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