Category Archives: BA (Hons) Architecture Years 1-3

2nd Year 1:20 Detail Section ‘Halley 6’ Project

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Second year groups were asked to produce a 1:20 detailed section model of their construction pack which was provided by another group in the year. The objective of the project was to use the model to demonstrate their understanding of the buildings construction in terms of its technical details, services and environmental performance.

This groups building, known as ‘Halley 6’ is the British Antarctica research station. The chosen section featured two supporting legs and look at internal structural elements in relation to the outer facade as well as ducting voids.

The submission was given in alongside a report including a 3D Digital structural model that also showed the main structural components.

The model was made using plastic tubing for structural space frame components, vac forming plastic sheets to form the leg supports and clad the exterior. In order to make the leg shape a former was made to wrap the plastic around which was heated and glued into shape. The leg assembly and skis were represented with laser cut elements that were spray painted. Flooring and interior walls were made using 3mm MDF.

Andra Calin Group. Halley 6 project (3)

Manchester City Master Plan Model, Architecture of the Processional City, Atelier VI

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Back at the start of December we covered one groups start on their master plan block model of part of Manchester City Centre during the still ongoing spate of block models being made in the workshop. The project was part of ‘Architecture of the Professional City’, Atelier VI at Manchester School of Architecture. You can find out more about their studies on their Blog by clicking here.

City Master Plan Models

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Making continues this week in the workshop with most students focussed on creating city master plan models.It can be helpful when making master plans to lay out scaled plans to place components in place and ensure everything has been cut. If you want accuracy it is essential to have well scaled plans printed to understand the size of your project on a bench in front of you.
When dealing with master plan models more often than not you will find an abundance of components littering your desk space. The best was to keep track of these to is to order them and separate them into districts. This may suit a group project as individuals can be given responsibility over separate areas of the model. This group used plastic bags to distribute components as they were cut to avoid mixing them up.

Here Jim is using the band saw table on an angle to create roof pitches on a block model. It is likely that when producing block models there will come a point when a machines limits will not be sufficient to get the angle you require.

Overcoming these aspects of modelmaking can be time consuming but is of course necessary to ensure consistent accuracy of your models. Should you feel you’re unsure about how to achieve a particular angle don’t hesitate to ask our advice.

 

Urban Food Flow Model, Sophie Smith

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To demonstrate her ideas for rebalancing food slow or supplies in the city Sophie used an unorthodox approach to demonstrate her proposal. Using wire to convey possible food output areas of the site are highlighted using coloured acrylic and linked. The main focus is around an existing supermarket with the intention being to show how redistribution of suppliers could be increased locally.Living water cress troff’s are used in places of significant produce making this a living model – fairly unusual but interesting approach!

Jelutong Blocks Back in Stock for Masterplan Modelling

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After the recent onslaught of master plan models our stockroom was left somewhat depleted! Master plan models more often than not will require large pieces of wood to create multi-storey buildings in block form.

Whilst using laminated MDF sheets may seem like a cheaper option it is worth considering the huge amount of waste and resulting impact to the environment as a whole and the immediate surroundings. Cutting masses of MDF sheeting produces a lot of dust that when inhaled excessively can be very bad for your health (Wear Dust Masks!).

Laminating sheets together can also be time consuming and the finished aesthetics are less desirable. Jelutong block may seem expensive (Prices ranging between £15 to £40 per block) but the time saved in laminating and finishing may be comparable as the majority of master plans produced here can be achieved using a single £15 block when used economically.

Be sure to check with us about costings and the best approach for your model before rushing into anything. We use these materials almost everyday and can offer sound advice that will help you make the best of your projects in the most cost effective way.

Jim and Scott

3rd Year Structural Detail Models

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Designing a building requires attention to every detail. This attention must take into account the limits of construction materials and how they can be managed an assembled in reality.

The only way to do this well is to have a good understanding of construction and material mechanics. Structural detail study models allow us to focus on specific junctions of framework and often bring potential problems with assembly to our attention.

Whilst it is very important that you, as an architect in training, have a thorough understanding of building materials. These models should not focus too much on the 1:1 ‘real world’ materials. Your area of study is in understanding how components interact or don’t interact with each other in terms of their physical shape. Testing material strengths, weaknesses and compatibility for a particular role requires much more in depth study and often more space than our workshop can provide.

The models shown on this post are made to mimic real materials to reduce weight and construction restrictions whilst still conveying their assembly effectively.

2nd Year Structural Models Continued

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Moving on from the first stage of this assignment the second year students have been refining their designs and fitting them to context. Scaled down models (above) were made to fit into bigger site plan showing them in context to surrounding buildings and landmasses.  As was discovered in this case, fixing components or rather the design of the fixings on the components requires in depth thought. Whilst this structure was made to hold its form using adhesive, in reality a strong proven junction would be required and therefore this design requires more refinement. This site plan block model featured a removable contoured section made from cardboard where the various sample structures could be placed to demonstrate their relationship with the site.

1:500 Master Plan Model, Year 3 BA Architecture

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This group project for 3rd year BA students will be used to display multiple concepts that will continue to develop throughout the year. For this reason considerable thought was put into getting the contouring and overall model size correct for purpose.

By figuring out high and low points on their site the group could then make a series of supporting ‘ribs’ at the relevant size for the 1:500 scale. Clearly marking each piece by number is crucial when there are many components. Once fixed in place the engraved ‘skin’ was fixed over the top creating the flow of contours across the site.


The next main phase of construction was to produce the existing site buildings. by taking plans printed at scale the group divided the site into different zones and gave each building a number to assure easy identification when assembling.

By referring to visual reference such as photographs it is possible to find an approximate building height by looking at courses of brickwork and door/window heights. At this scale approximations are fine for the models purpose but extra care should be taken when focussing on areas in the immediate vicinity of the areas being used for proposed development.

The group decided to add extra laser engraved facade details to the exiting buildings closes to their proposed site. This helps to highlight the concentration and detail in the surrounding buildings without over emphasising their physical construction.

As the group found out, adding too many detail lines can prove costly in terms of time on the laser cutter.

We encourage you to consult us about any of these fine details as more often than not they can be simplified and still easily convey the message.

Structural Detail Models, Year 2 BA Architecture

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DSC01345Last week 2nd year students were given the task of further refining their designs for structural elements. By taking their initial ideas to the next stage they came up against many more problems to solve in particular how joining replicated components would work in practice as they made seven identical units to work with one another towards supporting a structure or forming a building form. DSC01314 DSC01315 DSC01317 DSC01325DSC01319In many cases designs will test the limits of the machines available anda degree of initiative will be required to solve the problem. In Georgia Govan’s case the angle she required for her components to fit together was too sharp to be machined and the profile nature of the laser cutter meant she had to use a ‘Jig’ to get the job done. This side of a task can often be time consuming and should not be underestimated. A lot of thought is required to design an effective jig but it’s worth the effort and the learning curve you will go through.
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DSC01323 DSC01335Marco Wan had an interesting approach to creating the curved planes for his design. This process is called ‘glulam’ and as the name hints at, involves laminating sheets together with layers of glue and material whilst clamped in a given shape. This produced a very strong formed shape that can and is used for many 1:1 building applications. Very nice to see a student employing this technique in their model development.

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Structural Detail Model by Andra Calin

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2nd year student Andra Calin has been developing a structural concept model that is expanding on a sketch model inspired by the form of a bird. Initially Andra produced a paper model of her idea which loosely defined what the structure would look like. For this next model she has increased its scale and added more detail. This kind of model will raise questions regarding connection detail and overall practicality of the structure.

2nd Year Andra Calin (1)

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For me its these intermediate types of development model that are the most fun to construct as they help clearly define details that can be replicated or improved upon and I hope to see more of these in the coming weeks as these ideas progress! Scott

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