the link to survey draftings:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Ravensbourne-Cafe-Survey/5585427

Architect and graphic designer El Lissitzky.Here is a presentation of his most impportant works.
If we refer to his works we find out that he was inspired by Suprematism( an art movement, focused on basic geometric forms and figures, such as circles, squares and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colours, usually black, white and red as an emphasis on the simplicity of forms. The movement founder was Kazimir Malevich, one of the most famous soviet artists.

Propaganda poster "Beat the whites with the red wedge!".Short description for it:
Subject: campaign poster during the Civil war in 1920
Method: continuing composing the propaganda posters for advertisment of Soviet Power and patriotic feelongs during the Civil war; the aim was to reach the simplicity of understanding the information(the title), use for it bright and contrast colours

Horisontal skyscrapers in Moscow(Project, not built)
Subject: In 1923-1925 El Lissitzky proposed and developed the idea of horizontal skyscrapers.They are known as "Cloud Irons".A seties of 8 structures was intended to mark the major intersections of the Boulevard Ring in Moscow
Method: "spatial balance is the contrast of vertical and horisontal tensions"
Influences: Kazimir Malevich and Suprematism, Futurism and simplicity of figures, utopia within the city and urban area, power of Communist party; as spatial models of utopians architecture, "Proun" Suprematist allowed to transfer the geometry of the plane into the volume in real urban environment- they formed the basis of unrealized Lissitzky's architectural projects(horizontal house, yacht club)

El Lissitzky's horizontal concept was finally implemented decades after its presentation. In 1974, a building for Minavtodor(Highway Construction and Management Ministry) was built in Tbilisi, Georgia, designed by Georgyiy Chakhava

Another office building- the Unilever Best Foods HQ, modest but functional, is in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Designed by JHK Architects

the Vanke Center was opened in Shenzhen, China, designed by Steven Hall. It is a true horizontal building, its length equals the heigth of the Empire State Building:

Proun
There was never a right meaning for it, El Lissitzky continued to develop a suprematist style of his own.
El Lissitzky defined them as "the station where one changes from painting to architecture.

Typograpghy

"Fairytale of 2 squares" symbolically represents the global update, which are the messengers of the red and black squares that arrived from other spaces.

Publishment "Ogonyok" (the only one exhisting building by El Lissitzky)
Subject: was designed as an elaborate three-dimensional composition with the use of frame structures allowing large glass surfaces appear on the facades.
Method: built in the genre of Constuctivism(rationalism) in 1932. This is the only architectural project implemented avant-garde artist and architect El Lissitzy. The avant-garde typography is a remarkable combination of the huge square and small round windows.
Influence: the building, designed as a functional printing, in terms similar to the sketch of "Cloud Irons" by Lissitzky

As I have chosen to do a place to contemplate nature(on the mezzanine level, the students' union area), I interpreted this task as a "nature" in this case is everything around us.I researched different artists and architects, which works are quite similar or related to El Lissitzky's works: Alexander Rodchenko's photography and Kazimir Malevich's well known "Black Square"
I used it to interpret my design and my understanding nature in this case:"nature is not going out of the square" in plan.

mezzanine

I created my own compositions in plan(in 2D as El Lissitxky') and extruded from that to 3D:

Axonometric draftings clearly show the 5 initial ideas for construction:

Plus draftings with the surrounding context:

See also extruded compositions from El Lissitzky's original works:

The first proposal for final desing:

on the next image you can see ideas for use of the space and materiality:

As I was on the development stage, I was improving my design

Refering to the fact that people usually perceive the environment from the side, on their eye level, not from the floor(from section, not from plan), I extruded the walls from section/elevation side of my proposed version, made cross sections/intersections of planes, extruded from the lines on section and plan, in different ways and directions and then I got some new forms and shapes
-two aquariums with water inside(filled only 1/3 of the volume in order to maintain the stability and not to make the construction heavy;
-circulation ways: people walk through the construction inside but in the back part of it;
-black floor of the construction(reminding the "Black Square" by Kazimir Malevich, but not black ceiling(otherwise the lightning would not come through);
-red side triangulars of one of the aquariums(refering to the use of colour by El Lissitzky);
-the total transparency of the aquariums: to make natural(during the day) and artificial(at the evening time) lightning coming through;
-materials: glass, tarnsparent/ translusent plastic, CPD chipboard, reminding concrete(as a supporting wall, slip linoleum for black floor, red plastic for triangular parts of one of the aquariums

Refering to the "Cloud Irons" by El Lissitzky, he meaningly left the space free on the ground floors, the same principle we can see in the survey: the aquarium "presses" a person, as "Cloud Irons" and quite a lot of space is free on the ground;
-Alexander Rodchenko's posters: I used slogan "Gradation" in previous version of the final idea and here as well;form the highest to the lowest and vice a versa

sketch of use of the intersections:

Exploded Axo:

initial maquettes:

model after development stage with the extrusions from plan and section:

drafting within the context; plan, ceiling plan, sections, elevation, axonometric

measured perspective

materiality

photoshop materiality rendering:

SketchUp digital model:

VRay Rendering:

model: