Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Experiment 1 Feedback

The intention of publishing the feedback below is so that all students can benefit by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of a range of projects. Please take the time to review other students' work with these comments in mind. If you have any questions or would like any further clarification don’t hesitate to ask me during the studio session.

Ana

Key strength:
Excellent integration of the three spaces; you have solved the problem with clarity and beauty. The staircases are well resolved, and the introduction of the solid internal shard allows variety with this. Well textured.

Most significant weakness:
The shard is no-longer suspended from the frame, which removes its sense of perfect functionality. Making a greater part of the floors transparent or removed, both in the gallery and in the bottom studio, would have enabled a better appreciation of the precipitousness of the pit. You could also have attempted to resolve the structure of the floor in the gallery, as it needs to be supported somehow. It is a shame that your animations are so jerky.

Ben

Key strength:
The final submission shows promise in the variety and boldness of your design. The studios look like functional places to work. You obviously have skill at both modelling and animating.

Most significant weakness:
Unfortunately your gallery is incidental, and there could have been scope for inventiveness in allowing light into the underground studio space. The quality of your supporting work needs attention.

Candice

Key strength:
Interesting departure from the original concept, without having dismissed it completely. Well-considered connection between studios and gallery, with a strong visual connection that lets light in underground.

Most significant weakness:
Think about what is actually useful in your studios. The glass balls seem superfluous and don't add to your 'fresh' concept as you cannot see them below the opaque floor in your underground studio. Likewise, the 'bowl' shape is irrelevant because the artist cannot experience it.

Daniel

Key strength:
The studios and the gallery are logically connected, and have a storybook kind of poetry about them. The staircases are appropriate and well-detailed. Your irrigation system adds a level of thoroughness to your scheme.

Most significant weakness:
Be more attentive to presentation on your blog with the quality of scans and the quality of animations.

Edana

Key strength:
The forms you have chosen for your studios relate to the words well.

Most significant weakness:
There have been stages in your process work that have been more substantial than your final submission. Both staircases and the integration of the three spaces could have been further investigated.

Hao Wu

Key strength:
The datum and the underground massing are well understood, and the underground staircase is delicate. There are interesting internal and external spaces in the upper studio.

Most significant weakness:
It is unclear where your gallery is. It is also unclear which artworks have inspired your structures, which means that you haven't followed the process from the beginning. Overall this is a very incomplete submission.

Isabel

Key strength:
The top studio and the staircase are well integrated, and the architecture, although simple, tends towards monumental.

Most significant weakness:
There could have been greater scope for the lower part of the complex - the lower studio, and the gallery which is incidental in the design. The animations are cramped and do not convey your design optimally. Overall, the scheme still looks a bit like a draft.

Lara

Key strength:
The forms of all of your spaces and staircases are bold and original, and developed well from your initial words.

Most significant weakness:
Your model still looks like a draft. There is little indication as to how the top studio can be used to make art, and there are very few textures. The datum should have been emphasised more, as it would have grounded the model; at the moment the composition looks like an object without context.

Monika

Key strength:
The top studio is more successful than the bottom. You have explored the combination of two discrete shells of different materials to make a space that is both functional and true to the original word. The warped shell of glass encloses the gallery space well.

Most significant weakness:
You didn't fully exploit the potential of the word 'protruding' to make an interesting underground space. The gallery is well situated, but since there aren't any artworks in it, its function is unclear.

Margaret

Key strength:
Interesting and daring choice for the gallery. You have developed the top studio well and have put a lot of consideration into your stairs. You have also provided some good still images that show the complex in use.

Most significant weakness:
At least one of your animations is redundant in terms of informativeness, and should have focused on the interior. Your lower studio did not reach a high level of resolution.

Meng Xu

Key strength:
You have addressed the datum very well. You have also shown clearly how the spaces are to be used through good animations.

Most significant weakness:
Your spaces are still extruded sections, and it is clear from your images that you have only really looked at your model from a side-on view. Consider all elevations and sections of your model when you're designing. The initial sketch was a way to generate an idea, your model didn't need to be a literal replica of it in 3D.

Molly

Key strength:
The 'branching' idea in your lower staircase is interesting, and your overall design looks very playful. You have made a good attempt at using various forms.

Most significant weakness:
Your animations and still images should work together to give an overview of your design. Here they are all very similar. It's also unclear how the public can access your gallery.

Nick M

Key strength:
The glass structure (gallery?) is potentially an interesting building.

Most significant weakness:
There is no connection between the sketches and the final draft. The lower studio is difficult to understand from the images and animations you have uploaded. The upper studio is an extruded section with no attention to the thickness of materials.

Nick Z

Key strength:
You have reached a good resolution with the studio spaces, both internal and external parts are well modelled. Your top studio and staircase are very clearly and successfully derived from your initial concept sketches and words.

Most significant weakness:
Your bottom studio is a reflection of an earlier one, but it is incompletely adapted. Which fins are necessary for retaining the ground? If you can't actually pass between them, you won't know that they're there. The bottom staircase doesn't work because it isn't encased.

Rory

Key strength:
The top studio is much more effective than the bottom in terms of both structure and staircase, and illustrates Goodwin's program well. The gallery is well integrated.

Most significant weakness:
The underground studio is just an extruded section with no apparent attention to how it is capped. Consider more variety with your animations. It would have been more informative if at least one had 'inhabited' the model, instead of all three revolving and sectioning from a distance.

Eddy

Key strength:
You have stayed true to the words that have inspired the schemes, and have attempted to model some inventive spaces. Your 'peaceful' studio and staircase are stronger than the 'lonely' ones.

Most significant weakness:
The animations are minimal and the staircase to the underground studio doesn't work, as it is not encased. Your gallery is very incongruous to the rest of your design.

Rena

Key strength:
Your complete submission, with all your supporting work, is very good. Your final animations, particulary no. 2, are very well composed. There is a clarity in your design that is enhanced by a consideration for material properties and thicknesses.

Most significant weakness:
While both your studios are well argued for in terms of structure, they may not be optimal spaces in which to work. If the ideal studio pushes you towards asymmetry, that's ok, and often makes a program more interesting and sophisticated. Your earlier sketches were more free than your models in this respect.

Rocky

Key strength:
The upper studio contains some pleasant spaces, and you have moulded the earth well around it. This situates the model properly on the datum.

Most significant weakness:
It is unclear where the gallery is, and how it is used. It is also unclear why your lower studio derives from the word 'support'. Unfortunately parts of this submission are incomplete. Your designs are interesting, but you need to work consistently.

Susan

Key strength:
The 'foreigner' studio is greatly improved, and your top staircase is particularly successful. You have used strong words to inform your designs.

Most significant weakness:
The animations are fast and confusing, and you haven't provided either an animation or an overall image that shows how the whole complex fits together.

Sean

Key strength:
Your designs are strong and distinctive. The development of your forms is well explained, and your top studio clutching the fragile staircase is compelling. The lower studio is thoughtfully situated within the landscape, and you have considered the light penetration well.

Most significant weakness:
Despite how evocative the 'primal' studio is, the space within it is suboptimal as a workshop. What is the tunnel? Also, since the structure of the lower studio and the gallery are extensions of each other, the top studio could have been better integrated into this program. There are small, unresolved elements within your scheme.

Xin

Key strength:
A nicely connected model with clear development of the words and sketches into a functional program of spaces. The cosmic pipe plunging through the studio of 'sores' with a staircase that conveys the 'past' gives a poetic dimension to the scheme. You have dealt with admitting light well.

Most significant weakness:
The lower studio is a little conventional compared to the top, and you could have considered more variety with the lower part of the staircase.

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