Assignment 3 – Preliminary Concept

The following images are some sketches for the façade design of the apartment.

As mentioned before in the modeling proposal, relatable but different façade design is to be applied to the three main parts of the apartment, namely the façade facing the harbour (western façade), façade facing the city and Botanical Garden (eastern façade) and the façade facing the Sydney Opera House (northern façade)

For the western façade which is the major façade with the most exposure to visitors, my design is the “weaving waves”, which the organic form is to soften the existing hard edge facing the harbour. The hard edge will be broken down by “weaving” the floor slab edges of the apartment, which the geometry reverses on alternating floors. Moreover, the algorithm will be applied on a hypothetical non-Cartesian surface (which is also the enclosure of the apartment’s inner core) will be the base geometry for the algorithm, which causes the alternating floor planes to shift slightly on every reiteration, adding another layer of movement into the façade. The balustrades will be made of gold-tinted glass. The overall experience is vibrant and transparent.

For the eastern façade, a same weaving pattern will be applied, but by reducing the amount of openings  and making the balustrade an opaque material, the overall experience is more solid, addressing the hard edges of the city streetscape.

For northern façade, the strong connection with the Sydney Opera House is inevitable a driving design concern for the façade. It is decided that the northern part of the apartment will be of a more sculptural form that addresses the connection between the sculptural presence of the Opera House.