To finalise the concept statement of my project, this youth care center aims to provide a fun and conducive environment for the youth in Phnom Penh to learn, to share, to play and to lead in the community. Student housing accommodates youths who are studying in Phnom Penh, but living in other provinces, thereby enhancing productivity to learn and enabling them to train for greater self-discipline.
By bringing staircases with green terraces outdoors, this journey around the building would allow the youth to have an unobstructed view towards the river and the boulevard, hence enabling them to have constant visual connection with the people around the site, this is surely an experience of seeing and being seen.
Internally, by introducing a glass lift with the air gap at the center of the building, it can dually serve as the light well, and at the same time enhance the air circulation for internal spaces. Through exploring ways to provide interesting pockets of spaces for the youth to enjoy, this center thus envisions to create an interactive platform for them to observe, to smell, to listen and to feel all the happenings around the building.
During the preparation for the final review, I have updated all the floor plans and the massing diagram according to the changes that I have made since mid term review.
Firstly, the updated massing diagrams are really helpful to show the overall design features or intentions that I would like to have for the youths in the building. By exploring ways to blend the exterior space with the interior space, hence envisions the youths to have a fantastic experience while they are in the building.
// preserved the 5-foot way around the building
// central courtyard to act as the light well and to enhance air circulation within the internal spaces
// 2 entrances from the main streets
continue the tranquility at the ground floor, viewing gallery is located on the ground floor with the central void to allow visual interactions with the basement library space; public spaces are allocated from level 2 to level 4; private student housing is located at the upper floors of the building, with the roof top garden that is accessible by the public to enjoy the view of the site from the rooftop.
// by bringing out the staircases with the green terraces outdoors that wrap around the building to allow the youth to have the constant green connection with the royal park at the site.
by exploring on the sun path diagram and the prevailing wind condition on site, proposing some of the recreational activities outdoor such as the climbing wall would hence allow the youth the enjoy the breeze off the river when they are climbing at the wall outdoor.
by introducing the pitched roof whereby the left side is the trellis that allow sun and rain to access for the rooftop garden below. the right side being the covered roof to act as the shelter for the laundry room and the bbq area below. by proposing the green balcony at level 4 and level 5 would hence ensure the youths to have the outdoor views on every floor.
this diagram shows how the people around the site could interact the building and how the design features proposed has the impact on the people around the site.
views inside the central glass lift.
// The air gap between the lift and the floor slab is rotated at 30 degree for each floor, thereby creating the effect shown from the video clip above. This is just one of the interesting moments that I would envision the youths to experience, both internally and externally.
Reflections:
// In this studio, I have learnt a lot of the knowledge in the technical part of architecture, such as the detailing of the planter, staircases and shelvings are also important to so as to provide readable and understandable drawings for the contractors to construct in real life.
// Prof Daniel is very helpful in terms of firming up my design ideas by providing real life projects that he found is interesting and he will share with us during his weekly lecture.
// even though prof daniel is in US currently, but he would try his best to arrange his time with us for as many consultations as possible so that we could clear our doubts and difficulties during the design process.
// The teaching assistant, Mike is also very good and knowledgable in giving us design ideas and how we could improve our designs.