It is important to understand the context in which you are building. To help with this, a perimeter block model was constructed to examine how the spaces worked within the block and how the light would be effected by it.
Because the project is early on, no one has a design yet and so every building was built to the highest it could be, 4 floors. This gives an idea of just how much light will be given to specific plots. This is especially useful given my site in the block is on the North. With the sunlight coming from the South, this presents very limited direct natural light. To make matters worse, I found out whilst experimenting with the perimeter block that my site gets very little light at all throughout the year. Midday in June accounts for the majority of natural light hitting my building through the year. Worse still is that the front facade only receives 50 minutes of sunlight per day, and this is only applicable in June. It is also split between the very early hours of the morning (before 6am) and the late hours of evening. This is also not factoring in any broader context. With the wider context included, it is likely the front of my building shall receive no direct sunlight at all throughout the year. I love this design. The simple act of balancing a piece of blue foam on top of the two side walls created a whole new atmosphere. The way that the light works in it is fantastic and creates a beautiful glow from the foam, something which I would strive to emulate in the real design. I am also very interested in the shaft of light which enters the space. This is the design I feel passionate about to investigate further.
Taking the massing forwards, I have experimented with more shapes for my design, looking at how they interact with light at different times of the day. Because my my live/ work typology is split between two clients, I thought it might interesting to split the site in half and see what a 6m x 12m design might look like. The shadows created will be similar if not the same to the full 12m x 12m, but this way I could get a better grasp quick and individual shapes, as well as whether or not I was interested in making two sections for my two separate clients. It would seem that using 6m x 12m provides plenty of options and space for designing a live/ work space for a client. This presents the opportunity to create individual dwellings for my two clients, as well as merge, combine and intertwine them to create something unified out of two buildings.
I spent a lot of time making some massing models to experiment with form for my 12m x 12m plot. Photos of the experiments can be seen below. The following photos are of the models put together to form them some context and see the group together. The photos were taken on the heliodon set to Summer at 12 then Winter at 12. The difference can be seen very clearly in the shadows. It is important to bare this in mind when designing as, although the buildings will not be so close together, the site is situated in a perimeter block. This means that there will be buildings rising opposite it. There is also a perimeter block opposite too. Overall it is not expected that my site (on the North of the perimeter block) will receive much high quality light, so it will be very important to design in accordance with this. When a more detailed design starts to emerge, it will be worth taking a trip to the 'Artificial Sky' and seeing how the building reacts to more realistic UK natural light.
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