Friday, April 25, 2014

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

Literal

(a) “I, Cheyenne Capener, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”

(b.) Source 23: Wasowski. building inside nature's envelope. Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000. Print.

(c.) Posted it! Refer to blog its there!

(d.) Summary of Independent Component:

Design and Construction Committee for Pomona Valley Habitat for Humanity:

(Minutes Form indication of which members attended which meetings.)
  • What I completed in the Design and Construction Committee was providing the committee with current information on up coming or current Habitat events. In addition I as well helped compile information for the Design and Construction Committee by note taking and presenting my found information. In the committee we have discussed the current events in fundraising and stage of each Habitat build. In addition to current Habitat builds, the committee has also discussed the design problems on upcoming builds. For the La Verne Habitat build, since it is building assembled in Fairplex, the issue that arises is transportation the build to its site. Although the La Verne build will be internally braced, there are concerns with maintain the structural form during transporting. Another interesting task the committee does is present solution based approaches for design problems. One of the present issues is the location of the La Verne site, which is located near railroad and two main streets: Arrow Hwy, and Wheeler. In turn the committee came up with some ideas to solve the on site noise by adding more foliage and establish exterior solid walls in order to absorb some traffic noise pollution.
(All committee members who attended the 4/09/2014 meeting)

Pasadena ACE Mentorship Program:
  • For my mentorship hours at ACE mentorship we have been currently working on a end of the year ACE competition design. Since we are the Pasadena Team our group was assigned to design a movie theater. Over spring break I worked on the design theater at my mentor's work: Architecture for Education. In my time there I was able to tie the project design to relate to my senior topic and my answer 3. Mainly I focused on the influence of green design and materials; in order to establish a healthier living standard for the users and the natural environment. In addition I had also worked on the rough draft and finalized floor plan layouts of both the second and first floor. In these floor plan layouts I had to color-code each material into its own set color. Since the finalized layout will be displayed at the ACE end of the year design competition. Additionally, I also worked on the large theater layout; making sure to meet all requirements for building codes as well as the set ACE standards for seating. Lastly I also had to create the floor plan layout of each theater bathroom, and how each bathroom's faucet systems should be mirror images of each other; in order to create more unnecessary construction cost expenses to run two different pipe lines instead of a unified or shared pipe line.
Interpretive
  • What I am working on in my Independent Component 2 from ACE mentorship demonstrates 30 hours of work, due to the fact that the project we are currently working on is a finished product of what we have learned over this year. To explain this more in depth what we learned in scale, elevations, practical use of the design, and green design codes, we have all applied what we know to our current design by thinking through the design in a practical manner. Through my extra time working with my mentors at Architecture for Education I was able to learn and research more in depth for green materials. In other words my mentor has shown me the value of looking at green materials and looking at the external components that establish what a green build is as well as quality and resourceful green materials that benefit the users and the local environment. In order to incorporate or tie in my senior project to the annual design project, I had to do external research about green design, green materials, and which vegetation is native to Southern California climate.
(This is the finalized floor plan layout, which is color-coded to identify which materials are being used.)
 
(These are just some of the building codes that I had to follow, under my mentor's help for the layout.)
 
(Above is the second floor plan layout where the projector rooms are located, all staff rooms, and the film room; this layout was also color-coded to identify which materials are being used in this building layout.)
Websites that I used for selection of green materials
These websites are used by my mentors for networking, and see which local businesses are in the area for certain types of material anywhere from refurbished, CAD, or green materials, etc.
 
Since our external theater design is main a majority of brick, I sought to find a company that supplies reclaimed brick in our local area. In my research I had found one located in the city of Riverside.



Applied

Independent Component 2 helped answer my EQ as to finalize what my best answer is. Furthermore it allowed me to view different perspectives of my answers. For example in green design, you as the architect can approach different methods of green design, yet is it truly green. With the idea of green materials, your job as the architect is to look for the underlining effects of this green product. In other words is this product truly green, where is it coming from, what energy is the company using manufacturing this item, etc. In some cases of green design, are not worth all the technological advancements which claim they are green but in actually are not serving the purpose of benefiting the natural environment. For my second answer biomimicry, I found that there is a lack of research in the field and according to Tuhus-Dubrow, Rebecca a contributing writer of Boston Global there is a lack of research and understanding in the field of biomimetic architecture. This reason being that much of biomimetic architecture is not always an efficient and cost-efficient design solution in order to preserve and learn from nature. In the end my best answer has to be my first answer: preserving the pre-existing site. Since it directly incorporates nature while considering cost-efficient design methods for the owners or user of the building design. For example a study done by Applied Ecological Services, Inc. composed the cost-efficiency of maintaining over a period of ten years of native verses non-native vegetation. The total annual maintenance costs per acre of foliage were ranging from $1,120 dollars in non-native turf grasses to native prairie or wetland grass only costing $168 dollars of upkeep.

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