"you can change it if you want..."

I have not written a journal for quite a long time. Something personal, something I experienced in my days of life as a first year Architectural student. Here it goes.

On 5th of March, there held an interim review on the Research Retreat, 2 weeks into the project. This project, based on a site in Hospitalfeld is to design a place for artists internationally to retreat and have personal space for work, to create new pieces in confinement. The requirement for the project proposal is to have six personal homes/studios, a communal place for the inhabitants including a public kitchen and a gallery.

The basic concept of my design is to have something simple yet intriguing which is to contrast with the microcosmos nature of the site that are covered with trees and flowers, features that are deep in complexity, something that is brought up during the previous Mediator project. The design of the structure started as doodles in the sketchbook, simple slanted structure which could allocate all different functions inside one structure. Upon trying it out on the Google SketchUp, the design of the house seemed too two-dimensional, too flat and plain. Hence, I played with the shape of the structure which brought to the now design shape of the project, an approach I most keen on.

My approach for the project is understandable as completely different, which is creating three towers that could allocate all six homes/studios with different structure for the gallery and communal place.

Having said that, during the review, problems regarding the idea is compiled - the positions of the towers which could benefit the northern light, the orientation of structure functionality, the difference and advantages of the upper and lower homes inside the tower, and basically the whole design itself. One said that the shape of the tower is pointless at which he exclaimed, "This is your design, you can change it if you want." Subtle.

But one did encourage the whole conceptuality of the design and to pursue it. Backing up the design, he required for solid solutions regarding the problems of the tower which to an extend of requiring to have not one, but a few 1:50 scaled models of the tower which are all due this week.

Personally, I do believe in this design and hope to be able to have it as the final product. I am getting into the project that I find myself excited in my own design and feeling rather proud not to change the whole basic idea which alas, seem quite self-indulged?