Architecture Design Studio III Learning Portfolio

LEARNING PORTFOLIOArchitecture Design Studio III

Azul Hernandez / Architecture Design Studio III / Learning Portfolio / Spring 2013

ICEBREAKER EXERCISE

To begin this course, we started with an activity that would make us analyze a little more the different aspect that define a city.

This collage is about how I see the city of San Francisco in my eyes; from my perspective.San Francisco has great diversity of cultures; plus the fact that it allows many subcultures develop in different areas of the city, Such as the Haight Street or Castro street. And besides it is a multicultural city, it maintains a balance with slow and simple life.

What I is really evocative for me about San Francisco is, indeed, that balance. Is kind of an irony, because “sometimes not beingIn balance is part of a balanced life”.

The monochrome pictures I took, allow me to feel Time through the way they look, to see much further than nice colorsContrasting and pay more attention to the real essence. //To the original vitality// Everything has its own vitality, it just dependsOn us to find it and appreciate it. Monochromatic also enhances the feeling that I was trying to convey about a balance ofOLD and NEW/ HISTORY and TODAY... The Picture of the Payphone, in particular, takes me to those times when telephone was anUnusual thing to have at home. The payphone is still there, but not in use that much anymore. The background of a building withArchitectural influences from the colonial times... Wide streets with not very high buildings... I took that one at a certain spot in theCity that I was walking by, then I entered back to “the city”, as we refer to the latest monumental architecture today.

The cable cars, that are known as one of the San Francisco icons, also allows that connection of society today with how was Life in the the past. Specially because the route these trains follow, goes around the downtown of the city (which holds most of theModern architecture in the city), and other streets that are highly transited by people. It is a way to maintain us connected with Antique, and already “fragile” life. Materials are another special factor that allows this connection. Wood is completely natural, And therefore “old”, and humble, and warm. Versus the heaviness and monumental characteristics of concrete buildings...

LYNCH'S CITY IMAGE


“The primary purpose of this study is to develop the ability to sense The City as an urban designer and recognize paths, edges, nodes, landmarks, and districts as defined by Kevin Lynch in his book, The Image of the City”.

Node: The nodes are points of concentration, or areas that contain a high circulation of masses. (Crowded areas).

Path: Paths are connecting passages or channels. Paths are defined by certain factors that drive people to follow them; these could depend on the evocative characteristics of the streets, the levels of circulation, landmarks, particular places, etc. And the observer is exposed to nodes, edges, landmarks, and different districts along the way.

Landmark: Landmarks are reference points; these are identified as the representative places or pieces for the district/city. Through their proposes they bring vitality to the city. These can be contained in pathways, define edges, and origin nodes.

Edge: edges define where areas end or begin. They are the boundaries between two phases. They could be walls, water, paths, etc. Anything that breaks continuity.

District: medium to large sections of the city. A district can be defined by correlated aspects that delineate a common character.


CITY IMAGE + SITE ANALYSIS


Based on the district that each student feels more identified with in the city of San Francisco, we are now going to explore, analyze and apply the concepts studied on The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch.

Little by little, through various iterations, we went deeper into the analysis of the districts. As for my choice, I decided to study the Downtown district in San Francisco.

The first task was to identify and correlate to the city every concept already mentioned, and justify it. All these should be represented on a “massing” of the district, which refers to the general shape and size of a building.

DISTRICT

DOWNTOWN. -Downtown is the 4th most walkable neighborhood in San Francisco.Daily errands do not require a car in there.

-Population in Downtown: 20,538

-Counts with: RestaurantsBarsParksApartment/Residential BuildingsCommercial Buildings

-Public transportation: Bart, Muni (Bus/train), Cable car, Taxi Cap




PATH

The reason why I chose downtown is specially because of this Path; Powell street.

-Powell St. All powell St. up to the surrounding streets of the Union Square Park.-Restaurants & Dinner Food: Lori’s Diner, Betty Boop’s Diner, The king of Noodles (Thai food), The Cheesecake Factory. Fast food: Burger King, Carl’s Jr.

-Union Square Park: Place to relax and enjoy the view. Also there are set many different activities during the year for people to hang out, have fun and enjoy; such as the ice rink during Christmas times, Art expositions, Movies outdoors at night, etc.

-Shopping Buildings: Westfield’s/Bloomingdale’s shopping mall, Macy’s, Macy’s for men, H&M, Forever 21, GAP, Desigual, Louis Voutton, Dior, Zara, Levi’s, Victoria’s Secret, etc.

Cable Cars, which make the Path of Powell street more attractive and entertaining for walking. They allow that connection with the antique vibe.-AAU buildings: Students from all around the world engaged with art. Makes downtown more diverse in culture and creativity.Transportation: Bart Station, Cable cars on Powell St., Buses on Market Street.Attractions: Cable Car Powell stationNODES: powell st & market st:-Powell st. BART station + Cable Car station + entrance of Forever 21 store + pedestrians crossing Market street

LANDMARK




NODE

Powell st & market st:-Powell st. BART station, Cable Car station, entrance of Forever 21 store, and crossing spot to the Westfield's shopping mall.

Cable Cars, which make the Path of Powell street more attractive and entertaining for walking. They allow that connection with the antique vibe.-AAU buildings: Students from all around the world engaged with art. Makes downtown more diverse in culture and creativity.Transportation: Bart Station, Cable cars on Powell St., Buses on Market Street.Attractions: Cable Car Powell stationNODES: powell st & market st:-Powell st. BART station + Cable Car station + entrance of Forever 21 store + pedestrians crossing Market street

LANDMARK


Utopian District



Once having studied the main concepts that draw a city (District, Nodes, Landmarks, Edges, and Paths), we are now ready to start our own urban project. The task: to bring vitality to a District that doesn’t exist. We have to create it and apply all the concepts we have learned.

The idea about this personal project is to have a very walkable sort of “small town” in the city, where the residential area and its surroundings have a slow life essence; and the public areas, plus the surrounding nature, bring a high level of vitality to the district.

Even though the district belongs to the city (any city, anywhere on earth), it is meant to be “Isolated” in order to create the “small town” idea already mentioned. The district would be located at the edge of the city, and would be surrounded in a great part by special forms of the natural environment: a series of green hills at the north coming from the west and expanding to the east, along the city; a small lake in the west, and the beach in the south edge.

UTOPIAN DISTRICT


FRONT

ELEVATIONS

LEFT

BACK

FRONT

RIGHT

Day time, during the month of October at 17:00 hours.The front view would be in direction to the North coming from the South.What we mostly appreciate from this view, are the buildings at the Boulevard of the district.


Utopian District



In the district, along the right side of the main street is located a smaller commercial area. Which is what starts to enter people to where the greater movement is. This area contains restaurants, places for entertainment like a bowling/pool table place; and small commercial buildings such as grocery stores and even boutiques.

The residential area is mainly set along the west edge by the lake, in order to provide a peaceful vibe and a pretty nice view to the inhabitants. Who doesn’t like to see the sunset on a watery horizon from a very comfortable chair at the backyard?

Within the residential area there are other public places, such as a swimming pool, tennis courts, a playground for the kids, and a small hotel for the visitors that prefer to stay closer to the quiet part of the district. And, since the lake is safe, people are also allow to do kayak or make use of their personal watercraft at any time.

Utopian District


The main street leads to a secondary busiest street for this district, the Boulevard, which becomes in the most attractive, connecting road with the rest of the city. It would be sort of the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Along one side of the boulevard are located the greatest buildings in the district, which function is more about business and commerce. There is set a series of clubs, restaurants, business buildings (ex. Banks ), hotels, and a variety of stores. On the other side of the boulevard, closest to the beach and along the street, there is a wide sidewalk made to hold a good amount of people hanging out, and allow the slow circulation of people who want to enjoy the view. Also there are a few restaurants and beach items stores.


BOULEVARDView of the entrance to the Residential area.Here we can appreciate how the “small” Commercial areaStarts to bring out vitality to this district.

Utopian District



NODE AT THE BOULEVARD LANDMARK

Everything is getting more complex, and to be honest I am positioned out of my comfort zone.

We are getting closer and closer to literal and realistic aspects of Architecture.I still feel identified with it, and it's still the career that I want to take.But during this transition, I have hard a hard time working well in class.It has been hard for me to accept that I am not succeeding as I thought I could do. Specially when my classmates ask: “what has happened to you?”, you used to be one of the bests last semester” -I don't know. There are many personal things going on right now besides school, but my argument is always that nothing justifies anything. I really needed help but I wasn't accepting it. I grew up with the mentality that I am a strong person and I must be able to handle things by myself... But nobody succeeds alone... I think that having assigned other classmates as our mentors is going to be really helpful for me, because I am not only having a hard time in this class, it is something general. It is an opportunity to get pulled and get back to what I had achieved as a student. I really appreciate the patience and the opportunities that you have given us, Jerry.

I am a little unhappy with my portfolio as it is right now, but not that much with what I have learned until now. Specially because I have learned how to used Google SketchUp, even though the process was slow. Actually, that was one of the things that was keeping me from working at the same rhythm as the rest of the class.

Weaknesses about my work: I don't have many information in text, I mostly worked on the modeling stuff, which consumed most of my time due to the fact that I was just learning how to manage digital programs. I am aware that I need to pay more attention to the Analysis part, which is not a piece of cake either. It is more about comprehension and research.

Strengths/Values: Now that I look back, and see the work that I have done even though I have been through difficulties, I have been able to keep up. And not drop, and try to catch up. And I already handle the most tedious parts of this Course: Model making, & Digital work. I'm still behind, but I will keep working on it.

Mission Bay Development



Site analysis of the Mission Bay District, in order to identify what kind of “flavor” does this area have. What could we develop for making it a vital district? This will become in the Final Project concept.

First massing of the site and the surrounding buildings.

Mission Bay Development


Latest massing of the site and the surrounding buildings.

District.

Site Plan.


Documents

Architecture Design Studio III Learning Portfolio