Thursday, April 29, 2010

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.

Monday, March 8, 2010

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.

Friday, February 26, 2010

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.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

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.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Hanging Curvature






The goal of this project was to remodel a house in Tempe, Arizona using sustainable materials and creating an accessible living environment. My inspiration was some paint drips that were hanging down from a piece of metal. The Gregory family for which the house was designed, also liked the Phoenix Botanical Garden. From these two ideas I was able to create a concept that involved curves and nature. From this project I learned how much time and effort goes into designing a remodel of a house. It took a lot of effort designing elements geared towards someone in a wheel chair, also. I never really thought about certain things like counter top height for instance or the amount of turn around space a room must have. That was something new and challenging to design. Overall, I thought my design was successful and believed that my concept of curves was shown throughout the house and ADU. Something I could work on would be dimensioning out the house correctly the first time. I was completely finished with my plan when I started doing the demolition plan. When I laid the original house plan over my new and improved plan, they didn't match up. My plan was three feet shorter than it was supposed to be. Fortunately, that was an easy fix and actually gave me a better plan than I had originally created because there was more room for walk ways.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Texture of Nature









This objective of this project was to create an accessible bathroom and laundry room. The concept came from a nature object. Mine happened to be a twig with some black berries on it. This also became the color scheme i used in the bathroom/laundry room. My concept model is my abstraction of wrinkles that were found on the berries. I then applied the splitting effect seen in my concept model to the layout of the bathroom/laundry room. This created the division of space between the two rooms and also the angle of the wall and the shower bath. I applied the concept of wrinkles to the walls of the shower bath as well. I used crash glass, which is like mosaic tile, but in nonuniform pieces and without creating an image. I made the toilet and one of the bathroom sinks handicap accessible. There is 60 inches between the two walls that enclose the toilet with grab bars behind and to the side. Also, one of the sinks doesn't have under counter storage allowing a wheelchair to easily roll up to it. On top of this i also, lowered the counter tops in order to be more accessible. I think I was successful at finding materials that fit the color scheme in the room perfectly. I also think i was able to use those materials to fit within my concept as well. I think i could improve on bringing my concept to my presentation board as well. I attempted to do this through the elevations in a "Y" shape, which is seen in my concept model, but I don't think it fits with the rest of the items on the board.




Mine, Yours, & Ours








The objective of this project was to create a child's room for twins that were at the present time 5 years of age and will have the same room until they were around 12 years old. The challenge was to be able to design a room that would grow with the children. My concept came from the texture i found in the book and also with movement. I also focused mostly on one specific aspect asked by the client that I thought to be most important, which was the ability for the twins to have their own space when needed. To do this i used a curtain to divide the room down the middle so each would have their own bed closet and desk while separated. The curtain also obtained to the concept of movement through the space. I think i was successful at creating my concept and applying it to every aspect of the project, including the presentation. My board is set up like a game board and includes playing pieces. Each twin gets to move their piece to each square. Here I will explain what each square represents for the client. This presentation continues to fit with the idea of movement and will also hold the attention of the twins. I think i could work on scaling down my perspective drawing. That way it would fit better with the rest of the items on the board. The perspective took over the attention of the board by filling the most space.




Friday, September 18, 2009

Kitchen Design












This project was used to explore the remodeling process and stretch the creative process. A client gave me a piece of her favorite art work in her house. I was expected to design a kitchen based on that art work. The concept I came up with consisted of angles and layers which I related to some flags blowing in the breeze in the art work. The client was also very specific about some of the qualities she desired in the kitchen as well. The kitchen needed to be open to the family room and dining room. The materials she wanted were wood floors, cherry wood cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and the color red. Overall, I believe my design was successful in its layout which gave a feeling of openness, as well as incorporating the materials she desired. Included in this project were a plan of the kitchen, a plan of the first floor, two perspective views, two elevations, a section cut, a picture of art work, process work, light study models, and a model of the kitchen.