Preliminary Mock-up

The preliminary mock up was a conbination of conceptual ideas, material choices, and gaves insite to the layout of the redesigned depot. I incorporated the concept of organic curved lines with a structural grid. The materials I chose resembled colors requested by my client, her weaved basket designs, and my inspiration, a urinal from the original train station. If doing this mock-up again, I would show more images of the residential part of the depot. This is because the two gallery images shown above capture the same overall scene. I would want to give more of an overall view of what the interior space resembles.

Home Office and Pattern Application

Pattern Application:

When applying my pattern to an object other than a textile, I wanted to focus on a use that could be applied to my design for the depot. This is why I choose examples of a light fixture, a mirror, and a wall covering. For the depot, I choose the wall covering because I beleive it made more of a statement in the space. I used it as the focal point in the entry. If doing this again, I might try and apply my pattern to something more unusual for a pattern to appear on, such as a light fixture.

Home Office:

When designing the home office, I wanted to make a statment about the concept used in the rest of the depot. To create the the structural element I incorportated scrap copper piping to be used as slats between the office and the entryway. The curved countertop expressed the organic lines found in the urinal from the train station. If doing this again, I would try to add more storage space, such as overhead canbinetry.

Organic Structural Unity Pufferbelly Depot Adapitve Reuse

For the adaptive reuse of the Pufferbelly Depot my concept protrays the structural grid of subway tile with the organic curved lines of an original urinal found in the train station. I applied the structural grid to the layout of the floor plan and incorporated the curves into built-in items and furniture. The colors of green, brown, cream and copper were derived from my client's request, her weaved basket designs, and the urinal. I feel that the concept of the organic strutural unity was very well portrayed throughout my design of the depot. I also believe that I show a strong understanding of sustainability through the use of smart materials choices, the use of mulituple duel plumbing walls, and by using a significant amount of exisitng interior walls in the depot. One thing I would do differently in the future if doing this project again would be to make sure that all spaces within the depot were ADA accessible. Between the master bedroom and the master bathroom, there is a 3ft wide hallway. This is ADA compliant when traveling in one direction. However, it would not be complient with ADA standards when someone in a wheelchair were trying to turn a corner to enter the next room. Overall, I am very pleased with my design for the adaptive reuse of the Pufferbelly Depot.

Pattern To Textile

For this assignment, the goal was to make a textile out of the module and pattern I had created. I took the pattern and repeated it in InDesign to create a block of structured gridded lines and organic curving figures. I was then able to tweak the pattern so that the lines and figures lined up with one another. I then uploaded the InDesign document to a fabric printing company called Spoonflower.com, who would print my design on a 36” x 36” piece of cotton fabric. About two weeks later I received my textile. I believe that the time and effort I put into manipulating my pattern so that everything lined up correctly paid off. When looking at my textile, I am able to see the design as a whole and not as individual squares put together. If I was able to do this again, I would have chosen a different fabric. My original thoughts were to have the surface be somewhat shinny and have the organic curved figure be metallic in order to represent a metal characteristic that I used in my concept model.

Module To Concept Model

The concept model was created from the parti and the textile. Both of these show unity through the use of organic curves and a structured grid. The concept model was applied in the same way. A structural grid acted as a base layer of the model, just as it did in the gridded background of the textile. It was painted brown to mimic the look of reclaimed wood, which is similar to the colors found in the textile and the parti. An organic curved shape was created on top of the grid base to incorporate the feminine organic curves found in the parti and the textile. This shape was created out of metal so it could easily be manipulated and also to incorporate the reflective quality found in porcelain. My concept model exceeded my expectations. I think that the material I used directly related to the colors used in the textile and my inspiration object. If I was able to do it again, I would use a different technique for the metal pieces. When doing this model, I spray painted the copper onto silver metal first then cut it into the organic shape. In the future I would cut the shapes out first and then spray paint it. This is because when cutting the metal, parts of the spray paint chipped off. Spray painting the metal after cutting it would have cut the number of coats I would have had to apply to create an even and smooth surface.

Textile Concept Statement

Inspiration

Final Module

The inspiration for the Pufferbelly Depot was a urinal used in the train station. It was designed with a series of layered curves in front of a structural grid made from the subway tile on the wall. The layering curves expressed feminism by creating an organic design. The urinal was made from porcelain which allowed for the reflecting of light to occur creating a glossy surface which seemed to fade from light to dark. Unity was expressed in the design of the Parti through combining the feminine design of the urinal with its masculine function. Unity was also expressed by combining the organic curves used in the design of the urinal with the structured grid located behind it. The textile was created by rotating the parti clockwise. This created an organic feminine shape layered on top of a structural grid pattern. The color scheme for the textile included brown tints and shades used to capture the color of the porcelain, and fading was incorporated to express the idea of reflecting light.

Art Gallery Visit

After visiting the WSU Art Museum, I felt I had a better understanding of the way to design a gallery space. When you enter the gallery, there needs to be a statement piece that sets the tone for the rest of the exhibit. The rest of the space is set up depending on how the artist wants the viewers to move through the space. For my personal preference, I would want viewers to move through a gallery more structurally following a definite pathway. In this specific set up, the gallery was more of an open space that had a large focal point piece in the center. The gallery manager said he placed this piece in the center to create movement around the piece so it could be viewed from all angles. All the other pieces were arranged on the walls surrounding the focal piece. The lighting used in the gallery was spot lighting. Some of the pieces were allowed more direct spot lighting than others because of the type of media used to create the piece. Overall I thought visiting the Museum was very informational.

Studio Visit

Our design class was given the opportunity to visit a home studio in Colfax. The experience was very interesting and gave me a good idea about what worked well and what could be done differently in a home studio to better fit the needs of the artist. One thing the artist stressed was the need for storage space. She said the amount of storage you think someone will need should be doubled in the actual design of the space. The artist also said after working in the space for a while, she needed a place for her pieces to hang and dry so others could be started. As of now, the artist has to let them dry on the work space which inhibits her ability to begin new pieces. The actual space where the artist creates the art work, she believes works well for her. She has three separate stations, one for each step of the process needed to create her pieces. There is ample light in the space as well. There are windows on every wall, two florescent lights in the middle of the space, and also track lighting close to the wall which are used for highlighting the art works when necessary. Over all I believe the experience was very worthwhile.

Modules to Pattern

Module 1 Module 1 Pattern 1 in grayscale

Module 1 Pattern 2 in color

Module 2

Module 2 Pattern 1 in grayscale

Module 2 Pattern 2 in color

I decided to use these two modules to create a pattern. Out of all the parti drawings I came up with, I believed these two worked best at displaying my concept of curves. I arranged each pattern by rotating, flipping, or repeating the module. I used colors of the blue hue to convey the function of the original object, the urinal, or to represent the idea of water.

Abstractions to Modules

The original inspiration was a part of a urinal found in the Pullman train station. It interested me simply because when looking at it from out of context, there were no clues to what it actually was. I found that very interesting. I also liked the qualities it had. It had rounded edges and a wave like effect that consisted of several tiers. It was porcelain and was surrounded by what looked like subway tile that was also a white color. Another thing that caught my interest was that its function was for a man, but it had a feminine look to it. In my parti sketches I focused mostly on the curved edges.

Vision Impairment Exercise

Participation in the vision impairment exercise was quite informative as to what the capabilities are of someone who is blind. We had to smear Vaseline on sunglasses and attempt to walk around campus. The most surprising thing to me was that I could see light and shapes but not make out what anything was. All the figures were just big blurred objects. Color seemed to be very important. I could definitely tell the difference between colors and that helped when it came to things like doorways and stairs. The glare effect was also a big issue. One part of the campus I visited was full of skylights. It was very difficult to make out anything at all even colors. The whole area just seemed like a beam of white.

Skamania Project

The Skamania Project was designed to help us understand the design process in a real world situation. For this project our class was divided up into teams and we were asked to come up with a design to transform a barn into a youth center for the Stevenson community. When we were told we had to be in teams, I thought it to be sort of a relief. In my mind it allowed everyone to bounce ideas off one another and eventually come up with the best plan possible. It also spread out the amount of work each person had to do. The only problem I had with it was when people in the group didn't pull their weight. It definitely put a lot of stress on the rest of the group members to make up for what other members didn't accomplish. Working with actual clients and hearing their input about what they wanted in the space was a great learning experience. It definitely puts in perspective the important things needed in the design. In my group, we focused on the need for becoming close as a community. Our concept was based around uniting the space as a whole. The space was divided visually depending on the activity that would take place in a specific area.