A Designer's View:Paris, Amsterdam and the French Riviera

 August 1-16, 2012

My two week journey through France and up into the Netherlands was an alternative to the Faculty Led program of Paris through Washington State University. Paris was main focus of my art, architecture and design explorations. The places I visited brought me many personal connections to the material I learned in my second year History of Interior class I had taken the previous semester. My experience in Paris contributed to my appreciation and admiration for historical places and the origins of design. While on this incredible adventure, my love for foreign cultures and traveling flourished and it has helped me decide to study abroad in Florence the fall semester of my final year in the design program. It was a trip I will never forget and I will continue to relive the memories for a lifetime. Below you can get a glimpse of my life changing experience!

Sainte Chapelle

Le Pantheon

The French Pavilion

The Hamlet of Marie Antoinette at Versailles

A collection of photos and blurbs from the trip can be found here.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Tom's Place: Adaptive Reuse

In this group project, our client, Tom wanted to create a "third place" in Pullman Washington. A third place is a place other than home and work.  The site is the Audian Theater.  One huge design problem is the lack of natural light in the space. He wants a space that offers a sense of warmth and home to it's visitors, along with good food! In our design we create different types of space to attract different users from the Cougar Nation. In the space there is a bar, main dining area, VIP room, secondary dining upstairs, and a dance floor/multi-use area. Before beginning our design we observed several other third places in Pullman. From this we were inspired to bring in red to attract people and create a sense of thermal delight. The spaces of furniture and other fixtures is more modern and this is inspired by the very attractive Thomas Hammer, located across the street from the Audian Theater. This was the first major project I created using Revit.

Overview, Interior View, Sections

Floor Plan: First Floor

Interior Views, Second Floor Plan and Elevations

Lighting Plan and Schedule

Materials and Furnishings

Travel Writer's Retreat

This project was based of a Light Moment I created that was then developed into a concept.  The light moment evolved from the abstract painting, Flora in the Sand by Paul Klee. The line, shape and repetition of shape influenced the development of my light moment. I wanted to focus on the heavenly experience of traveling up a set of stairs. It can be magical when light leads you down a dark hallway or when it casts shadows that create a sense of interest. My design goal was to combine these two ideas into my light moment. From my "moment", I then began designing a retreat space for a travel writer in an existing site. My final product combined my light moment  and other design characteristics that I pulled from the original inspiration piece. Along with the stairs, the pop out nook midway became a large part of my light moment and experience in the final plans.

One thing I would like to improve is my sketch up skills! I wanted to be able to really portray a space as I want to design it.

Adaptive Reuse Depot Study Models

In the beginning of the design process I took my concept model and took the elements and principles of design and looked for ways to implement them into the depot. I played with many different spatial arrangements, focusing on the gallery space of the depot. The majority of the arrangements dealt with the modular walls that would be used to display art. Since Jennifer's work can vary in size, I was looking for something simple that would accommodate this. I wanted people to be able to sit and observe the art as well as stand either up close or at a distance. At first it was difficult to take my concept and relate it three dimensionally into a space. Overall it was a significant part of the design process and was a good, hands on way for me to make functional design decisions. It helped show me that it is important to have reasoning behind your decisions!

Art and Living Revived: Depot Adaptive Reuse

Process Work

Elevations

Demolition Plan and ADA/Egress Plans

Furniture Plan, Site Plan and Section

Commercial Spaces and Material Selections

Residential Great Room and Material Selections

The Depot Project was a great learning experience that involved adaptive reuse and designing for the visually impaired. Our task was to design a residence, studio, and gallery space for a Pacific Northwest Artist. In the scenario, the spouse of the artist has a visual impairment.  I began the project in February and we spent a lot of time working in the concept development stage. From our inspiration and parti's I designed a textile and more. Once I began the actual design of the depot and working with floor plans it was drawing near to the end of the semester. I felt a little rushed and I probably would have made more changes if time had allowed. Overall, I really enjoyed the project and it was very challenging. It pushed me in a new direction because I am already accustomed to meeting ADA standards but I had not worked specifically with visual impairment before. I focused a lot on visual impairment in my kitchen design and I was very pleased with the result. I would like to make changes to my gallery. I love the gradation in the purple walls but I think that the red brick clashes with the purple and could benefit from being a different color. If I painted the brick walls a lighter color it would also brighten the space all together.

The adaptive reuse experience was very fun. It was very important to maintain the structural quality of the building. To add to this, I added additional wood beams and columns to go with the original trusses. One challenge of the existing building was working around existing windows. There were many moments in the early design phases where I wanted to place a wall intersecting with a window and it was sometimes frustrating to work around. Overall, I was happy with the project but there were certain things I would be interested in continuing to work on or change to make them more functional.

Jennifer Bowman: Client Brief

After developing a concept, the next step in the depot project was to learn about Jennifer Bowman, the artist I chose to design for.  Also, I studied how to create a positive space for someone with a visual impairment.  By learning more about the people who will be living in the space, I can design a space that fits their user needs in a way that benefits them.

Depot Concept Model

Final Concept Model

Final Parti used for concept model

The idea generator for the concept model is the final parti that was also used for the textile design. The module is explored further and put into a 3 dimensional form that does not have a base.

The form givers for the concept model are contrast in texture and shape. Shape originates from image with the repeating windows and bricks. Contrast is seen in materials with the use of foam core and copper wire intertwining. Shape contrast from the use of organic to geometric shapes. 

The form givers are applied in the final concept model in the materials and configuration.  Wire is configured very organically, weaving in and out of the rectangular prisms made out of foam core and covered with colored paper.  The model shows asymmetry as a result of the contrasting materials and lack of balance in the model.  Texture is visual from the smooth, shiny wire to the grainy, feel of the paper covered prisms.