Design Concepts

 

Dear students, I have been thinking about your design concepts.

I hope you have been as well.

I have questions.  I hope these help you formulate and clarify your ideas, concept statements, and diagrams.

First of all, you have been assigned to design a lakefront ecology center, on a unique and dramatic lakefront site.  Given the site and the program.

·         How does your project REVEAL the nature of its place?

·         How does the design AMPLIFY ones understating of water ecology?  And address sustainable issues?

·         How does your design connect you to the lake?  PHSICALLY? EMOTIONALLY? POETICALLY?

·         How does your design make you more aware of the natural world, and ecological concerns?

·         How does the design address the specificities of its site?  The city? The view?  The natural world?  The transition, edge, or threshold?  How does it improve on the existing conditions?

I also have questions about the more practical design decisions that you have made.

·         How is your design organized? And Why?

·         How do you move to it?  Through it?

·         What are you trying to accomplish formally and aesthetically? What does it look like?  Why? And how does this relate to the site, the city, and issues of ecology?

Finally, you should be trying to design unique, authentic, and memorable spaces and places.

·         Does your project create a place for people?  Establish a sense of community?  Create a poetic connection to the natural world?   Allow for various types of uses (beyond the program)?  Function within the context of civic parkland?

·         Is it memorable?  How?

·         If Architecture is about experiencing space…..  How have you choreographed an experience through your project?