Sunday, April 22, 2012

Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, China

Gobi Desert is the 4th largest desert in the world, the largest in Asia. It locates in the north of the Inner Mongolia in China. It has several parts of steppes which people can build villages, and shepherds can stop for a rest, and sell and buy stuffs.The main transport media in the desert is camels, jaks are used to carry goods.


The climate in Inner Mongolia is monsoon climate because of its elongated shape and plateau location. The winters are very long, cold and dry with frequent blizzards, but spring, summer and autumn are short, extremely hot and arid with dangerous sandstorms.

Mongolian Yurt

The Mongolian yurt is the home of the shepherds who live on the desert. The shepherds always travel across the desert and the steppe, so their yurts will travel will them, this leads the yurts to be very easy to be constructed and deassembled, it takes about 2 hours to construct one yurt, and they can be carried by camels or jaks.
This is the structural system of the yurt. It is a circular wooden frame. But instead of columns to support the walls, they use lattice wall frames, and the column is used in the middle of the yurt to support the whole thing.
Adding a layer of felt above the lattice frame.
 
Adding the outer cover above the felt layer.
The inside of the yurts in Central Asia.
The interior of the western yurts.

Timetable


Competition Selection


Saturday, March 17, 2012

Assignment Percentage

Clarity - 25%
Rigor - 25%
Imagination - 20%
Inhabitation and Program - 10%
Artifice and Formal Configuration - 10%
Construction and Structural System - 10%

Clarity and Rigor take the highest percentage as I find out the compelling idea and how the design would reflect and respond to its context socially, culturally, environmentally and economically are crucial to the competition. Imagation takes 20% because a strong concept with creativity would be attractive.

Past Entries Analysis


1971 - 6th competition - shopping centre using glass

The theme of this competition is Shopping Centre Using Glass.

The concept of this entry is the Rotating Box, so the authors also apply this idea
into their drawings which is rotating some of the drawings to emphasize the
concept and make the layout stronger.

On their drawing, they have included lots of things to present their building,
such as concept diagrams, plans, sections, interior and exterior perspectives,
construction details and schemes of services in the building. These drawings
lead them to focus on how the building would be worked.

Most of their drawings are color, but there is one interior perspective near the
exterior perspective showing how light will come into the building is black and
white. This gives a contrast between exterior perspective and interior
perspective.






1985 - 20th competition - a space with an atrium

The theme of this year is A Space with An Atrium, it is about to design a multipurpose space connecting directly the public space and private space. The atrium will become the centre of the design and the relationships of all peripheral spaces to it are necessary.

This winning entry has a big image showing the atrium in a green public park which can catch people's attention.

The atrium expressed in this drawing the forms from the historical periods of the past with new life. The busy green public park with people, sculptures and fountains outside the atrium emphasizes the atrium in the middle which is not as busy as outside.

People in the drawing give a sense of scale and activate the drawing.

Detail drawings of paintings, columns and people with traditional costumes are also
showed at the bottom of the drawing.

1999 - 34th competition - environmentally friendly architecture



The theme of this competition is An Architecture Which is Kind to the Earth. The meaning of the phrase 'kind to the earth' is not only of regret for the things that mankind has done to waste the energy resources and produce huge consumption in the past, but also hope for the future. At the same time when reduce the usage and consumption of energy, we still need to continue improving our civilization and culture. The competition is to design a building or any type of architecture with this concept.

The winning entry has its own title 'The Breathing Networks'. Its concept is to design a fold
titanium panel on the train which can reduce NOx, CO2. It is not about a building but about a moving architecture to reduce the usage and consumption of energy.

On the drawing, the authors include details on color, air pollution, scene, size, catalyst mark, luminescence area of the train. This is showing how the train will be working.

By having a series of time-changed networks drawings, they express how this fold titanium panel on the train would work to reduce the usage and consumption of energy.

The big image shows the train running in the city, the contrast of black and white city and the color train emphasizes the train and activates the drawing.





Connection


All of these three entries have very strong concept, and a big perspective view of the design and details showing how the design will work in acturial world. The contrast of black and white and colour makes the drawings more interesting and eye-catching. The drawings are all separating from each other, nothing overlaid.



Contrast


The 1971 entry is designing a shopping centre building, but the 1985 entry is a space in the middle of the green park which is not a building, the 1999 entry is a movement architecture - train in the town, all these three entries are designing different things but winning the competition with their strong concepts.



The layouts of the three entries are quite different but the common point is they have no drawings overlaid with others. On the 1971 entry, drawings are quite close to each other with arrows directed, and some of the drawings have been rotated to respond to the design concept; the 1985 entry uses detail drawings has text boxes and they are placing separated with the big perspective drawing; the drawings on the 1999 entry are laying in grid lines and getting more detailed from left to right.