Northern Guilford Middle School

The school I have designed to now be a very interactive and stimulating environment that will invoke school spirit and learning. All circulation paths flow as one and are stitched together to the community spaces to create fluidity throughout the entire school.

final

Our last day finally came down to presentations at Northern Guilford High School. There were a few students including Bryan and Wade plus some other teachers. Janel, Shannon, and myself presented the studio's projects and ended with a video showing the process of our own studio's spaces' transition. I never thought I would be so nervous to present until I was standing in front of the students. Whether it was because the abundance of coffee combined with no sleep or the fact we were responsible of presenting others work, I was shaking. Not something I have done since I was in second year presenting. It was an experience however, which made me realize some other important aspects. There was a quote in the book, Home from Nowhere by Howard Kunstler which reminded me of this.

"The outcome of two decades of urban renewal was that almost nothing of enduring value got built"

This relates to my experience because I had studied each persons work so hard and became so focused on presenting each persons project with the intention of showing their whole space, that I lost site of the real challenge. This presentation was not meant for that, it was meant to show the potential each school had. By separating their work out and trying to present it individually I think I failed at this. This is why nothing had ever been built according to Kunstler. So many people tried to go in every direction to show what they believed was best for that time. However, it wasn't and many issues arose and communities were lost. The value of design needs to be looked at from every angle, whether great or small but either way it needs to be looked at as a whole. Something I should have done when presenting.
This project was a great learning experience and helped me achieve many goals which I set out to gain this semester:
1. Balancing school and life
2. Going back to my roots of hand rendering
3. Research
4. Learn a new program

MNS - Process- design

MNS - Process- design

MNS - Process- design

MNS - Process- seating

Studio 4.8.09-understanding

Gained knowledge:

First would have to be the perspective I gained from the importance of communication within groups. This is an obvious importance but one that always seems to be disregarded. The high school and the middle school circulation spaces have been a constant confusion of how much design should relate to both spaces. I think Patrick made it clear that it is important to have this easy transfer of design but you can't force it. If something doesn't work, don't use it. If it makes a bad design then how would either group benefit from the project. I'm glad we talked about this and have settled on some common paths we both wish to take with our designs.

Next Steps:

1) Look up fire codes--very important!
[communicate with group]
2) Determine how the "U" stitches together the spaces and relates back to our concept.
[communicate with group]
3) Sketch out floor plan to understand how the "U" works with each space from aerial view.
[communicate with group]
4) Finalize design
[communicate with group]
5) Start Revit!.....yikes