LET'S WRITE

The second, and final project for design was a writer's retreat at St. Mary's house off of Tate Street. This building houses an area for a church for college students, so it is set up like a casual chapel. We were to go in and re-structure the building (if we choose to do so) to set the ideal atmosphere for a writing resort.

This resort would house a writing scholar that would stay long-time for either a semester or a year. They were to have both public and private spaces for things such as public readings and meeting with students, and a place to sleep and make food. We could tear down walls and put others up, and we chose the furniture that went in.

This is where I began...

My parti was an original reflection of the furniture I wanted to put in the house. I knew I wanted to keep the floor plan open, so to eliminate the use of walls, I wanted to implement bookcases that would double as walls. The geometrical grid theme was something I decided to keep throughout the house. My original floor plan is somewhat different from the ending one because I needed to fill up more space than I originally thought. 

The floor plan shows the front of the house (public space) transitioning to the back of the house (private).  In the public reading space, I added a very large sectional and two side boards to the room. I wanted to keep every space "homey" so that the writer was comfortable wherever he/she went. I thought this idea was great, but I was told that the public reading space should have been more formal with individual seating, as it might be awkward presenting in what felt like a living room. I appreciated this criticism very much because it was something that had not crossed my mind. 

Off the back end of the reading space was the public co-ed bathroom and public office. Off the office was a cozy meeting space with two large arm chairs and a coffee table that could be risen if necessary. The office had a modular desk so that there is plenty of room for the writer to work. I was satisfied with the public office and felt that it served what it needed to. However, after sitting in during presentations, I realized I should have taken the initiative to create gender sensitive bathrooms in the event that a male would not want to use the same facilities as a female, and vice versa.

As the floor plan transitions to the back of the house, one is directed to walk to the left into the kitchen by a gridded bookshelf that creates a divide from the public space. The kitchen takes on an L-shape with an island in the middle that also doubles as a dining space with two high chairs. I chose this because I didn't want to add a bulky dining table that may not be used the majority of the time. Standing in the kitchen, one would be looking at the living room. Here, there is one couch that has two chaise lounges on both ends and another gridded entertainment center that holds a television for entertainment purposes. Heading to the far end of the private space, there is a private office with a wall-length bookcase; and to the bedroom and bathroom.

The longitudinal section cut (top) shows how the furniture fits in most rooms of the house. It also shows how the rooms are spaced out. The transverse cut (bottom), again, shows the layout of furniture in the front part of the house, the public reading space. Looking at it now, I wish I added another section cut to show the private office and bedroom.

One-point perspective of the public reading space. I kept the walls blank so that there wasn't any extra stimuli for students to be distracted by. The colors were neutral and cool to create a relaxing environment for both the students and the writer. Although I enjoy how the room looks now, I understand why it would have been a better decision to utilize individual seating to create a more formal space. 

Two-point perspective of the kitchen and living area. Again, I kept the walls blank to allow the writer to put his/her own artwork or other pictures on the wall as he/she pleased. The colors were kept very natural in cool in here as well to not only have a smooth transition from the public space, but also again, to keep the environment relaxing. I struggled with a wall color because I didn't want to keep it white, but never came up with a good color to use. 

One-point perspective of the bedroom. I chose to have a very large wardrobe versus a closet because it took up space and livened up the room more than a single door would. There are two wardrobes placed side-by-side with sliding doors for easy access. The bed is a placed on the far wall so it wouldn't disturb the flow of energy (feng-shui). Again, natural colors were brought into this room to keep it less-stimulating and more relaxing.

After critique, I realized that I need to place objects in all of these rooms. Although it seems like an obvious thing to do, I was set on the fact that the writer was going to be putting their own things, that I didn't think to add any. I understand now that that would have made all of the rooms look more lived-in and believable that they were rooms TO be lived in. 

This project, among others, has been a great learning process. I am now more aware of what kind of a thought process I should be going through when designing each room to create a more successful proposal in the future. 

DINING: FINAL PHASE

Finally, all of our ideas had to come together to create one big proposal. I stuck with my original idea of keeping the overall design modern and simple to ensure that the meal was about those eating, and not about the room that held them. There were a few things that I had to add to give the room a more distinct personality, and to actually conquer the social media aspect that under-layed the project.

I added a series of three wall indentations, made of brick, on the east wall to echo the three windows on the west wall. This added a different kind of texture to the wall on top of the brick that gave the room a little more spice than it had before.

I struggled for most of the project trying to decide where to put my social media. I wasn't fond of the idea of a screen coming down a wall, or up in the middle of a table, so I was completely lost. During one critique, one of the girls mentioned having mirrors on the walls that doubled as a screen for social media. I liked this idea, so I ended up adding a large screen, along with two smaller screens, on the south wall. At a first glance, they would just be electronic picture frames until social media needed to be pulled in, at which the middle, large screen would be used.

The one-point perspective (top) shows someone standing at the east wall, looking west. This captured what the room looked like most successfully because the modern table and chairs could be seen, along with the social media screen and windows. The floor plan shows how the furniture truly fits into the space.

Again, going on with the modern scheme, the side board (right) used had right angles and hard edges. The top piece is a frosted glass to match the handles, and the overall wood used is a dark chocolate.

The axonometric view (left) shows the entire space successfully because the interesting texture and cuts on the east wall are now seen along with everything else seen in the one-point perspective. This view goes on to show the openness of the room and how the table fits into it. The two section cuts (right) show the south (top) and west (bottom) walls. I wanted to showed off the south wall due to the social media, and I felt the east wall needed to be cut to see how the side board fit into place.

The top/front/side view of the dining room table complements the side board with the right angels and hard edges. I was originally inspired by a table that would allow the smaller section to be pushed in between the larger section of the table surface, but quickly found out that would not work. I then went on to create a table that had a leaf that could be put in when needed. I wanted the table to never be too big for any amount of persons, so this leaf would allow extra space when needed, but keep the table intimate when not being used.

The model was made to merely show what the space looked like and how the east and west walls complimented each other. 

TIME TO EAT, PART II

Parti:

I wanted to keep my parti simple and straight to the point. I found a dining set that would act as one of my precedents for the final outcome. Even at this early stage of the project, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do, so I found pictures to relay those thoughts for others to visually see. I wanted to keep the furniture in the room modern and all of the decor and accessories simple. When those dining would sit at this table, the room would no longer be about the inadament objects within it, but about the people now taking part in the dining event.

SOCIAL MEDIA

This was a baby step leading into the dining area project. We were to come up with a place to hold an "artifact" that dealt with social media. I took this quite literally and acted as though this was being presented centuries from now. I decided to use film (cameras, video recorders, etc.) as my artifact and I created a "media gallery" to house this artifact in. This basically was an art galleria, but instead of their being artsy pictures in the frames, there were pictures of real-world events going on; this took form in still pictures and live video. I saw this as being a common gathering place, so not only did people come here to find out what was going on in the world, they also came here to socialize.

TIME TO EAT

In 2015, representatives from each continent came together at a common meeting place to casually chat with each other.  This place needed to accommodate all their different styles and tastes so that each person was comfortable in this setting.  If this task was accomplished, something great would be the outcome.

This common space would take the role of a dining area.  This is ideal because not only will the persons have the ability to socialize, they will be able to enjoy a delicacy from one or more of the continents. The space will be designed so that the guests complement the room and not the other way around.

With that in mind, the chosen table will be a square, modern table.  Since this will only sit eight people, there will be a leaf that will slide out from one of the ends to allow extra seating for two people.  The overall structure of the table will be fairly massive as the table top will be very thick and the two “legs” will be large to support the whole table.  The massive size of the table will represent strength both figuratively and literally.

The ten chairs surrounding the table will represent the water that surrounds the land masses (dining table) around the globe.  To continue that theme, the chairs will be a blue-green color.  Since people will want to be comfortable in these chairs for the time they are eating and chatting, the chairs will have a thick cushion and be entirely upholstered in a suede-like fabric. 

The side board will be used as a storage and display area for both food and possessions.  This will mimic the structure of the table, but it will not be as bold since it isn’t as important as the table itself. 

The overall atmosphere of this space is to represent strength, nature, and relaxation with a modern twist.  All of the colors, including the table, walls, and floor will all be very natural and the pop of color will come from the chairs and artwork.  This will allow the main focus to be on the dining itself, and not all the little details that go into making the room look “pretty”.  

As mentioned, the people will be complementing this space and not the other way around.  Therefore, the design will remain simple to ensure that that is what happens.  The focus should not be on the aesthetics of the room, because although they are important, the people who occupy it are more important. 

SPACIAL DEFINITIONS

In Edward T. Hall's essay, he made his main point that there is a significant difference between WHAT a person sees and HOW that same person, or another person, sees it.

He goes on to talk about proxemics, the interrelation of observations and theories of the use of a space.  There are three different levels of this, dealing with the past, present, and future to say the least.  With this in mind, it should be understood that the boundaries of a territory remain constant, as do the locations within the territory.  These territories are marked by visual, vocal, and olfactory signs.

One of two points Hall hits includes a FIXED-FEATURE SPACE.  This simply means activities are organized around individuals and groups.  A funny fact that's mentioned to go along with this is that "messy" or unorganized people don't typically classify a specific room for a certain activity.  Moods will also change as the set up does.  These changing architectural aspects allow a person to be who they truly are because they no longer have to hide.

The last point Hall touches on is that of sociofugal (parting people) versus sociopetal (bring people together).  In many commercial buildings' waiting rooms, chairs are set up in such a way that doesn't allow optimal conversation.  Osmond figures out that this is because of the layout (most are set up "military style").  According to Osmond, corner conversations are ranked number one, followed by face to face conversations and side by side conversations.

Ultimately, all a space really needs to have is flexibility and congruence between design and function to offer a variety of spaces. 

 

DESIGN MANIFESTO

I believe that design should be both personal, but functional.  When a client comes into the picture, the design still needs to be personal and functional, but now the client's personality comes into the design.  This is what design is, and design alone.

I am aware that there is a fair share of people like to keep their designs simple.  By simple, I mean few colors and straight to the point.  Although this may work for both the client and the designer, color needs to be a large part of the design, as do a few minor decorations here and there.  These are the little details that ultimately give the room it's personality.  In return, the room's personality complements the client's which is the ultimate design fulfillment.

BOX OF FOURS

This light box project was a carry over from our previous project, and also acted as a lead in to the projects to come. We were to use a 12 x 12 x 18 box and create four spaces using cut outs on the sides of the box. The second step of this was to orient the spaces in the box using Bristol paper or bamboo skewers. 

Phase I: Literally cutting the interior of the box into four sections, I cut out a cross from the "ceiling". This not only divided my box into four spaces, but it gave me a nice little surprise on the back wall which looked like the rays from the sun beaming down.

Phase II: Realizing that I was going to have to orient the light with bamboo skewers, I knew that I couldn't utilize the cross I had cut out from the ceiling. Before I completely shut the idea down however, I cut out two 2.5 x 2.5 rectangles from one of the side "walls". Those two, simple cuts divided my box into four spaces and allowed me the opportunity to play around with the orientation of the light. Bye bye cross up above. 

Phase III: I brought in six, equal length bamboo skewers and oriented them in a way that when the light came through the two squares there would be stripes that would work its way from the floor up onto the walls. I chose six because when I originally put eight skewers in, it seemed like there was too much. However, if I could change one thing, I would go back and add two more skewers to keep the project compositionally "whole".

Light effect.

Light effect II.

I went through many phases of this project because it turned out to be more complicated than I originally thought it would be. Once I began to fiddle around with cuts and layouts of the bamboo skewers, it became easier. One factor that also made this difficult was not knowing what the best light source would be and the point at which the light should be coming through to get the ideal effect. In the end, I decided to create a fresh box so that it was clean looking. I was ultimately satisfied with the final product.

LE COLOUR