Inconveniently, the landscape architecture department decided to have a week long design charette after only one week of being back in session for the semester. This threw a huge wrench into every senior's capstone routine which was just beginning to be established. We are all quite frustrated at this point. I will refrain from expounding any more on the charette, called "Design Week", so that you all may be spared from my overwhelming positivity (yeah right).
 |
| The site for Design Week is on St. Croix in the Caribbean. We are creating conceptual plans for an Eco-Resort... (Don't be deceived by the beauty. The island's extreme topography makes for quite the headache.) |
Anyway, back to capstone...
After a brief trip back to Memphis to gather more base information, I should have everything I need to complete my inventory and analysis. Although this is not the most exciting part of the project, it is one of the most critical. Inventory is basically the process of gathering information about what is currently on the site. This includes vegetation, slope percentages, hydrology, architecture, surrounding land uses, and utilities among other things. This information is illustrated through a series of plans that show the various conditions. After I have a good grasp of what is existing, I need to determine what that means for my design. This is the analysis stage. For example, if the inventory shows that there are several large trees on my site, the analysis will probably state that these need to be protected. Or if inventory shows that I have extreme slopes on a portion of the site, the analysis might say that development should be limited in this area. As I finish with some of these graphics, I will post them so you can begin to understand what I am talking about.
Right now I am working on getting all my base information organized and beginning to decide how I want to illustrate what is already on site. This began with an AutoCAD survey provided by Looney Ricks Kiss (LRK), an architecture and planning firm with an office in Memphis. This provided most of the information needed on my immediate site.
 |
| Screenshot of AutoCAD survey |
For information about the surrounding context, I am using the Shelby County GIS (geographic information system) Viewer. This helped me determine surrounding land uses, parcels, zoning, etc.. So far, most of my time has been spent merging all of this information into one CAD file that will be used as the base plan for my site. It now looks like this:
 |
| New CAD file with context information, aerial image, roads, streams, and site survey |
With a file like this, I can turn different layers on and off in order to isolate the information that I want to illustrate. For instance, I can hide everything but the building outlines and turn these into a figure/ground map that illustrates density and development patterns.
 |
| Figure/Ground map (Overton Square site is shown in purple) |
The 2 weeks will be spent creating maps like these, researching precedents of good urban infill and mixed-use projects, and deciding what I want to place on my site. I will keep everyone as up-to-date as possible and post images of what I am working on as I go. I hope that I am being clear in my descriptions of the process and not using too much LA jargon.
Time to get back to work...
 |
| Map beginning to show circulation routes and patterns (in progress) |
 |
| Locator maps help clarify where the site is for those who are unfamiliar with the area. |
No comments:
Post a Comment