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.

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.

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.

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.

Kitchen Case Study

This project was designed to explore the necessity of a functional kitchen. The task was for a group of us to make a meal of spaghetti and take note of what worked well in the kitchen and what didn't. The project also involved measuring the kitchen dimensions, producing an elevation, a perspective view, and a plan of the kitchen.