Intro and plans

Hello and welcome to my online blog!

The purpose of this diary is to document the design and building processes of my current project at the Arts University College at Bournemouth.

The unit is based around an external brief which a client from outside the course must submit. I have been asked by CRAB studios to build a scale architectural model of the Kunsthaus Graz, which is in the Austrian city of Graz. It is a very modern building which serves as a space to exhibit art. It was designed by Peter Cook (of Archigram fame) and Colin Founier and features many interesting features, most notably the 'biomorphic' structure and the BIX facade which allows images, animations and films to be displayed.

Now, the build.

I have been given a few architectural plans but most of these are very old and not purticularly accurate. Because of this, I have spent the last couple of days tracing these plans into Rhinoceros (a CAD program) to try and get them to a consistent quality.




From left: Original plan, ground floor plan and plan of the roof.


Another problem is the lack of an area plan. This is vitally important as I would like to include a large amount of 'contextual' buildings (the surrounding, old fashioned buildings) in my model. Plans and elevations of these buildings will prove very handy in the future so I have made a start producing my own by tracing maps of the area using google maps and bing maps.

Half traced bing map picture

Accuracy is not of paramount concern in this project as the client wants the 'form' and the context of the building captured, as opposed to 100% perfect sized window frames and lamp posts.

Once the area plan is traced out and adjusted, I will scale it to 1:400 and print out the plans onto paper/card. Then the real modelling can begin!