KEY:
- Mwalula; Library, Student Hub & Job Centre (Light Green) - Yusuff; Restaurant, Gallery & Shopping Centre (Yellow) - Me; Apartments, Sports & Fitness Centre (Blue) - Asiya; Leisure Centre & Office Building (Orange) - Mena; Adventure Park (Purple) - Existing Walkways (Light Blue) - Proposed Walkways (Pink) So as the Site was very big the main task was assigning different zones to each member of the group. From which we then decided on the functions which we would like to design our building around. We have created a basic master plan of the site showing the allocated spaces. We also looked at existing and proposed walkways which would help the connection between different buildings more easier and functional. The site is approximately 66,836m2 and has four street frontages: Lady’s Lane to the North, Wellington Street to the East, Abington Street to the South and Sheep Street to the West.
At present visitors have to park their cars either in the Grosvenor Centre Multi-storey carpark or the Mayorhold Multi-storey car park. Some of the buildings within the Town Centre are currently abandoned and these buildings don’t hold any historic value. It wasn't clear until I visited the site again how big the actual site is and how large this project actually is. After the site plan we then also decided to get into 4 different teams, so there are 5 people in the group including me, there is Mwalula, Yusuff, Asiya and Mena. Your research topics will become drivers for your final major project, following discussion, negotiation and approval from your tutor(s). These topics will also become one of the unique selling points of your design project, providing immediate engagement with your audience, whether it be at a graduate show, in a module presentation or simple talking amongst friends and colleagues. To assist, we consider unique technologies to include innovations in material, construction methods, smart technologies, management methods, environmental strategies, a new component, a new building type, or essentially anything in the realm of architectural technology that you can prove has been dramatically enhanced or is in development since 2000. The overall aim is to produce a document with 2000+ words.
The hypothetical scenario for your task suggests that the Grosvenor Shopping Centre has acquired the ownership of the plot of land shown in the following picture. This land stretches From Lady’s Lane to Abington Street and from Wellington Street to Sheep Street and Market Square and excludes the shops facing Abington Street, Market Square and Sheep Lane. This is a prime location of Northampton town centre and therefore, your design has the chance to redefine Northampton. This is an immense responsibility and needs considering what Northampton is and what it can become as a young, happy and prosperous town that is a place of opportunities for businesses, a perfect home to live in for its people and an unforgettable memory for its visitors. This ambition has complete support of local authorities and businesses, which means that (as long as you can convince them that your plans will work) you will have no restrictions in regards to necessary permissions or finances. How you would like to use this unique chance is up to you.
Your first task is to form groups of 3 to 5 students and among yourselves decide on the following: - The function(s) of the site; - Existing buildings to be kept and those to be demolished; - The functions of the building(s) to be designed (or redesigned) by each member of the group (at least, two distinctively different functions); - A conceptual master plan for the site; and - The zone allocated to each member of the group for their individual building(s). The site visit planned for next week (05/10/2015) will help you make better-informed decisions on the above. Each group is expected to present to the whole class the results of these decisions on the morning of Monday 12/10/2015 (as a poster, an on-screen presentation or a projected blog entry). Each student then has two weeks to come up with the conceptual design of their buildings. This entails a definition of the needs of the client and the wider community of users, a review of precedents and general ideas about the building and its: - Location; - Size; - Form; - Function; - Internal zones; - Adjacencies; - Access; - Views; and - Impact. These ideas will be presented as a pin-up to the whole class and a panel of internal and external experts on Monday 26/10/2015. Based on the feedback received from the panel, each student will develop their own completed brief. For this reason, every student will develop a provisional list of functional and operational targets for their building as well as a list of rooms and spaces needed for addressing these targets. Through consultation with the module lecturer, these lists are finalised and then developed to form part 3 of this brief (around a 1000 words plus diagrams and images). The completed brief will be submitted in both electronic format (on student’s blog) and in hard copy no later than 16/11/2015. So tomorrow is the first day of my final year, as excited as I am to finish the course it still feels like I only started the course yesterday. I think it's fair to say I'm very anxious about this year, as this is the year everything I do will have an effect on the final outcome. Also if that wasn't enough pressure, the course has dramatically changed and its great knowing that we are the freshest Architectural Technology course in CIAT's eyes. Personally I'm incredibly eager and highly motivated to make this year the best I can, so we best get cracking!
So to keep you guys in the loop I thought it would be a good opportunity to try and break down the different modules, which may help make it easier when I blog about this year. So we now have three main modules, here is a brief introduction to all of them: The “Project Management” module will help you in understanding the dynamics of running architectural technology projects at a variety of project and practice scales. This is something that your potential employers will welcome. It will also help you to achieve higher salaries sooner after graduation. Another aspect, which will make you very desirable to potential employers are your skills in developing engaging presentations, rigorous technical drawings, stunning models and substantive technical reports that justify the technical aspects of your building(s). The “Modelling, Visualisation and Simulation” module will be a great help for you to improve these skills with a greater emphasis on simulating the functions and the performance of the building (e.g. circulation, utilisation of the building, structural performance and environmental performance, energy performance, etc.) in support of your design through presentation options, such as animations, virtual reality modelling and/or augmented reality outputs. In parallel with “Project Management” and “Modelling, Visualisation and Simulation”, you will be working on your “Final Major Project”. This will consist of two main sections: a research element (with a cutting edge technological theme) and an in-depth architectural design project. This module is designed to hone and test your research skills by way of a substantive technical report and also a seminar-like presentation. Furthermore, with your design project you will get a chance to exhibit your skills as technical architectural designers through the ideation process, development drawings, technical drawings, illustrative / 3D modelled detailing, specification documentation, materials samples and presentations. I'll keep you guys updated :) So as we only planned to visit the Expo for two whilst on our stay in Milan, today we and a few of my friends decided to visit the Stadium of AC Milan and Inter Milan. As this is the first time I've had the opportunity to visit a football stadium I decided to go, also I believe AC Milan are an incredible team! We was lucky enough to go and have a tour of the Clubs museum and also a tour of the world famous San Siro stadium.
So these are other buildings we saw whilst at the Expo, well the main ones which I found fascinating.
If you would like to find more information please go to: http://www.expo2015.org/en/explore# Sudan seeks an active collaboration in addressing the main challenges with agricultural production and livestock farming as well as a dialogue on biodiversity and the themes of the Expo Milan 2015. The country wants to re-chart its path towards the use of new technological applications to ensure a healthy diet for all and to use resources in an environmentally sustainable way.
Sudan sees Expo Milano 2015 as a good opportunity for countries worldwide to reaffirm their need for human unity through mutual exchange of knowledge and information in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Sudan has a strong agricultural sector with over 70 percent of its workforce being employed in this sector which accounts for 40 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Among its many products are cereals (including sorghum, millet and wheat,), oil seeds (including sesame and sunflower), beans, pulses (including chickpeas and lentils) tubers (including potatoes), vegetables (including onion, tomato, water melon and egg plant) and fruits. It also grows cotton sisal hemp and fodder crops. |
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