Pavilion Model

- About This Project

This Pavilion and Pergola model is a group assignment in one of my courses in spring 2022, and Cheryl Liu, Kelly Hu and I all contribute to this project. In this project, we need to design one pavilion for musical recite in Holland Park, Surrey, which can contain at least ten audience members, a piano, and multiple seats. In this project, We came up with this idea during team discussions and finalized all the details and measurements. I did all the modelling works in Rhino and TwinMotion to create a digital model demonstrating our best design, which helped me develop my modelling skills in Rhino, Grasshopper and TwinMotion a lot. I am also responsible of creating the final rendering exhibitions.

Problem and Objective

This project aims to design a space for musical events held in Holland Park. Currently, no place in Holland Park can function as an event venue, and that is why we wanted to design a regular venue there, making event planning easier and more affordable in Holland Park.

Key Design Decisions

- Locations, circulation, and Organic Shapes

First of all, we went on a field trip to Holland Park in Surrey to see the environment, including lighting, pathway planings, intersection locations, and possible blockage like trees and city facilities that are impossible to move. We chose the pathway intersections that can be accessed from multiple directions and is 15 square feet empty without any blockages or city facilities. After carefully noting the locations and making a scaled fabric top view mock, I analyzed all the possible locations in written documents and their pros and cons. And I planned a centric circulation pattern for this particular place to make sure the audiences could enter and exit freely into this pavilion. Because this pavilion is primarily used for musical recitals in a park, we connected the idea of music with trees. Regardless of its forms, classical music will last very long, documenting lives and histories. Trees are also long-lasting, and they are the testimonies of time. Pavilion with organic shapes also fits perfectly into the part environment.

- Modelling and Texturing in Rhino and TwinMotion.

After finalizing the ideation based on massive discussions, I built this model in Rhino, representing our ideas in a detailed digital form. And then export the model files into TwinMotion to add textures for this digital model and create essential environment elements in Holland Park, including trees that exist in reality. After planning the camera movement in TwinMotion, a final video version of this model was generated. There were a lot of techinical difficulties during the process of making this model, and I spent massive time finding tutorials and testing in Rhino to make a closed polysurface with minimal surfaces because surfaces and curves do not work well in Grasshopper to generate a clean X axis and Y axis structure diagram. This pavilion and pergola combination will be an asset in Holland Park, as this could be a regular event venue.

Technical Skills

Technical-wise, I learned many modelling skills in Rhino and TwinMotion. For example, build closed polysurfaces with clean lines and polygons, loft basic geometric meshes into meshes with smooth curvatures, generate shapes and diagrams with Grasshopper in Rhino, and add textures like wood or glass with different reflective values and environment elements like trees and roads in TwinMotion. I also learned to make a video with excellent camera movement and anchored camera positions in TwinMotion.

Design Skills

Design-wise, I learned the research process, including going to Holland Park on a field trip to access the location and lightening and relating our design theme with the environment and topic.

Soft Skills

Collaboration-wise, I improved my communication skills with my team members and understandably expressed my ideas, for example, illustrating my ideas with straightforward sketches. Moreover, I learned that an efficient, respectful and friendly working atmosphere is super helpful when working in a team.