FINAL EVALUATION
Statement of intent:
For my HSC major project, I am planning to build a three story ski lodge located on Mt Kosciusko. A new ski lodge company, called 'Resort on the Range' is starting up and have asked me to create and design a new a grand, luxurious and comfy chalet that is spacious and has eating and entertainment for the guests along with relaxing spa and massage facilities. This resort is around the other side of the mountain to Perisher and Thredbo and is a place to accommodate and entertain those coming up to enjoy a wintery stay in the mountains. They come up here to enjoy the peaceful serenity and the valley views along with an action packed winter experience. There is a bus service to drive the quests from the carpark, up the mountain, to the lodge. They can spend the day hiking, snowboarding and skiing the slopes, then return to a cosy and luxurious chalet with a restaurant and bar on the ground level accompanied by open eating and sitting areas and cosy fireplaces. There is an indoor cinema and games room to provide fun and entertainment and a large outdoor area with fire pits and an amazing view of the mountains. When bedtime comes, the guests find their way up the grand staircase near the reception desk and walk past the sitting areas and self-serve kitchenette, around the void, to find their rooms. The rooms all have ensuites and either have 2 single beds or a queen bed. If they bought the master package, the room comes with a sitting area and floor-to-ceiling windows displaying incredible mountain views. The final touch to make the ski lodge a luxurious winter holiday appeal is found on the rooftop. Up one more flight of stairs is the rooftop spas, including a heated infinity pool around the edge, private spa rooms and massage rooms. The style of the ski lodge is a rustic log chalet with a luxury and cozy feel to the inside with natural colored and textured interiors.
Evaluation: Looking back at my Statement of Intent, I can see that I included most of the clients wishes but there are a few things that have changed since or that I didn't complete. The ski lodge is luxurious, grand and comfy and has a good amount of eating and entertainment areas with qualities to make it cozy and enjoyable along with certain aspects that make the guests feel more at home, such as a self-serve kitchenette and a grand piano that the guests can play at any time. The lodge does definitely make the most of its mountain views out the back with its large windows and flow towards the back of the building. It also includes the rooftop feature of heated pools and private spa and massage rooms which is a big asset to the overall outcome of the lodge and includes an ensuite in every bedroom. The rustic and natural style matches up with the clients wants. Although it includes most things, my lodge still is missing a few minor aspects from the clients wishes. All of the bedrooms only have one queen bed in them, apart from the master suite which has a king. There are no rooms with single beds which means that if a family with kids comes to stay, it will be harder to accommodate them. Another thing that is different about my final project is the layout of the rooftop. In my statement of intent and sketches, the heated infinity pool goes around the edge of the building, creating a very cool feature as the guests can swim all the way around the outside of the entire lodge. When creating the ski lodge in ARCHICAD, I couldn't customize the shape of my pool, I could only make it a rectangular shape, so I created 2 rectangle pools at either end and did the private spa rooms in the middle section. This works well in the end because it means that the spa rooms can have the amazing view from their windows but it takes away from the feature of having a pool outline the building.
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Task Requirements:
The task requirements that I am aiming to meet are to make my sure my project is of a high quality, displays a range of skills, has a high degree of difficulty, displays a use of appropriate materials, components, processes and technologies, shows links between planning and production, shows evidence of problem solving. The task requirements for the portfolio for the task are to make sure it is clear and comprehensive and includes all thought processes, explanations, evaluations and justifications. It demonstrates a high level of skills in presentation, sketching and idea generation.
Evaluation: I think I have met my task requirements to a high degree throughout this project. My ski lodge was completed to a high quality, a high degree of difficulty and displayed a range of skills throughout. I have documented a lot in my portfolio and included a lot of evaluations, explanations and justifications. I could have added a bit more in my idea generation section to explore different ideas and possibilities for my project and I could have researched more materials.
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What will be completed in the end:
I am planning on drawing this on a computer software program that is suited to creating architecture and buildings and offers a variety of functions to use. Along with the house, I will complete a portfolio with a time and finance plan, research on materials, resources and different options of technology, each with a selection and justification, information on council requirements and DA approval and the AS1100 drawing standards for architecture. It will have a development of ideas and concepts section with record of my idea generation and a set of analyzed sketches of possible floorplans and designs for my mountain resort. It will include the graphics processes used, the appropriateness of design, a WHS table, ongoing evaluations and a final evaluation and bibliography. The Portfolio will also include a set of plans for my ski lodge including a site plan, floor plan, elevations, shadow diagram, electrical and plumbing plans, 3D renders and a landscape drawing. To gain extra marks, I am going to be completing some additional tasks including interior designs and a walk-through video which outlines my whole project and shows to the marker the areas that I should be getting marks for.
Evaluation: The final product for this project included a drawing on ARCHICAD which was the best software program to use as it was suited to creating architecture and offered a wide variety of functions. I completed a portfolio in a Wix website which included all of the sections I intended to complete including the Research sections, Development of Ideas and a time and finance plan. It also included a set of plans for my ski lodge and a walk through video. The only thing I didn't manage to complete was the interior designs on Room Styler which didn't really matter as I could still include renders. I didn't get time to complete these as my time management skills were quite poor.
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Skills:
I already have some skills in areas of this task as we have just completed our preliminary portfolios which acted as a practice run for this major project. The previous portfolio task was very similar to this so by having just completed that, I have a better idea of how to organize my time and which sections take longer than others. It was also a good chance to get to know ARCHICAD, which I had never used before this year. There is still a lot of skills that need improvement and the prelim task gave me an idea how this task is marked and I can use the feedback from that task to see what sections of my portfolio I need to improve. The areas that need improvement are making my CAD drawing more detailed and taking more advantage of its abilities, developing the plans and managing my time better to make sure I don't leave all of the difficult sections until the task is nearly due.
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Evaluation: This project was a lot more detailed compared to my Prelim Project and to create it, I used a lot more of the available functions on ARCHICAD such as making it more than 1 story, including stairs, pools/spas, furniture, etc. Although I still had trouble developing the plans as they are what I find the most difficult section, I have improved on them since the prelim portfolio. I did manage my time better than last portfolio but I still left the plans and the video until last so they had to be rushed a bit more.
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Finance:
The budget for my design creation is reasonably low as we are not making a model, it is all computer and software based. I didn't have to pay for any of the softwares or for my computer as they were provided my OneSchool which saved a lot of money considering how much it would have amounted to if those costs were involved. The initial budget for the total expenditure for this project is $150. It amounts to this much because I still have to buy the hardware and materials such as a ruler, eraser, pencils, pens, notebook, earphones and computer mouse.
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Evaluation: The actual expenditure for this project amounted to $120, which was $30 under budget. This cost included stationary such as pens, ruler, eraser and materials such as a computer mouse and earphones. Most of my materials that I used during this task, I had already bought for our previous task so I didn't have to buy many new materials, but I included the costs for them anyway.
My personal evaluation for each section is as follows with E for Excellent, G for Good, F for Fair and P for Poor.
Category
Evaluation
Rating
E
E
G
F
G
P
E
E
Developing
Ideas
Research
Other
preparation
Planning
your time
Organising
resources
Sticking to
schedule
Making the
product
Final product
The development of ideas for my project should be rated Excellent because I spent a lot of time coming up with ideas, evaluating them and constantly thinking of ways to improve them. I didn't become fixed with my ideas and I was always flexible and open to feedback to help improve. The final product was creative and well thought through.
The research part of this project should be rated Excellent as I included extensive research under various different topics, including materials, resources and technologies. Each part of my research was thoroughly evaluated with notes on how researching it was beneficial and helped me with other parts throughout the project.
The preparation such as the time and finance plan, sketches and WHS and should be rated as good because although a lot of time and effort went into them, there is still room for improvement with more time. I could have completed more sketches, included more information in my WHS section and my finance plan.
I think planning my time should be classed into the Fair category. This is because I didn't stick to my time plan as much as I should have and if I had planned my time better, I would have put more effort in at the very start of the task and wouldn't have left so much until the last 3 weeks before the submission date. I didn't rate my time management as poor because I did manage to complete my portfolio in good time.
Organising resources should be evaluated as Good because I kept track of my websites as I used them by copying the link into a separate OneNote page. I also set up a Bookmark folder on Google Chrome for all of my important links such as the OneDrive Research folders, past HSC student's portfolios and links to helpful video tutorials. This folder was very useful as It meant I didn't have many tabs open and I could find what I needed with ease.
I rated sticking to my schedule with Poor because I didn't really stick to my time plan and I just completed what I felt I needed to in the moment. Often I would plan to complete one section and end up working on something completely different. I completed most sections of the portfolio after I planned to which resulted in having to complete a large amount of my portfolio in the last couple of weeks before the submission.
Making the product should be given an Excellent rating because I chose a highly demanding project and it involved a lot of skill and hard work. There were many challenges and time consuming aspects within the processes of building my lodge on ARCHICAD.
The final product, the Ski Lodge and portfolio should be evaluated as Excellent because the website portfolio turned out great in the end. The presentation looks good and is easy to navigate. The ARCHICAD Lodge turned out good as well and looks luxurious, grand while complying with the clients needs and wants.