Sketch Series 3

Lighting plan, Tele/Data Communications Plan, Reflected Ceiling Plan

Gatewood Analysis: Response

Gate Wood Building Analysis

Nicole Ware

December 12, 2011

Although defiant to start this project, I came to see the importance of what we were learning through the process of our task. We were not just learning about our building we were learning about the systems that make up our structure and how they all come together to make a cohesive and sturdy building. These systems; plumbing, electrical, heating/cooling, air, structural, fire suppression, and acoustics don’t only apply solely to our building. Their technologies can be applied to many other buildings as well.

One thing that I learned from focusing on the fire suppression system was that it has to have a visual system and an auditory system. They both are important because if you have someone that is visually impaired they use the auditory cues to exit the building and if the person is hearing impaired then they can use the visual cues, like the strobe alarms that are located at the exit access stairs.

After looking through my classmates’ presentations I also found out some additional information that I was unaware of and some new innovative ideas that could be improved in our building. For instance in Michelle and Austin’s project I learned that for the plumbing we have inoperable chase walls. Which means that if a pipe were to break it would be very difficult to get to the source of the problem. To me that seems like a bad design because in a few years something could corrode or burst and major repairs will have to be done in order to patch where the plumber had to cut through the wall. I was also unaware of the Variable Air Volume system we have, which maintains the air temperature in all areas of the building. I learned this from Jamaan and Dajana’s project. In their project they also proposed that the building should use a Demand Controlled ventilation system, which will not only control the temperature of rooms but will also maintain the quality of the air.

Overall, I found this project to be very resourceful. I can go back to all of these projects and reference some of the information to use in future tasks. I also discovered that it helped solidify what we learned in class because sometimes diagrams and definitions don’t always clarify everything but to actually see the systems at work made everything very clear.

Suspending Roots Board

Suspending Roots