Design Diary

[erinelellu]

This week, I focused on continuing the design of the training center and main skiing hub space. The section shows the design of the main arches that go over the design as small skiing slope moments that the user can enjoy, guided by the algae tubes. The greenhouses are also introduced at the top of the training center to harvest the algae locally, and provide a noise barrier and better insulation. The Plan of Intensity represents the main moments of interaction between the user and the building fabric, codified into 3 types: - The grip (tactile stimulation) - The passive pressure (self weight onto resting areas) - The active pressure (warm up action around the building).

[erinelellu]

This week I focused on the plan of the main hub and training center, designing a space that itself will warm up the user’s before heading to the slopes.

[erinelellu]

This week, I produced a site diagram showing the main sources of sensory stimulation around the space.

I also made a section through the « avenue » on the lower part of the slopes. The algae tubes are used as a structural weaving system in which each space is formed from pockets.

The algae tubes also aim to redirect the fresh air around the site.

I understand that I now need to focus on the building design at a smaller scale and the engineering details of such project.

[erinelellu]

Last week I focused on the design of the skiing hub as a central social space for rental, changing and education purposes.

The Hub is designed as a journey from the main hall to each rental spaces, the changing rooms, and the main social space.

The north entrance is directly from the skiing slope, and users can come in with their skis on.

The algae tubes used throughout the space are meant to guide the user through the journey through tactile clues. The user can grab the tubes to follow the path.

[erinelellu]

This week, I focused on the initial massing of the skiing resort.

By looking at the environmental elements on site, I started making decisions around the massing of the main elements: the main hub, the cafe, the lift and the skiing slopes.

I also looked at skiing body movements and how can these be used to create a weaving pattern of pipes and tubes.

I am now interested in looking at sensory stimulation as a skiing experience, and integrating the algae tubes to guide the used as a tactile mark.

[erinelellu]

This week I tried to apply some of my research by making my own photobioreactor with algae culture.

This is an experimental process for me to record the evolution of the algae through time and produce my own biomass with it.

I also started my "body movement" catalogue: a set of movements I would like to explore in my building to promote active life and exercise in the future.

I am hoping to weave my building around those body movements to create an interactive space that can produce its own oxygen through body activation.

I also looked at the market stall on a time-based basis, focusing on occupancy, temperature and light in the space hour by hour.

[erinelellu]

This week, I mainly focused on getting my presentation more organised through the making of portfolio sheets.

I would like to focus more on body movements through a drawn catalogue and communication of my site by focusing on a specific contextual element.

I would like to make an actual working algae photobioreactor for next week, to look at how my building can be self energy sufficient.

[erinelellu]

Review 02/11/23

This week was the first review of the year.

I tried to condense every design I had into a "final" set of drawings and renders.

The design was introduced on the hill site.

It is formed of several algae tubes guiding the user throughout the market.

The set of inflatables allow for a playful environment and encouraging people to move and stay active.

This produces air movement and pressure within the algae tubes.

[erinelellu]

This week, I mainly looked at body movements around the market stall:

- Walking

- Seating

- Jumping/Climbing

The idea is to design the market stall around these three "characters" through inflatables design.

The ground becomes the walking vessel, the market pod is the seating vessel and the greenhouses become the jumping spaces.

This encourages the user to stay active through interaction with the inflatable modules and thus producing their own oxygen through the algae culture.

I first designed an inflatable chair which creates air movement once sat on.

The plan of the market pod is aimed to be performative, shaped around the algae tubes.

[erinelellu]

Tutorial 2 Recap

This week i decided to focus on the body to design around, following the suitaloon idea from Micheal Webb.

I first looked at zones of pressure around the body, and placed inflatables around them so air can be produced by the body movement. This production of air creates air movement within the suit and through the algae culture, that can then produce oxygen.

The fresh oxygen is then extracted through the numerous tubes, and joining the face when it can be inhaled.

The airflow around the face was studied to create an effective tube network.

The purpose for next week is to integrate back this idea into the market stall space, and study how body movement can reduce pollution through fresh oxygen production.

[erinelellu]

For this first tutorial, I started by analysing the site through 4 layers of my own interpretation:

- The flux (networks around the site and main grid)

- The main topologies

- The pollution grid

- The occupied zones.

As I was mainly interested in the effect of air pollution on the site and the market stall design, I looked at algae as a way to create fresh air and oxygen.

I came up with a design made of inflated modules containing a thin layer of algae culture. The polluted air will then be introduced at the bottom of the facade, go up through air bubbles going in contact with the algae that will feed on the pollutant particles to create oxygen.

I went for a stall design of free flow, with a mainly suspended ground structure. The pathways are built around the two main green houses, which are made to cultivate algae and vegetables on site.

These can then be used in the food produced, through the production of an algae and insect based flour.

The waste from the algae produced food can then be re-introduced in the facade of the stalls.

The follow up idea is to develop my pods more and think of the orientation of the walls and how they respond to the site.

I would like to think of the algae culture within the modules as a potential shading device and a bioluminescence source for night-time conditions.

Thinking of how insects could be introduced in the food production is also something i would like to consider.

[erinelellu]

Last year's drawings

My 3 best drawings from last year: My project from last year, called "Theatre of Suspense" was a theatre inspired by Hitchcock's main suspense scenes and the techniques used to create fear and anticipation.

I designed a space that could be explored at different levels, in which the performance could be experienced differently, separated from the audience.

I think these three drawings represent best the variety of media used throughout the project, as well as the atmosphere inside the space, with its suspended cage-chair design.

How do I want to improve my practice this year? I would like to spend more time designing a properly engineered intervention in complete symbiose with its user. I would be interested to design innovative techniques to survive future conditions while focusing the architecture around human behaviour. I think the design should also be more specific to its site, with better integration to its context. What is your market stall idea that has potential in 2050? I would be interested in designing a floating intervention that could resist to rising sea levels and issues such as flooding in 2050. Creating an engineered intervention capable of making the most out of rising water levels sounds like a challenge I would be keen to work on. Is there a book that has you curious about the future of buildings and spaces? I am currently reading the book "Future Cities: Architecture and the Imagination" by Paul Dobraszccyk, in which he reflects on using imaginative ideas from films and stories to defy the upcoming future environmental conditions such as rising temperatures and flooding. He talks about "submarine cities", air-filled architecture and glass domes to protect humanity through imaginative design. I think this is a very interesting way of thinking about the future of architecture, as technologies progress and could enable us to go "crazy" with designing.

(My portfolio from Y3 is also available here:https://erine-lellu.myportfolio.com/y2-portfolio-theatre-of-suspense)

[erinelellu]

Theatre of Suspense - Year 3

My final year 3 portfolio was submitted last week.

Set in Waltham Forest, London, this project aims to respond to the cinematographic heritage of the borough through the study and interpretation of Hitchcock’s main techniques of suspense and tension.

The theatre of suspense, spatial experience of Hitchcock’s atmospheric anticipation, introduces a new way to appreciate the performance through architecture layout, natural shadows design and structural detailing.

Based on one main inspiration, Rear Window, the audience is physically separated from the stage creating a screen-like effect referring to cinema and introduced in an environment of apprehension and spatial suspension.

The audience’s experience is therefore based on claustrophobic atmospheres, tension, and uncertainty, creating a suspense journey throughout the performance act.

Thank you for this year :)

[erinelellu]

Theatre of Suspense - Portfolio - Phase 2

Here are the 5 main tasks I think are important for me to focus on:

1. Layering: Focusing on the walls construction: how do the structural system, the HVAC system and the insulation work together in an organic, technical yet elegant manner.

2. Fragment: Develop more detail around the design fragment. Spend more time on the seating area: resolve the hierarchy of suspending individual chairs and the feeling of claustrophobia around them.

3. Materiality: Research more around materials available on site and recycled parts to build an organic and technically believable enveloppe.

4. Environment: Focus on designing the active HVAC heating, cooling and ventilation system with heat pumps.

5. Structures: Develop the design structurally by looking at how the load from the suspended elements can be transferred to the roof and walls. Designing around the cables and how to restraint movement of the suspended elements.

[erinelellu]

Theatre of Suspense - Portfolio - Phase 1.

[erinelellu]

This fragment was designed in order to represent the narrative of the project and the 4 drivers around it. The suspended seats create an unsafe feeling of uncertainty, while providing dramatic shadows on the surrounding surfaces (SUSPICION). The claustrophobic space designed (VERTIGO) is held by the surrounding cables, creating an elegant and light structure of entrapment. The seats are facing the "screen" through which the stage performance can be fully appreciated, creating a sense of voyeurism (REAR WINDOW). Finally, the structural system of concrete and organic steel elements creates a background of suspense and relates to the context of the installation (THE BIRDS).

This fragment is here rendered at night time and at 5pm in the evening, identified as the most "suspensful" time of the day.

The next steps I would like to focus on is creating more details around the fragment, and focus on the layering of materials and structural techniques.

[erinelellu]

This week, I mainly focused on creating a little bit more detail around the buildings, and shaping what the spaces will look like.

Organised on 3 levels of suspense in response to the 3 levels of the surrounding site, the building is separated into 5 different tension areas: The HEART (red), the MIND (green), the EYE (blue), the BACK (black) and the SPINE (yellow).

The audience house and the actors stage are separated as two different spaces facing each other, although the actors' private spaces of relaxation are placed over the audience, to create a sense of claustrophobic experience around the theatre.