Design Works

The comm[UNITY] behind Design

2011-04-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Since I was in Middle school I have spent countless hours dreaming of these make believe houses and buildings and the people that would inhabit them. I also spent hours doing a ton of community service in my community of Carlisle, PA and other areas around the country. I spent a month in New Orleans right after Katrina. I built a church in Canada. I volunteered multiple times building houses with Habitat for Humanity in South Carolina, and countless more. So I've always carried this passion for helping others and it only makes sense that I would combine that passion with my passion for design. After spending last semester starting and working with the Global Studio project, I found that maybe this could possibly be my calling. I purchased a book a while ago titled "Design like you give a damn." Architects for Humanity edited and published the book, which showcases community design projects all over the globe. I researched several types of community projects including a studio project at Auburn University. This studio has taken on the role of improving the living conditions of residents living in Masons Bend, Alabama. They recently built the "lucy House" which is made of 24,000 stacked carpet tiles donated by Interface.

I also researched emergency shelters such as the Concrete Canvas Bag designed by Peter Brewin and William Crawford. It is essentially a "building in a bag."

I then looked a product design and found the UNbathroom which i found very interesting.
I looked at the history of humans response to natural and man made disasters and different organizations such as Architects for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity, and the Make it Right Foundation. All of these organizations have taken on the initiative to improve our response to disasters.
As designers and architects we have studied the history of our profession and have witnessed multiple “design revolutions.” What is great about being a designer today is that we are a product of a revolution. A “green” revolution has evolved out of our awareness of Global Warming and the rise in natural disasters that have taken place in the past decade. All of these disasters have forced designers to not only design “green” but to focus more on community-based design. We live in a world that is constantly changing. Governments are being overthrown, awareness is being raised on poverty, child abuse, and countless more issues that have gone for years unnoticed. The world is a much bigger place than the city, town, or state we live in. It’s important that we broaden our vision of who we are designing for, how we’re designing, and the lives our spaces will impact.

[HOT]lanta

2011-04-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Oh yes we did! Our class ventured several hours to the land we like to call [HOT]lanta. We were given the chance to see several design firms including tvsdesign, Gensler, Herman Miller Showroom, Interface showroom, and another smaller firm that I am forgetting the name of at the moment but as soon as I find it...i'll put it on here! The trip and firms were awesome. We had a wonderful tour guide who set up everything for us! Her name was Betty Russel and she works for Herman Miller. She was absolutely wonderful and we probably would have been lost without her.
The first place we went to was the Interface Showroom. I loved this because I'm currently doing my internship at a flooring place so I was able to take some things I learned back to my boss.

The second place we went was tvsdesign. Paula Carr spoke to us briefly about the firm and some of their work. We were then given a tour of the firm's work space.

Next Was Gensler

This seems to be the motto of the design world in General.

Last but not least.. Herman Miller Showroom!!

Avenues Event

2011-04-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

       In the past several years the Department of Interior Architecture at UNCG have done several things to enhance the amount of networking opportunities available to students. These events range from lectures to trips across the continent. Some have been successful, others not so much. We once tried to force all of our students to attend a lecture every Friday, that we weren’t getting credit for but somehow seemed to be looked down upon if we could not attend. This did not last very long. We then started hosting portfolio review events. Such events force us, as students to actually sit down and work up an impressive resume and portfolio. On Wednesday, March 23, the dept. hosted such an event titled “Avenues.” We were asked as third and fourth years students to choose a type of firm we were interested. Options ranged from residential to commercial to healthcare, all the way down to graphic design. I signed up for graphic design because at the time I was considering going to grad school for either that or journalism. My ideal job is to work for a design or travel magazine and be able to travel and study what I love and write about it. I wasn’t sure if Graphic Design as a masters program was the right avenue for me so I was looking on not only some feedback on my portfolio but on Graphic Design as a career choice in general.
        Before attending Avenues, I met briefly with several other professionals and professors to get some feedback on my portfolio. After receiving a good review from all I was sure that I had successfully illustrated my design works from the past four years in a clean, elegant, and creative manner. Low and behold, I was in for quite a surprise.
          I met with Keith Richards from out of our minds animation. I had done some heavy research on the company before the interview and appreciated all the animation they did. However, I was more interested in finding out how much actual graphic design they did that had to deal with logos, page layouts, etc. Everything that I felt was important to know to move up the ladder in my career goals. Keith was very nice and immediately started to review my portfolio. This is where the “surprise” came in! He gave me feedback on the type of images I chose to put in my portfolio and told me to take the “artistic” quality out of them. I found this rather strange coming from a graphic Designer. I think that if he were more of a commercial designer that I would have been more acceptable to his comments, but they seemed to contradict everything that everyone else had said. I then presented to ask him about things such as magazine layouts, working with photographers, etc. He didn’t really have a lot to say about the subjects because Out of Our Minds doesn’t work with magazines or newspapers a whole lot anymore. However he did give me some good advice about possibly working with a photographer or even a retail store as a visuals manager to get to know the graphic advertising business.
               The avenues event was an opportunity to meet an employer in your area of interest in the professional design world. I believe my area of interest is not the normal route for students coming out of this program but it still would have been nice to meet with a graphic designer that new a little bit more about the entire media world and not just one area. I very much enjoyed meeting several other professionals during the reception, including Paula Carr from tvsdesign. If I learned anything at all from avenues, is that doing your research on a company before the interview has more benefits than just making yourself look good. It allows you to know the type of questions you need to ask for yourself to find out if the firm/company would be a good fit for what you’re looking for. I believe Out of our Minds Animation would not fit well with me, but some other firm might.

IIDA: Momentum Group review

2011-04-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

This semester I attended the IIDA networking event at the Momentum Group. Here we learned about textiles and what a fabric/textile designer did. It was actually quite interesting. As a student in the Iarc program you are required to take a textiles class, but I actually never fully understood a lot about textiles and the manufacturing process. We were able to do a tour of the warehouse and see the workers organizing the fabric to be shipped out and making fabric swatches for design students, designers, clients, etc. I met with Leo Bushell for a brief moment. Leo is a designer for the Momentum Group and was very eager to tell me about what it’s like being a textiles designer. He said that it was rewarding to be able to see your designs actually go from paper to “press.” However, sometimes with companies such as the Momentum group, they have a certain “image” that seems to be a standard for their company, making it not as easy sometimes to be as creative as one would like. After talking with Leo, I’m not so sure I would be happy as a textiles or furniture designer. I was also about to meet with some professionals and get some feedback on my portfolio.

I first met with Shannon Ferguson, a designer for ID Collaborative. She was very nice and gave me some great feedback. I was looking for more feedback about the images I chose to put in my portfolio as well as my initial Graphic Design of the portfolio itself. She really liked my graphic design and logo but did give me a couple pointers in improving my logo and switching some of the colors up. Jeff Lynn and I both met with Shannon and she did a really great job at looking at both of our strengths and interpreting what we should be putting in our portfolio. She did say that if we have any revit work to make sure we put that in, but also to make sure our portfolio really speaks towards what we’re really good at. To show mediocre work in several areas is not always better than showing your best work in one area.

I also met with Kelly Barger from River’s Edge as well as Blair Davis from ID Collaborative. Kelly had a unique look on the design world. She recently started her own design business and has made a very successful name for herself. However she does most of her work with residential and has the chance to work with a lot of high end customers. She said, that if you want to start a business and be on your own as a designer, you need to make a name for yourself first. Find customers who love you and will be loyal and continue to come back to you, as well as recommend you to their acquaintances. Blair seemed to agree with her, but stated that she’s not sure she would ever want to have her own business because of the liability that comes with it. As a designer, having a firm to back you up if something were to go wrong with a project certainly has its advantages.

They had a bunch of fabric samples out for us to see. This was really helpful because it allowed us to actually feel the fabric for ourselves and compare them.

We Received a great tour of the warehouse! To learn more about the Momentum Group check out their webpage here!

Portfolio and Branding Package

2011-04-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

I further investigated the branding of my name and work to produce a more completed portfolio and branding package. I may change some things in the future, as well as add some more work to my portfolio but I think I got it to where I want it to be for right now. Check it out:

I wrote the Cover letter to the person I was having a "mock" interview with. He works at Our of Our Minds Animation, which is graphic design firm here in the triad.

Resume

Leave Behinds

Portfolio

Initial Portfolio/Branding package

2011-04-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

One of the first projects for my Professional Practice class was to come up with a resume, cover letter, and portfolio "preview" for ourselves. We were to address the cover letter to our professor explaining what type of position we would want to have in the Mock Firms for his third year studio. I started to play a little bit with my initials to see what I could do with the letters "C" and "D" to come up with a logo. I decided on a universal shape and then started playing with colors.

This is an example of my Resume. The top logo is my initial logo for my name with the colors orange and Grey. I then added some lines to each side of the "C" shape and changed the color from Orange to Purple for my cover letter. I found by doing this and using the neutral color of grey that I could easily change the accent color as time goes on. For now though, I think I'll stick to purple.

Next is my Portfolio Preview. I took the same concept as my cover letter and reused the three striped lines. I think played with layout and size of the images. Not sure I'm totally ok with it yet.

Phase III- 1st Floor rough draft

2011-02-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

Theatre

Cafe

Exterior View

ReReading South Elm-Phase II

2011-02-16T08:28:00.000-08:00

Haiku

Initial Material/Products

Vance Chavis-Life long learning

2010-12-12T17:16:00.000-08:00

For the last half of the semester we were split into groups to finish the interior design of the vance chavis library. I was in the stacks group and below is our final work.

Rendered Exterior view

Finished Model done beautifully by Kurt Heizenga

Floor Plan

Reflected ceiling plan

Detail of my design for a media wall.

Material would be Newsworthy by Weitzner

Snapshot view of it in space

Left: designed by Kurt Heizenga

Right: Designed by Jayson Parker

Materials decided as a group

No Title

2010-10-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to use my blog for more than just posting my studio projects. This semester I'm taking a Creative Non-fiction writing class and I love it! English was always my favorite subject in high school and I've always enjoyed writing. Taking this class is actually starting to churn some wheels in my head about what I'd like to do after I graduate...journalism?? maybe.

Our first assignment was to write about a memory we have and I decided to write about my car accident. I have this goal that someday I'm actually going to write a book about my car accident and incidents that came to follow...but we'll see if/when that happens. Let me know what you think!

It all started with a light, one single forbidden light. Then the spinning started, and the blood ran, and the bones popped, and the glass flew.

Open your eyes

God if only I hadn’t opened my eyes. Eyes that saw blood, and death, and pain, and anger. Eyes that saw things I never knew existed.

With one light, I lost everything. I lost scholarships, security, and my ability to run and jump. With just one light, my eyes were blinded, and my bones were destroyed, and my skin was scarred, and my anger was released.

With just one light, I saw everything and felt nothing.

All my senses seemed to be intact except I couldn’t feel anything. I could taste the horrible mixture of blood and debris on my lips. I could hear him telling me to get out of the car, and I could hazily see my wrist bent in a way that was anything but natural, but yet I still felt nothing.

“Christyn Get out of the car” he said once again.

And I tried. I could hear my brain telling my legs get up and move your ass out of the car! But I could not move, I couldn’t feel anything.

“I can’t,” I told him. But by the horrible smell of burning oil I knew I had to. So I did the next best thing, I fell. What seemed like 20 feet later I found myself on a hard, uneven gravel surface. Shards of glass lay all around me and glistened off the stream of blood that was becoming a large river down the road. The next thing I knew I was on the grass in a man’s arms. He was interrogating me asking me questions like “What’s your name?” “What’s your mom’s number?” Then somewhere in the short distance I heard the most terrifying sound. A sound that would haunt me in my sleep in the months that were to follow. Somewhere a woman was screaming as if she had just lost her child or her lover. Her scream was like having an alarm clock wake you from the deepest sleep. Because all of a sudden the hazy screen that was covering my eyes was gone and I could clearly see.

If only I hadn’t opened my eyes. This is a decision that I would later come to regret in the months that followed. Ahead of me I could see that the river of blood was protruding from underneath a beautiful mess of curly hair that lay strewn across the road. The hair was attached to a head that should have been attached to a body. But instead they lay a couple inches apart.

Then I remembered him. All of a sudden a rush of panic and horror rushed to every vein in my body. I couldn’t see him anywhere and I couldn’t hear him. That’s when I started to scream. How I heard him I have no idea, but somewhere from the midst of the sirens in the distance and my own screams I heard him softly yell my name, “Christyn.” I looked to my right and saw his tall strong body so broken in a pool of his own blood. He was gripping his stomach tight and profusely vomiting blood. “Ryan, are you ok”…but there was no response. It was at that moment that I knew what it was like to loose everything you thought you knew.

The next moments passed so quickly that I wasn’t able to keep track of Ryan. All of a sudden EMT’s appeared like ants. They were poking and prodding different parts of my body like I was a fresh piece of food that someone had dropped on the floor and not bothered to pick up. I was given an IV on the spot and then they started to cut my clothes off. This seemed very strange to me as I was lying in the middle of the street. Never mind the fact that every EMT was a man.

“Why are you doing that?” I asked.

“Christyn, can you tell me what hurts?” One of them asked.

“Nothing” I responded. The man’s face turned from being slightly concerned to a nice mixture of complete surprise and horror.

“Christyn, can you wiggle your toes for me?” he asked. I told my brain to wiggle my toes, which in turn told my toes, but they weren’t having any of that. This is when I started to worry. Since I was in just my bra and underwear I could finally see why they looked so shocked when I told them I felt nothing. My left femur was penetrating out of my skin and both of my ankles were turned almost inside out. Shards of glass were sticking out of my arms and legs and I was covered in what I presumed to be my own blood.

“Holy shit” I said, “that does not look ok!” At this the EMT’s laughed which I found oddly inappropriate since I meant it in a oh no this is really, really bad kind of way.

Finally my mother arrived and I felt a sudden relief that someone I knew was there to yell at the men who were constantly staring at me. I know that’s their job and everything but when you’re 18 years old with size D boobs lying in the middle of the street, you start to feel a little uncomfortable. They decided that my injuries to were too major for the dinky little hospital we had in the town and instead life lioned me to Hershey Hospital. The entire time I lay there in a neck brace, almost completely naked, and the EMT was constantly yelling at me to keep awake. He didn’t understand that the reason I kept mumbling and trying to make conversation was to in fact keep myself awake.

I must have either fallen asleep or the adrenaline has prevented me from remembering the 15 minuets that passed from the time I got into the helicopter to the arrival at the hospital but, the next thing I remember was staring at a very bright light. Nurses appeared out of thin air and cut my bra and underwear off so that I was indeed completely naked. Apparently putting a sheet over me was too much to ask. The next thing that happened was horribly uncomfortable and extremely gross.

“Mam, I’m going to check your spinal cord, just try to relax” the nurse said. All of a sudden I felt everything. It started from the inner parts of my butthole, where the nurse had just shoved her fingers, and traveled to the broken bone in my right wrist, down to my femur that was penetrating my skin, around every big and tiny shard of glass that was cutting my skin, and finally to both my ankles that were shattered and turned in a million different pieces and ways.

Finally I could feel everything.

Some days I still wish that I could feel nothing.

Library Precedent study

2010-10-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

In order to broaden our minds towards different types of libraries out there we did a precedent study on one local library in Greensboro, and one distant library. I chose to do the Central Library here in Greensboro and the Salt Lake City Public Library. Below is my research and diagrams that I created based on the info I could find for the libraries.

Salt Lake City Utah Public Library: Moshe Safdie, FAIA Lead Designer
                                                           Isaac Franco, AIA, Project Manager
                                                           Steve Crane, FAIA, Partner-in-charge
                                                           Jeanne Jackson, AIA, Project Architect

Site Analysis-Vance Chavis Library

2010-10-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

This semester my studio class is redesigning a local Library here in Greensboro, the Vance Chavis Library. In order to fully be able to design the building to fit the client and user's needs we first needed to understand the history of the building as well as what the current issues for with the building are. So we did a site analysis.

Reading Room

2010-10-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

Freedom House: remake of orphanage in Leogane, Haiti

2010-09-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Purpose: to provide children in Leogane, Haiti with a shelter that will embed them in a safe place and give them the opportunity to be educated.

Geography

Capital : Port- Au-Prince
coordinates: 19’00” N, 72’25” W
area: 27,750 sq km
located on the western third the Island of Hispaniola, shared with the Dominican Republic.
between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean
most of the land is rough & mountainous
“Haiti” -comes from an Indian word meaning “highground”
land use: arable land: 28.3%
permanent crops: 11.61%
other: 60.09% (2001)

Environmental Issues

extreme deforestation = no lumber for building
soil erosion = shurbs/greenery would

Demographics

French Speaking Nation
First Black led Republic
95% Black, 5% White/Mixed
Poorest country in the Americas: 2 USD a day
Population: 9,035,536
47% Live in an Urban State
64% Live in a Rural State
Age: 0-14 years: 38.1%; 15-64 years: 58.5%; 65 years and over: 3.4%

Economy Build Up

66% Farmers
9% Industry
52% Services

Infrastructure:

40% Have access to health care
50 % Illiterate
90% of Schools are Private
70-80% Do not have access to clean water
13% Have access to electricity

Climate

tropical; semiarid in some parts
lies in the center of the hurricane belt
average temperatures: highs: 80-90°F; lows: 60-70°F (stays about the same temp., warm, throughout the year.)
average rainfall: over 50” per year in some areas, while other areas get no rain at all.
usually very humid, but less in december-april

Issues facing children

0-14 years: 38.1% (male 1,735,917/female 1,704,383)
Haiti has the highest rates of infants under-five and maternal mortality in the Western hemisphere.
Approximately 1,000 children are working as messengers, spies and even soldiers for armed gangs in Port Au Prince.
As many as 2,000 children a year are trafficked to the Dominican Republic, often with their parents’ support.
19,000 children are living with HIV/Aids
15% of all children in Haiti are orphaned or abandoned
200,000 orphaned Haitian children live in institutions; the rest are fostered, live with relatives, or are street children
Most Orphanages act as a home and a school
Some Orphanages include:

Freedom House

H.O.P.E
A child’s hope foundation
Love and Grace-Petionville
Good Samaritan

Education

Haiti’s literacy rate of about 53 percent (55percent for males and 51 percent for females)
falls well below the 90 percent average literacy rate for Latin American and Caribbean countries
15,200 primary schools, of which 90% are non-public and managed by the communities, religious organizations or NGOs
The enrollment rate for primary school is 67%, of which less than 30% reach 6th grade.
Secondary Schools enroll 20% of eligible-age children
Only 11 Universities in Haiti

Cob

A building material consisting of clay, sand, straw,
water, and earth, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof,
resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive. It can be
used to create artistic, sculptural forms and has been
revived in recent years by the natural building and
sustainability movements.

Earth Berm
Earth is piled up against exterior walls and packed,
sloping down away from the house. The roof may,
or may not be, fully earth covered, and
windows/openings may occur on one or more
sides of the shelter

SOL Inc.’s solar lights are shining brightly all night long, expanding relief and recovery
efforts at several Port-au-Prince sites following the devastating earthquake on January 12,
2010. Solar lights donated by SOL Inc have already been installed at University Hospital,

International Airport, UN Logistics Base and Hotel Montana within days of the disaster for

quick, immediate and reliable illumination for victims and volunteers.
The first phase of SOL Inc.’s pledge to provide $300,000 in solar lights has been reached as
the company has manufactured and packaged over 130 solar light systems ready for
shipment. Although approximately 1/3 of the lights are already delivered or in transit to
the earthquake-ravaged nation, SOL Inc. is still seeking air cargo or ocean freight transportation
assistance for the remaining lights from FL to Haiti.

Site Plan

Exterior View

Floor Plan

Community/school area

Children Sleeping Area

lower level floor plan: Guest house

Perspective of Guest house

proposed solution for Water drainage

left section

front section

Left view of model

Front view of Model

Presentation board

Albemarle Eatery and Winery

2010-09-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

Objective: Transform an old Belk building into a mix use space. I worked on the first floor which would be used for Commercial purposes. I designed an eatery/winery that residents and tourist of Albemarle NC could come to mingle, eat, and taste wine from local vineyards.

Bar Area view

restaurant view

Restaurant view from welcome desk

Restaurant view

Restaurant View

Salvation Army Select

2009-12-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

Well, all of the hard work has paid off. My retail studio has been working on a very cool, very rewarding project this semester. I have to say for the first time I have really enjoyed 100% my studio. I've worked for years with Habitat for Humantiy, Katrina Relief, etc. and I love doing projects that allow me to give back to the community. Salvation Army Select was that kind of project and I LOVED it!!! My studio helped in the final construction of the store as well as designing displays, the dressing room, and merchandising.

Dressing Room

Dressing Room Lights....this was a long pain in the butt process to find a perfect light

Dressing Room doors

Men's end Display

Men's Jewelry Case

Women's Jewelry Display

What it looked like originally

What it looks like now

Women's Window Display: The dress is made out of paper red sheilds.

2009-12-06T09:55:00.001-08:00

The Station

2009-12-05T17:31:00.000-08:00

Concept

Converge: To come together from different directions and meet at a specific point

From this I decided to look more closely at Greensboro's History. I really enjoyed hearing about how it is the Gate City and thought that railroads really fit into my concept. I found a lot of inspiration in Railroads and the point at which they converge and form a straight line towards their destination.

Railroads: A means of Transportation from several areas, North and South, East and West. Often meeting at a particular station to head in a different direction.

At this point I started thinking about Branding for my store. I came up with many ideas including:

Also names like Cross Roads or Xroads, etc.

Finally I decided on The Station: I thought that this fit my concept will because a train station is a hub in which people from all different backgrounds, places, etc. Meet for even a split second upon going on their separate ways.

Branding will be put on bags, receipts, store front, etc.

I then developed my floor plan and space planning.

All the lines in the floor represent a curtain wall system. This will consist of paneled walls of different sizes that can be put on and off the tracks. This creates the opportunity to change the size of the space depending on what is needed for different exhibits, etc. The idea however is that the front of the store would always be Retail, then Gallery, then Consultation space, then Collaboration studio.

Beside these tracks would be Ledia Hess AG: Illuminating strip 64 LED lights that are recessed into the ground.

The inspiration for these lights came from a photo that I found of a train passing.

I then started developing spaces dealing with fixture display, merchandising, and the window display

This is my Cash Rep. It's built of wood but it has a skin of aluminum on the exterior. The Red stips in the rendering resemble lights that would be embedded in the squares. Only so many of them would be on at one time to create a design. Inspiration for this came from the picture below.

Top

Side

Back

This is how my merchandise would be displayed. The center piece would be able to have things sitting on it as well as shelves. Also their would be an opportunity for clothes to be hung in the gap on the shelves. I apologize for the lack of merchandise in the rendering however I hope that this discription helped you to understand the space a little.

This is the window display from the front. The railroads would act as shelves to display merchandise. The background are twisted chains 1/2" diameter.

As for Marketing I had the idea to draw Railroad tracks all throughout Greensboro leading to the Station. They would be drawn with chalk and would have information about the Station and images of what they have in between the railroad tracks.

In Working Conditions

2009-11-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

This is what I have so far in designing my Hatchery space. I've dedided to combine my concept ideas: Twist and Converge. They seem to kind of connect so i'm taking this idea and developing it into hopefully a very strong and conscious design. I have not included lighting in my renderings however so far my lighting consists of track lighting for the ceiling the follows the lines of my train tracks

This is the floor plan for the 1st floor. It includes spaces for the gallery, exhibit, consultation space, and collaboration space. I've inserted curtain wall tracks the will look like train tracks in a city (see image below). The walls will be panels that can be taken on and off of the track and stored in a storage area in the back of the space. This will allow for the space to be very flexible. Beside the tracks will be Ledia Hess AG Illuminating strips. The idea is that these lights will look like those pics that have trains flying by.

This is what the space will look like with the certain panels I've decided to pull up.

This is the first space you will walk into, the gallery space. The idea is that the cash rap above will be stationary. It will be aluminum grids with inserts that have some lights on the inside. Like the picture below but square inserts instead of circles.

This is also the gallery space.

This is the exhibit space

This is my idea of the collaboration space. I designed an 8' table for student to work to and installed some shelves for storage so far.

This is my idea for the consultation room. I designed the table myself.

This is the upstairs. I have an idea of making it a coffee/lounge space. The bar was designed by me. Obviously a lot is missing like chairs, desks, etc.

Those glass panels will essentially be like rolled screens. They can be put up when it's nice out and they want to open the space. The bar will extend to the deck area. This will allow when all the panels are pulled up for the entire are to be one space.

This is the view from the outside deck looking in. Once again tables and chairs will also be outside.

These are my color pallets with the images that inspired my design.

Free Your Mind!

2009-10-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

So far in my design process I have come up with a couple ideas. However I don't really have a clear vision of what I want the space to look like. My concept so far is a combination of Converge and Twist. The definitions are alike in that things are coming from different directions to make a whole. I feel this ties in with the History of Greensboro being the "Gate City." My vision thus far is to create these track/panel systems. I imagine some sort of track system whether it be an actual track or maybe bars hanging from the ceiling. These tracks would be coming from all directions and going in all directions like a railroad. However there would be one point in the space where all of these tracks come together. Then there would be paneled walls of different widths that could attach to these tracks and slide throught out the space. You could put the panels together to make a room bigger or smaller. It would be a way of being able to have a flexible space. The panels themselves would probably be white but i need to do further research into that. I also want to use glass somewhere in the space but I'm hesitant because of acoustics. I would love my main structure walls to be red weathered brick. The downstairs would be mostly for the gallery, collaboration studio, consultation room, and gallery store. The upstairs however would be a cafe/lounge area. No food would be served unless noted otherwise by a specific exhibition. I would love the upstairs to be a bar/lounge however since it is university owned it probably wouldn't go over so well. I imagine the outdoors to be very chic and modern with large sofas or chairs for people to sit on. The indoor area of the upstairs would house mostly tables and chairs. The cafe area would be mostly on the inside, however some of the bar would extend to the outside. During nice nights when people are outside the bar would be open as one big area. I would love to have some sort of panels that can be opened and closed to create an indoor/outdoor area or one big outdoor area. I know that I don't want the skylight to be open to the first floor I feel it doesn't enhance my design at all and the natural sunlight coming from there would alter my design.

Big Bold Balsy Ideas!

2009-10-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

So in the past couple of days I have been doing some research on concepts that I feel fit the Hatchery. With those concepts I found some inspirational images. So far I have two main ideas, Twister and Converge. In the next day or so I will be taking these concepts and generating two floor plans, and lots of ideas. I think this will allow me to see what concept will work best with the Hatchery and allow me to generate a multitude of ideas.

TWISTED: To combine as two or more strands or threads; by winding together; intertwine.

I thought about this in the context of the Hatchery, where the students who would potentially be collaborating together would be the strands or threads. The students work will then overtake the space and the space itself would be another layer of strands or threads, and all of these things would work together to form The Hatchery, a single twine.

CONVERGE: To come together from different directions; meet

I chose this definition of converge because I thought it best fit the Hatchery. This is possible my favorite so far because of the amount of room it allows my thoughts to flow. I feel this would be a an excellent concept for my Hatchery space because we are truly coming from different directions to meet for this. Students will be coming and collaborating from different departments. All types of people will come and meet for performances or shows. Also we as designers are coming together and meeting as a group to hopefully one day make this space a real thing.

Refurbished Furniture

2009-10-20T20:06:00.001-07:00

Here are my furniture pieces that I refurbished. I forgot to take pictures of them before hand, but the first one was brown wood on the exterior and the top was covered with black fabric. The second one was dark brown wood.

2" 6" L x 14" W x 15" H

works perfect as a seat bench under a standard window. Also has plenty of storage and is very comfortable to sit on.

This piece will work well as an end table for a couch, chair, or bed. Storage on bottom and in Drawer. Dimensions: 28" H x 14" D x 16" W

Programming...yes i said it

2009-10-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

This week while still working on Salvation Army we will also be starting the work on the Hatchery. The first step: Programming. In order to design a space that can be unique and easily used by any student or client that walks in we need to know exactly what we will need. Programming is a pain in the butt, however it is necessary. I did a bubble diagram that addressed what we would need in each individual space. I put them in order of importance from left to right. Also I made a list of why we would need certain things in our spaces. I found that through out the entire building three things would ecspecially be important. Lighting, Acoustics, and Display areas. I believe these three things should be our guiding tools through out the design paying special attention to making sure our space utilizes these three aspects well.

Inspiration for the Hatchery

2009-10-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

Our next project for my Revisioning Retail class is to take part in designing a space called the Hatchery. This space will be a museum/gallery space for students from UNCG to display their work. The building is in downtown Greensboro, and will have four main spaces. One, the actual gallery or exhibit space. Two, a gallery store. Three, a constulting space to make an appointment with an artist or musician. And Four, a work space where students can collaborate on projects. The first step in designing this space was to find inspiration. Below are a collection of images that I found. I found it helpful to find images in groups. Such as most gallery spaces that house artwork are either completly white and little detail or old century baroque and gothic. Also some museums depending on what the exhibit is, is very modern and uses technology a lot. I also looked at stores that were kind of plain with pops of color or details. I didn't find one theme or idea that I liked best so I decided to come up with a collaboration of all sorts of ideas.

Royal Palace of Venaria, Turin Italy

The Great Gallery

The Saint-Hubert Royal Galleries

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Interior of M C Escheresque museum

Museum of Telecommunication

Crocs shoes SoHo customized retail space

Louis Vuitton

retail store in Sydney Australia in "the strand"

Tis the Holiday season to GIVE!!!

2009-10-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

The past couple weeks my revisioning retail studio has been finalizing our plan for displays in the New Salvation Army Select store in Greensboro, NC. We've also been working in our promotional groups on projects. While planning for our displays we've had to keep in mind that the store will be opening on Nov. 6. This is three weeks from Black Friday and the official beginning of the holiday season. But as Halloween approaches you can't help noticing the little hints of xmas decors' that are lurking in the back of most stores. Even Hobby Lobby has all of their christmas stuff out, the only thing missing is the music! So Brooke Elliot and myself have been working on ideas of how to add subtle xmas elements to the store. These are the ornaments that I came up with and designed that could be stationed around the store. I also have plenty of the red and silver ribbon that can be incorporated also, as well as glitter and spray frost for windows!!! oo la la

Reuse display ideas

2009-09-24T11:46:00.000-07:00

Display Ideas

2009-09-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

Bulbs

This image is of a window display that utilizes recycled light bulbs. Several would be hung apart from the ceiling. Others would be in a declining pile on either the left or right side of the window. Some of the bulbs would be lit randomly to create a sparkled flow. I thought this would be very eye catching and utilize something that can't always be recycled, but shouldn't just be thrown away.

This is an example of the end display that would go with the Bulbs window display. Their would be bulbs. They would be installed in any shape on the wall again lighting a couple of them.

Wildflower

This was inspired by my inspiration collage found on the previous post. I really really love this and I think that it would definitely grab someones attention and draw them into the store. The top part of the window are hanging close lines that will have cloth clipped on them that has words stitched on it. The bottom part is made up of the image and actual 3D flowers that overwhelm the wall. Some of the 3D flowers act as displays for shoes or bags.
The mannequin would be reaching out and grabbing a flower.

This is an example of an end display that would go with the wildflower window display. Again It would repeat the use of clothes lines and scraps of cloth. As shown in picture a bigger piece of cloth would have woman or men or children stitched larger in it.

Be Inspired!

2009-09-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

Our project this week was to dream BIG! We are continuing our research for the Salvation Army Select store and how we can make this store truly one of kind. We were to find inspiration wherever we could. "compose a symphony, sim the english channel, see a movie, fly the friendly skies" etc. I wasn't looking for inspiration when I decided to watch the movie PS I love you on sat. afternoon. However it was in this movie that I found inspiration in the lost and hurt soul of Hillary Swank's character Holly. This movie is filled with laughter, heartbreak, and romance. The scenery of the movie as well as the style of the characters in the movie is very Chique with a little bit of rocker in it. I thought that these two styles my be completly opposite in the fashion world but they actually fit together very well. This is important to look at when designing the Salvation Army Select store since we will be getting donations of all sort of styles. That may be a challenge for us as designers in how do we arrange all these different styles and sizes to be cohesive with the store and really carry on the boutique sort of image. I found a number of images that sum up my inpiration from the PS I love you movie and how that could be transformed into a store.

Attention Attention Attention!!!

2009-09-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

This past Wed. in class we each chosen a particular goerilla marketing project to follow through on. I chose the group that will be working on fixing up furniture. I love finding old things and making something beautiful out of them so I thought this would be my chance to do it for a great cause. So we will be buying old furniture (hopefully we will be able to get some from other Salvation Army stores) and fixing it up to raffle off to people. Our idea is to give raffle tickets to people who bring in donations.

We had a lot of investigation to do. We needed to know 1) how were we going to pay for the used furniture and supplies. 2) How would we get attention to our project?

We decided that we needed to advertise a lot. You know bring us in something and you could win!... type of thing. We decided we need to see if we could use the empty store front windows near the Salvation Army select store to do a window display of the items we'll be raffling. These can be chairs, desks, tables, etc. Also we will need some sort of signage to direct attention to this campain hoping that people will come to donate b/c they want this raffle ticket. We're also hoping that we can get some sort of pass saying we're working for salvation army and maybe other salvation army stores will give us some furniture pieces, or we can find discount paints and thrown away wall paper samples or anything to fix these pieces up. We will be focusing on a sleek, clean, chic look. We're also kind of hoping after talking to another class that we will be able to put some pieces in the select store to sell when it opens. Chairs that are sitting by the dressing room for example or jewelry boxes.

If you have any suggestions or would love to donate to help Salvation Army select please leave me a comment!

Salvation Army Select proposal

2009-09-16T09:18:00.000-07:00

I found that a lot of people don't really truly know what Salvation Army does. I think this is very important when it comes to donation. Everyone knows that yes they do the santa thing with the bell every christmas and yes they do disaster relief. But they do a lot more than that. Salvation Army also has youth camps set up around the US to help give opportunity's to children that normally won't get those opportunity's. They also have a lot of rehabilitation organizations that help with prisoner's and giving them a second chance as well as drug and alcohol addicts. Salvation army does a lot that I never knew they did. I think these are important facts that can be used to draw people's attention to donate if not clothes money. I propose a disk like object that can be 3D or 2D, however I thin 3D would work better. On one side of the disk it would say something that salvation Shields people from. Like Sheild me from Prison. And on the other side it would say what salvation army is granting you in return for Prison. Like Grant me a Secong Chance.

Timepiece

2009-09-13T19:38:00.000-07:00

top view

left side

front view

This week for my revisioning retail class we were to come up with 3 final ideas for a time piece in our retail space. Keeping in mind our concept that was given to us and what we had already designed for the store. The above one is a solution I came up with for my checkout desk. It would be a series of transparent cubes measuring 6" x 6"x 6" and each one would have a light bulb in them. Depending on what time it was the cubes in the first row would transform and push out. Each cube would have a light in them and only the ones pushed forward displaying the time would be lit red. When not pushed out the cube would be white just like all the other ones. Kind of like a giant rubics cube.

view looking up

side views

Second idea would be installed on the ceiling and lighted up tiles would display the time.

front view

top view

This wardrobe is already in my space and it would display the time on one of them at a time. However the location of the time would change every min.

Kick It!

2009-09-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

So this week in my re visioning retail class we were each given a concept and a product. With this information we had to make a materials board. My concept was arcade games and I as selling shoes and socks/stockings. I first researched the topic of arcade games and came up with two possible era's that I could focus my design around. The first was the 20's and 30's when the pin ball machine first came out. It was made of all wood and it was very mechanical. These pictures would have been my inspiration if I were to take this route.

The second was in the late 70's early 80's when arcade games and video games just exploded. Every kid was playing at the arcade. Things became electrical instead of mechanical and new vibrant colors were used. This was the era I chose to focus my design on. I found a very inspirational picture on flickr which pretty much started my whole design.

After finding this picture I started to research some of the products that I wanted to sell and who I wanted to sell it to. Since I chose the 70's and 80's era I decided to sell to the youth. Sneakers and socks like this:

From there I started to form my space. I knew I wanted to add aspects of certain arcade games, like the maze of pac man, and the flicker things that block the balls of pin ball. So I chose to create my own display for the sneakers that was almost in a maze shape and was a game to try to reach the shoe you wanted. I decided to imprint my inspiration image on the side of the display. Different colors gradually turning into another color. I also flipped this display and hung it from the ceiling to make it feel like the center of the room. Next I designed cabinets/drawers that would line the side walls. The doors of these cabinets would stick out 5" in the center and would be 8" apart. The would never completely shut or open so when pulling something out of these cabinets like socks the doors would snap back to their position. I next chose my floor, furniture, and lighting.

Week 2 Case Study

2009-08-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

To Further enhance our knowledge of retail design and to help inspire and guide us as designers week 2 will be spent doing a multitude of case studies. The first case study assignment is to look at 5 different retail stores that are interesting to us. We are to be studying things such as materials, textures, how different parts or rooms of the stores relate to the rest, etc.

For the first case study assignment I chose to travel to 3 stores. Although all three stores were unique in their own I wanted to find a store with more pizazz. I did a lot of research online and in books and found the store Test Tube. Test Tube is a home wares store in Mt. Lawley, Western Australia. This store sells contemporary and quirky products. The store is a great example for retail design that reflects the product they sell. One of the stores main features is a multicolored timber wall. This extends from the ceiling and down onto one of the walls. The wall opposite of the timber walls is made up of built white shelves that house the stores products. Each shelf/cubby has products of like colors in them. This cubby system is a unique way to house and display the products. From the outside of the store you can see the multi colored timber wall and ceiling, which definitely draws the customer’s attention to want to enter the store. The shelves are a glossy white wood finished with some glass. This material and texture seem to be a dominant one in the retail design world.

Perch, Swoozie, Strange Fruit, etc.

2009-08-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

Perch is a store I've never been into before and when walking into it for the first time I thought wow I can't afford this place. The materials and textures that the store uses gives off the feel of high class. The walls are printed with a pattern that is very Victorian. The colors ranging of different shiny and dull grays. The shelves that displays shoes and accessories are a glossy white. The same pattern that is on all of the walls is also repeated in the rugs they have on the floor. Glass chandeliers hang every couple feet are very glamorous. On the far back wall Perch has their logo written above a display of beautiful ceramic bird sculptors. These sculptores are in a row and the first 4 and last one are white, while the fifth one is blue. This blue bird is the only bright color in the decor, the rest of the colors seen in the store are on the clothes.

Swoozies is one of my favorite stores here in Greensboro. Their products are very personal and original. Swoozies seems to use two main colors in their store which are orange and pink, almost the same shade as Duncan donuts. These colors are used heavily in the window displays but are placed very strategically and subtly around the rest of the store. One of the nice things about swoozies is that they define different spaces by theme. Wedding and special occasion items are on wood shelves, where baby items are displayed on white shelves. Also the more eclectic and vibrant pieces sit on glass shelving. Another thing that is different is that the font about each space differs from one another. When going to all the stores I found that font is so important in branding. Even something as simple as declaring a space baby versus wedding. The lighting in this store is very bright and is not directed on any particular product.

Strange Fruit is a very unique store in Berlin that I found while researching online. I chose this because I feel it is a great example of a store that uses a different method of designing retail spaces. I think that the architecture of the shoe displays itself is very well designed, however even looking at this picture you can barely see the product. Myself personally would walk into this store just to take a picture and wouldn't really be attracted to buy the shoes.

The next picture is of a store in LA on Rodeo Dr. I can not remember exactly which store it is but I think it might be Dolce and Gabanna, if I'm wrong and you seen this please leave me a comment so I can have the correct information. When in LA last summer I saw this on the sidewalk outside of a store and thought it was very interesting. It's basically a tunnel that angles down under the sidewalk and at the very bottom is a mannequin with the stores clothes on it. The glass covering the tunnel was tinted yellow and had designs on it. Their were lights at the very bottom of the tunnel shining on the mannequin. This much light alone was enough to grab anyone who was walking by attention.

Object of Persuassion

2009-05-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Voluntary Simplicity; The Hive; Hipster Haven

2009-05-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Since spring break my 2nd year studio class has been working on a project entitled Hipstar Haven. We were given a warehouse off of spring garden st. that is owned by UNCG. We were told we needed to redo the warehouse to fit as many 900 sq. ft. apt/units. We also needed to included a community center/coffee shop. We also needed to keep the beams and columns already in the space. Things we were asked to keep in mind when designing our layout of the warehouse and our individual units was:
*XY generation
*single and couples 25-30 yrs. old, making $40,000 to $50,000 a year
*cost effective
My partner Katie Reynolds and I designed our units so that they looked like bee hives. So we called our warehouse community "the Hive."
Below is a rendered image of what the coffee shop/community center would look like.
When designing my own unit I found the term Voluntary Simplicity. This is a growing movement of people who have discovered that happiness and fulfillment does not lie in have lots of money or new and bigger things, but rather in loved ones, and a connection with the community. I thought this term described the xy generation fairly well. As we get older we find that we loose touch with people and the things that matter. Being a part of the Y generation I realize that while I need money to survive, there is no need to have an abundance of objects. So for my space I decided to keep it as simple as possible and include only the things necessary. Also while designing my space I realized that there was a regularity in linear elements, so I decided to stick with that throughout the rest of my design.
North wall elevation of loft:
south wall elevation of 1st floor:
Wall Section showing 1st floor, stair landing, and windows to ceiling.
When designing my stairs I new what I wanted them to look like but I didn't know how to support them. I wanted the riser and tread to be visible so the stringer was out of the question. I decided to attach steel cables to the landing and ceiling to help support the landing. I also created a beam in the center of the second set of stairs to support them. The space below the first set of stairs was only 5'3" from floor to landing. I thought that it was a waste of space so I pulled back the first 5 set of stairs to create drawers. This solved one of my design problems which was the idea of having room for storage without having to create closets.
sketch model of staircase:
This is the floor plan of my first floor. The dotted line in the middle is the one beam I had in my space. To the right of the beam the ceiling height is 11' and on the left side it is 12'.

Loft floor plan:
Perspective looking at living space, stairs, and dining area. The clear story windows on the right wall are made of translucent Plexiglas that has a light blue tint. This allows for natural light to flow from one unit to the other without being able to clearly see the objects in the neighboring units. The couch is the only piece of furniture that I didn't design myself. Everything else in the unit including the bed in the loft I designed myself.
Perspective of kitchen. Clerestory windows repeated on this wall also.
Perspective of bed in loft area:
Perspective of balcony:
Another requirement for the project was that we needed to include at least 4 universal units. I designed my own unit so that if need be it could easily be transfered into a universal unit. All the red circles are 5' diameters, showing that space that look tight are actually accessible.

Save the Innocent

2009-05-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

My reinterpretation of a WPA poster with a modern day issue that I feel very strong about

Disruptive, Weathered

2009-04-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

For my Visual Communication class we were each assigned a mood and a descriptor. We had to create a composition that showed the mood using the descriptor..so my mood was Disruptive, and my descriptor was weathered. The first two i'm content with but the third one is perhaps my favorite.

Podium images

2009-04-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Layout of Warehouse

2009-03-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Perspective looking down hallway at the exterior of the units.
Perspective looking at potential layout of coffee shop. Counter would replicate the same shape as some of the units. Space would be very open with windows looking out into the rest of the warehouse

Therapeutic Serenity

2009-03-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

Designing a place to Bathe was actually fun but kind of challenging for me. Having experience with being in a wheel chair from a Traumatic experience I needed to think what it would be like to have been in that wheel chair for the rest of my life. The feeling is quite different. I decided I would go with what I know and how I felt. Therefore my space is for any disabled person but I tried to focus on someone who just ended up in a wheel chair from a traumatic experience. My space is inspired by the Japanese culture. I like the idea of adding different minerals to the water for different healing purposes. Having arthritis myself I really enjoyed the idea of not feeling pain for a couple hours. This is where I got my concept of Therapeutic Serenity. Therapeutic Serenity is the art of restoring health with a calm, peaceful atmosphere. My space is very open with one wall complete with windows and the roof has two major skylights. I chose Bermuda as the ideal location of my spa. I wanted a place with lots of beautiful vegetation and a clear blue ocean. My vision is that when sitting in the bathing space one would look out onto a garden with beautiful plants and flowers onto the ocean. Below is the plot of land i'm going to buy to put this spa on.

View that clients would see when sitting in the bath tub.

Floor plan of the space. Client would enter and go into the changing rooms. There theyw ould have an area to take off and store there clothes and bathe themselves with a sponge bath. The Japanese believe that if you wash yourself of all earthly and dirty things than the water in the tub will stay clean and pure. This is also necessary when bathing with more than one person. After changing clothes and bathing they would access the ramp that acts as a bridge over the hot springs to take them to the tubs. The platform that holds the tubs is 1'6" from the ground floor, and the hot spring goes down 1'6" from the ground floor.

Example of how alternate floor in tub would work. Essentially four notches would hook into the bath tub. When at top of tub it would snap tight for the person in the wheel chair to scoot onto. From there it would work much like an automatic seat in a car. The alternate floor would lower the person into the bath and back out.

Detail Tile placement of concrete and river stone, including the tile placement of river stone in hot spring.
Elevation of south wall facing ocean. Bamboo dividers are placed in between glass planes.
Elevation of north wall that is the entrances to the changing rooms
section view of changing/bathing rooms. Includes counter with sink and storage area.
Ceiling plans. Vaulted from corner of every wall to center of roof. Glass sections from north and south walls.
FFE Schedule.
View of bathing space from in front of changing rooms. Ramp is 15' long and goes to platform that is 1'6" high. Below that another 1' 6" is the bottom of the hot spring. On the platform are four bathtubs. There are bamboo dividers that may be open or closed depending on whether the client would like to bath privatly or publicly. View out of windows is over a garden and ocean.
View of bathtubs from platform. This is a good view of the bamboo dividers that may be pushed outside to bathe publicly or pulled inside to bathe privately.
view of the changing rooms. Left wall's bottom half is the paneled bamboo divided by Free Form. Section to bathe yourself and storage to put clothes in.
Sketch model of bathing area.

Systematic Structures

2009-03-05T17:07:00.001-08:00

When assigned the project A Place to Dine, I knew I wanted to incorporate a piece from nature somehow. I have a love for furniture that is made of tree trunks or branches. This is where I got my idea to create a table that utilized a prefabricated tree trunk as it's base. I wanted this to be the center of the room so I chose a transparent aluminum table top and the clear Louis Ghost chair by Phillipe Stark. I didn't want anything to distract from the focal point of the room (tree trunk) so that is why I didn't chose a really elaborate chair. From this concept of the tree trunk acting as the main structure that supports the table I came up with my concept of Systematic Structures. From there I decided to show all the studs that held up the walls and the beams that held up the ceiling.

Systematic Structures

2009-02-20T10:19:00.001-08:00

This is a wall elevation of the walls with my buffet on it. The buffet is pushed in 1' and well hidden by polycarbonate twin wall sheet. The buffet is part of the continued band that goes all around the room. Its 3' from the floor and 2' high.

The first wall elevation is of the diagonal wall with the entry ways. there are two walls like that and then the second elevation is of the two diagonal walls with windows. I still used the Polycarbonate twin wall sheet as a shade for the windows.

The insulation would be Cellulose.

The plan for my ceiling was continue the revealed studs up to the skylight. The ceiling is vaulted. One of the things I struggled with was how to make the ceiling look like it was barely being supported with the studs. However I thought this could not be achieved successfully with out making the ceiling a void.

One of the original elements that I wanted included in my design was a circular dome skylight. I derived this from the Parthenon. I decided other than two very shaded windows I only wanted a skylight in the roof. I thought this would be another element of wonder. The skylight would shine a circular ray of light at a different point every time of the day. I then chose this recessed light that adjusts to turn around the room. I thought that it would be a shame not to experience the same element of light during the night. This light is a halo 4 in. Tuscan bronze eyeball trim. It's manufactured by Home depot.

artist's space/inhabitable wall

2009-02-16T21:46:00.001-08:00

This video is of the inhabitable wall space we had to design last year for an artist.

Design Manifesto

2009-02-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

Our first project of the spring semester was to create our own design manifesto. We then had to create a artifact that would describe our manifesto. My design manifesto was that Design should be accessible to all. Design is also not ever our own we will always be influenced by those who have designed before us.

5 scenes from drawing's ive created long ago...

2009-02-04T12:28:00.000-08:00

Response to Computing in Architectural Design

2009-01-25T17:48:00.000-08:00

When first reading this article I was a little taken aback by the thought of a computer doing all the work for me. It is true that computer programs like CAD can show you a lot about your design than you could see from a model or your own drawings. Certain programs can show you how sun light will move around your building, or if you are missing any electrical details. If I knew nothing about design programs this article would have persuaded me to go buy every program out there. I thought the article was very informative but also left out a lot of issues. Design programs make things a little easier however, there is still a large amount of work to do manually. I think one problem many rookies face when working on design programs is that they underestimate the time it will take them to complete a drawing. These programs are also not the easiest to learn how to work. I also found it interesting that the author referred to design programs as "design assistants." I've never thought of CAD or Sketch up as my assistant before. I think of these programs as being part of the process rather than assisting me in my design. They don't give their input, they may fix something but i've never heard them speak. Overall I found this article very informative.

Shelter bus part II, materials and details

2008-11-28T10:39:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-11-25T08:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-12T18:49:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-24T13:29:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Client Charette

2008-09-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

In searching for a a method of protection we came across the Tuned mass damper. This is used in the Tapai Tower, it results in a giant pendulum that sways against the building's sways, lessening the chances of collapse. Below is our arch that would be placed in the main cafeteria/gym. Also is the model for how the Tuned Mass Damper system looks.

We then decided that we would have create another form of shelter in case some children couldn't get to the main arch. So we created a desk system that is inspired by Anna's desk model. This desk would be planted into the ground to create a more stable shelter.

Communicate!

2008-09-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

This is my group's logo.

Print Material: We would print all our material out of Grow a note paper, which is a paper that when planted and watered grows a plant. The calender would be made out of this, also flyers with our logo on one side.
http:// we decided we would video tape all our events happening and put them on you tube, and there would be a link to the community by design page.

Products: We would have calenders, umbrellas, soap, and possibly trail mix all with our logo on it.
Places: We would wrap the bus shelter's and bus depot in paper, with our logo on it.

People:
We decided we would have an event called “Hands Across Greensboro.” Anyone would be welcomed to come and join hands from the bus stop to the bus depot. This would show how design in our community is impacting everyone from everywhere.

Bus Shelter

2008-09-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

My Groups collective sketch models

Our first major project of the year was to design a bus shelter. It would be located on the corner of Tate and Spring Garden st. right beside the art museum. Two major buildings that my group noted as an importance was the church across the street and the art museum. Both buildings have big columns on the end that essentially mimic each other. We decided that both places are a place where all types of cultures can come together. Whether its to worship or to display/see a piece of art. We wanted to create a bus shelter that would be inspired by two completely different buildings coming together or interlocking. So we created this structure that is has two pieces coming together and interlocking to form a shelter. One side is solid wood, while the other is a type of glass.

Bus Shelter: vocab we noticed

2008-09-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Artificial Light
Natural Light: this is the sun at 9 am in the morning in Greensboro. The time when most kids are going to class.

Geometry and Arrangement

Circulation and Use

Elevation view

Section view
Tectonic and Mechanic
Repetitive and Unique
Symmetry and Balance

Material and Finish

Unit and Whole
Mass and Form

Different Point of View

2008-09-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

I was born a Yankee. I was taught a lot about the Civil war in Highschool, but we rarely touched on the Civil Rights era. When we did, it was the basic things, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, etc. We read some stories but they were always about the Civil Rights as a whole. Perhaps this is why I really enjoyed reading stories that focus on a specific area/city. I learned a lot about Greensboro in Chafe’s Civility and Civil Rights. I really enjoyed reading about the trials and demonstrations of all the students in Greensboro. Compared to where I’m from Greensboro is much more diverse. This story was definitely a great insight for me to see what it was like to go through this time from the south’s point of view, and not from the north’s. I really enjoyed some of the quotes that Chafe included in his presentation. The first that really stuck out to me was that an observer noted the 1960’s stage of freedom movement was like the Greensboro “coffee party” of 1960. I don’t think that the students that started the sit in demonstrations knew how big of a movement they were starting. In Chafe’s reading he talked about how these four students had the courage and the pain of the pioneers that had started other movements in the past. I also enjoyed learning a little bit about all of the four original sit ins , and how three of the four original sit ins grew up in the Greensboro area. Perhaps the most influential detail to this story that inspired me the most was that Ezell Blair Jr., noted that “as college students we have no jobs from which to be fired by people who don’t like to see us assert ourselves…We can speak up loudly now without fear of economic reprisal.” As college design students I feel we have a responsibility to fight for a change in this world. Whether it be enforcing Recycling at our school, or speaking up for something else you believe in. Now is the time when we’re discovering who we really are and what we truly believe in. It takes courage to grow up and see who you really are.
I read the story after already taking a bus route. The reading did not influence the pictures I took on my route but it did influence the pictures I chose to display. I wanted to pick ones that would influence some of the things read or said in this story. I took the route on Friendly ave. so since I have been there before I tried to pay attention to things that have always stuck out to me. I also paid attention to the people on my bus, however their were really only me and two other people for the mile I road, so it wasn’t very interesting. This was not my first time riding a city bus, this bus ride was definitely not as eventful as riding the Miami city bus at 1 am in the morning. Below are 7 images that I chose to represent my experience riding the bus and also that were influenced from some of the images presented in the reading.

Finding my way to the First Horizon Park

2008-08-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

For our wayfinding project we were each assigned a place in Greensboro to go to. We had to start at our place of residence and go from there. On our way we were to document certain landmarks, nodes, and paths that stuck out to us, and would help us find our way there again. I was assigned the First Horizon Park box office, which is where the Grasshoppers play. It was pouring rain so I was highly frustrated which i think greatly influenced the things i noticed on the way. There were probably a lot of interesting little things i could have noticed had the weather been different. Instead I focused on the big landmarks that I could see through the rain. overall i enjoyed this project simply because I am not from Greensboro and I like to take any chance I can get to learn more about this beautiful city in NC.

Elsewhere

2008-05-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

The first thing that I decided to draw when being bombarded by most of the stuff in Elsewhere was the kitchen area. Particularly the fridge. I really like how the only really colorful things on this white background was letters. So being the person I am I decided to spell something out for my own delight. One of my favorite songs of all time is Here comes a regular by The Replacements...if you've never heard it and you have a crazy appreciation for music...download it.
This lamp was also in the kitchen area, basically i drew it because I thought it was pretty
I really liked the combination of the umbrellas, xmas lights, and grapes that all seemed to just hang on this lamp. It really was an ugly thing turned into a beautiful somewhat masterpiece. Well an Elsewhere masterpiece.
Jesus Interrupted
The front window display for their clothes line event.The area that I choose to draw was an old dresser that had an old cash register machine on it, and many old white clothes above it. Not sure why but the combination of all these old things made me feel like I was in the 20's just by staring at this one space.
The last day I was finished with my space drawing so I decided to draw this old bathtub. Inside of it was a green cloth with different colored flowers sticking out of it. Just a very beautiful combination...with something that would normally never be seen as beautiful.

Different Horizontal Lines

2008-05-06T07:49:00.001-07:00

This is of the Coffee shop in the EUC, I choose to draw this from looking straight at my horizontal line because the layout of that coffee shop really interests me.
These are the stairs looking up from the first floor of the EUC.

Objects normally found in a room

2008-05-06T07:46:00.000-07:00

Stoels house

2008-04-21T12:37:00.000-07:00

Nature as Tool

2008-04-14T16:55:00.001-07:00

My groups name was 3/4 because we had 3 fruit and 1 vegetable. In order from left to right: Sara, Josie, Anna, and myself.

These are a few of my patterns however I put them on top because they were not my favorite.
This was my final project. I choose an Orange and used a plier as my tool. The final product is meant to be walked under and sat on certain bended benches. The circles are set off of one another on different levels. They're open for light to come through.
These are the patterns that influenced my architectural structure the most.

Mexican drawing

2008-04-10T12:36:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday my Perception and Communication class went to El Caralton...sp?? It's a mexican restaurant and we got the chance to draw some random things. I have to admit nothing in this restaurant was really grabbing my attention to draw. So I chose to draw some cups and bottles of sauce that were on the table, and also a fan that I thought was really pretty.

Furniture practice

2008-04-10T12:34:00.001-07:00

This couch was my first ever thing I ever did with my Prisma Colors...it's going to take awhile to be perfect
This Chair is color pencil

5 Alternative sleeping arrangements

2008-03-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Bag
Winnie the pooh, Winnie the pooh...on the floor
In a box
In class

In a Hamock

Bottle Cap Project

2008-03-23T21:30:00.001-07:00

Terra cycle is hosting a contest to see who can come up with something to do with Bottle Caps. We worked in partners for this project. My partner was Meg, and we decided to make salt and pepper shakers. We wanted this to be sort of a collector's item with the soda bottle labels. However we also did ones that were just bottle caps. We wanted to come up with a way to use not only the caps but the bottle itself also and to make something that people always use everyday. That's how we came up with Salt and Peppa Shakers!

A long Process...turned into a great Journey

2008-03-01T15:29:00.001-08:00

This is our board!

My Bubble Diagram
Lily's Function Diagram
This is Heather's Public/Private Diagram

From January 29 my Perception and Communication class has been working on this project. We were divided into groups and assigned buildings around our UNCG campus. My group was assigned the Ferguson building. The building itself is not that exciting architectural wise however it serves many purposes. Such as the Teaching Resource Center, and the Deaf Ed center. We started this project by making floor plans of the building then went on to making diagrams, perspective drawings, and finally details. We then put all of our best work together and assembled out first real board!! I really enjoyed this project. I wasn't sure how it was going to end up but thanks to my group and out awesome working together, I feel we assembled a pretty good lookin board.

Scaled Figures everywhere!

2008-02-26T10:22:00.001-08:00

These next images are ones that I did outside of class. Some of them turned out good, others not so much.

Last Thursday in class, we expeirimented with scaled figures. I find that if i pay too much attention to the little details my drawings don't come out as good as they do if I just pay attention to the positions and angles of the person's body. These first two pages are ones we did in class.

Stylized Drawings

2008-02-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

My last drawing is also by Mike Lin. It's an example of Pointillism. This is actually one of my fav. techniques of shading/ hatching. However I don't like how long it takes to do it.

Second Stylized drawing also by Mike Lin. This is an example of a Regular pencil drawing. I actually really enjoyed this. at first all of it was a light pencil but then I went back with a darker pencil and gave it some umph.

These are my fav. stylized drawings. The first one was found in Mike W. Lin's book Drawing and Designing With Confidence. I really enjoy drawing furniture so that's why I chose this style. However, I didn't do as well in my own. I need to work on perspective for this drawing a little more.

Drink and Draw....not Drink and Drive

2008-02-19T16:19:00.001-08:00

I went to Tate St. Coffee to do my drink and draw assignment. This is my first one. I did all my drawings in light pencil, and for this one I went back and did it in darker pencil.

Scaled Figures that I like

2008-02-15T14:44:00.001-08:00

My last example is of Ching's Design Drawing book. I think it's a good example of one point perspectives in a space. Also I like how the figure is still contour but they show the shirt and hat, and what not.
I chose to put this on my blog because I think it's a good example of putting multiple figures in a community building/space. It also shows how the figures would interact with each other in that space. The drawing is of the East Harlem Preschool in New York City.
This scaled figure is prob. my fav. of the ones I found. The drawing's title is Vista, it's based on a sketch by Le Corbusier for the design of the Ministry of National Education and Public Health in Rio de Janeiro. The figure almost looks out of place with the rest of the picture. However I really enjoy how it has that messy type of look, but it's successful in that look.
This is also from Ching's Architecture book. I really enjoy how the scaled figures are shaded with the space. You can tell the difference and the presence of the figure. Most scaled figures are either totally black or white, so it's nice to see an example of one that's shaded. It's almost like the figure's a ghost.
My first example of scaled figures comes from Ching's Architecture: form, space, and order. I chose this one because I like how it shows how the scaled figures interact with the space when the depth of the depressed field changes.

Patterns with a tool

2008-02-10T17:13:00.002-08:00

Finally pattern 15 was taken from pattern 9 also. However, i only took the half moon shapes and cut them.
Pattern 14 is taken from pattern 9. I cut pulled and twisted all parts of this.
Pattern 13 was taken from Pattern 8. I took the shapes and pulled them to deform them. I also took the black background and pulled that into some of the new shapes in pattern 13.
Pattern 12 was also taken from pattern 7. Instead of compressing it however, I twisted it. By doing this the perfect circles would be deformed and the outer string would be twisted to the outside.
Pattern 11 was taken from pattern 7. I experimented with what would happen if i took pattern and compressed four corners together.

These six patters were designed from what I thought was my top three original patterns: 7, 8, & 9. We had to choose a tool and use what that tool could be used for in our next 6 patterns. I choose a plier. This plier could pull, cut, twist, and compress. Pattern 10 (directly above) was taken from Pattern 8. I took the pattern and cut it, leaving some of the pieces in the same spot, and others were moved to another spot.

Patterns

2008-02-10T16:51:00.001-08:00

7
6
5
4
The next 6 patterns are ones that i developed from the first three. Some are more successful then others.

3 2

1
Pattern 1, 2, & 3 are my original patterns. These are my worst ones. I wasn't sured exactly what we were supposed to do at first. However as bad as they may be, the overall shape of the patterns really helped me to create my other ones.

Orange zoom views

2008-02-06T19:39:00.003-08:00

This is my 4x zoom view of my orange. I really wanted to show how the slices look together and close up.

Detail 3

2008-02-05T17:34:00.001-08:00

This is one of the things in the studio not sure what it is, but it looked cool.

Detail 2

2008-02-05T17:31:00.001-08:00

This is one my wardrobe where the two doors come together. I thought it was a really interesting composition. It was really challenging for me to get the knobs right.

Detail 1

2008-02-05T14:41:00.001-08:00

This is one of my first details. It is the piece that joins the dividers in the studio. I really though it was interesting, especially where the notches stick out. Also at the time I was drawing it, since the notches are set back a little from the rest of the piece it created it's own shadows. I'm happy with this drawing. I sometimes struggle with shading but, I enjoyed drawing this.

Sustainable system

2008-02-05T14:34:00.001-08:00

For my Sustainable System I decided to make an Xylophone. I knew what one looked like, however I had no idea how to make one, or how the pieces made the different sounds. I did some research and found out that xylophones have little groves/wedges on the side of them, this along with the different thickness of the wooden pieces help to make different wooden sounds. I really enjoyed working in the wood shop, I got to learn how to use a couple of the machines. I used to be scared to work there not, because of the machinery but because I hate asking for help, so I always felt a little intimated. However, I was proven wrong, tons of people ask for help and there and I'm just one of them. I can't wait to work with wood more. One thing I would change about my project is how interesting it is. Unless you know what it is and that it makes a sound it looks like a really easy boring project, so I would have made it look a little more interesting.

mess 3

2008-01-29T13:32:00.001-08:00

A mess sketch of the top of one of my dressers. I'm actually half pleased with the shading in pen on this one. Normally it doesn't go well for me but, I like this.

mess 2

2008-01-29T13:30:00.001-08:00

Mess sketch of my room floor before I unpacked everything. It was really hard to shadow garbage bags, so this is what ya get.

mess 1

2008-01-29T13:29:00.001-08:00

A mess of things that lay on my studio desk. Once again I hate pen, that is why I left my eye glasses in pencil.

gray exhibit

2008-01-29T13:26:00.000-08:00

This is another view of the exhibit in the Weatherspoon museum. This is a view of the backside of the furniture instead of looking into the room.