In terms of the latest critique of my car park project, I feel as though there is still a great deal of development to be done. However, to a certain extent I am relatively encouraged by the fact that the primary elements of the car park concept, appear to have been fairly well received. In particular, the basic concepts of attempting to exploit the resource of the Mississippi river as much as possible; and of juxtaposing organic elements (curved shape, undulating terracing)representing the river with orthagonal elements (eg: straight lines of the firewalls extruding into roofline of studios, creating a visual continuation with rectillinear columns of existing car park)of the cityscape; appear to have some potential.







A large proportion of the critique involved a discussion regarding the interior of the studios; in which I would like to have the functionality of open views over the Mississippi;























combined with the ability to 'close off' these views in order to create a focussed, gallery-like space lit only from upper-level fenestration, such as in the Goetz museum in Munich by Herzog & deMeuron;






Which creates a great natural, indirect light with which to appreciate the artwork on display;



I feel that this type of flexibility - in essence of creating two spaces in one, will become increasingly important in future architecture, although this may be an element upon which I am working long after the end of the semester.
In terms of inspiration for this kind of variable facade, one source has been Shigeru Ban's Metal Shutter house in Chelsea, Manhattan; in which the metal shutters can be adjusted electronically to allow varying levels of light to penetrate the interior space;