Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Random Inspiration...

This morning I was staning next to our color copier making copies for work when I picked up an old architectural record magazine from 2005 that was laying in a stack.  The cover had Eisenmen's Holocaust Memorial and this project has always interested me so I started to thumb through as the copies came out.  In doing so, I stumbled upon this project below, the Yad Vashem history museum in Jerusalem by Moshe Safdie.  I love the manner in whic hthe building has been incorporated into the landscape and how a series of courtyards, tunnels and bridges connect the pedestrian through the site.  The ability to sink the building into the hill allows the interior spaces to remain dim, yet brilliant slivers of light are allowed in a key points throughtout.
For me, what is most usuful is the manner in which the building seems to grow from the ground.  This is something that i am attempting as I go forward.  Here, the large precast forms seem to simultaneously unnaturally cut the earth while growing from it.


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sketching Ideas

 I've been getting more refined with some of my design lately; working out how the path(s) and "hub" area interact and physically look.  Part of my process involves loosly sketching  my ideas or concepts and then refining them further.  That is how I have refined some of the designs thus far.  I traveled last weekend and spent a good amount of time in the airport people watching and sketching ideas about the pedestrian path and hub design.  These sketches will influence the more developed designs coming later this week / weekend.

With these sketches I am looking at the massing at the hub area area as well as how the pedestrian paths will intersect and and help form the space.  The highway expereince must remain and integral part of the design.  I would like those driving by in their cars on the highway to have a visually stimulating experience, not just those on the path.


I've continued to explore how the path gets defined and what physical forms will define the space.  I want the
forms to be very organic and to grow from the ground, eventualy enveloping the path at important areas of human interaction or intersection.  Ideally, these forms will grow from the ground, starting at human scale and
become the structure and larger gestures that define the built elements.


when I first started sketching this, i thought it was a gateway or entry...but the more i look at it, it appears
like a light fixture.  I am interested in how the different elements within the site can draw from one another and share some similarities in form.  Designing light fixtures, handrails, benches etc. can created a more unified expereince for the user.


continuing to explore path possibilities and the carving up / down of landscape and sky.