EXPERIMENT ONE: DATUM

DUE: Tuesday 01 April by midnight.

ASSESSMENT WEIGHTING: 25% (marking schedule)

EXPERIMENT OUTLINE

TIMETABLE: 4 Weeks, 25% of final grade.
ARCHITECTURAL ISSUE: Selling Creativity.
ARCHITECTURAL CONVENTION: The Stair.
ARCHITECTURAL CHALLENGE: Articulating below, on and above a ground plane. Studio workshops.
CLIENTS: Revival Cycles, Steinway and Sons, Heston Blumenthal
SOFTWARE: Google Sketchup, Blogger.
TECHNIQUES: The section, texturing and UV mapping, animation and blogging.
ASSESSABLE OUTPUTS: 18 sketch sections, 36 custom textures, 2 draft sketchup models, 1 developed sketchup model, 3 animations on a Blogger weblog.
PREMISE: We can understand Architecture as a series of relationships between surfaces, objects and spaces. The datum introduces an idea of measurement into these relationships so that we can begin to understand the balance or otherwise of a scheme.

PROCEDURE

Choose a specific work from two of the three individuals listed above and create an architecture consisting of three spaces; one below ground, one above ground and one on the ground plane. The spaces above and below ground are the clients studio workshops (imagine they are actually creating the work there). The space on the ground plane is a place for selling the work. Create a stair that allows each client to bring their completed work to the showroom on the ground plane in a distinctive and significant way.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

In addition to the overall course assessment criteria students will be assessed on the level and extent to which they engage with the criteria listed below:

THE THREE WORDS _ Do the three words work together to suggest a distinctive and significant approach to engaging with each clients work?
THE 18 SKETCH SECTIONS _ Do the 18 sketch sections communicate a distinctive and significant approach the student has taken with respect to the clients work and their relationship to the datum?
THE 36 CUSTOM TEXTURES _ Do the 36 custom textures demonstrate enquiry and experimentation with respect to ideas of measurement?
THE STAIR _ Does the stair demonstrate a distinctive and significant approach to bringing the completed work into the showroom?
THE ANIMATIONS AND ARCHITECTURE _ Do animations demonstrate that the student has thought about the relative size of each element, what their proportions are, their orientation, how texture and color map over their surfaces and how all of the above work together to establish the balance or otherwise of their scheme?

RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS


www.russelllowe.com/arch1101/index.htm
www.arch1101-2014.blogspot.com
http://groups.google.com.au/group/arch1101-2014/topics

"Sketchup New Users" video tutorials here: http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos?playlist=58

The UNSW library home page
Library services for undergraduates
Architecture subject guide
red centre guide