Instructed by architect and professor Elena Perez Guembe at RPI, I built upon my knowledge of design strategies, software, and process by designing a house. A chosen filmmaker would be the resident, and the compositions of their movies would inspire the designed form. I was assigned House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004), a beautiful and complex martial arts movie.
I began by choosing a three-second clip, depicting a dancer as she spins across the room, scarves swirling around her. The fabric moved in a vortex-like motion, and the clip provided 72 frames of information to work with.
Selected frames from House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
Choosing the twenty clearest and most significant frames from the sequence, I translated the movement of the scarves into 2D and 3D space with Rhino software. For the first model assignment, these frames were constructed as physical form that the architecture of the final house would be based upon.
My preliminary concept model, 1' x 1', matte board and balsa wood
A front view of the preliminary concept model
For the midterm project, I turned my geometry into a small, prototype home for the film director. Orienting my forms vertically created a naturally-stepping space, which became the framework for my two-level dwelling.
My midterm concept model, with form in a vertical composition
An interior view of my midterm concept model
For my final house, I decided to return my geometry to its original orientation, and opted to embed it into a rolling landscape that moved with the incremental frames. The result was an almost wave-like composition, which resembled the graceful scarf dance of the source material. By mirroring the house, I created a reflected space for two residents, seen in the drawings and renderings below.
My final house model, 2' x 2', matte board
Two isometric drawings and one exploded section of my final house
Side and front elevations of my final house
A roof plan of my final house, marked with indications of the sections cuts presented below
Section views and a ground plan of my final house, showing the residents in their respective spaces
