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GRID: NEW CRAWFORD

Image Above: Final Proposal Render

Image Above: Site Sketch

Image Above: Photography by Ryan

As part of my first semester project of my final year of University, this group project aimed to redesign the Crawford building; within Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD), University of Dundee.

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This was a six week project which was pitched to the Dean of DJCAD along with the two other class groups.

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This page serves as a documentation of the full creative process along with my experience throughout this project as a designer and a member of a design team on a large scale challenge. 

Throughout the exploration of the Crawford Building and surveying the site, as a group we agreed that that the existing building is a maze decorated with a grid pattern everywhere the eye gazes. 

As a result, we decided to use the concept of the grid pattern to redesign the building by disrupting the grid. 

Image Above: One point perspective Collage conceptualising the disruption of the gridded building. 

ENGAGEMENT TASK

As a team, we came up with a way to tailor our design to the creative students of the University of Dundee. Using a Yellow extendable fence, we wheeled it down to the entrance of the Matthew Building - part of DJCAD - and asked passing students and staff their opinions on the current Crawford Building; what they feel they would like to see, how easy it is to find facilities and class rooms, how they commute and how close do they live to the university. 

Above, we can see the engagement task in site of the Mathew building with various results from being connected across the gridded fence. The participants were asked to answer the aforementioned questions and connect them on the grid which was used as a graph to see the wide spread of answers. 

To the Right; we can see the results of the engagement task which have been refined and then used to begin forming the designs concept.  We can also see these 'disrupted' grid lines in sketch models to visualise how they can be translated into different spaces.  

DEVELOPEMENT

GRID had extensive development when it came to zoning the new design based off the feedback we received through the Engagement Task. As a group we decided to work floor by floor rather than dividing floors between each of us. This way we can keep a level of continuity and allow the building to flow effortlessly.  

The Zoning along side the 'disrupted' Grid lines were developed further to create the floor plans above which could then be taken straight into autoCAD and fineness so they can be used to create a 3D model in Sketchup.  

RENDERS

Once GRID had gone through the various development and iterations, it was time to produce the final renders in preparation for the pitch in front of the Dean of DJCAD.