Wasted pavilion - final stages

25.05.16

During week 11 I worked with a team on finalizing the 'Wasted' pavilion. The pavilion design really benefited from my material test with inner tubes during the week prior and we were able to incorporate them into the physical execution to enhance the overall stability of the structure. I really enjoyed having a physical model to work on as well as digital executions. By helping to build and then having the model in front of me it became a lot easier to envision how the pavilion would work both structurally and aesthetically on a full scale. Overall the designed is pretty well finalized and fits well into the brief and other pavilions that our studio has created. After speaking with Nick I plan to edit the written component of our submission so that it reflects a description of a finished product. The pavilion is really successful and after working on the Wasted brief in earlier stages I'm really happy with how the final result has come together.

Material Experiments

18.05.16

I sourced some materials to experiment with from Bicycle junction in Newtown. The guys in there were great and gave me several inner tubes and tires for free. I found an example of reusing inner tubes on instructables.com which inspired me to cut and weave them into a mat. link - http://www.instructables.com/id/Bike-Tire-Tube-Rug/step5/Weave/

I didn't choose to apply the material to any specific pavilion but in doing so had creative freedom to experiment with it how I wanted. I found the inner tubes to be a more versatile material than the tires themselves and hope that they can be incorporated into and benefit an existing pavilion design.

Materials

12.05.16

Today in studio we separated into 4 focus groups for the pavilions; Structure, Materials, Visualisation and Type.

I joined the Materials group and we discussed what we would look into before meeting up again prior to our next class. We brainstormed materials that could apply to specific pavilions as well as materials that hadn't come up in our processes that we were interested in exploring. I chose to look into reusing and repurposing tires and inner tubes. By discussing different ideas about materials without specifically focusing on a story or pavilion I found it easier to generate ideas about potential for experiments.

3D Model

21.04.16

I used Rhino 5 to mock up one of the ideas I've had around the 'Wasted' story. I tried explaining this idea but found it would be easier to show rather than tell. Rhino is a valuable resource to use when trying to visualise a 3 dimensional concept, being able to move around the design rather than seeing it as a flat image on the page helps to imagine how the structure might operate within a space.

The idea is to use a chain link fence to divide space, and then fill that fence with used coffee cups. The idea came to me when I realised that the majority of takeaway coffee cups are non recyclable. I thought about how this could tie into a recycling promotion with a specific cafeteria where they might discount your coffee if you were to bring your own cup. I also considered how typography might be incorporated into this concept where words, letters or numbers could be created with cups by using the grid system of the fence.

Research

18.04.16

I looked into creative ways that people have used recycled materials that could offer inspiration for a pavilion design and found some interesting examples online.

Plastic Bottle House - Link

This is an interesting example of how to get the most out of everyday materials that we think nothing of. It has also proposed a cheap housing alternative and offers a great incentive for people to recycle their plastic bottles.

University of Applied Sciences Beer Box Pavilion - Link

I took a lot of inspiration from this pavilion design, not only did it reflect aspects about life as a University student, it also promoted recycling to the student body and created a really interesting and refined structure. As well as the obvious use of beer boxes, the students also used screws, slats, bracing for the top and concrete filled boxes for the base to keep the structure in tact. Overall the design looks great and it shows creative use of recyclable material.

I Want to be Recycled - Link
I came across this website after seeing some of their advertisements and although the TV ads were really tacky, there was an interesting idea beneath them. I think showing what specific materials can become when recycled properly would be an effective way to promote recycling to audiences and educate them around the importance of recycling materials correctly.

Recycled Cafe - Link

The U-Cafe features chairs made from plastic bottles, walls constructed using cardboard boxes, and staff aprons made out of recycled plastic bags. It was designed to challenge the perception of waste and explore new ways of creating sustainable buildings. I really engaged with this idea, particularly the fact that it can be taken down and reassembled elsewhere. It also ties into the idea we had around the recycling of cafeteria waste.

Wasted - Pavilion brief

14.04.16

In studio we reflected on the different pavilions that were collected during the break. It was really interesting to see the range of structures that people had considered and gave me inspiration in regard to how much freedom we have with this brief. We then separated into groups specific to one of the 10 stories that are available for us to interpret. I chose the 'Wasted" story and in our group of 5 we brainstormed how we could go about creating a pavilion that would reflect the story and include elements of typography within it.

One of the suggestions that the group engaged with was the idea of a structure that is constantly changing, where recycled materials can be both added to and removed from the pavilion to encourage and promote recycling within the student body. We also discussed how letterforms might be incorporated into this design.

Another idea that I found particularly interesting was to do with the recycling of coffee materials - cups, bags, beans, grinds etc. This theme is really relevant to Wellington in particular and it sparked some interesting ideas around how a pavilion could be created from the recycling of these materials.

Cloud Pavilion

06.04.16

This pavilion was commissioned by the Serpentine gallery and built on location in London's Kensington Gardens. It was designed by Tokyo architect, Sou Fujimoto in 2013.

The pavilion aims to find a balance between nature and artificial things. The grid itself is rigid, straight and artificial but with a large amount of these grids together, the structure becomes more organic. It resembles the ground emerging and creates a transparent landscape but at the same time looks like a soft, floating cloud.

The design was intended to remain as transparent as possible so polycarbonate, round shaped discs were tiled together in order to block rain without using a roof. This helps to protect visitors from the elements while allowing them to remain part of the landscape. The discs also move and swing in the wind, giving a softer atmosphere to the structure.