Personal Reflection

I have included this because I wanted to be clear what I have learnt making this project. There are several things that I learnt.

For 1, sometimes we need to go for the ‘right’ idea rather then the idea we want. Personally I wanted the hat idea, but I encountered several problems like making the exterior, interior and floor plan. I really felt it was unique but after doing more research in themed restaurants, I realized it can’t survive in the long run.

That is why I opted to force fit my ideas together. It wasn’t so bad. It even had several pros since the new idea had several purposes, saving space.

For 2, I learnt that we need to have flow in our work. This is to allow the reader to better understand our work. It also makes checking work easier, since there is some sense of organization.

Also, the SketchUp was too much for our Macs. SketchUp is a 3D software, not 2D. Thus multiple lags and crashes would make us wait close to forever just to move a tiny little thing a tiny little bit. It hogs our CPU, RAM. When it crashes, we must restart out work, killing our mood entirely to do work.

Arwen Lucinda - Hakeem

(Project Name) Arwen Lucinda 


(Purpose of building) There are 2 purposes of the building. One is to allow customers to dine so its a restaurant. The other is to allow people to view the surrounding area from a higher vantage point. They can do both together, or separately (dine then view, view then dine, view or dine).


(Concept behind it) The concept behind this was the Donauturm (Danube Tower in Vienna). It is an observation tower cum restaurant with a bungee jumping platform used during certain times of they year. I used this design and suited it to Singapore's context because the only other building designed for observation is the Singapore flyer. Also, because it is an observation tower cum restaurant, it can save space and this is very useful because land in Singapore is very scarce. 

What Makes A Good Architectural Design?

To me, a good architectural design is a structure that has many uses at the same time appealing to the eye. It also has to be beneficial to the public.

Example. This picture of a staircase wrapped around like a Rubik's cube (don't ask me what it leads to. I don't know) is useful at the same time useful. Another example is the Integrated Resorts. It does look appealing yet at the same time it is very useful)

HDB Estates like the on the right (yes that's my house) are often dull in their design. But then again, its not suppose to. Just one giant box of bricks with lifts, houses and staircases. HDB Flats do come with amenities like a workout centre and a playground.

So HDB Estates are very useful. Then again. Since when isn't housing important? Unless people don't live in houses. But that's a different story. Anyway. They are useful, but not exactly appealing. The color scheme vary from block to block.

With that. I am done.


Pictures:

Rubik's Cube staircase: http://www.flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/3561451558/in/photostream/
IR: http://api.ning.com/files/sZ*d*E4thsSOdhA3jFde6itYBMRm65uFnAN2sdMVzq6VhDU5zQ07IjixQahoJ2lKS-RQZA0X-5yxlfDpHwRvGnJvph6vxJuE/Marina11.jpg
My Block: http://www.h88.com.sg/hdb/pasir_ris_street_21/images/pasir_ris_street_21_0250_00004.JPG

What is Architectural Design?

Wikipedia states that architecture is 'the art and science of designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures'. So architectural design means designing and erecting buildings and other physical structures. (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture)


Answers.com says architecture is 'buildings and other large structures', so architectural design is designing buildings and other large structures. (from http://www.answers.com/topic/architecture)


The MacBook dictionary's definition of architecture is 'building', which means that architectural design is designing buildings.


Also architectural design can be time, period, culture and location specific.