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.

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.