Planning

Le Corbusier was an architect and artist who was famous for his contributions to what now is called modernist architecture. During the international modernism movement the plan was given preference. As a pioneer of theoretical thinking, In his book “Towards a New Architecture” he boldly states that “the plan is the generator…Without plan there can be neither grandeur of aim and expression, nor rhythm, nor mass, nor coherence…A plan calls for the most active imagination. It calls for the most severe discipline also. The plan is what determines everything; it is the decisive moment”, which summed up interior design and planning quite accurately implying that planning is everything. As a designer, everything should begin with the floor plan with all its implications of rational relationships, rather than impose some sort of artistic vision on a building as priority. With influence of digital modeling software nowadays, the section becomes the new option given that it is perhaps the best drawing and representational technique for understanding form and space.
Our goal was to create an environment in UT3 that bettered the half life 2 model. In doing so we assigned specific roles to each person in the group and we run the weeks as planned in the schedule. Essentially our digital project converts a materialized model made from max into UT3 where all the lighting and landscape are done.
The spatial planning of our unbuilt building involves an atrium space at the bottom level where the character can move into a huge interiorlized courtroom and up onto the stairs onto the second and above levels. Our chosen building is rather spacious which we intended for the user to experience the space. Urban planning is not just concerned with the making of plans but also with the management of development to ensure that it accords with the objectives of the plan and is developed to the benefit of the general public. Statutory planning, or otherwise known as town planning, development control or development management, refers to this part of the planning process that is concerned with the regulation and management of changes to land use and development. Usually, a developer is required to lodge a planning application with the government body, usually a local council, for approval. That application is assessed by the statutory planner to see if it complies with the relevant planning objectives, controls, standards, policies and provisions and decided for approval or rejection. The aim of having statuary planning is to improve quality of life for residents ensuring that the land use requirements of the community for housing, employment, retail, leisure, community facilities, waste, minerals and transport are met in a sustainable way, and to conserve and enhance the best features of the natural and built environment.

REFERENCE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_planning

Context

Generally architecture students have to have an ability to solve a problem in an appropriate design context. Our task is to place a computer generated model into the UT3 program which I think becomes the context to our problem having to design for internal and external architectural environments. We have to consider the space in which it will reside, the lighting, other surrounding organic or inorganic objects and the surrounding landscape. We are to construct and display knowledge and learning experience using contextual learning resources and tutorials in the 3D virtual environment. Context and experience closely relate to one another, and structures cannot be perceived as independent aesthetic entities but rather they must harmonize with their built and natural surroundings as part of the virtual building environment.

Context becomes important in the architectural field as architects are not only responsible for the buildings and structures they design, but also for the environment.

Paralleling to the relationships between building construction and architectural form and space, there should be a relationship drawn between architecture and its cultural context as well, where buildings are not isolated objects, but are anchored in and shaped by their physical and cultural contexts.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is a system that helps to simplify a design process by allowing functional role of subassemblies to be articulated in a meaningful way as to their contribution to the function of the whole. In collaborative environment both hierarchy and democracy have to be brought together to form some kind of leadership role. However the power given in a hierarchy should not be abused but rather needs to be redeemed and understood. Having power distributed equally among members in a group tend to create excessive expectation of other people’s abilities and their willingness to shoulder responsibility. Overemphasis on equality in group-work an lead to a lack of motivation for developing individual potential as members receive no greater rewards for demonstrating their abilities. Therefore it becomes essential to have a balanced hierarchy, to have a leader that would evaluate others’ commitment to the group more objectively as well as their skills and their potential leadership abilities. In every group there is always a hierarchy of ability present which needs to be recognized in order to allow people to manifest their full potential. Hierarchy not only acknowledges current abilities but it also values leadership, purpose, direction, vision, accountability and efficiency. In a working field hierarchy can offer mentoring for those who are younger or less experienced and thus can learn to become more advanced in certain areas. Simon is our leader and his role is to initiate new things that influence other people, and I think he does quite a good job appraising people for what they have done. He gives encouragement as well as listening to everyone else to develop good relations with all members of the group. Enlightened leadership is educative rather than directive by drawing out the best in others having to assume that people already have the potential wisdom and creativity within them.

Conventional building delivery is structured hierachically in terms of control and linear in time. Digital tools are providing a catalyst for rethinking the structures of project delivery, presenting opportunities for firms to expand their roles, offer new services and change the sequencing of how and when design information is developed and consumed.

In the unbuilt work that we are doing there is a strong sense of hierarchy conceived. The building is a courthouse itself which symbolizes a sense of power and hierarchy. The building’s form is very tense to highlight this aspect, i.e. the building is structured like a heavy block supported by columns on the side. When you walk into the building the public areas are on the main floor, whereas the judges’ office and private areas are on second floor and above which makes a statement saying that private uses are above and unreachable.

REFERENCE

http://www.visionarylead.org/articles/hierarchy_democracy.htm

http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/simon.html

http://www.design.upenn.edu/workworkwork/files/SheldenArchitecturalDesign.v76.pdf