my comment on the panel-1

I picked this one was because I like the idea of the design.
The design related the landscape and the modern development together. He/She stated that the vertical development defined zonings and had also looked at the public living pattern before developing an interesting connection between them.
The connection was about the “verticality” and “horizontality”. It reminds me an article from Rem Koolhaas, called “the culture of congesture” or “life in the metropolis”. In that article Koolhaas suggested that the development of technology as originally trying to develop a better living quality for people and hence a better connection to the nature.

However, the development of technology also separated people and the earth. The escalators were taken as the example. With the invention of escalator, the urban development turned upward. People tried to go higher to get closer to the sky and the nature more views of the nature which is far away from the city. However, the higher they developed, the further they separated from the nature, which is the earth.

I think this design seems to be a development of that idea from the article. Since tall buildings seemed to be inevitable, he/she worked on the situation and developed some creative ideas by arranging the problems vertically, therefore to turn the urban from horizontal to vertical.

The programmatic diagram used there was very suitable. It clearly delivered the idea of re-arranging programs. However, I think it would be good if the diagram was enlarged to express the main ideas more effectively.

The programmatic diagrams there were the tools to show the possibility and intended operation of the building. It acted as the primary generator of ideas and ensured the practicability of the design, and to present it to the viewers. The study of this kind of diagrams was similar to the study of social habitual patterns.

However, if this kind of diagram is applied at the too early stage of the design process, it will limit and control the development, since it controls the sizes of spaces and programs of the building. I think it can be improved if this diagram also studied the future change of programs so it allows flexibility of the programs.

Besides, I think the colour of the text and the background may need to be more careful since the white text is not easily seen at the right hand top corner.