Interior Design 1 Exercise 3.3: Design Development

I believe my pavilion is meeting the brief, with a few added extra’s. The footprint should be no larger than 9m2 and it is no taller than 6m high. I chose the pavilions occupants to be children and the purpose of the pavilion to be for shelter from the weather, which I believe the design has achieved.

As most children will be accompanied by adults the pavilion also had to be suitable for their needs too i.e. ceiling heights tall enough to accommodate adults. I however wanted to accentuate that the pavilion is designed with children in mind therefore wanted to make it fun by adding a slide, a viewing point and 2 levels of seating on the ground level. This double level seating allows the children opportunities to climb and provides more seating in a small space. The pavilion is not intended to be kept pristine but used and enjoyed like the play equipment in the play area – I see it as an extension of the play area but with the added bonus of giving shelter. Including a partial glass roof provides other opportunities, not only is it gratifying to be able to see the sky and gain more natural light it could allow for educational opportunities for studying clouds and stars.

I think there are a number of strengths in the design, firstly those mentioned above, secondly that designing it on two levels supplies space for more occupants. I also feel it links well with the history of the area; a wooden structure with a viewing point sees similarities to a Roman fort, the cylindrical shape with a domed roof like tumuli found at Old Ox Camp and the double wall to represent the double bank found around Old Ox Camp. The green roof will also allow it to look like tumuli from an aerial view. The materials marry with those of the play equipment so that the pavilion is not jarring or out of place.

Before adding the spiral staircase the proportions of the design felt weak to me. Prior to this addition the structure felt too narrow for it’s height and felt somewhat spindly. Although the addition of the staircase was not to address this proportion issue, as it was to address my desire for a slide, for me it did deal with this matter and unintentionally made me feel very satisfied that this niggle was dealt with. I love the curves of the structure and adding the staircase provided yet another but with different forms and spatial arrangements, which added more interest and in my eyes made the structure much more pleasing.

A weakness that does remain however is that floor space is fairly small providing shelter for 4 or 5 people on each floor only.