Final Panel

final images

Level 2 Perspective

East Elevation

 First Floor Plan

Exterior Perspective

Typical Floors 2-4

Logo

Reception

Roof Deck Perspective

Roof Plan

 Fourth Floor Plan

Section

Section

North Elevation

Entry to staff area

Toilet Pod

Toilet Pod without door

Toilet Pod Open

Toilet Pod Closed

West Elevation

Reception Night

Toilet Pod opening

Sleeping Pod opening

Toilet Block

At this stage I have almost finished modeling and am starting to get into the presentation side of things. I have started experimenting with animation, and realised that it is quite a lengthy process to render, however, I think a few short clips like this will be invaluable to my preserntation and getting an insight into how my building works. 

Pod render

This week I have spent a lot of time working on my pod design. Here is an animation showing the exterior of the pod. The next step is to take this component into sketchup in order to model the intricate interior as discussed previously.

Virtual chauffeur

Since much of my hotel is already automated, i was thinking of ways to reduce the burden on staff. One idea I had come up with was to create a lighting system in the flooring (most likely LED's) that lead guests to their rooms so the staff can simply man the reception desk. Actually, on the topic of staff, I have not yet made allocations for a staff area. This will be somewhere where the hotel will store goods, cleaning facilities and a break area. The most proficient place to have this is on ground floor to the left of reception, an area that would otherwise be an unnecessary hallway.

Virtual Chauffeur

 Staff Space

Accesories

I like the idea of providing accessories at the hotel that guests  may have forgotten or lost while traveling. I have decided to include just the necessities which will be located in the pod drawer upon check-in. These include a water bottle, toothpaste and toothbrush, and a towel. Upon check-in the drawer will also have the pod controoler which i have started modeling, and it will be used to control the alarm, TV and phone in the pod.

The hotel water bottle and toothbrush (and perhaps logo- the human, the parasite and the host)

Initial model and render of the pod remote in phone mode

main menu display for pod remote, will be on the glass touch screen

Interior pod details

I have been trying to work out the interior components of my pod, as it is a fairly confined space, the sue of the area is very important. I think the most necessary components for my guests is a Desk to work at, a television and a phone. I have talked previously of my idea to have an illuminous 'silent' alarm clock in the pod, and this got mo to thinking how will all of this be controlled by the user. I have also started modeling a remote to integrate the pods function into one hand held component.

 

Images of the fold down desk and TV.

 Another option is to have the seat built into the door, this allows the user to face down the length of the pod.

Spatial dimensions and storage. I had not previously thought about the need for guest luggage storage, but it is an obvious component for any hotel. The image below is an example of hew this storage can be built into columns located between each pod, this also helps to separate each pod and provide some privacy.  

1:1 scale model

During this tutorial I decided I would model up a few rough elements of my pod design in order to obtain a sense of space for the dimensions I have assigned to the pod structures.

Pod Door

The pod door pivots on a hinge at the top of the front face to save space in front of the pod.

 Closed

 

 Halfway through opening

 

Completely open

Draw

The draw is located in the pod, sitting beneath the bed inside. It acts as a safety deposit box for guests and also stores the pods remote and amenities.

 

Lying position 

These images give a sense of scale for the guest while lying in the pod, the approximate dimensions are 2.5m in length with a 1.2m diameter. These images do not take into consideration the space inside the pod that the draw would take up, so the bed actually sits around 20cm up from where I am lying in these images. 

 

Sitting 

These images show  how the guest will be positioned when sitting in the pod, this will probably be the position that the guest will take when sitting in the pod either using the desk or watching TV.

 

 

Tectonics revised

As previously mentioned, the design I had proposed earlier was not very efficient in terms of functionality and tectonics, which somewhat comes back to modelling in 3DS Max from the get go. This shows just one of the limitations of this software, as it is not strictly for building design. However, it was mostly my fault, jumping into modelling far too quickly. I have since gone back to the trusty old pen and paper to start refine my design. What I have come up with I believe is far my functional, and also considers the tectonics of the design. For future reference, I am going to have to find a balance between hand sketches and 3D modelling that allows for a unique, yet practical design. Anyway, the following sketches show the direction I am heading in for my toilet block and pod design, I may try modelling them in 3Ds to get a better idea of how they work, but I think I will talk to Ruwan and do a bit more exemplar analysis of similar designs before I get to far ahead of myself.

The toilet block is approximately 12m x 6m x 3m split into 4 sections, however I think I should be able to either reduce the size of the block or add another two toilets in, which would make it easier for guests as it is shared between 10 people (on each floor). 

I got the size for the pod by testing it with a desk in the tutorial room at QUT which was 1m x 1m, and seemed to be more than enough room for a comfortable yet functional design.

As the hallways on each floor is a limited width, I am planning to have the doors for each pod pivot on a point parallel with the pod to save space within the hallway.

This is the preliminary deign for my pods,  the main light for the room is provided by a luminous clock that is built into the cylindrical pod wall. The cylindrical interior provides space for a sleeping mattress with a safety storage draw underneath, I may also have lockers beside each pod. The cylindrical interior shell allows for and exterior shell of almost any shape or form without impacting on the functionality of the space.  

   Simple toilet block design.

Tectonics

Over the last couple of weeks I have been doing alot of modelling in 3ds Max to try and understand the form of my building design, however I have realised (so has Ruwan) that it is very difficult to understand the tectonics and functional planning of my design within 3DS. Now that I have some idea of what 3Ds is capable of doing, I think it is time to take a step back and use the knowledge I have acquired so far this semester in order to discover in alot more detail how my design can work. Since I already have the main floors to my building, the other critical components include the toilet block, the sleeping pods and the facade which I plan on looking at in more detail to iron out the wrinkles in terms of design and tectonics. Another important aspects is the spatial layout, as the storey bridge consists of many criss-crossing beams and columns, it may take some time to find a suitable layout so these features can be utilised rather than becoming a burden on the design.

The following sketches show the functionality and tectonics of my current design, and as you can see, some of the designs are simply not adequate for their use. For example the shape of the toilet blocks makes it very difficult to fit the requires facilities inside, and lots of space is wasted, which does not represent the concept of my design which requires functionality. The next weeks will be spent re-designing these components, trying to find a solution that fits the required functions and still maintains the aesthetic values at hand.