Project Four: Circulation

Yacht Club on the Shore of Long Island Sound

"Architecture is surely not the design of space, certainly not the massing or organizing of volumes. These are auxiliary to the main point which is the organization of procession. Architecture exists only in time...The whence and wither is primary. Now almost secondary is all our ordinary work, our work on forms, our plans, our elevations."

Philip C. Johnson, Perspecta 9/10, (1965)

A newly formed yacht club has asked you to design their club house and facilities on the shore of the Long Island Sound. The club specifically wants to take advantage of the views of the sound and the distant Connecticut Shore. In addition the yacht club holds a yearly, season opening, Commissioning and blessing of the Fleet and Club. This ceremony includes a processional from the road to the water. The following is a list of program function requirements (not spatial requirements which are larger allowing for circulation and spatial interaction.

1. Building: approx. 3,000 s.f.

Lobby, 100 s.f.
Great Room, 800 s.f.
Eating Area, 800 s.f.
Bar Area, 300 s.f.
Kitchen, 300 s.f.
Toilet & Lavatory, 150 s.f. each men and women
Other functions as needed/required to occupy indoor spaces

2. Dock House, Shower and Gate House (3-D Solids that help form spaces)

3. Deck: approx. 750 s.f. min.

4. Dock: approx. 8' wide by 500 lineal feet min.

5. Other functions (as needed to occupy outdoor spaces):

Playground area
Pool
Tennis court
Barbecue area
Other functions as recommended
Do not design these functions, think of it as an area in a space

6. Parking: approx. 10,000 s.f. min.

Provide parking for 30 cars.
Do not design the parking lot, think of it as an area in a space.

Concepts and Theory

Conceptual goal for Project Four: Circulation

Make five spaces along a path for both the site and building. Fit the program functions within these spaces. You may add additional functions if you feel they have been left out of the program. Please do not design a real yacht club.

Anthropometric Design:

Anthropometric design focuses on the physical making and definition of space as it relates to the active participant. This is not the only starting point in the architectural design process but it is the most tangible for novice designers. There are many other starting points (heuristics) in the architectural design process in addition to an anthropometric one: analogy/metaphor, environmental and contextual, prototypes and typologies, formal stylistic rules (i.e., classical, modernist, deconstruction), etc.

Space Path Concepts:

Circulation (path) prototypes: linear, radial, grid, network, spiral, composite. Your circulatory pattern should be simple and fit a prototype. Spatial relationships can be complex. Never make a complex and convoluted circulatory pattern, it will never function, it is not cost effective, and it will usually not meet code requirements.
Space path relationships: (a) path outside a space, (b) path along the inside edge of a space, (c) path terminating in a space.
Spatial relationships: (a) space overlapping a space, (b) space within a space, (c) space abutting a space.
Thresholds of entering and exiting a space along a path should be defined as well as the space itself.
Scale: defining large macro spaces vs. defining the smaller micro thresholds to the space.

Abstracting Process

Diagram: a reductive graphic abstraction representing an idea in one or more systems of a complex identity. The diagram becomes the game plan for developing the architecture. In this project, the diagram represents space (solid lines) and path (dash dot lines). Functional areas can be drawn as light lines within the spaces as abstract objects.
Function: treat function as an abstract object that occupies a space. If the space is larger than the function, then the space works, and if it is smaller than the function, the space does not work. Allow for circulation to occur. Circulation should not disrupt or go through the middle of a function.
Proportion out the functions diagrammatically noting the relative sizes so that the space diagram works and is not a hyperbolic cartoon.