The following assignment begins to interrogate ideas of pavilion design through the use of a spatial diagram that suggests a pavilion can act as a filter between private and public spaces. The design is meant to explore the idea of elevation and how it correlates to the creation of individual implied spaces and how the ambiguity of these spaces can be used to create a variety of interconnected program arrangements. 

The third assignment assigned during the MODP series of planned assignments had a variety of specifications that was unlike the previously assigned two projects. For one, the design correlated very clearly to the design of an inhabitable building that would exist in some hypothetical space. 

This next assignment asked students to consider some of the previous models they had considered and take inspiration from its division of spaces to create a new pavilion. This pavilion was to be designed within a space of 48 feet by 48 feet. From the models, students were asked to produce a series of sketch models and another set of diagrams to better understand how each space fit together within their models. It also became important for the students to plan for the inhabitation of this space as both a pavilion for 100 people for a single day and as an artist residence for a singular artist for the length of 100 days. This set of constraints allowed students to reflect on their previous models that were devoid of any real-world possibilities in construction. In this new light, it allowed for reflection by students and an attempt by the same students to bring a freely constructed model of a spatial concept into the physical world. 

To begin this set of assignments, I began with a series of illustrations meant to map out various spaces in some of my previous models. Specifically through previous models from another project, I was able to create a sort of organizing logic for the house. In each of these spaces, There was often a larger space more accessible toward the bottom of the floor followed by a tiered organization of sequentially smaller floors. However, between the eventual smaller floor, there was always a transitionary space between which the private and public spaces existed. I started to become fascinated with this transitionary, semi-public/semi-private space. Since the prompt suggests that there is an artist in residence and there would be close to 100 people gathering at the pavilion for the duration of the day, I imagined that the semi-private areas could become galleries with limited accessibility. I could create these more private pockets of space to surround the residence of the artist, the logic behind this being that the artist should not be entirely isolated from the rest of the community that inhabits the pavilion on a daily basis. Instead, the artist should have oporuntiy to interact with those that chose to view their work, but should also have the opportunity to have reprieve to focus on their work. Through overlaying various configurations of this spatial ideology, to think of the space as a filter between the private and public, onto a grid, I was able to produce a regulating lines diagram from which I later extrapolated a final variation of the spaces. 

After finishing the regulating line diagram, I set to work on a series of four bristol models. These models were based very heavily on the tube like shape of “modularity.” I began to expirement with how creating offshoots or changes in elevation within a tube could create a variety of interesting and inhabitable spaces. Through these models, I completed a series of sketches and eventually completed my final project in cardboard. 

The final project is named “Hamerhead House.” It uses the organizing logic of using a space to act as a filter between the public and private. After a series of steps engraved into the landscape, one can enter the pavilion that extends the full 48 feet of the provided land. Above the entrances from either side are small shade canopies that allow one to enter the structure. Toward one end of the structure are facilities and stairs while on the other end is a house like shape encased with multiple pockets of space for gallery exhibition and general exploration. On the floor above is an angeled canopy that allows visitors to explore the general landscape surrounding the pavilion. Further into the pavilion space on the second floor is the final room which the artist would inhabit. The general shape of the pavilion employs the shape of “modularity” in a somewhat stretched fashion. The ends of the platform are designed to incorporate angeled roofs. The shape of these roofs are not particularly bold. Instead, they have rather subtle inclines. The general shapes that define the pavilion are rather simple and allow for an interesting design.

The first floor of the pavilion is surrounded by a large amount of space on either side. Since there is a large space that opens up to either side of the pavilion for most of the first floor, I imagine this space possibly functioning as a stage of sorts, much like an outdoor amphitheater. Tiered landscape could allow for a variety of seating options for the general public. This division of the landscape also creates different pockets of space for inhabitants of the space to move around in. Inside the first floor, there are multiple gallery viewing facilities and multiple restrooms for inhabitants to use. The second floor is much more of an open space, but on ethat is more private. There could be some space to exhibit artwork but it mainly functions as an area to gather in small numbers outside the artist’s studio. The studio itself has an angeled roof and a window facing out onto the rest of the surrounding landscape. The window also allows for the architect to stay in separation from but remain somewhat connected to the general public. The second floor should remain generally empty and provides some level of isolation for the artist. Still, the artist has the opportunity to interact with the public by simply leaving their residence and entering the pavilion. This balancing of the semi-private space on the ends of the first floor and a majority of the second floor versus the public space that essentially stretches the extent of the first floor and its surrounding landscape becomes the filtering function of the pavilion. The pavilion is more of something to gather around and move to rather than inhabit for the general public while the purpose of the pavilion for the artist functions as a private space.

Through the use of section and plan drawings, I was able to produce a tour drawing to showcase movement throughout the pavilion along the first floor. I also mapped out movement on the second floor and provided information about the tiered landscape. The project helped me to better understand ideas of spatial organization and I became very aware of how my design decisions could alter the experience for any prospective inhabitatnt of this space. It became a learning experience for how to plan and iterate before providing a final model for an architecture based project. 

Moving forward, the next week’s assignments asked us to consider materials such that scale models could begin to gain an even greater sense of real world based context.

Following in the footsteps of a material based exploration, the final iteration of the pavilion was meant to push the project even further than its initial development in cardboard. For this second iteration of the pavilion, it became apparent that I needed to consider more specifically what would become the private and public spaces and how perhaps separating these spaces could provide an interesting opportunity for crafting a transitionary space. I began by separating the two units of the pavilion and removing the second floor. Instead, a staircase from site led into the small area for the artist’s residence. Through discussions with the studio group and with my professor, I began to conceive a space were segmented pieces of my previously unified space were connected through tectonic language that existed as a commonality between the two major structures. 

As the pavilion existed, there were two shaded structures. One was wider with a combined mezzanine space overlooking a lower first floor. The second space was more ambiguous, and was part of what became one of the largest changes between the first iteration of pavilions and the second and subsequent evolution. Instead of a second level, my professor and I discuss the possibility of inhabitable stairs. Instead of a space that was initially functioning as a way to ascend to an upper cramped level, the stairs allowed for a respite from the otherwise shadeless pavilion. It became interesting to try and bridge together two forms that were initially connected. The connection became one of the most crucial aspects of the pavilions design since they otherwise existed as modular forms that could be replaced. Individually, they could exist without each other, so why were they presented in conjunction. The initial pavilion was meant to act as a filter. Natural land divisions were meant to create larger public spaces of gathering while the shaded structures toward the center of the site create a series of smaller more private spaces that eventually led to the final private space nested above the other parts of site. This guiding logic of spaces evolved into more rigid divisions fo space with one large public space and one large private space. The relationship between the transitioning and private spaces for public members to gather became more complex.

These private space evolved into gallery spaces with projectors and the inhabitable stairs of the public space became their own domain. As a means of connecting both of these separated spaces, I researched multiple projects that used concrete in sculptural terms. Many used lattice wooden fences to separate and mark out certain areas of interest . I found this kind of language interesting and decided to try and incorporate it as a means of creating areas of further privacy and bridging the two seemingly disconnected concrete forms. I also replaced the covered roofs of the structure with a mesh work that was mainly concerned with improving lighting conditions; allowing for a semi-open structure that provided some level of shade and shelter from external weather conditions. The roof structure and concrete forms were built into the landscape and could function as two thematically connected buildings. Yet I added the fences as another level of connection in the hopes that the model would convey a sense unity in the overall design of the entire pavilion.

I also produced a series of drawings including multiple sections, and plans. I also created a few axonometric views of the pavilion through the use of a rhino model. These drawings were supported by the visual aid of a tour gif crafted through the model and two small collages that imagined how people would inhabit the space. Through the use of drawings and collages, I hope to convey a better sense of how the pavilion would function in reality.

Through the critique, I received feedback on my chosen decisions and how fffective they proved in translating my vision of the pavilion as a sort of filter. It seemed as though the decision to make the pavilion into two separated halves functioning by themselves resulted in a disconnection between the two parts of the pavilion. This lack of connection was acknowledged alongside suggestions tha the model might be placed within a more abstract light. The model became too real for many of the critics, as the model was meant to present a conceptual division of space for the purposes of a pavilion. Although it had material considerations, it may have been more important to consider how these materials inform the general form of the structure. By using the materials in a normative way, i was restricting the sculptural form of the building; perhaps there was room to adapt the design into something more free, less restrained, and more conceptual.

This project helped me to understand various elements fo design in considering how to create a multifunctioning space. I produced many models and became more comfortable with model making materials and software. I learned to begin thinking of how communicating the intent of the model can be achieved through the use of orthographic drawings, and more specifically, what kinds of techniques one would need to use to communicate their intentions (placement of scale figures within the model, poche filling as a representation of the coveted form, and thinking in terms of plan and section). The final project of this Making of Design Principles series was also a project constructed from a similar pretense and so this project became a great learning experience from which I was able to become informed and more aware of the general practices for pavilion design.