PROJECT BRIEF-Architecture
For the first given assignment, I am a Allied London Junior designer. I have been asked by my boss to give my concept on the replacement of 1 Canada Square. I will be researching Allied London and Canary Wharf as I have to think and act as if I was an employee. I have to keep up to their standards and create something that would impress the important people at Allied London.
TASKS(OVERVIEW)
Task 1
- Research on Allied London.
- Research on Canary Wharf.
- Describe and discuss visual elements and principles.
- Compare the visual elements and principles to 3 similar buildings.
Task 2
- 20-30 Rough building designs.
- 3 very developed designs-Including a rationale (100 words minimum).
- Final design and Orthographic drawing.
- Final design discussion.
More In Depth Explanation:
Task 1
ALLIED LONDON
They are Architectural UK Company. Their main focus is to create ‘inspiring places’ to change the way Britain works.
They put 100% effort into their designs, taking into consideration everyone’s needs and wants from such touristy locations, such as London, Manchester and Leeds.
With these main cities they take into consideration financial needs to create such fantastic buildings.
(St. John’s Living Tower-Manchester)
This is an artist’s impression on the ‘High rise cluster’ at St John’s (Manchester)
This is just one of the clusters of buildings that were built by Allied London. This is St John’s, in Manchester. It was built around three key points:
Enterprise: Things such as, places to; work, eat, drink, shop, stay. It is most definitely the ‘heart’ of Manchester.
Culture: The culture, this focuses on new ideas, arts, entertainment and creativity. This allows people to explore these public buildings. It also gives a lot of experiences; exhibitions, screenings, workshops and leisure. The company also increases the economy by providing:
• Shops
• Restaurants
• Cafes
• Bars
• Breweries
• Bookshops
• Galleries
• Gyms
These things will all provide money for the economy and increase the quality of living for the community living there.
Living:
With the experiences and retail mentioned before, the community will become closer. Allied London looks at ‘Living’ in another light. They take so much more into consideration.
“Living is more than just a house… It’s about being a part of a neighbourhood.” ~Allied London.
THE TEAM
(Two examples who works in Allied London)
Michael Ingall
(Chief Executive)
Michael Ingall plays a large role in AL, mainly in redevelopment of the city centre. He has over thirty years experience in corporation and real estate development. He is also one of the founders of the new and improved Allied London, in 2000.
Freddie Graham-Watson
(Group Finance Director)
He has the overall responsibility for all financial obligations related to the Allied London portfolio.
These are only two of the important staff members in Allied London. There are multiple more that pride themselves on the happiness of others. All staff have the experience needed in their field of work to control their job. This can ensure the public that London, Leeds and Manchester are in very good hands.
CANARY WHARF
TRANSPORT
Canary Wharf is most definitely easy to get to, it has many public transport connections, such as; Jubilee Line, Docklands Light Railway, River Bus /Bus, National Rail. Many choose to use their own car, which is understandable, Canary Wharf has provided the use of parking and clear roads for the safety of the visitors.
SHOPPING
The services and shops Canary Wharf provides comes in many different styles. Just to name a couple; OASIS, BREMONT and POLO RALPH LAUREN. Over 120 stores dedicated to the consumers wants and needs, these stores include; beauty, fashion, fitness, homeware and many more to appeal to the customers.
FOOD
There are multiple different restaurants you can visit. Multiple different types of food, including; Indian, Italian, and of course they are all traditional and very good value for the price. In the Reuters Plaza, there is a bakery that prides themselves on their ‘Bad’ Brownies, according to the reviews they are certainly not bad. They are flavor crazy and these gourmet brownies are very popular in this community.
ONE CANADA SQUARE
One Canada Square, most commonly called the Canary Wharf Tower, is most definitely the heart of Canary Wharf. It stands at 770 Ft tall (235m) containing 50 stories, making it the second tallest building in the UK.
It was designed by Cesar Pelli and mainly used as offices, though there is some retail units on the lower ground floor (shopping mall), there is no observational floors.
It is known to be the ‘London Landmark’ and was recognised in TV and other forms of media.
It has a pyramid roof. This has become an aircraft warning beacon. It also weighs over 100 tons.
VISUAL ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES
APPLYING MY KNOWLEDGE OF VISUAL ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES TO THREE BUILDINGS OF MY CHOICE:
SHANGHAI TOWER (CHINA)
How can one not be attracted to the largest building in China, the second tallest in Asia and the world! It is apart of the trio of signature towers in Shanghai. It is placed very close to ‘Jin Mao Tower’ and ‘Shanghai World Financial Center.
There is a noticeable curve to the skyscraper making it smooth and rounded, not only creating a unique appearance but humans will find more pleasing to the eye than a pointy and sharp building as it’s calming. The ‘pattern’ on the building is constant, the floors are spaced equally, which is appealing to the human eye as we are normally attracted to symmetry. The colour of this skyscraper is a glass tinted grey, including the grey segments between the floors.
The most visible part of the building to me is the very noticeable right-angle ‘chuck’ missing from one of the rounded corners, it adds more dimension and it is more memorable. It ties the whole building together making it quite elegant.
THE SHARD (UK)
The Shard is placed in the heart of the country, London. It is the tallest tower in London and is also known as Shard Of Glass and Shard London Bridge. The colour of this skyscraper is a glass tinted blue with grids of squares covering it. The light shines on it perfectly and gives it a somewhat orange glow. It has ‘Sharp’ edges, which could seem harsh, however as its name is Shard of glass it’s quite fitting, as shards of glass are very sharp and pointy. The emotion that it gives off, to me is professional and harsh, for example, you would look at this building and think ‘Important people are in there working hard.’ To me there is no negative space, all the space used is pleasing and has a purpose.
LOTTE WORLD TOWER (SOUTH KOREA)
The Lotte World Tower, the tallest in South Korean, the 5th tallest in the world. This tower took 13 years to plan and didn’t disappoint the community.
The peak of the structure has somewhat of a ‘U’ shape, which adds to its uniqueness. The colour of this skyscraper is glass tinted blue. It contrasts well with the sky and with its surroundings. The shape is what interested me the most, with it having a variety of thickness throughout the building, it comes off as very balanced and is well constructed.
There’s a lot of natural lighting in this building as the surrounding buildings are not tall, this has a massive impact on what people see when they enter the City, obviously they will immediately see the large skyscraper. The building is not only pleasing to the eye but comes off very professional and seems well maintained.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion these similar buildings all have things in common, however they all have their own uniqueness. They all come under the category of ‘skyscraper’ which is a building that’s got over 40 floors and taller than approximately 150 m. They are all extremely tall and have a tinted glass outer shell. The colours vary between grey and blue. Personally I think these buildings are different to the ‘normal’ ones, they are inspiring.
These buildings are my style, modern, professional and they all stand out in their own way. They all had a distinguishing thing about the structure that drew me in:
- Shanghai Tower- The ‘missing chuck’ I spoke about before.
- The Shard- How sharp and direct it was.
- Lotte World Tower- The thickness throughout the building.
The moment you’d enter these cities, you’d see these large buildings and agree that they are the heart of the country, not only the first thing you see but a perfect example of taking pride in the country. It shows how much effort and planning the people put in to create such fantastic buildings. I’d be overjoyed to be the creator of such inspiring buildings.
Putting Myself In Their Shoes…
As a junior designer for Allied London, I will most definitely take into consideration what large impact, 1 Canada Square has had on London and south east England since it’s been built. I know that my designs wont please everyone but I want to please as many as I can. Moving swiftly on, the 2nd task I will be adding in my designs and finding a unique one to replace 1 Canada Square with.
Task 2
(20-30 Rough Building designs)
Most of these buildings are very basic and have very little detail. This will give me slightly more freedom to decide which designs to develop and change. Some of these such as the odd looking fountain (number 28) would be hard to develop and change, as it is already made up of very complex shapes.
Building 1
-RATIONALE-
I will be giving a brief summary of how I obtained this shape of building and why I have chosen it as one of my very detailed designs. This design had changed a lot compared to what it started, I began by placing two very basic shapes together and changing the corners and curves to suit my taste. After I had sorted the shape I began to think about the entrance and the windows. I have stated above (in the drawing) that every floor has a different shade of tinted glass. This will make the building more noticeable. The entrance might seem slightly basic however the top of the building can definitely make up for it, as the roof is flat, there is space for solar panels, this will help the building generate power. it wont be as expensive in the long run. The top of the building is shaped as a regular Hexagon, it’s also a digital billboard that can be seen from all perspectives (360 Degrees). The coloured trim is also digital, so whoever owns the building as the time can change it as they please. The default colour to the billboards (AKA when they’re off) will be black.
Building 2
-RATIONALE-
I will be giving a brief summary of how I obtained this shape of building and why I have chosen it as one of my very detailed designs. The original idea for this building was a stereotypical diamond shape, however my mind quickly changed as it looked very odd and ‘heavy’, it didn’t seem to look ‘correct’. I flipped my idea, literally, upside down and made it taller. This gives it a slimmer look and doesn’t look so ‘heavy’ anymore. The windows are according to the shape and has the same curve of the building. The top of the building, the ‘view point’ is made out of glass and will light up to help planes, something that the previous Canary Wharf Tower had.
Building 3
-RATIONALE-
I will be giving a brief summary of how I obtained this shape of building and why I have chosen it as one of my very detailed designs. This design also changed a lot compared to when I first started developing it. Alike to ‘Building 1’ I started by putting simple shapes together and finding two that fit my tastes. At some point I found myself making a ‘Vase’ shape and decided to stick with it. I experimented with different bases and entrances and ended up with a ‘squeezed’ square with pointed edges. The square has a rectangle going through the middle, sort of like a large trim, this won’t contain any windows as it might pry away from the very large windows around it. On top of the square (the vase looking shape) has very long vertical windows, equally spaced and curved. The ‘Zigzag pattern’ along the ‘vase’ will be an opaque metal and won’t include any windows, at all.
FINAL DESIGN
ORTHOGRAPHIC DRAWING
Final
Final Discussion
I have chosen this design as my final piece. I was inspired to create a building that stood out (colour wise) because there are so many buildings that have almost no colour (just a boring shade of grey or blue.) I decided that my building was a blue marble material, this gave me a clean slate to work with. Adding the colourful windows helped to bring the building ‘Alive’. This building is extremely tall, which can make up for 1 Canada Square getting ‘demolished’. The shape of the building is unique, it also gives off a professional vibe. Overall I believe that this building could be much accurate if I had much more knowledge on 3DS Max however there is much more time for me to learn!
Harvard References
Alex Hansford. (2012). Busking in London. Available: https://thecardmagician.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/busking-in-london/. Last accessed 17th September 2018.
Chris08876 . (2018). Shanghai Tower. Available: forum./showthread.php?t=116595&page=114. Last accessed 17th September 2018.
edition.cnn. (2017). The Lotte World Tower opens in Seoul. Available: https://edition.cnn.com/style/gallery/lotte-world-tower-opens-seoul/index.html. Last accessed 18th September 2018.
Jai Geddes. (2018). Lendlease and McLaren win £1bn Manchester St John’s scheme. Available: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/646336983996122015/. Last accessed 17th September 2018.
London Beep. (2018). The Shard London – Tallest Tower of London 2018 UK. Available: https:///the-shard-london-tallest-tower-of-london. Last accessed 17th September 2018.
Skyscraper Center. (2018). Shanghai Tower. Available: http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/shanghai-tower/56. Last accessed 17th September.
Wikipedia. (2018). One Canada Square. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Canada_Square. Last accessed 17th September 2018.
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