EXP 3 Week 3 - Plans, Sections and Draft Sketchup

Floor Plan (Inspiration)

Alvar Aalto

Bridge Plan Development

Many of Alvar Aalto's building designs were based on an L-Shaped floor plan which is very characteristic of Scandinavian architects and makes it traditional. In order to keep that traditional aspect of Aalto's design I have kept that L-shaped floor plan and readjusted the sizes so that It can fit within the context of UNSW.

In order to stay true to my theory (The purpose of form is to communicate and aid tactile functionality of the design) I have assigned different areas for different purposes (written on the plan) based on the context to make it a lot easier to move around and effectively utilise the moving elements. Although, it's working a little backwards as I have started with a L shaped floor plan and then I assigned different regions for different uses but I still managed to utilise the form to get the most out of it since I could visually see the shape of it and determine its effective use. Regardless of the process you may take towards your design the purpose of form shall never change.

Readjusted the shape and sizes to make the spaces more suitable.

Section Development

Started by moving and adjusting the floor plan so that it fits in.

Tilted the block a little so that sunlight can directly go inside the building instead of bouncing off other surfaces. Did some other sketches to utilise the space that is inside the building.

I went back and forth between the sections and floor plans to make sure that they both fit in well together and that the natural lighting is fully utilised. In Aalto's Villa Marea there is a constant theme of advancing technology through transforming materials. Since, materiality isn't a huge focus of this assessment I decided to incorporate the idea of advancing technology by making the organic shape in the section into a computer lab as it is the only organic shape so it easily grabs your attention towards it and hence towards the amazing work that UNSW students do in it.

Lumion Renders (Draft)

Rectilinear on one side

Organic on the other

I wanted to explore the composition between organic and inorganic structures to create unique spaces.

Looking back at Aalto's design i noticed that it was more of a combination of rectilinear and minimal semi organic spaces. Where as this draft is focusing more towards organic. So, I changed my design to mainly focus on rectilinear with the following roof Ideas:


Made the workshop semi organic and the roof structures organic to explore the composition between rectilinear and minimal semi organic structures.


Smaller roof at the front and bigger at the back so that the front roof doesn't block out the sunlight from the back roof.

I further developed this composition on sketchup and the final result is on the submission page.