi-use (residential, commercial, public services) development proposal that nurtured cultural diversity of place, coupled with a very feasible business plan. The gist of our proposal was to facilitate interaction and tolerance between various ethnic, ages, and culture groups. Our design was focused around a central drawing factor; being a very large display screen to bring not only the residence to interact with each other (as they watch the rugby, or movies, etc) but also to bring the public into the space. This would further facilitate ethnic interaction, usage of the public facilities (crèche, child care centre, multi-purpose sports centre) as well as boost the commercial property value, making our proposal a lucrative one for developers. Another forte of our design was to maximise areas of ‘chance meeting’, for example where all the access ways converged at a large central spiral staircase to maximise the chance in which people meet.
Lots of work went into the design of zoning specific areas so that a certain level of privacy was maintained for the residential areas but maximising traffic flow past or through commercial spaces, especially with the connection between Adelaide Road and Hanson Street. We had to think about retaining certain buildings and facades in the site (as it was part of the brief to do so) and yet retain consistency in the architectural language that it spoke. Maximising the view access of the display screen took a great deal of tweaking our design too.
In terms of our workflow to get this project done within the very tight timeframe we had; a great deal of time went into researching the most efficient ways to test and carry out our proposal; the tools and programs we used, as well as the delegation of work that capitalised on each of our strengths. We took time to learn about Revit worksets; which essentially made it easier for the both of us to work on a single Revit model simultaneously (very awesome, when we found out). Efficient 3ds Max workflow like assigning materials to groups of objects already put into BIM groups by Revit as we exported the model. I have devoted many holidays into learning animation and how to make it possible by using distributed rendering over many computers at our university, as setting up the appropriate software plug-ins (speedtree, onyx) and tweaking the network for backburner use was truly a mission!
I am absolutely ecstatic at the outcome of the animation, as the ability to actually do animation has always been a dream.. something just too far away to reach.. but now I am actually achieving some of those dreams, and I can only thank God for granting me such favour, perseverance, and opening up those doors that I am able to achieve these things. I am still in awe.. not for my glory.. but of the one who has blessed me.
