Shelter bus part II, materials and details

One material that was chosen to be placed throughout the entire bus was the Poplar select, found at denoon.com This wood will be place on the floor through out the first and second story of the bus. It will also be placed on the exterior wall of the bathroom.
This room is designed for client #1: Chris and African American nurse, training for a marathon, works third shift. Her bed once again fits perfectly into the shape of thw all, I also provided shelf's for storage and a dresser underneath her bed. I wanted to provide maximum floor space for her to stretch and do exercises. I also provided minimum light to her room for the day light. There is a skylight in both her room and Chi Chi's room. However this can easily be blocked out by pulling a curtain over it.

Client # 2: Chi Chi is a nurse from New Mexico, has a pet bird, and is Hispanic. Her room is on the second floor. The head of the bed is the same shape of the wall and fits in it perfectly. I gave her a dresser and a table/shelf for storage or to hold her pet bird. Below is the textile chosen for this room. It is Spotlight curtain call, K7726, $36 a yard and is 54% recycled polyester.


The next room for client #3 is Siu a language teacher, she's from Montagnard, and broke her leg and is recently on crutches. Being aware of the little things that make a difference when thinking of someone who has a disability, I was fully prepared to create a very easy and livable room for Siu. I created a piece of furniture that would sit perfectly at the end of her bed. This would hold drawers for her clothes right at the foot of her bed. And also a desk for her to work at that would not require her to get up and walk over to it. the desk chair would be easily accessible for her to slide onto and begin working at her desk. I wanted to leave a lot floor room for her to do her exercises and physical therapy. I also created storage under her bed. Below it the textile I choose for her room. It is titled Abacus Token K7159 $30 a yard and it is woven 100% polyester.


Client number 4 is Lynn, who is a visually-impaired teacher, plays guitar, and is a conservative Jew. I stationed her room on the first floor. Provided a space that was easy to move in, had a desk for her to do work, and space for her to play guitar. Image 1 below is the textile I chose for her bed and extracted a color out of for her wall color. This textile is titled Cross stitch Arthur K10261 it's $63 a yard and can be found at Knoll textiles.
This is a rendered detail of how Lynn's room would look.

shleter bus part II, other wise known as suicide

The second part of our shelter bus project has been an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. When first given the assignment to design a mobile relief unit for four hurricane workers I was really excited, even though i knew the amount of work that would need to be done. Knowing this I started right away and have been working since the start of the 2nd half of the semester. I first decided to do some research on neat rv's in the past. Below is a picture I found where the rv could go from land to water, much like the duck tours you see in popular tourist cities.
After doing some more research I stumbled upon an RV that was not the shape of a rectangle like most. Instead it was a full sphere. It was used for haunted purposes in Gettysburg, PA. I thought that the idea of hacing a shape other then rectangle was a new and neat idea. All i had to do was come up with layout to incorporate this shape and make sure it wasn't to big and would still be able to drive. Below is one of my first floorplans:
This is the first sketch i did on sketch up to get my ideas out there for how the bus would be. This was suppposed to be the original shape when it was all said and done, but i found I didn't have as much room as i would want, so i decided to transform this shape one more time. However when everything is folded in this is what it would look like.
when thinking about our clients, there is one specific client that has a special need. She is visually impaired. Having a mother who is blind in one eye I tried to think of things she has problems with. So I came up with a central room that when walking if you put your hand on it, it would guide you through all the spaces. This room became the bathroom.
I wanted separate rooms for the four relief workers. I decided this would be best because when I did katrina relief for a month, just 6 months after the hurricane hit, I slept in a tuesday morning with about 40 other girls. Just on the other side of a curtain was the guys. Even though I knew I was well off compared to those who were affected but the hurricane I couldn't help but wish I had my own space to go, and be by myself. To create these spaces I created an upper floor for two of the workers and expanded two rooms on the first floor for the visually impaired woman and the woman who had a broken leg.
The entrance to the bus is not a regular door, I decided to incorporate the outside and the entrance. Part of the porch railing will unlock and come down to create a ramp. Then the door on the porch leads you to the inside.

To finish my project I needed to come up with a concept and alter what I already had to fit that concept. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to come up with one before you design your bus, but I have found it easer to come up with a concept if you first think of some ideas then look to see what all those ideas have in common. The concept that I chose is Sand Dunes. I then needed to push my idea more. So I added a roof that would resemble the movement and shape of a sand dune. I also added this sort of roof to the bathroom, instead of leaving it open. I created organic lines through out the shelter bus and even altered my furniture to resemble something of a sand dune.

One of our ongoing studio projects this semester has been constructing a bus shelter. We were each asked to individually design a bus shelter for either the A&T campus or the UNCG campus, the tate st. and spring garden intersection. I was assigned the A&T campus. I wanted to design a shelter that your could have a lot of visibility and also provide outdoor and indoor seating. Below was my final model. The wood is engineered lumber, and the glass is Low
e glass, both are sustainable materials and would work well for my shelter.

Luxurious Parlors

The sofa by John Betlter, was designed during the Rococo Revival style. It was made for the luxury style market. This type of furniture would have been set in a parlor of a house usually owned by a doctor or wealthy businessman. This room would have been used for formal entertainment. The sofa would be accompanied by a set of chairs and a table. There would also usually be a fireplace; however there would rarely ever be a fire in the fireplace. The height from floor to ceiling is taller than most homes today, along with the windows. The fabric you see is made of well crafted silk layered to create the floral print on the sofa. The Curtains would have normally been made from heavy fabric. The accessories in the room would have consisted of lamps and family pieces including family portraits. There are many things that tell an observer the family that owns this home is wealthy. Not only the fabric but especially the wood work in the furniture. During the mid 1850’s most furniture was being machine made, to provide for inexpensive furniture. A machine that allowed him to carve the wood in such a way created John Belter’s sofa. Most of the wood in this room would probably have been created by a machine but only to an extent. These types of carvings show the financial status of the family. Although this room was designed by myself any room styled during the Rococo Revival style will have high style furniture and architecture.
Christyn Dunning

Mobile relief Unit

I started this project off with continuing my research on the duck tours, and the notion of having a mobile bus that could go on water. I also took into account my experience with Katrina relief work that I took part in six months after the hurricane hit. I remember that after a long hard day in the ninety-degree weather I just wanted a place to relax and an area where my fellow workers and I could spend time together. This is how I got my concept for my mobile relief unit. The unit itself consists of one floor that is set up like an actual house or RV. The space is very open allowing for more circulation space. The public and private sections are very distinguished. The ceiling is vaulted with every two feet open skylights allow natural light into the space however the solid roof pieces can slide out to block the sun when needed. On the side of the bus there are three-foot decks that lift out of the side of the boat. On the bottom of these decks are propellers that would allow the boat to move across the water. The layout of the bus and the ability for it to be transformed allows a comfortable and relaxing stay for the workers.

Graphic Illustration of my life the past 2 weeks

These two papers represent everything we've done as a studio in the past two weeks. The first one is of the Bus shelter part of the project and the second of Shelter bus.

Codes...and other foolish things

Up until now we have the freedom of designing without any limitations or restrictions. So when we were thrown into a web of codes, ergonomics, and proxemics this year...it was quite a change. My group was faced with the challenge of making our buses able to fit code. What was perhaps the greatest thing I felt for the members in my group to grasp was how much a space needs to be handicap accessible. Having spent 5 months in a wheel chair I was fully prepared for what needed to happen to make our buses accessible. In the comfort bus we had to change our room layouts. We next had to take into account the interaction between people in the Communication bus. Below is a bunch of diagrams that my group put together to explain the effect of codes, ergonomics, and proxemics when applied to our free design.

Shelter Bus

Our assignment was to design two shelter buses that would be designed based on a need that is needed for the hurricanes. Below are some sketches my group did to process some of our ideas.











more detailed sketches on our ideas for our Comfort magazine





sketches to show our process for our communication bus







This is our model for our communication bus. The center piece would be a place for computers were on the outside wall. On the inside of tat section would be an area for talking on the telephone in private. The other areas/rooms would be where families could go to watch tv or get on the computer.