Brooklyn School for the Blind

These plans and the section are my final proposal for the school

Floor Plans/Experiment

These are the first floor plans I did for the school, but after going over them with Prof. Bouratoglou I decided to change them because they were good for a regular school but not for a school where there will be lots of blind children.

















The hallways had dead ends, and walls with sharp corners where circulation might become difficult. I designed the floor plans from my point of view but forgot that blind people might have a hard time with these sharp corners and hallways with dead ends.So I did a small experiment, I blind fold myself and walked from one end of the corridor to the other end. Suddenly the hallway that I knew so well became a totally different environment for me,everything seemed different;I had to feel the texture of the walls to find my way, so at the end I realized that I had come up with totally different plans to make circulation easier.

Here's a picture of me taken by prof.Bouratoglou while doing the experiment

Massing Model

First set of pictures:








Second set of pictures:








Interior shots:

Models

Model #1
This first model shows different forms which go in different directions crossing over and under, I want my building facade to look similar to this.










Model #2
The second model is less complicated, it shows interior spaces.

Site Location

For my design I decided to pick the site located at 42 Main Street Brooklyn, NY.
I believe that this site works much better for my design, because it's surrounded with buildings from two sides, and the other two sides face Main St. and Front St.; which is where I will locate my building entrance. I really don't need a lot of sun/natural light from the outside, because too much light can have a negative effect on student's with low vision.

Here is more information about the site http://arch3611sp09brooklyn.blogspot.com/

Sketches 1

I did a few sketches combining the cat's cradle and the criss cross forms of bridge cables, and then I darkened the interiors creating different forms and spaces.

Deaf Culture Center

There aren't any solid walls on the interior to make communication easier

CONCEPT

These images show my design concept, I decided to use the criss cross forms of cables used on bridges and the game called 'the cat's cradle'.

The Gateway School of New York

The Gateway School of New York is for children with learning disabilities














infor taken from http://archrecord.construction.com/

Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School

Floor Plans





This picture is interesting because natural light is located above eye level.