First Collaboration

When our group first started designing the layout for the school, we tried to adhere to the handout that listed the square footage of program, and square footage of classrooms, support spaces, etc. Our concept for the layout was that the library would also serve as a central circulation space where the different grade levels would join together. However, the design for the school was restricted since we referred to the program list much more than we should have.

Heliostudies

After learning how to set parameters in Digital Project, we input the sun angles for different times of the day during the month of October, which was when we visited the site in Chicago.

We combined all of the shadows together into the site, so we could pinpoint the areas that are shaded throughout the day, as well as those that are relatively well lit.

This diagram shows the shadows on the site, for every school hour during the month of October. The northwest corner of the site would receive the least amount of light throughout the day.

Digital Project (Experiment 3)

The three images above shows the model in Digital Project, then exported to Rhino and rendered in Vray.

Digital Project (Experiment 2)

This surface is based on the unchanged parameters from the original plan sketch.


The surface variations (below) were achieved by adjusting the circle formulas and applying various height parameters for each cell division.

Digital Project (Experiment 1)

Removing the diagonal constraint made it possible to make significant adjustments to the parameters. Above are three plan variations.

The cellular division is organized by two sets of circles, in which the radii increases in sequential order. The angled horizontal rows are coincident to a diagonal constraint line that is tangent to the top right and bottom left circles.