Individual Reflection 3rd Year Design Project Yoga Centre Jonathan Woodley Group 30

On the whole the experience has generally been a positive one and a learning experience in collaboration, cooperation and late night studio working. The fundamental point I have learned from this project is the requirement for clear, understandable communication between all members in the group, making sure everyone is on the same page and thinking the same things. This was particularly important during the early concept and design stage due to ideas and plans changing regularly, and if individuals were off doing their own things they would soon get left behind. This extends through to the more final design stage where clarifications and corrections needed to be made and if everyone in the group is aware of these the whole process is much smoother, there are less mistakes and inconsistencies and a more coherent design is created. With regards to the engineering aspects I felt that we couldnt really do anything other than give engineering input to the architects right until the final stage of the project when a final plan was formed, mainly due to the fact our design was changing almost daily making lots of our calculations and schemes done up to that point rather redundant. And so the final engineering schemes and calculations felt a bit rushed in comparison to the architectural scheme which had been carefully refined over the course of 3 weeks. Due to this I feel that we had to have a large input in and a large influence in some of the more architectural issues such as concept and general building shape and design, circulation within the building and issues that normally fall within only the architects purview. As was made clear by many of the other groups there was a lack of clarity as to what engineering would have to be done for the final crit and brochure. And while we were told that it would become clearer as the project progressed we still felt it was left quite open ended leading to some groups doing complex calculations I felt were way beyond the scope and timescale of the project creating calculation hysteria amongst the engineers. I on the other hand felt that complex calculations were missing the point of this project and were secondary to schemes and concepts of engineering solutions which were emphasised in the brief and numerous times via email, maybe with some simplified basic calculations to back things up. However this view was not shared by the other engineer in my group who felt like calculations almost up to eurocode level were required and thus some rather dull and most likely irrelevant at this point in the design process were included in the brochure. Despite the negativity in the last paragraph I still feel that the project was worthwhile and I have gained some valuable skills in communication and an appreciation of how architects think and work in comparison to engineers. And in hindsight it was quite fun. I am also rather proud of our final design and scheme and think it should have won ARUPs prize. I might be biased though.