Tuesday, December 4, 2012

One Bedroom Residence and Common Area Design

Final Boards:
Final Model:
 


The song “Coming Home” by Gwyneth Paltrow brings to mind the growth and belonging experienced within the home. The encompassing feelings of warmth that envelope a home evoke playful curves and a sense of unity. The enlarging of elements through the space gives a sense of growth mimicking nature and its multitude of vegetation. Subtle curvilinear lines accent the repetitive unity, while stepped increase and decrease in size brings in the aspect of growth. Change in ceiling height as you enter the apartment and move deeper into the space evokes growth.  Repetitive elements are seen with the columns dividing the living and dining space as well as the tiling in the bathroom behind the vanity. Curvilinear shape comes in with the organic kitchen booth and shower design. To allow for the warmth home evokes, soft colors are chosen and daylight fills the apartment. Materials are chosen for their connection with nature both within the apartment and the common area. Growth is seen in the common area with decreasing sizes of furniture as you move back into the space as well as repetitive lines are seen in the ceiling lighting. 

The concept statement above applies to the common area and one bedroom apartment of the 2nd story to a hotel being re-purposed. I like the organic shape of the shower and its incorporation into the curvilinear aspect of my concept, as well as the curvilinear shape of the breakfast bar/booth and the ceiling curve in the kitchen. The repetition comes through with the tile behind the lavatory as well as the columns that divide the living area and kitchen. The idea of growth in the design is shown with the change in ceiling height, decreasing as you move back into the one bedroom apartment, as well as in the cabinetry both in the kitchen and living area with decreasing size of cabinets. I wish I had made the bedroom a bit more accessible, but everything else throughout the apartment is accessible for a person with a disability. The floor plan is very open so there is easy access to move through the space. In my study model I am very pleased with the detail and rendering of the walls, but which I had conveyed the change in ceiling height a bit better. The final boards I feel are very well planned out, there is only one portion of my common area board that feels empty, but other than that I am pleased with how it turned out. The most trouble I had with this project was picking which angles of the apartment to display. I found a lot of things important to show but I had to pick only a few or I would have had many more than five boards. Overall I am pleased with the design I created and the presentation of that design.


Saturday, December 1, 2012

Client Brief


For the client brief we started out interviewing the owner of the building as a large group, each presenting our own questions and recording the answers. This really helped me get an idea of what he wanted for the building. I wish he had been a bit more clear of an idea, but at the same time the freedom was wonderful in order to come up with my own design. The client brief helped me organize all of the information he gave us and take out what I believed to be most important to the design. Then I was able to come up with a clear adjacency matrix and bubble diagram for the space. I wish we had been able to visit the site to get a better idea of where we were designing and the space we were given, but not seeing it in person helped to work on visualizing the space in the mind's eye.  I am happy with the turnout of my adjacency matrix and bubble diagram but which I had used more compatible colors to harmonize the diagrams. Overall I it was a great basis to start my design work in the building.