WEEK 12 TUTORIAL_feedback

1/ The possibility of swapping around the Tech. Room and the Storage Space, allowing easier access from the Conference Committee Room to the Storage Room

2/ Disabled Access to the Ground Level Public Cafe and decking spaces, possibility of a lift from the bottom and a path to the cafe area, or an underground ramp and lift up to this space
Or a Ramp - 1:14 gradient though, which is highly likely to be impossible

3/ No doorway entry to the toilet from the General Hallway (Staff side of the underground HUB), to control security risks on unauthorised entry

4/ Investigate mixed mode ventilation - Natural and Mechanical, as well as looking into Plenum's.

5/ Possibility of a glazed flooring (part of the floor) to keep underground space honest and to allow interest from people on the ground floor looking down to below, getting intrigued

E.g Glass Bottom Boat

E.g Glazed Decking

WEEK 12_progress

This is where I'm at for the developing stage of my Community Committee Interaction Hub, at the beginning of the Week 12 Tutorial.

Underground Committee Hub Floor Plan - 1:50

Underground Committee Hub Floor Plan (With furniture) - 1:50

Natural Ventilation and Light Considerations - 1:50

Front Elevation from Parliament Drive and a Section through the 'HUB'

3D View - 1:50

Public (Blue) VS Private (Yellow) - 1:50

Journey: Public (Blue) VS Private (Red)

EXAMPLAR_sloping site house

This modern house take advantage of sloping contour to maximize comfortable living space.  Various inclined roof formed as continuous shape with open patio that provide light and ventilation and allow spectacular views towards the surrounding landscape.  The result is stunning sculptural geometric outdoors look.  The interior design, space layout organize follow the opening patio terrace, create dynamic area.  For the landscape, simple garden with artificial topography to hide the giant sloped roof add a balance sense. Designed by Productora Architects.

Front facade recessed into the sloped site

Viewing area maximise the views of the site (Similar to my decking platforms)

Sourced from: http://archinspire.com/home-design/desert-like-sloping-house-modern-geometrical-design-ideas.htm

WEEK 11 TUTORIAL_progress

Drafted Floor Plan

After discussion with Natasha we had decided that the spatial arrangement of my original floor plan needed some adjustments.  The rough sketch above shows a new arrangement of the spaces underground in my site, the north-eastern corner of Parliament House. A major change is the large corridor when you enter down into the hub, the hallway allows access to everything in the hub, one side being private, for the staff and public on the other side.  It also allows for a larger gallery and natural ventilation opportunities.  It also allows for more access to the committee conference rooms and a better security check-in point.     

Drafted ground floor plan and expressing spatial ideas through a section

The section explain that different spaces could possibly be pushed through the current hill, and allow opportunities for natural ventilation to enter the gallery space (Orange box) and to allow view out of the committee conference rooms/ to create the outside public to become intrigued about whats inside of these spaces (Green box, with the possibility of having a glazed facade for each conference room).  And the ground floor plan for the Hub will simply include a public cafe/ dining/ meeting space, decking spaces off this cafe spaces and the access core behind it all (not seen from the front).

Another section experimenting with natural ventilation opportunities

This section is showing the natural air entering the underground hub spaces and then exiting towards the back through vents or exhaust.  This natural ventilation could be an option through the gallery and central spaces and could also work in coordination with the mechanical ventilation (Air con).

SITE_selection

I have chosen to house my hub in the north eastern corner of the Parliament House Site, with partially above ground and partially below ground (Highlighted below in the blue squared area).

Site Plan view of the chosen Site

Front Elevation of the Site from Parliament Drive street view

First Underground Floor Plan and Other Plans

Floor Plan of the Underground Development of my Public Committee Interaction Hub

How the public will interact with the staff of the Hub to get involve with the Committee Interaction

Considering Mechanical and Natural Ventilation for the UNDERGROUND spaces

BRIEF_with feedback and a schematic plan

I propose to implement a Public Committee Interaction Hub, based on improving public interaction and involvement with the existing Parliamentary Committee Room and members.  The existing Australian Parliament House Committee Rooms on Level 1 and 2 are currently off limits to the public visitation and interaction, so I intend on designing a hub for the Public to interact! 

The Public Committee Interaction Hub will involve:

• One Committee Conference Room for House of Representatives Committee – sizes varies from 30 m² to 300m²
• One committee Conference Room for the Senate Chamber Committee – sizes varies from 30 m² to 300m²Café/ eatery – 150m² (Above ground)
• Toilet facilities – 40m²
• Staff office/s – 20m²
• Storage – 100m²
• Technician rooms – 14m² 
• Parliamentary display rooms and galleries; reception and the Main Foyer – 50m² 
• Access to the Underground – Lifts and Stairs from the Café space/ foyer

The public would voice their campaigns and problems on the online Parliament House Committee forums and facebook pages (Which are controlled by the staff members), and then will further request to be present on the day of the Committee Meeting.  The public committee interaction hub staff will then review all these requests and will next email each Public member whether they are successful and also with information regarding the meeting place and time etc.  These hub staff members will work out of their group collaborative staff offices.

JOURNEY: The Public would then arrive and Parliament House enter through the café foyer area through the lifts/ stairs and walk through a main foyer space, which also doubles up as a gallery/ display area, they then distribute to their respective Conference Committee Rooms that they are required to attend, either left or right.  The toilets will be at both Conference Committee Rooms, as well as technician rooms for each room, and the staff offices spread out with the storage spaces.

The main foyer area will have a reception check in and security point before entering the main underground rooms, but the main foyer room will also double up as a flexible space by also acting as a gallery and display space.  Pieces of history and current information will be displayed around this area to act as an introduction to the HUB area. 

The live Committee Meeting from within the Parliament House will be streamed to each of conference committee rooms and will allow for public interaction, by being able to ask questions to the Committee Members during the session question times.  Each of the Conference Committee Room – House of Representatives and the Senate Chamber will expand and contract to the amount of public visiting and exhibiting these rooms (demand required from the Public).  The rooms will cater for all sizes of people from 10 people (30m²) to 100 people (300m²) and these number will as already mentioned, be determined by the amount of public demand, as recorded by the staff of the Hub.  These staff members will set up each room for the sizes required, by sliding the doors in piece for the correct amount of room.  The main wall will be installed on adaptable wheels and will slide against the two adjacent walls to be put in place, and then the necessary amount of furniture and equipment will be installed (all stored in the Storage spaces at each end of the hub, for each of the respective Conference committee rooms). 

The control room will control the amount of people that will be visiting and will inform the staff of the room size required.  The technician rooms will control the live streams, interaction between the public and the Committee Members.  These rooms will have large TV screens for the live streams and each public member will have their own desk, response pad and a microphone to interact. 

I propose to do this at the LOCATION, however the foyer and gallery spaces, main conference committee rooms, toilets, staff offices and technician rooms will be developed underground, so that the hub wont be imposing to the existing buildings and allowing for the continuation of flexible spaces on the ground floor.  The majority of the underground spaces will be mechanically ventilated using the existing Air-conditioning services from Parliament House, as well as using artificial lighting for these spaces.  However also all of the spaces will have some natural lighting from the café space about with sky lights.  All the electrical services, telecommunication and sewerage services will be also used directly from Parliament Houses Services.

WEEK 10 TUTORIAL_feedback

1/ Your brief is descriptive only at this stage. Now you need to consider area /size, spatial relationships and hierarchies (i.e.: the public enter the 'Conference Rooms' via a corridor off the main foyer. They must pass through a security check point before entering this corridor to confirm their invitation to attend). You should also consider any special requirements or equipment (i.e.: lifts from the Ground Floor Level foyer to the Lower Ground Floor) Please refer to my previous email sent to all students today on Common Queries.

2/ Your brief should include a short description about the existing parliamentary committee rooms - how they operate and why they are inadequate or how they could benefit from this additional architecture.

3/ Your brief should also include a more definitive description on the purpose of the new architectural element: How will it operate and by whom? How do the public get to attend the facility (i.e.: by invitation, by ballot)? what is the hierachy of public versus private (staff only) spaces? How many people will it cater for and how many staff are required?

4/ You call your project the 'Committee Room' expansion. I wish to query this as my understanding is that it will have a different, completely separate use to the existing committee rooms as a space that the public will use to interact with the parliament's committee rooms. Have you considered giving your architectural element a name which will define it's purpose better? i.e.: 'Public Awareness Hub' or 'Centre for Public Parliamentary Interaction and Involvement'?

5/ Include some information as to why you are designing the facility underground (i.e.: to ensure unimpeded views to the existing Parliamentary House entrance OR so as not to compete with the imposing existing building OR for sustainability purposes by using the surrounding ground mass to deliver a constant temperature all year round?) I would like to see some information included on how you will light and ventilate this underground facility too.

6/ Please expand on the following proposed rooms by noting how they will be used and by whom:
'Parliamentary display rooms and galleries'
'Central Control System'

7/ Please expand on how and why the 'Conference Rooms' are flexible in their ability to expand and contract. What moves and how? What is the smallest and largest population that can be catered for? Who operates this / sets it up?

8/ Lastly, in thinking further about your project, can the foyer and entrance areas double as your display rooms/galleries? Can these be your 'flexible' spaces? Or the outdoor terrace area we were discussing which you might include off the Cafe to provide breakout space and natural light & air into your building?

Site Plan Position of the Public Committee Expansion Spaces

The highlighted blue sections is the foyer/ entrance area and the hilly grassed area on either side of the entrance.  The small canopy structures is what I'm proposing for each of the entrance points to my public committee expansion spaces - UNDERGROUND.  They don't interfere with the entrance to the Parliament House, however do add some novelty and may make the public visiting the House intrigued to visit and experience the public underground committee spaces!

Developing the 'Underground' Public Committee Ideation

The arrangement above shows where on the Parliamentary site that I propose to use for my Public Committee Expansion.  My idea involves to above ground entry points to enter down to the underground area for the public interaction spaces - conference committee rooms etc.  It is proposed to be underground to save some space and to not interfere with the existing Parliament House facade and entrance, however but still acts as a interesting and exploratory structure.

Above is a floor plan schematic and a rough section of what it may look like.  The floor plans is pretty self explanative, it has the committee interaction conference rooms on one side and other public interaction and relaxing spaces on the other.  There is as mentioned above, 2 entry points at each end of the proposal.  And the section just shows that everything for the committee interaction and public spaces is underground, with two canopy structures for the entry/ exits - lifts and escape stairs!  

The diagrams above are just showing what the canopy structure may look like at each entry and exit point, and how the process from voicing your problems all the way through to interaction publicly with the committee room members.  

BRIEF_preliminary

The Committee Room expansion is based on gaining for public interaction and involvement.  The existing Committee Rooms on Level 1 and 2 are currently off limits to the public so I intend on designing an expansion of the Committee Rooms for the public. 

I propose to do this at the entrance of the Parliament House, however the rooms etc will be developed underground, allowing for the continuation of flexible spaces in the foyer and entrance areas – meeting and relaxing spaces. 

The underground Committee Room expansion will involve one Committee Room for each chamber – House of Representatives and the Senate Chamber, in which each will expand and contract to the amount of public visiting and exhibiting.  Also underground will be a café/ eatery, toilet facilities, staff office/s, technician rooms, and Parliamentary display rooms and galleries.  It will basically be a small public hub for the interaction with the committee rooms and meetings, as well other public members. 

The live Committee Meeting will be streamed to each of the expanding and contracting rooms and allow public interaction by being able to ask questions to the Committee Members while the session question times.  The rooms will expand or contract to necessary needs before the meetings are in order, and will be done in relation to the response from the public of to whom wis participating, either from home or physically submitting your requests.  The public will also be able to voice their concerns by requesting their ideas and issues to the Committee Members.  All this will all be controlled by a central control system, controlling the live streams, interaction between the public and the Committee Member and the room size requirement.  The staff will run the other public rooms – café, toilets, galleries and display rooms etc. 

DEVELOPING_new public committee expansion idea

Public interaction would be easiest from the main access point of Parliament House - the entrance.My new idea is to have underground committee room expansions specifically for the Public interaction, directly out the front of Parliament House.

The new expansion would have two entry and exit points underneath decorative canopies with lifts and escalators to an underneath public space.  It would feature public open areas, 2 individual separate commitee room that can expand and contract - depending on the numbers involved, staff office, technician rooms and toilet facilities.

It would work by receiving live streams and interaction with the Committee Members when in meetings and discussion.  The public would be able to view it live when it occurs, while also being bale to ask questions and receiving answers from the Members.  This would all again be controlled by a CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.
It would control how big the room needs to be, the live streams and public to committee members interaction (questions etc) and control the problems and issues raised by the public, from home or in person!

The Blue lines show distribution of the live committee meeting in the Senate Chamber Committee Rooms to the public committee rooms and the Red lines is the House of Representatives.  And the circles are the entry/ exit points at each end.

COMMITTEE ROOMS_floor plan

I originally couldn't find any floor plans for the Committee Rooms which currently exist, however i have come across these, and they completely ruin my idea of an expanding rooms off the committee rooms, because they are on the 2nd and 3rd floors, and are all currently off limits to the public.  In the diagram below, the blue boxs are the Senate Chamber Committee Rooms, the red boxes are the House of Representatives Committee Rooms and the green box is the Main Committee Room

First Floor Plan

In the diagram below, the blue boxs are the Senate Chamber Committee Rooms and the red boxes are the House of Representatives Committee Rooms.  There are access points all around the Committee Rooms via Stairs and Lifts

Second Floor Plan

DEVELOPING_idea 2

CONTINUATION OF UNDERGROUND COMMITTEE IDEA

Possibility of expanding the existing committee rooms underground, under the control of a central nervous system.