11/04/2015
Much of my time this week was spent modeling.  I attempted to join 8 deformed tensegrity models together to get a feel for how they would act, what sort of spaces would be created and how it would perform.  I selected the tensegrity model that I found last week to have the propensity for scale or what I thought was the most interesting model.  I chose this also in part because I knew that if I modeled the regular icosahedron the model would not fit through any doors on the way to class.  The model that resulted from this experiment was much more interesting than I had thought.  It was much more stable than I thought it could be even with the many imperfections that resulted from my building technique.  I am confident that given enough time it would be very possible to perfect the model.  However I ran into time constraints that if I have a chance I will remedy next week.  The results are still worth sharing however and noting. 

Also this week I began looking into site and program.  My idea for my thesis is to take a program that is defined by a regular shape such as a sphere of now as a result of my model this week a rectangle and begin to deform it in response to both external and internal changes.  It might behoove my project to select a program that needs to be flexible such as a library or multiuse building but I also think that it could be important to look at an inflexible program and see how it conflicts with the icosahedron and the site.  This could be a grocery store possibly or a government building though those are not particularly great examples of inflexible spaces.  As of right now I am leaning towards a multiuse building that performs more than one function such as an enclosed market and a series of retail spaces.  But that is not really appealing to me I think I would rather have one general program with the ability to add functions as becomes possible.  A new library or City Hall or brewery?

Missoula, MT is a city steeped with American tradition and history.  It has a general population of over 100,000 and contains a fairly well defined downtown area.  There are many historic and important buildings in the downtown area that are worth note.  However in the last few decades the city's downtown core has become somewhat derelict and abandoned.  I would like to research some methods for revitalizing the downtown core of Missoula.

How can improving the built environment revitalize the downtown core of Missoula?

                                What buildings can be preserved and renovated and what is the area lacking?

                                What can be done about the large transient population?

                                How can the street system be improved to allow a more pedestrian and cyclist                                  friendly environment?

This thesis will survey the current conditions of the city and downtown area.  It will compare the more successful areas against the unsuccessful ones, it will compare between cities and towns that have found solutions and revitalized their city centers.  By using this information possible solutions will be proposed.  The city center is Missoula is crumbling.  The area is aging and not being maintained because of a lack of funds and a lack of interest,  the transient problem is growing and the few facilities for the public are not being used as well as they should be.  This thesis will provide several possible solutions to this problem.

This city has a great potential in its downtown core.  There are many interesting and historical buildings, there is a riverfront park that could be great with some effort, the area is host to a large farmer's market and the history of the area is very rich.  If the area could be improved it has the potential to benefit the economy, strengthen the community, and encourage a healthy lifestyle.

Finally I also became interested in my example of scaled tensegrity from last week.  I would like to think that the principals that make the cam an effective piece of rock climbing gear could also be used to great effect in tensegrity possibly as connection points or in some other way.  It might be fun to try to build a tensegrity model using cams.