Back to the Drawing Board...

Believe it or not, I have decided to revise my floor plans after corresponding with my mentors. In order to successfully portray the concept of freedom, the layout and spaces needed to be opened up and less structured.  The problem I was having with the original set of plans was that the spaces were confined and crammed together.  As a result I decided to utilize not just the first and second level of the facility, but the third level as well.  Shown below are the new layouts.

FIRST LEVEL

SECOND LEVEL

THIRD LEVEL

Arrival

This week I have been contemplating the arrival space of my facility.  The entrance contains a lot of daylight due to the curtain wall in the front of building.  However, the rest of the facility does not allow as much light as the entrance does.  Therefore, I wanted to incorporate interior windows between the entrance and the rest of the facility. This way natural daylight can easily filter throughout the interior spaces. 

Arrival Space Sketch

The ceiling height in the arrival space is around 11 feet high.  In order to create a more intimate space for visitors and employees who enter the facility I included suspended ceiling elements.  This will bring the ceiling height down to around 8 fee allowing the area to become more personal.

Planning

As I was planning out the individual spaces of this facility I decided to place the more public areas on the first level and the private areas on the second level.  The first level will allow the public to access the facility for classes, training sessions, and research.   The second level contains spaces designated for therapy, medical examinations, and evaluations.   Patients will enter through the back entrance near the elevators so that they do not have to travel throughout the first level.

I have posted images of the two floor plans below to show a possible layout of these spaces.

FIRST LEVEL

SECOND LEVEL

Structured

As I am working on the floor plans for my project, I am discovering that the building is very structured.  There are load bearing walls stretching across the interior spaces of the facility.  Therefore, it is a challenge when I am space planning because there are limitations for the location of specific rooms and areas.  In addition, the center space of the first floor contains structural grid columns.  As a result, it is going to be difficult to have large open spaces, and create direct navigation throughout the space. These structural challenges are shown in the images below.

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan