Console disassembly

Inspired by the assembly of the sports car, I decided to investigate the internals of a modern games console...

Assembly of building idea

Whilst looking for ways in building the structure of my building I came across this time lapse of constructing a supercar which could be a way to build up the structure.

Weather behaviour

I have been doing some research on the weather, vehicle and passer-by's behaviour around the site [Puma Court] which could be of potential use to the building [generate electricity using sun, wind, movement of pedestrians] and also aid in shaping the building.

 The drawing above shows the average wind path in the area from 2001 till 2011.

Creation of building 2

The render shows how the programme vessels sits on site whilst supported by stilts.

Creation of building

To come up with a design for the building, I have been looking at the different programmes my structure could accomodate and in knowing so, divide them into vessels. Below is an initial list I came up with:

Reception[could be the unused block_Tea Room]
Access to rooms
Study rooms x2
Lecture room
Computer/Test room
Toilets x2
Office
Storage/Misc
Kitchen/communal space
Waste disposal
Generator room

Having this list in mind I looked at the space available on site that could accomodate the programmes...

...and divided the spaces into blocks to give a pixel feel to the structure.

The material of the blocks could be, as an initial thought, made out of fibreglass as it can easily be moulded into shapes and dyed into a range of colours.

Next step is to see how the vessels could be supported. For that I have been looking at the Morphosis' Osaka Expo 90s Folly structure.

Source

Thames Airport

The Government is getting "increasingly interested" in the idea of a new airport in the Thames Estuary, London mayor Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Johnson already firmly backs a new "Boris Island" airport and architect Lord Foster has produced plans for a £50 billion airport on the Isle of Grain in Kent.

With a third runway ruled out at Heathrow, the Government is set to include the Thames Estuary option in a consultation on UK aviation this spring.

Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be growing keener on a Thames Estuary airport plan.

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Johnson said: "I think that where we are is that the Government is increasingly interested in this idea. I genuinely believe that they see not just the overwhelming aviation argument and the argument from international competitiveness in making sure that Britain has a hub airport that is viable for the long-term future."

But Mick Rix, the GMB union's civil aviation industry national officer, said a Thames Estuary plan was "plain daft" and called on all political parties to reopen the issue of Heathrow's third runway.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "No decisions have been taken. As the Chancellor made clear in his autumn statement, we will explore all the options for maintaining the UK's aviation hub status with the exception of a third runway at Heathrow.

"The Government will consult on a sustainable framework for UK aviation this spring, at which time we will set out our long-term plans for the sector."

Colin Matthews, chief executive of airport operator BAA, which runs Heathrow, told the Today programme: "An island airport is very long and very expensive. Even if it is agreed, it will be decades away. We need jobs and we need growth in this economy today."

Having scrapped Labour's plans for a third Heathrow runway, the coalition Government had, originally, ruled out expansion at any south east England airport. Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, however, indicated that only the Heathrow option was off the table.

source

Video Game test creation

Taking inspiration from my ITTA1 essay, I decided to take on board the essence of gaming into my project which will hopefully help with explaining my proposal and also aid in designing the proposal.

I designed the game to see how I could add interactivity into my design models and try to make an architectural model as immersive as possible with today's available technology, i.e, immersing the user using first/third person point of view while walking about in a virtual model using keyboard, mouse, etc... as controller.

The labyrinth game objective is simply to get out of the maze using the arrow keys.

Download:
To play the game, download the free software,
Blender, and
download one of the versions of the Labyrinth game:

1. For Mac click here or copy and paste this link onto your browser:

http://www.mediafire.com/?39f61legnlde374

Extract and double click blender icon to play.

2. For Windows click here or copy and paste this link onto your browser:

    http://www.mediafire.com/?8gsk5c4flzic6j9

    Extract and double click game.exe to play.


Play instructions:
Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move through the maze:

up: move forward
down: move backwards
right: pan view to the right
left: pan view to the left
spacebar: jump

Term 2_ After handins

I realise I haven't been uploading my blog for the past month. Reason being that the ITTA 1 essay took more time to complete than I expected.

I have been using my essay as a test to developing my portfolio. Below are some extracts of my essay: