My thesis, in a nutshell

Tentative Title: "Center for Literacy and Literary Artists for Children"

DESIGN PROBLEM

To design a complex for writers and illustrators of children’s books and other artists and professionals involved, that will serve as a network for the exchange of knowledge, production and development of children literature.

Sub-problems:

1. CREATIVE COLLABORATIVE SPACES. How can we design a space for creative, collaborative work for the literary artists whose work is focused on children literature?

2. MUTABLE CONVENTION CENTER. How can we design an interactive learning environment for professional development that also fosters inspirational learning for a convention center, which can also be mutable or adapted in accordance to its function and number of users?

3. CHILDREN READING/LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. How can we design an effective learning environment for the children to encourage them to read and learn and develop in them the love for reading and lifetime learning?

4. INTEGRATED MASTER PLAN. How can we masterplan the complex in a way which will promote critical inquiry, enrich professional training and educational outreach, as well as involve the children to make them learn and able to integrate what they've learned in reading in their own lives?

5. SPORADIC AND ELEMENTAL ARCHITECTURE. In order to reach out to the different parts of the country, how can we make possible a multi-site architecture considering that the design must be context-dependent and responsive to the site conditions?

MAIN DESIGN ISSUES

GENERAL SPACES

Space	Approx. Area (in sqm.)	Qty	Total Area (in sqm.)
Children’s Library	1,500	1	1,500
Children’s Playground and Outdoor Recreation	400	1	400
Collaborative Studio, Gallery and Press	1,000	1	1,000
Artists’ Colony	50	7	350
Fitness and Recreation Facilities	1,500	1	1,500
Literary Commons Convention Center	1,000	1	1,000
Dining Facility	600	1	600
Transient Accommodation	200	1	200
TOTAL			6,550 sqm.

Bubble Diagram

SITE PARAMETERS:

For the main center, my client suggested Makati, where they hold their booktalks every second Monday of the month, for its accessibility from the other parts of Metro Manila. But since Makati is already a crowded and busy city, and noise and density control is one of the parameters for my site selection, Fort Bonifacio seemed like a better choice.

For my satellite stations -- a satellite artist's colony and a satellite children's web or library, here are the parameters:

Artist’s Colony Satellite	Children’s Web Satellite
Security	Security
Environmental Disaster Control (earthquake, flooding)	Environmental Disaster Control (earthquake, flooding)
Utilities (electricity, water, drainage)	Utilities (electricity, water, drainage)
Density Control (Noise control)	Density Control (Noise control)
	Inadequacy of early childhood programs
	Low literacy rates
	High poverty incidence
	High unemployment rates
	Accessibility
	Active local government officials

Thesis Break: Emergent Technologies Potentials for Sustainable Building

Since Friday last week until yesterday, I spent most of my time doing research about emergent technologies and its potentials for sustainable building. It was a presentation that my boss had been presenting in public conventions and will present today at the 3rd Sustainable Building Technology Conference. He asked the four of us, his staffs, to do some research and make the presentation.

I find it interesting and I enjoyed doing the presentation. Some may think (as at least one of my co-workers do) that it's no longer part of our scope as intern architects, doing science research and making presentations. But do we really want to spend all of those hours that the board requires us to meet before taking the board exam, CADing /Sketchuping and visiting the site construction? Maybe for those whose goal is merely to pass the board, the answer is yes.

But let's try to fit the puzzle pieces together so we can see the bigger picture. Just because you are an architect doesn't mean everything you do has to be only about one thing, architecture. It doesn't mean you should not learn about the other fields. It's a very very big world and there's a vast knowledge out there that will never run out. Don't close your mind to that.

Also, Prezi is cool.

You can view the presentation here:
http://prezi.com/xuag7i_t4zfw/emergent-technologies-potentials-for-sustainable-building/