MUDD 5050

The purpose of this blog will be to document the work I'll be doing as a graduate student in the Master of Urban design program at UNC Charlotte's School of Architecture. As a recent graduate from UNC Greensboro's Interior Architecture program, I have interiors, graphic, and architectural design experience. You can view my previous work through the side button links. As a new graduate student entering the Master of Urban Design program from a non-accredited architecture program I was required to take the summer course MUDD 5050, which is an basically an intro to design studio. The class started out with the individual assignment diagramming a box within another box to define the typologies: l-shaped, u-shaped, centralized and divided.

From those diagrams in groups of two we chose one of each of the four typologies from our combined work and went on to draft on trace these diagrams of the box within a box of a room within a space. Adding an threshold and apertures to the rooms to strengthen the typologies.

We then built basswood models of the four types and did light studies of them using the heliodon in the Lighting Lab, photographing them at different times of the day and different days of the year.

From those models we went back to doing individual work and each chose one of the typologies from the models we did and built a larger scale foam core model. I chose to continue with the divided typology. The plan illustrates division of the space in quadrants, and the apertures and thresholds help strengthen the typology.

We also did orthographic drawings of this final space.

With the larger scale model we built, we did another light study in the Lighting Lab, this time using the artificial sky and the online WEBHDR software.

With the image that was generated from the HDR photo studies, the next assignment was to make an abstract collage in photoshop to represent the idea of division. At this point the room wasn't meant to serve a purpose functionally, so we had to illustrate in the collage who might use the space, how might material affect it, and where might the box be located. This collage was a really fun assignment to do! It was very abstract and really just meant for you to tell a story of your space while represent your idea.

So! With the idea of division, the apertures and thresholds really signify the different spaces created within the quadrants, which is what led me to do this collage. It basically tells a story of a person who wants to explore and this room could sort of be a capsule which enables them to do that. From one extreme of exploration to another, as far as outer space and as deep as the ocean. Below is our final presentation!

During the previous assignment we took a break mid way and had an assignment of graphically representing data. This data was collected prior to class starting earlier in the summer and we had to account for every 30 minutes from Monday-Sunday. Each person used a different persons data to represent.

Allllllllllll that within the first 3 weeks of the class!

Our final project was based around our five-day class trip to Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia. In Charleston we stayed at the Inn at Middleton Place, a contemporary inn on the grounds of Middleton Place, which has a historical landmarks and gardens. We also stopped in-between the two cities in South Carolina to do some charcoal drawings of the Sheldon Church Ruins, which was an old church from the mid 1700s. Below are some photographs taken on the trip, I apologize for the layout of the photos below...I couldn't organize it nicely!

The Inn & Gardens at Middleton Place

The Sheldon Church Ruins, SC

Charleston, SC

Savannah, GA

Our final project was to design an emergency shelter.

We had two sites to chose from to do our project. One was a waterfront park in Charleston and the other was one of the squares in downtown Savannah. Below are the photo analyses I did for both of the sites.

Study of light & shadow, Charleston site

Surrounding city "thresholds", Charleston

So, for my project I chose to do the Savannah site, Oglethorpe Square. Savannah's riverfront downtown is made up of park like squares about every other block. Below are the photo analyses & diagrams of the site I've created.

City Context

Landmarks Diagrams, Savannah, GA

Elevation Diagrams, Savannah, GA

Savannah diagram analysis, Oglethorpe Square & other surrounding squares

Oglethorpe Square Panoramic

My next post will show my process & final images for the MUDD 5050 project, and that'll conclude the summer semester assignments. After that I'll be blogging about the projects, assignments, & thoughts as a graduate student in the Master of Urban Design program, so keep following! :)