School of Architecture

Project Overview:
Students are assigned to use 30 points and at least 5 splines to create a figure-ground construct. The project is divide into 3 elements: site, plinth, tower. The figure-ground will be used as the basis of design for the plinth and the design of the tower will also derive from the same figure-ground study.

Concept and Design Intention:
This over-arching concept of this project is SPATIAL COMPRESSION and EXPANSION. As the name implies, users are constantly being traveling through small spaces and leading to large/grand spaces. For example, in the plinth, rather than applying this concept with many little moves, I decided to convey this language through one large move, which is a compression tunnel that is excavated from the plinth and tower. Assuming users enter the plinth from the southwest entrance, users are able to directly access the art district of Downtown Pomona via this tunnel. In the plan drawings, at each entrances, users will always have to travel through a slight corridor before reaching the door (compression). Beyond the door will eventually lead them into grand spaces/program such as lobby, gallery, common/rest area. In many ways, the concept of compression and expansion is utilized in this design to control how people circulate and flow throughout the building.
In section, the thickness of the floor plates in certain areas are tweaked, so the corridor spaces will have a drop ceiling, to further accentuate the experience of compression. Through the façade orientation, natural lighting is penetrating through the tiny spaces creates, in this case, light is being compressed. The allocation of the dropped ceiling is only applied when a pathway is leading to a double-heighted space, thus users are constantly experiencing compression before experiencing the grand/double-height spaces.
The façade geometries is derived from my figure ground drawings after various iterations. The system that was used mainly in plans and partially in section is this filleted rectangle. When a linear line is lined up parallel to an organic curve, compression occurs as a portion of the organic curve is closer to the linear line than the rest. The façade mainly uses this filleted rectangle, repeating this shape across the sides of the tower while tweaking with the scale, orientation, etc. In this case, when these geometries are “compressed“ with each other, boolean operation such as union and subtractions are operated to create variety. From there, the remaining compound geometries are either offset inward or outward to create balcony spaces or spaces for daylighting penetration which feeds into the sectional quality of the overall design.
The façade design also incorporates a sustainability aspects where the façade utilizes a material called Rodeca Translucent Polycarbonate Sheets. Similar to the façade of the Nelson-Aktin Museum, the whole façade of the design is opaque, which allows maximum amount of daylight penetration while reducing direct sunlight through its diffusion of light from its translucency. Moments in which the building receive direct lighting are through the gaps created by the offsetting of geometries. Through those moments, users can interact with the urbans of Downtown Pomona while taking a break from their architectural assignments.