[Southeast Perspective]
Our second assignment had us working with Google Sketchup to add a centerpiece to our courtyard in the middle of our imaginary museum. We were to use a concrete base, and a wooden sunscreen in order to create a structure with some interesting shadows, and to provide our visitors with a break from the art in the surrounding buildings.
[plan view]
I started this assignment with no real ideas or framework in my head and just played with some rectangles and kept adding and subtracting from the piece. I felt a little lost, but it was a fun way to learn some of the basic tools of the program without having any real expectations of the final result. It was a very different way for me to work, as i usually start with some images in my imagination, a theme that I want to explore, or maybe some sketches in my notebook.
[interior view]
I mostly worked to create repeating patterns and holes that would lead to some interesting shadows, as well as extruded surfaces for those shadows to fall upon. Lastly, I wanted to work on different levels to offer seating to the visitors.
[view from bench]
Posts
Julian,
ReplyDeleteYou created a strong sculpture for assignment 2. Your use of the solid wall with regular slots provides a datum of quiet lines to play across your more organic concrete base. The concrete work shows off the push-pull command of Sketchup while providing human scaled features. The pool and climbing blocks make an appealing play area.
Your choice of views tells the story well, beginning with a dramatic overview with welcoming stairs, complemented by an analytic plan and an eye-level perspective. The child's silhouette goes a long way to humanize the perspective. All the images feature shadows as part of the composition and demonstrate a use of textures well.
I find the purple and red colors a little out of sync with the subtle gray concrete and muted woodgrain. I could imagine either Corbu's bold painted colors against concrete or a Louis Kahn palette of quiet wood, concete and travertine. I prefer to see earthy colors or primaries brights; the mixture requires care. But maybe my monitor displays differently from yours.
I like the diagonal view of the closeup a lot. Because we can see the back of the small wooden wall, it raises questions about the construction of these pieces. The white framed slots would work fine to emphasize light coming through but either we need to see studs or it is a boxy construction with staggered horizontal strips as sheathing.
Nicely considered work. - Nancy
Yo, Nick...so I've just figured out how to find the assigned lists of who we're supposed to comment to. Looks like we're on the list for this week. I'm throwing this out there partially as practice, but also because the climbing structure looks like you're catching onto this Sketch-Up stuff...unlike my copy/paste/rotate/copy initial composition. Anyway, it seems like if we just mess around with the program, that it is fairly easy to pick up with practice. Anyway, good job. I'll throw something up here for assignment three when I see it up. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
ReplyDelete-Michael L.
Nick, I really like the combination of materials for your structure but I wonder about some the interactive qualities of it. I wonder about using the surface of that wall to break up and interact with the concrete plinth more. It has a very simple and lovely idea in it but I believe that play is about a range of ideas and so when designing for play and interaction we must look at more free and whimsical moments. As people we love to attach our imaginations to the least cohesive component of things are looking to 'play' with because they afford the most possibility for the imagination to flourish.
ReplyDelete