Initial Ideas,02.02.2018

While I had my hands full this week with completion of my portfolio sheets in preparation for my BA interviews, I tried to dedicate some time towards what themes I could potentially work on for my Unit 7 project.

To be honest I was extremely excited to finally be working on a brief which I could pick on my own and design according to my interest and capabilities. For our previous projects prior to unit 7, the basic outline and brief for the  projects was given to us by our tutors, and we were made to work around them designing our propositions in a way that they fit within the criteria of the brief. But for this last project of our foundation course, we were given the freedom to decide our own content and direction for the project. I think the fact that we were to take responsibility for our own learning by proposing and realising a project which integrated planning, research, ideas, methods, evaluation, reflection made the project fro me personally even more appealing.

While I knew I needed to start by exploring several possible project themes and ultimately  narrowing it down to one theme, I found it hard and slightly ridiculous that I couldn't think of a single theme to work on without me disregarding the idea on grounds of it being 'too vague' or 'too cliched'. I knew needed to start somewhere to stimulate my thinking process.

I decided that the most simple way to breakdown this nerve racking exercise would be to simplify the way I was approaching the project. The first thing that came to my mind when i thought of simplification of my approach an exercise we we were made to do in a  previous project (urban beach to help us generate ideas involving free writing.

Free writing is a prewriting technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism. Some writers often use the technique to collect initial thoughts and ideas on a topic, often as a preliminary to formal writing.

So in a similar way, I used a blank paper in the same chronological way that you would if you were writing the story or essay itself and began to and pour as many ideas related to architecture and my interest sin general for a given period of time. While it was hard to prevent myself from stopping and considering what i was actually writing I tried my best to see where the activity would take me and so i allowed my mind to go where it wanted to, from one idea to another, while i recorded my thoughts.

What I realised at the end of the exercise was that i had come up with a rather disorganised combination of disjointed words and thoughts but when i started to shortlist words from within the passage, I realised that a lot of them were connected and held clues related to the topics and ideas which reflected my interests in the subject.

I used these words as a starting point and went on to ask myself as a series of questions and noting down my most honest responses to this interrogation with myself. Some of the questions were as follows :

• Which architects or designers am I interested in and/or admire? 
•  Which designers do you know within my discipline? What themes do they commonly use?
•  What inspires me? What do i find interesting or thought provoking.
• What do i not like about my discipline? what doesn't make sense to me?
• What do i do with my free time? What do you like to observe?

I used the answers I obtained from these questions to get a clearer understanding of where my interests lie and spent the rest of my free time thinking about potential themes as i worked on my portfolio sheets. While i didn't have a set of themes i could possibly work with i did have clarity as regards certain areas within my discipline and the world in general which i wished to explore further.

Theme Development,03.02.2018

After my BA Central Saint Martins interview this morning, I decided to spent the remaining half of the day reworking themes and ideas for my unit 7 project proposal. While I was confident that the questions I had answered yesterday gave me a slightly clearer understanding of where my interests lie and what I could possibly work around, I knew there were still a lot of considerations to be made when coming up with a probable themes to explore. I deiced to look back at the 'Post It' workshop we had done on the day we were introduced to our unit 7 project brief and perhaps relate them to my areas of interest.

During the 'Post It' workshop which took place after initial introduction regarding what our unit 7 project entailed and what was expected of us, we were made to participate in a quick exercise to generate possible theme ideas. There were certain topic we were to focus our 'Post It' ideas around which included - culture,  experiences, science/innovation, concerns, society/ audiences, methods/ approaches & your obsessions. We were to relate our 'Post its' to these topics and use these as starting points to start thinking about our own ideas. 

While walking around the room post the exercise, I realised that the post its held a lot of significance and the ideas we students had come up with were unique and could potentially be used to work out a theme. Some of the themes the post it exercise got me thinking about were:

• economic disparity, for richer for poorer - qualitative factors, including architectural ones, that appeal to a sense of “home,” or of social status. The idea that architecture plays into every calculation, of usable and rentable, or saleable space and how architecture fosters economic disparities- mansions, favelas, slums, apartment.
• architecture and light exploration - the emphasis spatial design gives to light exploration is also something I find particularly fascinating. In Gordon Clark's work 'Splitting,' the architect takes a chainsaw to a house literally splitting it in two. A strip of sunlight runs through the center, symbolising the rupture of domestic space and breakdown of family structure. Gordon and his controversial building cuts have inspired a number of my designs where I tried to experiment with the use of light scoops and shadow creation and perhaps fro unit 7 I could explore this theme further.
• Architecture and mood - The mood swings post it in the post it exercise made me consider the relationship between architecture and peoples moods. The power of simple spatial manipulations and their subtle effects on human moods. I realised that the places we move through in our everyday lives have interesting correlations with overall wellbeing and I wish to explore this further. 
• Architecture and contamination- I began to think of the creation of spaces for individuals with specific diseases or people shunned from society such as lepers. Leprocy is a contagious disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing discolouration and lumps on the skin and, in severe cases, disfigurement and deformities. Leprosy is now mainly confined to tropical Africa and Asia. Lepers need to be separately provided for which made me consider how designing homes for such people would work? 
• Designs for geriatric population-  post it notes on society made me consider the design of homes for different age groups particularly the ageing population. I looked into the user groups and what special provisions need to be made as regards the lighting so that they don't fall, shower facilities, lower sinks, safety facilities. The exploration of designs to aid the mobility of the users.
• Architecture and negative spaces - I found negative spaces to be incredibly interesting as it changes based on perspective and is not necessarily fixed. Negative spaces are abstract, and cannot be described. A negative space can also be defined as a void; a completely empty space. An interesting void is that of the ‘urban void’ that occupies the city. I think the creation of a negative space could be an interesting topic to work around.

Theme development and Context workshop,05.02.2018

While I was happy that I had come up with a series of themes I could potentially work with for my project I didn't know whether I found them interesting enough or whether the central ideas within the theme worked well and were strong enough to keep me occupied for the next few months. I knew that the only way my project could reflect my best work was if I picked a theme which was of my personal interest and which reflected my design ideas as an artist and to do that I knew my theme needed to be chosen in a way that it represented something of my interest.

I had two basic ideas for themes which i thought fit well with what i wished to explore and i came to class today prepared to move forward with these propositions. Before going to class I knew we were going to be doing a context workshop exercise but I didn't know what exactly was expected form us and how we would proceed. 

I think the context workshop was really helpful in the sense that it forced me to think of my potential proposals and themes through different perspectives and from a variety of contextual viewpoints, something I realised I wasn't even considering when I began working up themes.  I found it to be the simplest and most convenient way to break down components of a project and consider all the details and elements that one must recognise when designing a brief. What I realised there is so much involved in each theme and that you have to continuously think about that process at the first stage even when just choosing a theme or idea to study and most importantly that there is so much that will change over the course of time.

One of the themes i was  on working on was as follows and a brief description of what i planned on looking into within the theme is as follows: A TED talk, 'Architecture that’s built to heal' by Michael Murphy inspired my interest in spaces and the influence they exert on us. His projects, steered by the thought 'If hospitals are making people sick, why can't architects build hospitals that make patients heal' made me question the power of simple spatial manipulations and their subtle effects on human health. I realized that the places we move through in our everyday lives have interesting correlations with overall wellbeing and I wish to explore this further.

To truly better human well-being, building design needs to shift focus from optimising single parameters such as temperature and humidity, and instead explore more holistic approaches that take their cues in health-supporting human behaviours.

The design of our built environment affects our wellbeing, our health and overall quality of live. The disappearance of physical activity from people’s lives is another complex, entrenched problem. Overweight and obesity rates have grown dramatically in recent decades and continue to do so affecting all age groups. Can architecture promote active living? Can it help us live healthier lives? Can architecture aid the public health sector? My project will focus on architecture and whether it can force people into living better and healthier lives. It will explore ideas revolving around ‘choice architecture’ whether people can be nudged into making better decisions in largely automatic, and non-coercive. The role that architecture can play seems evident: Designed interventions can make better choices easier or constrain behaviours by making certain actions more difficult and hence avoided. While emphasis has been on given to ill health as a result of the effects of environmental characteristics such as overcrowding, noise, air quality and light, the relationship architectural spaces have to bettering health hasn’t been given much importance. Whether people are healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment and this is what my project aims to prove. Can we through design encourage a healthier lifestyle amongst society? Moreover, can we make spaces which encourage healthier and more active living communities by providing spaces and events where healing can take place faster. 

• Did the workshop help? What did it make me realise and what was my outcome? The workshop however allowed me to check that whether my chosen theme was genuinely interesting and sufficiently challenging and what i realised through the workshop and an individual talk with my tutor was that while my topic was interesting and there were a lot of different aspects i could explore within this area of interests, notions of nudge and choice architecture with respect to active living communities had been studied for decades and it was brought to my notice by my tutor that when designing for such a theme architects tend to get restricted in terms of simply redesigning ramps staircases and lifts as a way to make the community more active which could be potentially limiting in certain cases. Moreover I was unable to complete certain criteria in the context web such as historical and cultural aspects of the project and so i decided to work with my second idea.

Project Proposal Formation,06.02.2018 - 07.02.2018

Since I wasn't completely satisfied with the theme I had chosen to work on previously (architecture and active living communities) and since it didn't add up to all the necessary criteria by which I was testing the strength of my possible themes, I decided to work on my second proposal. While working on my second idea I tried to focus more on fulfilling the basic subtopics in the web workshop and making sure to look at my project both contextually as well as practically in order to gain an understanding of whether I should proceed with my proposal.

When I was in high school, i studied a poem called 'Mending Wall,' by Robert Frost which focused around grand ideas of boundaries, separation and barrier building. Although it may seem on a surface understanding that Frost is metaphorically representing two distinct categories of people, one that insists on this idea of freedom while the other is somewhat perceived as close-minded, and traditional, in reality, I think the poem seems to resonate a deeper meaner than appears.  The poem holds comments on the nature of having a wall separation and why one of the neighbours has associated it with negative emotions. 

Looking back at the threshold project we did in part 2,  I realised that in a way I had related it to this poem. While at first I struggled with what was expected out of the brief whether we were to find an existing threshold, or what obstructions we could possibly build into, I ultimately decided to use a bridge I had found near Harringay. I visited what I thought to be a bridge with these obstructions made out of protruding metal pieces spiking outwards from the upper end and on the top of a narrow canal. It was as if the spikes had been placed to prevent a person from walking on the bridge, to prevent movement.

My design idea which involved replacing the defensive obstruction with something which could solve the problem in an alternative manner would not only make the bridge accessible but would also serve as a threshold in the sense that it would allow the transition from one space to the other- one park to the other and hence fall within my understanding of the definition of a threshold. Thinking of barricades, the first thing that came to my idea was how people tend to stack chairs against doors in order to prevent someone from entering hence serving as a barricade in a sense. With this in mind I began to think of whether it was possible to integrate both the ideas - create something which could work as a furniture piece as well have functions of defence and protection such as a barricade.

My final model worked with a sort of child friendly barricade which combined my idea of a functional furniture piece as well as being a means of protection. The barricades would thus allow for the passage across the bridge without it being dangerous to the users.

What I realised was that a lot of people solely relate architecture to buildings but there are so many aspects to building design and design of integrated spaces that goes beyond that. I decided that for my unit seven project I wanted to explore the idea of barricades and walls by extension and what purpose they serve. Why do certain people have negative associations towards walls and boundaries? are these boundary spaces is this act of enwalling actually tearing people apart and making them more hostile towards each other or in fact doing the absolute opposite- helping o connect different people?

I also looked into the potentiality of metaphorical boundaries - societal barriers, religious barriers, and economic barriers and their relationship with architecture. I also began to explore ideas revolving around  whether architecture fosters hostility within society and whether certain spaces nudge you towards behaving in a particular way and how to work around that.  the role of architecture and whether its actually being used to improve lives and better communities or instead tear them further apart.

Group Feedback and development,12.02.2018

Today in class after a brief powerpoint presentation on what was expected from us post research week, we were divided into small groups depending on the theme we had proposed for our project. The groups were made based on common themes and interests some of them being 

• communities 
• nudge behaviour
• spirital architecture, sacred spaces
• projects focused on technology and materiality
• space and form

After being divided into groups we were to discuss what our proposed ideas were and what we intended on researching. we were to collectively work out an action plan for the coming week an organise to meet and possibly visit exhibitions or museums related to our common themes together.

• Was this group activity helpful? Did exploring similar themes help your project development? For me personally, firstly I was unsure of what group by project came under whether it was more of a community based project or had aspects of nudge behaviour and choice architecture and would find the exercise more beneficial if we had individual talks with the tutor regarding our proposals first before exploring common themes with our peers. Moreover while the idea of sharing our intentions and visiting exhibits together with a  group could potentially be more useful than going by yourself as not only would it make the activity more fun but it would also allow for alternate perspectives, however it was hard to coordinate with my group because everyone had different plans and were doing their own things during the week. It was difficult to organise a day we could all dedicate towards the project. It was interesting however to note that despite the similarity in the themes the project ideas were so varied and everyone had made use of the theme in a different manner.

After class I decided to speak to my tutor regarding my project proposal in order to get better understanding of whether my project idea was strong enough to carry forward. While I was happy with my proposal because it was something which genuinely interested me I was concerned about whether I would be limited in terms of research and what my overall outcome for the project could be. In terms of what i could create as my final model i was unsure of how my project would fit in and i began to ask myself questions about whether 'my project was restricting in a sense?' and whether 'it would keep me occupied for the next few months.' My tutor was of the opinion that the questions my projects hoped to answer and the topic itself was very unique and something he had never really seen a student explore before however he said that maybe it should be a little less broad and more focused on the act of enwalling and what roles walls and other barriers play whether and why they are viewed dismissively by society or instead whether they connect and aid the community. He said that maybe looking into ideas of architecture and hostility and its relation with violence and tearing communities apart would make it a little too complex but i could possibly make references to such cases. 

• What conclusion did i reach, what am i going to do next? Overall i think i was confident about how my project was to proceed and my tutor even gave me some research references as an initial guide of what i could maybe look into. While i still didn't know what i would eventually be creating in any way, i was certain that i would come up with something with sufficient amount of research and idea development. I knew i was now ready to carry my project forward and first needed to work on my formulating my draft proposal.

Project decisions and draft formulation,13.02.2018 - 14.02.2018

Before beginning to write my project draft, i thought it would make more sense to look at precedents and what i was expected to include in each category of my draft plan and so to gain some clarity regarding the same, i looked at previous foundation students final unit 7 projects and how they went about it.

• What did I learn from previous students proposals? Did it help in writing my proposal? The most valuable thing i learned form previous students proposals was what i should avoid doing.  The proposal I had analysed had a very personal approach concerning nomadism and how housing can be mobile. The project focused on how the student discovered that her first home had been demolished and how people rarely stay in the same place. She investigated ideas revolving around whether homes have to be permanent or temporary? and began to look into mobile homes, the trailer park and the pop up tents. This made me realise that the proposal must be personal and very open to ideas of possibilities. Moreover, it was helpful looking at what mistakes were  made  by previous students and what we should avoid while writing the Unit 7 proposals. For example, I noticed that integrating 2 different themes together will result in something too vague and would result in a poor project. In a similar manner, the theme shouldn't be too bland and straightforward. The best project proposals had a common thread: they were able to  communicate their intentions through their project description and used a wide range of resources alongside valid reasoning in order to highlight the purpose of the project.

With all this in mind, I  began to write my draft proposal making sure that I kept note of all the things I noticed from the student's work.I knew there would be opportunities for me to edit this description later but I tried to make the concept as clear as I possibly could whilst still making it open to varied contextual ideas. Taking my tutors advise about being more specific as well as integrating what to do and what not to do from previous students work, my project description was something like this :

“Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.”

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

~ ‘Mending Wall by Robert Frost’

A central theme in this poem is construction of boundaries and consequent separation, on both the physical and metaphorical level.  A superficial reading suggests a dispute between two archetypical characters – one who insists on freedom and transparency and the other who is perceivably less open minded and traditional. However, at a deeper level, the poem comments on the nature of building barriers around oneself and why one would associate a negative experience and consequently breed hostility between the neighbours.

‘Mending Wall’ has inspired me to consider the role the built environment plays within contested places, making me question why a wall, which occurs to me as probably the most honest expression of boundaries, could be viewed so dismissively. Through this project I aim to explore architecture and how we tend to have negative associations towards certain spaces and walls by extension. Do good fences really make good neighbours or is architecture advocating violence and unfriendliness amongst society rather than bringing communities closer?

My project will focus on whether on the act of enwalling, enclosing and imprisoning using architecture primarily focusing on wall design. It will look into ideas revolving around hostility and nudge behaviour in relation to whether walls lead to a feeling of confinement or in fact instead the opposite- whether they help to connect and promote solidarity amongst society. In a broader sense this project aspires to question the role of public and private architecture in the capacity to improve lives and better a sense of community or actually also indeed engender a separation for the individuals and communities that live in, around or frequent these spaces (particularly with reference to confining spaces with walls.) Is architecture actually being used to improve lives and better communities or instead tear them further apart? Is architecture becoming more defensive? Do barriers and walls in fact aid this? Or do they instead represent nothing but sophisticated boundaries?

Draft Formulation and research week plans,21.02.2018 - 22.02.2018

Over the weekend I spent most of my time completing my A2 sheets, finalising sketchbook work while redoing certain portions of my sketchbook which  thought required changes, and also updating parts of workflow and making sure to take into consideration the feedback I had been given from my progress tutorial. While I tried to dedicate most of my time towards focusing on my assessment so I was prepared and wouldn't be rushed to complete things last minute, I also tried to devote some time towards my unit 7 proposal . Overall I think my assessment went well and my feedback was beneficial in helping me understand what to continue doing and what to maybe avoid in the future.

I spent the larger part of my weekend working on my draft proposal and what i desired it to convey. I wanted my research to be extensive so my project wouldn't be restricted in any sense and so I decided to explore my project to its fullest. I began to research what i thought was related to my area of interest and even visited exhibitions to allow me to understand the subject through alternative lenses. 

One particular talk i went for steered my interests towards how walls confine and whether that all they do - can they in fact bring people together rather than only confine? The talk was focused on  Storstorm - ‘The world’s most humane prison’ and organised by - The Built Environment Trust

Every room has an ensuite bathroom, flatscreen TV and peaceful views over acres of woodland. Activities on offer include painting lessons, a climbing wall and state-of-the-art music studio. Trendy murals from a top graffiti artist adorn the walls.

Though it might sound like a luxury hotel, no-one comes here out of choice. Halden is a high-security prison. Its inmates are serving time for crimes including rape and murder. The talk focused on the potential of gilded cages and the benefits they held to conventional prisons. 

Defenders of the Norwegian system say it works much better in the end. Prisoners who are treated well become law-abiding citizens, ready to lead constructive lives. On the other hand, when people are robbed of dignity in crime-ridden, concrete cells, they only become more committed to lawbreaking.

This drew my attention towards architecture and violence and whether these walls and conventional enclosed spaces are fostering hostility between the users and how that can be changed. I also worked on what i could title my project without giving away too much yet making it interesting enough to want to be explored further. I came up with three possible titles i could work with.

• city without walls
• do good fences make good neighbours?
• four corners

Feedback,Sketch models,Material investigation,26.02.2018

Today was our first day of class after our research week and we began class seated within our theme groups. We were each made to complete an exercise with the person sitting beside us to consolidate what we had achieved during research week what we intended on doing during the coming weeks and what suggestions they had regarding the same. The sheet required us to write a brief summary on what our proposal concept was and to use that to explain to our partner what we had researched during the course of the week.

• Did the exercise help? What went wrong? While I felt that this exercise could be potentially beneficial in terms of receiving feedback from our peers as well as obtaining suggestions towards bettering our project, I felt that the time we were allotted to discuss the same with our partners could not entirely allow us to do justice to the purpose of this exercise. Inspite of this i tried to get and in turn give my partner any related information which i felt could be of significance to her project and since we had similar themes suggesting exhibitions which i had previously visited for my project could aid her reacher as well. She gave me valuable tips as to what she may have looked in to if she was in my place and asked me a whole lot of questions causing me to revaluate and rework my thinking processes in relation to my project.

During the latter half of the day, we were asked to start making sketch models. Using words which were most closely linked to themes of our projects were to come up with quick paper models. I tried to focus on words such as enwallling, enclosed and obstruction and while it was hard to begin to three dimensionally build onto such abstract words, I tried my best to prevent myself from imagining what my outcome was to look like and to focus more on how I could represent my words most accurately.

• Did you face any problems? To be honest I feel like I did struggle with this exercise a little and didn't really think that what i had eventually produced reflected the best version of my work. I wasn't even sure whether i would use what i had made for the rest of my project but I guess it was a good place to start thinking about my proposal three dimensionally.

We were then asked to begin with material investigations. Personally, I felt that this was a little pointless at this stage as we were at the beginning of our project and a majority of us didn't have clear ideas of what we would eventually be making and it was hard even harder for us to propose what material they may be potentially made of. While i began by considering what my final model may be made of, I realised later that the point of the exercise didn't lie on determining what exact material we may use but instead on considering alternate materials and understanding how they work and what how one goes about using such materials. 

While I had used the wood and plastic workshop fro previous workshops, the metal workshop intimidated me an it wasn't something I had really worked with before. When i went to the workshop i had absolutely no idea of what i was supposed to do and what i could do but i thought that the best way to approach this and get the most out of the exercise would be to be experimental. I worked with scrap pieces of metal and began to solder, cut and twist the metal to create different and shapes.

• Was this helpful? I think although I didn't understand the purpose of the the material investigation at such an early stage in the beginning, i eventually understood the purpose of this exercise and how it made me open to exploring more materials rather than restricting my projects to ones i was comfortable with. While I don't think my outcomes were the best but they definitely got me thinking about structure and form.

Architectural Lens exercise,01.03.2018

Today our day was focused around an exercise which according to me could play a crucial role in helping us make decisions about our project. The exercise was focused on a technique used in architecture, urban planning and related disciplines to influence the behaviour of potential user groups. The approach deals with a series of steps and questions which help we as designers must attend to in order to influence our audience in intended directions. The primary stage in the process involved converting our proposals into problems, questions or challenges and figuring out ways to work around them.

• What worked with the exercise and what didn't? I worked with my partner to come up with a series of questions based on the architectural lens philosophy and we used that to help each other think of possible solutions to the questions.For my design i decided to look into aspects such as changing angles and sloping certain portions to create connectivity via walls and wall deigns. I also looked into the concept of mazes and whether  predetermining the paths of the users through wall connectivity could assist the bringing together of people in communal spaces while still allowing a certain degree of privacy. I think this exercise proved to be beneficial fro me as it allowed me to look at my project in an alternate perspective and take into account what my partner thought could possible work as well.

I spent the rest of the day reworking my project proposal and finalising my bibliography to include all sources - exhibitions, books, movies and websites so that i could submit it by the deadline on Sunday.  

Material investigation and tutor feedback,02.03.2018 - 03.03.2018

During my research week I had looked into the idea of how my topic which revolved around the role the built environment plays within contested places related to prisons. My proposal involved enwalling, enclosing and imprisoning using architecture primarily focusing on wall design and while I began to research more into walls with particular emphasis to border walls my attention was drawn towards how walls lead to feelings of imprisonment for the people trapped within the confines. This made me research more deeply into architecture and the designs of prisons and the role of walls within these prisons. However after a talk with my tutor he said that this can often be a very complex and difficult topic to work with and so not to solely focus on jail design.

My sign up tutorial with Alaister instead made me consider alternate ways to approach my project. I realised that an interesting way to move forward with my project would be to look into the role walls play in communal spaces and I came to the conclusion that I would design a communal living space which explores public and private architecture through wall arrangement (form, transparency, openings, thresholds). It could possibly be for students, joint families, the ageing population or combinations of such groups. There is a growing need to break down fences and allow people to start sharing amenities in their living environment so that there is both quality of life and social activation and this is what aspire to achieve through my communal space design.

To be honest I was a little confused as to how I would begin breaking down this topic but I knew I should start by thinking small- perhaps my own room and how the walls could be rearranged within my room to allow  me to remain connected with my neighbours without allowing them to infringe on my privacy.

Later during the day we were to continue exploring materials as we had done yesterday and having done this the previous day I was more confident about how to proceed and go about the task. We were instructed to be experimental and work with materials we hadn't perviously considered working with and using methods we wouldn't usually think working of with at first instance. Not knowing what exactly was to be done, i researched a little into basic procedures to be attentive towards while working with plaster and decided to use that as a guide into beginning my material investigations. 

• What did i realise? While working with the plaster i realised that its important to get the consistency  right and to know what proportion of water should be mixed with what proportion of plaster so that the mixture is not entirely fluid but still retains some of the powdery feel of the plaster. What i realised was that the casting material, could later be manipulated by using wrapping and tying methods and found objects to make impressions in the cast materials.

I tried to work with texture and how that could play a role in my final test models and perhaps allow me to investigate how the material is to be used in greater detail.

1. I poured the plaster mixture over a plastic bag in order to allow the plaster to imitate the crevices and folds of the bag.
2. I experimented with plaster and bubble wrap and the textures it could create. When dry, the bubble wrap was removed to reveal lots of captured texture.  The detail in each bubble of the negative cast was  satisfying and although the outcome was predictable, I hadn’t expected the cast to be so neat and the bubbles to be so sharp.
3. I also tried to make use of my sketch models form the previous day and represent them using plaster techniques. I took freezer bags and filled them with plaster. I had to make sure the ratio of   powder to water was much higher than the previous samples so that it would stiffen in time. I tied them in different positions and while i admit it was particularly had  to remove these from the castings they did take the shape of the bags quite successfully.

• What do you think overall of the task? I think my material investigation today was far more beneficial to me than it was yesterday because i made it a point to research about the material prior to going to the actual workshop and i allowed myself to be experimental and actually understand what and how the material is to be worked with. Even though my final outcome may not involve the use of plastic, i know that at least I have this option open and perhaps I could use it in my idea development process or in my sketch models. 

Modelling exercise and storyboard initiation,05.03.2018

Our morning today was rather stressful focused on making calculations towards how to proceed with our project in terms of the number of days we had left before submission. Our tutors worked with us to plan a timeline and what we should have completed and by when.

• Was this helpful? While the point of planning what we would be doing three weeks down the line may have seemed rather pointless at first. I realised that we actually didn't have as much time as we had anticipated and perhaps having certain milestones which need to be completed by certain dates could in fact help prevent us from procrastinating. In addition i guess what this exercise got us thinking about and the attention it drew towards the lack of time  would eventually help us in the long run of the project completion.

During the latter half of the day we started a completely unrelated project which at first i thought was rather random and  was skeptical of whether it would in any way be of help to the progress of my project. The exercise required us to filter through the research we had done during our research week and identify any patterns or a repeated decorative designs which were evident in our research images. The first part of the task required us to simply imitate the recurring designs in our sketchbook. It involved combining a series of geometric shapes, colours, and mark makings similar to an exercise we were made to do during our diagnostic textile week. We were later made to translate these patterns onto A5 paper to create 2D samples of our patterns.

• What did you realise? While it was obvious to me that this would perhaps lead to us making  sketch models i hadn't anticipated that we would be asked to cut into them and work with holes and perforation to perhaps see our patterns through an alternate lens. This task was then to be taken a step froward and we were to use the A5 samples to create something 3D cutting in and folding out assuming they were walls and we were creating different spaces. Unlike our previous sketch models which were more abstract this exercise required us to be experimental but in a different sense. We were to look at our 2D patterns with the perforations and use them to create a 3D model taking into consideration each fold and crease,  protrusion and its purpose. Was the fold creating a new space? could it be seen as a wall or obstruction? could we get rid of certain parts of this folded paper maybe folding them inwards rather than outwards to reduce the number of walls?

I did struggle at first with how to fit the different pieces together and how to work with the perforations and whether to make them at all. I worked around cutting and folding certain portions of my sample and wasn't sure what my outcome was exactly. However, eventually, in a way everything started to make sense and like most of the other exercises while I failed to interpret what the purpose of the project could be at the beginning, it all came together at the end and I felt like this exercise in particular was useful to my project specifically as it worked around my theme of walls and separation and in the most basic sense the paper models allowed me to experiment with my proposal.

In order to consider all possible angles of our project, we were to 'hot seat' a friend and get them to answer a series of questions within a shorty time frame. While a lot of the questions we asked may have seemed rather ridiculous at first it all in a sense made the person being interrogated question their proposal and work out what exactly was happening. When i myself was hot seated, there were a lot of simple questions which i hesitated before answering and so i realised that there were a lot of important aspects i hadn't given much consideration towards.

The latter half of the day was spent converting our 3D proposal into a 4D storyboard. It was almost as if we were being made to process our initial research through a 2D, 3D AND 4D format. I worked with my 3d model and used photoshop to explore materiality further and perhaps make some indication of scale and what could possibly be going on in the given scenario.  I tried to work around which of the walls i could remove and how people would move about the space. I also tired to consider some of the questions which came up during the hot seat questioning exercise.

Storyboard continuation,06.03.2018

Our exercise today was somewhat a continuation of what we were working on yesterday but with a more focused approach. The task required us to create a typical storyboard incorporating characters who we would assume would frequent the spaces we were exploring for our project and how they would possible interact with each other and the spaces they inhabited. While working with my character i tried to answer a series of questions while allowing myself to be as imaginative as possible.

• Ways each person will use the space
• what they will need from it
• what they will desire from it

Honestly, i struggled with the task at first and what was expected form it and didn't particularly understand how we were to come up with characters to fit our storyboard. However, after been shown examples i realised that i was overthinking the task and it was in fact rather straight forward and required us to simply be playful and imaginative in terms of what could be going on. To begin to think along such lines i decided it may be more fun if i name my characters. Since the space i intended to design was a student accommodation, i named each of my students gave them different ages, different colleges and decided what each of them would be studying to become. 

I drew out the courtyard - an unroofed area that is completely or partially enclosed by walls or buildings, typically one forming part of a castle or large house which would be the place they would first meet and then drew them in their own space ie. in their rooms. Since my project was focused on walls and the idea that they don't always have to be obtrusive but can in fact in cases aid communication and interaction while still retaining the residents privacy depending on the wall arrangement, i decided to draw out the students interacting with each other and how the dismountable walls allowed them to increase or decrease this interaction whenever required.

• Did this exercise help? While i wasn't sure what purpose a story board would have to a subject such as architecture, the purpose of the exercise was clear to me at the end of class. We were continuously made to rework and rethink our proposal and how the users would interact with it and how to work on this interaction and that got me thinking about a lot of possible ways my project could play out. I began to focus more on themes such as privacy and the idea of what constitutes a public or private space and how barriers or walls may enhance this ideas or in a  way prohibit certain aspects of it and this i think was helpful and terms of my projects progress. Never before in any have we looked at the user of space in so much depth and analysis. The exercise opened my eyes and made me realise things that I had not previously noticed in the design of buildings and how most importance should be given to the user as they are ultimately the ones who inhabit the spaces.

Progress Tutorial,14.03.2018 

While I was a little lost when I attended my progress tutorial today with respect to whether I was at the right pace with my project and simply whether I was doing what was expected of us and in the manner we were required to, Cristina helped to confirm that I was on the right track. I had been working on finalizing a site for my project over the weekend, however my tutor brought to my notice that in terms of my theme I should rework my site location and perhaps explore a site which worked better with my what my project proposal stood for. My project involved the design of a communal space which for the time being I had decided would be a student accommodation and how this space could explore the idea of public and private architecture through wall arrangement. The idea was to play with the idea of where the fence lies, and so rather than looking at Finsbury park and kings cross and there potential as a site she suggested to look at parts of London which worked around with this sense of community and the idea of fences and neighbours to be a better fit for my project. She advised me to look at council housings and perhaps designing for such areas where the distinction between neighbours is blurred allowing me to explore the ideas of privacy revolving around my project description. Moreover, most council housing estates in London are representative of brutalist architecture and have thick concrete harsh exterior walls and hence designing an accommodation which focuses on the idea of where the walls lie and what constitutes private and public spaces and the necessity for walls would serve as a juxtaposition to the entire project and hence work well. Christina also brought to my notice that while she felt that my project title and concept was intriguing the research was in places unrelated and over explored and a lot of my references were in a way irrelevant to my project which I needed to rework on.

Overall the tutorial drew my attention towards what I need to do to move forward with my project and what I should altogether avoid and I think that will help me with regard to the decisions I need to make with the remaining parts of my project.

Work in progress crit,15.03.2018 

Today we had an interim crit with the entire 3DDA group as a whole. To be honest i was actually rather nervous to start with in terms of whether the work i had made was sufficient enough and whether it was able to express my design intentions without me being physically present to guide the viewers through my project and it's desired objectives. The crit worked in way that each group was to display their works and make their way to the other two curriculum areas and leave feedback notes regarding what they thought of the work, where the project could be improved upon, what they liked or disliked about it and and just any general overall comments about the proposal. 

• Look back at your project proposal, reflect on your chosen theme. Do you think you theme is developing as the project develops? My chosen theme for my ASD final unit 7 project is both complicated yet works around questions I want answers to and for this reason I made sure to pick my topic in a way that I’m engaged throughout the course of the project and am constantly challenged by the decisions I make. While at times I think that I could have considered a slightly easier theme to work around, I think that the fact that I designed my proposal around ideas that genuinely excite me and around concepts which intrigue me is what will eventually bring my project together. I began my project by looking into ideas revolving around the poem Mending Wall’ which inspired me to consider the role the built environment plays within contested places, making me question why a wall, which occurs to me as probably the most honest expression of boundaries, could be viewed so dismissively. At the start, my project aims were focused around how we tend to have negative associations towards certain spaces and walls by extension. Do good fences really make good neighbours or is architecture advocating violence and unfriendliness amongst society rather than bringing communities closer? While the theme was initially focused on on the act of enwalling and enclosing using architecture primarily focusing on wall design I think my project has developed a lot further now in terms of the fact that it is now more centred around questioning the role of public and private architecture in the capacity to improve lives and better a sense of community or actually also indeed engender a separation for the individuals and communities that live in, around or frequent these spaces (particularly with reference to confining spaces with walls.) There is a growing need to break down fences and allow people to start sharing amenities in their living environment so that there is both quality of life and social activation and this is what aspire to achieve through my communal space design and this is what my project is now primarily focused on. While the themes and concept is consistent with the start of the project it is now more focused on which walls are necessary, the idea of where the fence lies and how much privacy one needs while yet being able to engage in social interaction. So, in conclusion, my project theme has been developing from what I initially started with.
• What is effective, what needs to be improved? When you looked at the sketchbook work in other areas what did you see that you could learn from? I like to think that my sketchbook is a clear reflection of my personal style as an artist. While in  earlier stages of the course  i tried hard to over refine and contain my sketchbook and was a little too careful and delicate in terms of what i chose to include, i think my sketchbook now is more successful in demonstrating my thinking process and how my ideas develop. When I flip through my sketchbook overall there aren’t many things I would want to change or improve. I try to ensure that I respond to all the feedback given from the tutors effectively and efficiently and in most cases I have done that. My sketchbook represents my thinking process, it shows how my ideas develop and how this development arises. While in some instances I feel like it may be hard for an external to interpret what exactly I am looking at because I tend you use my sketchbook in a way that its easier for me to understand I could perhaps annotate my references and write a little about what exactly I’m looking at guide the viewer through my thought process. While my sketchbook is experimental and sketchy and represents my personality as a designer, during the exhibition it was brought to my notice that the sketchbooks of students form different curriculum areas tend to have certain similarities. What I noticed when looking at the work of students from other classes was that in the JFFA class in particular the student’s sketchbooks are very personal. Each student tends to have their own way of working and a lot of them tend to focus on representing their ideas using quick sketches and drawings. In JFFA the student’s sketchbook is a clear representation of the manner in which their ideas evolve and are very often narratives in a sense. In the product design class on the other hand, the student’s sketchbooks as a whole is very organised with clear neat and labelled drawings of the products and the way they are used. There is a lot of focus centred around the user how they use the product and less contextual analysis.
• We talked a lot today about the development of ideas.Have you explored a wide range of ideas? How have you recorded this? Have you committed to an idea yet? Why / why not? Idea development is very important as it leads you from one potential design idea to another one. Currently, I am at the development stage - still testing and experimenting with regards to what works best for my chosen site. While i have recently committed to what site i am going to use there is still a lot to be done in terms of how to incorporate my design proposal within this site.
• Look at your workflow, the research in your sketchbook, sheets. How wide-ranging is it? Is it relevant? How effectively have you used it in your project? Have you made your ‘sifting’ process visual and shown which research is most important? While my think my research week was as productive as i had hoped, i now realise that a lot of my references are not particularly relevant to my proposal now and these references served to enrich my theme proposal and allow me to develop and make changes to my initial ideas inspite of the fact that i have now rejected a large number of them. At the start of my project I tried to visit a number of museums and attend talks on topics I thought could in any way be related to my project just to get a broader understanding of my subject area as a whole. During my research week I tried not to focus solely on architectural references in fact the entire inspiration of theme came to me when reflecting on a poem and what it meant both at a surface and a metaphorical level and the questions it raised. It was pointed out by the other curriculum areas that many ASD students have picked up on the necessity of looking at other subject areas and how beneficial they can be in seeing your project through alternative lenses. I watched a number of movies  write about movies and documentaries which I thought could inform the way I was looking at my project and used books to support and precedents to support my thinking. What I wasn’t particularly successful at was sifting through what was important and what needed to be rejected because it wasn’t really relevant to my project.
• What are your aims for the rest of the project? The work in progress crit today was a wake up call for me personally as it brought to my attention the quality of work expected from us fro this project and also made me aware of where I was lacking in terns of my project progress. One of my aims is to create a new schedule to ensure that I do not fall back and am productive throughout my Easter break. In addition to the project criteria necessary to be competed by all the students, I intend to create a small booklet of all my references and relevant sketches perhaps in an A5 size to allow the viewers of the exhibition to flip through. I also intend to visit some student housing units around London and question the students as to what they would change about their accommodation and how social interaction could be increased etc perhaps using survey questions or interviewing some of the residents. Furthermore, I need to make up my mind and come to a firm decision regarding what material I will be using for my final model. I also plan to revisit my site at Alexandra road and take my measurements for a second time to make sure that I haven’t made any miscalculations.
• Review on specialist subject approach? How would you define the methods you use in your curriculum area? According to me, the architecture and spatial design discipline is the most different and unique when compared to other 3DDA subject areas. The reason is that unlike the other pathways, you could say that in a sense we have less freedom as we have a set of criteria and specific requirements which need to be completed for each specific project and hence in a way our creativity is limited in a sense due to these set rules we have to abide by. For instance, we need to investigate a site and analyse it thoroughly using measurements and  axonometric drawings. Moreover, i felt that the way our presentation sheets are a lot  more symmetrical and neater and not as free flowing as JFFA or even PDC. In ASD there is a necessity to  focus on structure and materials due to which our approach is often precise and clear.

• What realisations did I come to? What was apparent through this work in progress crit which was in fact highlighted by one of the curriculum areas was that there was a wide gap especially in my class in terms of the progress of the project and how far we'd come along amongst the different students. While i did have a couple of sheets and my sketch book was more or less up to date i still felt that there was a lot more i could have achieved by this date.This was because I didn’t have a clear overview of the amount of time we had left and this crit in a way was good because seeing my peers were at with their projects made me in way more motivated to work harder on my own project.

Hats Workshop,19.03.2018 

The Hats Workshop was a great way to thoroughly reflect on our completed work to date. It guided me towards a strategy for reflection and evaluation of my entire project allowing me to pin point where and what areas of my project were effective in conveying my design ideas and which were not as successful. There were 6 hats:

1. White Hat: Factual
2. Red Hat: Emotional
3. Black Hat: Negative
4. Yellow Hat: Positive
5. Green Hat: Creative
6. Blue Hat: Planning and Control

• How was the Hats workshop different from the visual process of reflection? Throughout every stage of my project, i always prioritise my reflections and dedicate a significant portion of my time towards this self evaluation  because it allows me to better understand the progress of my project and where it is headed towards. The Hats project in a way allowed me to do the same in a much more organised manner and made sure that give all aspects of my project equal consideration. The workshop forced us to analyse all components of our brief giving me a better understanding of the areas of my project which required to be worked on further.
• Did the workshop highlight any problems with your project/idea? Wearing each of the different hats I was able to critically analyse different aspects of my project in depth allowing myself  to develop my work further. The negative hat surprisingly brought to light a number of issues I hadn't given much attention to in my project. What I realised was that while my project concept and theme were strong, I hadn’t given equal attention to the movement of the users through the space – the programme. I needed to workout and address issues related to where, when and what was happening within the space and how to work around. The hat made me realise that there were still a lot of hard decisions I had to make with regards to the usage of the space and how to move around it. Moreover, reflecting on the negative components of my project I think that in some cases my research may been a little irrelevant and over analysed and I started to focus on references which weren’t really aiding the overall development of my project.
• Did the task help to identify strengths within your project? I think the Hats project allowed me to critically examine the strengths of my project with as much scrutiny as I did the weaknesses. While there were a lot of aspects of my project which were still incomplete and unexplored, I was happy to know that I had a lot to write about when working on the yellow hat. I made a significant amount of progress with my project and my areas of success were apparent and noting this down and giving time myself time to reflect on and identify the strengths within my project made me more confident to carry on in a similar manner.
•  Did the drawing task lead to any new/ improved ideas? I think the green hat which required us to explore new and original ideas and concepts revolving around our central theme was for me the most useful hat in the exercise. Considering alternate approaches, and bringing back design ideas we had previously dismissed on grounds of being too benign or unrealistic made me think about the potential of absolutely absurd ideas and whether I could integrate parts if not the whole of these ideas in my final outcome. 
• What were your overall thoughts about the workshop? I think overall this exercise for me was honestly one of the most helpful in terms of what I could take from it. Evaluating my progress as a whole and critically examining each and every component of my project allowed me to stop and take a minute to truly understand where I stood as regards the progress of my project. The last hat, the blue hat required us to plan ahead for the coming weeks and organise our days and what we would be doing during these days and how we could maximise our efficiency during the time we had left. While a lot of the students were unsure of how two hours a reflective hat workshop could in any way be beneficial to the progress of their project, I have always felt that being consistent with my reflections is what helps me to be on top of my project and deadlines and organise my thoughts.

On the right is my reflection to all the hats and their questions.

Make it in a day,20.03.2018 

The purpose of today was to produce a prototypical outcome for the entire project. We had to assume that today was the final day of our project and that all our work had to be handed in by the end of the day. During the week, I had tried to make plans for my final design model and draw out what it could possibly represent. Since my project was related to the idea of privacy and how many walls can be broken down yet retaining levels of privacy, it worked with themes similar to the threshold project. Therefore, at the beginning of the day, I decided to work on models of thresholds and use that to influence my final model project prototypes. 

Planning and surveying,23.03.2018

Since today was the last day I had in London before I left for my easter break, I decided that it was important for me to revisit my site for the last time to retake measurements and rework my plans so I would be clear about my proposed design and make due considerations before the actual making process. Before going to visit my site, I made a list of questions I wanted to ask the residents in order to ensure that I understood my site surroundings and neighbourhood in detail and especially the  working of the people who lived within the Alexandra estate apartments.

I framed my questions in a way that they focused on better understanding the residents needs. I asked them questions which were pertinent to my project proposal and would hence aid in my design development. They were centred around privacy and the shared spaces within the estate and most importantly on the interaction amongst the people and the sense of community. My sample included random residents of different age groups who lived in or around the area. What was interesting to note was that while the residents had varied views regarding their experience at the estate, they were all of the opinion that living in a colony in a community was like having one big family separated from the rest of the city who they could always depend on.

The questions and answers are shown on the left.

25.03.2018

While at home I knew that I was getting easily distracted I reminded myself that I had a schedule to abide by and would not have enough time for completion of my work after our Easter holidays. The first thing I knew I needed to get out of the way in order to ensure my project wasn’t overdue and to avoid needless stress was my final model. I had worked on a number of test models and drawn out a clear schematic representation of what final model could possibly look like and how it would work with my topic. I also had to make considerations with regard to how it would contextually fit with my site and how it worked with my research. In addition, it was crucial for me to settle on the scale and material used to make the model.

Model making developments,26.03.2018 - 28.03.2018

My initial model making for my design began with me focusing on wall arrangements in the sense of the form and height of the walls and how could work with the communal spaces in my student accommodation. I focused a lot on thresholds and how ‘holes in walls’ could in a way foster a healthy relationship between neighbours. I tried to work with rooms at different levels and the idea of attaining privacy by use of elevations. While I was extremely happy with my threshold based models which I developed at a slightly later stage, I wasn’t altogether certain of whether they best worked with the themes I was exploring and what I intended to achieve through my proposal. While I continued to work on models which all seemed similar while trying to address issues I had stated in my project aims, I became conscious of the fact that perhaps I had been looking at the idea of thresholds and the need to use it in my project in too much depth. Rather than focusing on thresholds as an opening or an entrance, I instead realised the potential of a threshold to serve as a transition space in a more subtle manner – through a change in material. Moreover, I felt that it was important for me to move beyond this model because it becoming a little repetitive and wasn’t really allowing me to progress much in terms of my project objectives and hence I began to rework and redraw out a plan for a model which took these considerations in to account and worked on them. In addition, rather than focusing on wall form and height etc, there were other ways of attending to the questions my proposal sought to answer. I decided that my next set of models would work on wall transparency – whether opaque, translucence or in fact transparent and how it can help me to address privacy issues between neighbours and aid interaction within communal spaces using alternate manners.

•  How did I come to these conclusions? A technique I often go back to when I can’t come to any firm decisions and see any progress with my topic is looking back at my previous projects and whether they can assist my decision making and project development. While my dense city project instantly made me rethink the dissconectivity within our society and how in spite of growing population and increase in urbanisation in reality the city remains disconnected in the sense that no one knows anyone, do you even know the person who lives in the flat next to you? Is it possible to increase this interaction in my scenario of the student accommodation?Looking back at my movement project I began to re examine the potential of kinetics in architecture and whether movement of the walls and room could be beneficial towards answering the questions I desired to be clear at the end of my project. I think that this method of re exploring my previous projects allows me to gain clarity of my current work in a way and so I knew what I needed to work on next in order to work in the direction of project completion.

Design sheet formatting,30.03.2018

I spent today by beginning to format my sheets as per the Easter schedule I had set for myself. While working on my previous projects throughout the length of my course, I realized that there there were some formats which worked better towards the overall presentation of my work while some which made my pictures and sketches seem a little awkward and out of place to say simply. For this reason, since we were given the liberty to design our sheets in any manner we and size which we desired and did not have to limit ourselves to the use of A2 sized sheets, I decided to use this freedom to my advantage and customise my presentation sheets. I made a rough outline of what each sheet would possibly look like and how I would organise the content and assemble the visual aids to best explain my project. I listed out what areas i intended to cover using my sheets and categorised them based on similar themes. I felt that a longer sheet format would suit my overall sheet scheme and work better with my arrangement then an A2 sheet and so I cut of 7cm from the top of a typical A2 sheet to get the size I desired. I then began to work on my sheets keeping in mind that for this project I wanted to make sure I integrated all the techniques and development methods for sheet presentation I had learnt from projects prior to unit 7 including collages and layering of maps even though I don’t think they are particularly my strong suit. I didn’t really come to a definite conclusion on the number of sheets I want to ultimately make, but I know that I want enough to demonstrate exactly what my project entails in a clear, self explanatory, manner and to the best of my abilities.

Final Model making decisions,02.04.2018

While I worked on building my final model I realised that there were a lot of important questions I had overlooked and a lot of decisions which still needed to be answered and which I should have probably attended to before beginning the making process. While I was clear about what my design would look like and how it would suit my users and their needs while addressing the central theme of my proposal – privacy and wall arrangements, I had failed to recognise the importance of spatial movement particularly with reference to the programming of my student accommodation. How would they get to the different parts of the structure, how were they to move around the space, was it feasible? I knew I needed to have answered these questions before beginning to build and hence I decided to pause for a movement and map out exactly how my design would make sense in a practical manner were it to be made in reality. I redrew my design and rather than working on it, I decided to work around it.  To be honest, it was challenging to find answers to all the questions that I was thinking of but I knew there had to be a way to make it work. My design itself was rather complex and since it worked on the basis of kinetics in architecture – this aspect of movement made it even more hard to work out the movement of the students. As per my plan each room would have a rooftop terrace but how could this be accessed? How could I leave terrace open? What if drunk teenagers lose their balance….? I had to make a barricade. In this manner I worked out each area of my design proposal and the possibility of it being realistically constructed.

Final model Making Plans,05.04.2018

I spent today beginning the actual making of my model. While my earlier models focused on wall shape and form and on answering questions related to the necessity of walls and how many walls are absolutely indispensable in a room my final model was in a reinterpretation of the way i was approaching the answers to these questions. Instead I decided to address issues of wall arrangement and privacy needs using movement and change in transparency of the walls.

Since I was in Mumbai and had no easy access to workshops as i had in school , i had to book a workshop to work in which was rather inconvenient as it was far from where i stay but never the less i had to make it work. I decided to make my student accommodation using wood and glass. Due to the fact that my site location was Alexandra estate there were a lot of considerations i had to make with regards to how my proposal would work with the location i was designing for.

After thoroughly investigating my site, there were certain characteristics unique to the site which i felt the need to imitate into my design for it to fit within its surroundings. 

1. The first was the brutalist nature of the buildings. While i didn't take brutalist in the sense of the commonly associated raw concrete buildings, i did instead use the strict geometrical shapes which came with this architectural movement and hence in order for my proposal to fit in with its surroundings, i used cube shaped rooms for my student accommodation.
2. In addition, carrying forward this brutalist style typical of the surroundings, the shape of the rooms allows the interior activity to be determined. Most brutalist buildings make provisions for the fact that their exterior reveals the interior activity and i tried to assimilate this into my design process.
3. The third and most crucial way to allow my design to work well with its surroundings was to allow it to integrate with the lives of the people of Alexandra estate without infringing on their way of living. What this means is that I needed to consider how important a sense of community is to the residents of this estate and how my student accommodation would respond to this. I had to find a way to make it possible for the students to interact with the residents so that they would as much of a part of the community as the others and not feel out of place. To allow this to be carried forward i decided to combine the courtyard surrounding my student accommodation with the communal garden space used by the residents of the estate. This forces interaction between the two distinct groups because in order to leave the estate, the residents must pass this communal garden and being connected to the students courtyard, they will need to now pass this to exit hence forcing interaction between the distinct groups.

• How did i intend to answer the privacy related questions and the idea of walls connecting people through my design? To answer questions related to privacy and how the walls would permit this privacy yet not let the students feel secluded from the rest of the student community when in their rooms, i decide to use wall transparency to my advantage. I did a little research on one way glass and how depending on the brightness of the room, the person can look outside without the person from outside being able to look within. Through my surveys with students and from my own experience i know the importance of wanting to feel included yet wanting your own sense of privacy and one way mirrors allow the students to achieve this.
• Another way i decided to attend to the idea of public and private spaces and the question of how many walls can be broken down is through kinetics. In a similar manner that the Alexandra estates apartments had shared balconies between adjacent apartments, i wanted my student accommodation rooms to be extensions of their shared spaces. The rooms could turn into the common spaces such as the eating areas etc and could also turn towards each other to combine and create a single room for two adjoining residents. At night when privacy is needed the rooms can be turned back to their original positions. In this manner, the students can be assimilated into the accommodation yet retain their sense of privacy when required.

Making Process, 07.04.2018

While making my model, i began with the 8 wooden rooms four for the top floor and 4 for the bottom. I struggled with cutting the glass to the exact size of the room walls. The machines i was using at the workshop here in Mumbai were slightly different form the ones we used in school and there was no one here to guide or help me if i had any questions as we did in the school workshops.

With a little help from google i managed to figure out exactly how to cut the glass without hurting myself. While my project was now more focused towards individual privacy needs and social interaction and how a building can aid this the one way glass i used aided in this exploration and furthered my original hypothesis of walls connecting and dividing.

Instead of focusing on thresholds in the form of wall arrangement and structure i instead used made subtle references to thresholds in the from of material changes. Creating a carpet for each individual room was harder than i had expected as didn't want them to fold or wrinkle in when i placed them in the rooms neither did i want to stick them down as it may look shabby.

• How did i solve these problem? i had to consider alternate ways to place the carpet and so instead i used foam board as a base and i used that too measure the size of the room and i stuck the carpet like cloth onto the foam board. However the foam board wouldn't fit into the room so i needed it to be folded and hence i cut a thin line through the centre so that it could be folded when being placed into the room.

I decided to create my central communal dining space using cork as it was light and thin and wouldn't inhibit the moving rooms. Finally to get the rooms to move, i used a screw attaching the two room levels to each other but making sure the screw wasn't too tight or else it wouldn't allow the rooms to freely turn into each other.

Reflective Review Workshop, 09.04.2018

Today in class we were introduced to a reflective review workshop but due to the fact that everyone was either busy with finalising the making of their models for the photoshoot at the end of the day, or in a tutorial with one of the tutors, we weren't left with sufficient time to do just to this workshop in class and so dedicated some time towards it post class today.

Step 1 - Brainstorming: We were required to make quick notes on the areas of our projects which we felt a strong need to reflect and review upon. The main aspects i found myself looking at included:

• Research - primary, secondary research 
• Idea development - idea development, concept, purpose, changes in existing themes
• Making process - visualisations, sections, plans, elevations
• Tutorial advice - listening to take advice and actually considering and implementing  the advise given
• Scheduling - procrastination, timetables, anticipating that i have lots of time when i really don't
• Group workshops - learning other peoples work, what to do what to avoid

Detailed reflective Review,09.04.2018

• Research - At the start of my project, i focused a lot on secondary research however while i had a clear idea of my theme it was rather broad and extensive due to which my research initially may seem a little vague and unrelated to my final project outcome. As my project progressed, i began to focus my research on specific areas within my theme which my project would work around. I also began to get first hand research - primary research in the form of surveys, questionnaires and interviews which i feel were most valuable with respect to the development of my project. So while my research was a little misdirected to begin with, it was only when I began to tread away from practitioners and towards sites, communities and real life that I found myself able to inform my actions and contextualize my findings.
• Idea development - I began my making process early in the project and this i think was advantageous as it allowed me to progress throughout my project. While i began with looking at structure and form of thresholds and walls my models allowed my project to develop and ultimately instead look at wall transparency and movement and how that could privacy and boundary related concerns related to my communal space design. My project was constantly on the stage of development and my themes and ideas changed focus more towards the idea of privacy and boundaries and how we can aid or inhibit social interaction towards the end of the project.
• Tutorial advice, group workshops - I tried to take all the advise i could get from my tutors which at time was frustrating because they constantly questioned what i proposed and made me consider alternate ways and weigh out advantages and disadvantages which was stressful at times because i didn't know whether i was capable of implementing and working around all the advice given to me. However at the end looking back now, i think the fact that they constantly challenged me and made me reconsider everything i was doing makes my project even stronger and more practical in a sense. They helped me consolidate my ideas and bring them down to something that is actually possible to create. According to me aside from the tutorials with our tutors, a lot of  my ideas are generated from both peer feedback and group discussions. The workshops we had made me consider methods and approaches i wouldn't instantaneously think of and i think this was of great advantage in making me consider alternative approaches
• Time scheduling - What this project made me realise was that while it is easy to make a timetable abiding by these time schedules you make for yourself is a lot harder than it looks. While i made sure my head was always in the game, it was still hard for me to get everything done in the time i had allotted for myself. It seemed odd because i was constantly working yet unable to deliver my work according to the time i had set for myself. It was hard because i knew  my potential and the quality of work i was capable of producing but it just felt that i was unable to execute my work to my desired effect because of improper time management in cases.

12.04.2018

I knew today was basically the last day i could work on my final model and dedicated majority of my day to finishing touches i the model. The middle communal dining space which i made out cork was constantly falling due to the size being wrong or was other too large and prohibited the movement of the rooms. I spent at least  two hour trying to get the exact size without it being a hindrance to the movement.

After completing my model ready for the photoshoot tomorrow, i decided it would nice to consolidate all my references in a single place so it would easy for a person to identify what i had looked at before beginning my making process. I therefore deiced to make a small compilation of my references in the form of  a booklet. This however took a lot longer than i had anticipated as it took a while for me to get a grip of in design and design my individual sheets. I was happy with my final outcome of this small booklet inspite of the paper being thinner and of inferior quality than i would have liked as it demonstrated the depth of my research in a single book.

13.04.2018

Today was quite a hectic day for me as it began with me carrying me heavy model all the way to archway. The model was made of glass and wood and the scale being 1:50 meant it was rather big and hence it was exhausting to carry all the way to school but i was happy i didn't need to bring it back home. The photoshoot was a success in some ways - i thought i had got some great photos but due to time crunch i was unable to get all the angles i had hoped to. I didn't realise how problematic this would be until i had to contextualise my model through a visualisation and the angles didn't match. In addition to this the photoshoot was severely delayed and hence all my plans of completing the remaining work for the day was interrupted but on the bright side the delayed schedule allowed me to go to kings cross and get myself the much needed scale models i required.

Eventually i decided that it inspite of it taking a way from a lot of my precious time, it would be useful for me to go back to school after the photoshoot and take photos the way i could like and perhaps on different coloured backgrounds.

Finalising work, 16.03.2018

I spent today consolidating my work and putting everything together ready for submission tomorrow. its been a long two months and i hope i have done enough and to be satisfied with my results. After completing my sheets and labelling and putting together all my sketch models, i asked myself a couple of questions to help me write my evaluation. My evaluation reassured me that i had put in my best and there was not much else for me to do. It also helped bring together my entire process and progress and i think this analysis allowed me to better understand my strengths and weakness.

EVALUATION,16.04.2018

17.04.2018

Today marked the end of our project.I work up early ready to submit all my work and finally be free.When i arrived at school everyone seemed to have a different reaction to the end of this academic year. While some were relived others looked terribly tired and sleep deprived ready to be done with this project.

While i haven't made a decision on whether i'm going to be studying at central saint martins for the following year,  for me to say this course was life changing would be an understatement. This course taught me to be exploratory and critical which helped me to gain a sense of understanding of my own capabilities as an artist. I've met amazing people, had the best of tutors and had the best year of my life which i wouldn't change for anything.