Ryerson Option Studio Blog

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Establishing a Spectrum

After doing some initial research I have put together the following chart of some potential 'players' to be features in my essay. The spectrum still needs to be narrowed down and sorted out but it is a helpful way of documenting each hotel for comparison purposes. The categories to the left (Shows, Gaming, Amenities, Retail/Hospitality) are ordered in a hierarchy... Sex-themed shows being the most obvious place to 'judge' the hotels, followed by their casinos (because they are the crux to most hotels) then the amenities (clubs and pools which attract large crowds) and finally restaurants and shops that allude to sex but in a less explicit manner.

Biomimicry and systems theory in architecture

Vdara Death Ray

I found this article interesting - and it reinforced my dislike for fully glazed buildings. Silly architects, stop trying to cook humans.

"The tall, sleek, curving Vdara Hotel at CityCenter on the Strip is a thing of beauty.

But the south-facing tower is also a collector and bouncer of sun rays, which -- if you're at the hotel's swimming pool at the wrong time of day and season -- can singe your hair and melt your plastic drink cups and shopping bags.

Hotel pool employees call the phenomenon the "Vdara death ray."..."

Wanted: Library Book

Has anyone recently looked at the book 'The Themed Space: locating culture, nation and self' from the library? The catalogue says it's available but when I went to look for it, it was missing. Thought maybe one of you might have taken a look at it and shoved it back on the shelf somewhere else...

Thursday, March 3, 2011

UNLV Charette Follow-Through: Desert Condition Example

Unlike other programs that only learn about architecture and design within a single climate zone, Ryerson and UNLV were able to leverage the charette as a platform to learn about the regional differences in construction practice, sustainable design strategies, and biomimetic approaches.

It should be emphasized that all the work presented from the charette was done in large groups of seven students with relatively little familiarity with the design challenge. Aside from the logistics and organizational behaviour issues that precipitate entropy and prolonged design decision making, the extremely limited time constraints created an interesting challenge for the students. Fortunately the students were able to develop a good starting point for their designs during the charette. The subsequent resolution executed by individual students at Ryerson kept the same rigor as they were only given 40 hours to reassess their design responses to the critical feedback from the charette at UNLV.

Once again, this is a sample of the material from the initial charette concept except in an arid condition:

Samples of Razmig's Design:

Samples of Marcella's Design:

Samples of Jessica's Design:

UNLV Charette Follow-Through

Though the 6 hour charette between UNLV and Ryerson was a success for many of the faculty and critics in attendance, the final component of the project for the Ryerson students was to take the work proposed at the end of the exercise and use it as a "beta test" for yet another iteration of the design challenge. This allowed students to examine a biomimetic design idea and refine it on an individual basis.

For example, while the charette may have elicited a project such as this:

The charette design only served as a beginning point in the iterative biomimetic design process. Below are three iterations prepared by individual Ryerson students in less than two days as a response to the charette proposal outlined above. Take note that the biomimetic concepts and sustainable strategies have been retained yet the formal, tactical, and aesthetic dimensions vary as each student has adopted a different stance on the initial concept design.

Samples of Tricia's Redesign: