Schematic design

  After working on a plan and doing changes over time, finally I came up with the floor plan that you can see below. As it shows in the plan one main entrance provided for all business components of the facility, and only the live/work space has separate entrance to have more security.

   The main lay out idea was encouraging the communication of different user groups. The main entrance opens to a shared spaces that serve as a connection between all areas and also as awaiting and gathering zone. Gallery space that moves through the whole building has glass walls in some parts and folding doors,  they all encourage visitors move into a space. Both restaurant and hair salon, also have a door for direct access to the gallery.

 Here I am showing the rendered reflected ceiling plan. There are three different ceiling types which include: gypsum ceiling, acoustical ceiling tile and glass ceiling tile that shows with color code in the plan.

These hand rendered shows the shematic design development of project.

                    Restaurant view

                    Hair salon view

                 Gallery view from the shared space


 

      

Plan development

   My general idea of having interlocking spaces developed by the concept of connecting all three facilities: hair salon, restaurant and live/work space through the gallery space. By having the gallery space that move through the whole facility and creates connection both visually and architecturally. Initial idea was to provide a shared space through the main entrance that is open to sky to provide more connection to nature and creating inviting environment for engaging community. But after some revision due to having less demolition in the building, I changed it to a gathering place with glass ceiling. These are some sketches that showing my thinking process for developing this idea.

Design concept

   Design concept for this ” LOCAL” mixed use facility is creating organic look in interior by the use of earthy color palette and natural colors. Use of nature pattern in materials and fabric to enhance the organic atmosphere, also make use of sustainable materials would be considered. Providing welcoming and calming atmosphere for people in different facility type  is the main goal of the project.  

 

   The idea is having interlocking spaces in which that all facilities are connected together. It can happen both in plan and in perspective. By adding some interlocking shapes in ceiling and flooring.

The concept convey the whole idea of having mixed use facility and non profit facility which is creating more connecting and interaction between different user group and community. The concept board below represent the main idea concept of the project which is having naturalistic look and interlocking spaces.

 I also, add some more details of the concept for each facility in these slides for further information.

 

Programming

Next step to design a project is programming. In this phase I started to create bubble diagrams for each facility based on the information that I gathered in my site observations and looking at some prototypical. Here I will share my sketchy bubble diagram for each facility.

 This diagram shows different spaces that requires for hair salon. Also the portion of each zone and their adjacency to each other defined by the use of different lines.

This  bubble diagram for restaurant depicts various spaces in restaurant whcih includes arrival, front of house and back of house.

 The last bubble diagram displays different space in live/work space.
 Combination of all these diagrams and applying them on the floor plan will help me to start developing the plan. This image below show the application of these bubble diagrams on the plan. After this process by choosing my concept direction I can further develop the plan.

Site analysis & Building orientation

As I mentioned before site located in 735 10th St NW, Atlanta, GA, 30318.
In order to gather some information about adjacent properties, pedestrian path, traffic pattern and natural characteristics I had two visited of the site. In the image below you can see some of the images that I took during my visit.

 

The map below shows the site analysis with the use of some diagrams.

By gathering all information from the site and having information about different facility types I decided to orient the building as it shows in the image below. This placement of the building in the site makes the best use of sunlight from north side and create required parking space for various businesses. Also, having a separate entrance for live/work space and providing enough security for this residential component of mixed use facility took into consideration. Another factor was having a loading deck for restaurant.

Precedent analysis

Part of this project is to look at some case studies and doing site visit to get a better grasp of designing project types that we are working on. I looked at four different case studies which included two hair salons, a restaurant and a live/work space.

Image 1. Founding farm restaurant, Washington, DC

Also, I went to the local hair salon and I did a site observation to conduct more information about the place type and different needs of hair salon.

Image 2. James Madison hair salon, Atlanta

However, we conducted interview. For interview part of our I interviewed employees who work in different locations of Paners care restaurant. Panera Cares is a nonprofit community based café that operates by Panera Bread foundation.

Image 3. Panera Care Cafe

 In my interview I tried to understand how a nonprofit restaurant operates and in that case I wanted to know how it is different in design from the Panera Bread. The concept was very interesting. Panera Care operation, design and menu is the same as Panera Bread. The only difference is that in Panera Care there is a donation bin next to cashier which you can donate money. For more information you can visit their website at: http://paneracares.org/

Image 1 retrieved from http://www.asid.org/bcdevelopment/case_studies/environment/Founding+Farmers.htm
Image 2 taken in site observation by the blogger
Image3 retrieved from http://paneracares.org/

 

Project details

To explain more about how each part of this facility work as a nonprofit I will give you more detail information about each component.

 Hair Salon

Hair salon partnered with Angle hair foundation (cranial hair prosthesis designed specifically for kids suffering from hair loss due to medical conditions) so people can donate money to this foundation when they receive a service. Also, it provides free classes for low income members of the Atlanta community.

Restaurant

Restaurant is a nonprofit eatery which is Unique in concept and operation.Profit will be donated to the different charitable organizations in community. The idea is support local farmers and engage people to the community. It also provides volunteer opportunity for people to work in a restaurant and in return receive free food.

Live/work space for artist

Live/work space for artists is a foundation that Partner with Atlanta contemporary art center. This foundation provides short term live/ work space for emerging artist in Atlanta area. Also, providing some workshops and free painting, sculpture and potter making classes in artist’s studio would benefit the community. The site is located in west side art Atlanta and there are so many art galleries and art spaces. The need of a living space for artist seems so accurate.

Site located in: 735 10th St NW, Atlanta,Georgia 30318