Writer's Retreat

The Model

interior

Right side

Left side

Back

Front

Finished!

The Parti

Parti

Final

Plan

Bubble Diagram

Section Cut Key

Section A-A

Section B-B

Section C-C

Perspective of bedroom

Perspective of part of the reading space and
the glass wall separating the study from the reading space.

Perspective of study and meeting space.

Two Perspectives

These are the two perspectives where we had to continue improving our skills on our original perspective while also attempting to add color to another classmates perspective.  I was trying to work on not adding color to the entire drawing but still make the color seem implied in the spaces where it is absent by making the color fade out into the colorless areas.

Fallingwater vs. Monticello

This is my favorite drawing that I have done all semester.  I took a chance with the drawing at the center hoping that it would look good and I think it turned out really well.  This trip was a lot of fun and really interesting and I thought that both buildings were brilliant!

Coloring Exercises-Best out of 5

This is a photo of my best drawing from when we had the coloring practice exercise.  There were five of these drawings and this is the fifth and in my opinion the best.  I think this one works the best because I had learned how to better control the markers and I used vellum instead of the bond paper that I used for the other four drawings.  The vellum works better because it does not soak up the color like the bond paper and the colors are less drastic on the vellum.

Bright Idea

http://solovyovdesign.by/en/portfolio/node-1290168462/?group_id=163

A pattern language in a writer's retreat (Theory Reading #4)

Some of the patterns from the article A Pattern Language that I think would be important to integrate into my design proposal for the writer's retreat would be placing important rooms towards the south so they will get sufficient light, placing common rooms in the center of circulation in a chain of rooms with a looping circulation, having an entrance room, and most importantly organizing the spaces from public at the front of the house and private at the back of the house.  The entrance room is important in this space for when people come over for the readings, when students come for discussions, or for when colleagues come to collaborate over work they will have a place to enter the space.  The rooms where most of the work is done such as the kitchen, living room, study, and dining room should be positioned properly to receive sufficient amounts of natural lighting.  I think the most important pattern is the one of organizing the house from public to private as it goes from the front entrance to the back of the house.
The pattern for this should be:

• entrance - front
• public
• semi-public
• private - back

This way there is enough area for the person living there to have space to meet with people while still being able to maintain their privacy.  The rooms such as the bathroom and common room should be placed somewhere between the public space and the private space so that they can be easily accessed from both ends of the house.  I think that for the purpose of this space the most efficient way to organize there rooms would be with a chain of rooms that have a looping pattern of circulation so that instead of having corridors to connect the spaces the are connected by moving through the rooms and then having the private spaces at the back separate to ensure the person living theres' privacy.  All of these patterns are going to be important in the design of this house to make it as efficient as possible.

Dining Space Project

Perspective drawing of dining space showing light and shadow in the space

Axonometric, plan, and north wall elevation of dining space

Social interaction diagram, photos of stool, table/countertop and base materials,
and top, front, side views of sideboard

Top, front, side views of table

Final model (to scale)
Sketch model #2 redone with added detail
view of room facing north

Final model (to scale)
View looking through the west wall window

Final model (to scale)
view looking straight down on model

Final model
view of room looking north at a lower angle to show more
of the north wall detail and social media screens

Sketch model #2 (to scale)
view looking from west to east
after changes to the table
shows the entire space and ceiling skylight
but not entire ceiling

Sketch model #2
view of room from the south to the north

First sketch model (not to scale)
shows table and center section of the north wall
before I changed the design of the table

First sketch model 

First sketch model

Precedent Board/Parti #2

Value Study

For these value studies we had to create three groups of three value scales.  The first group of value scales had to be done in graphite and done by shading, hatching, and using random marks.  The second group had to be done in pen by using hatching, stippling, and random marks.  Then the third and final group of value scales had to be done in marker using stippling, hatching and shading.

Final Value Studies

The value study that I am the most proud of is my pen value studies because I think they turned out the best although the stippled value scale needs to transition better.  The pencil value study turned out okay but could still use some more work.  The marker ones also turned out okay although the shaded one bled into the paper a lot, which made it not look as good.

Material Value Study

For this assignment we had to select four materials from the IARC library, a wood, a tile, a textile, and a carpet, and create value studies using those materials.  We had to make two value scales for each material, one in pen and one in pencil.  One of the value scales had to be at full scale and the other one had to be zoomed out and we were able to decide which one we wanted to be in pen and which one we wanted to be in pencil.  

Final Value Studies

The value study that I am most proud of is my tile value studies because I think they transition the best and look the neatest.  The zoomed out value scale of the carpet was the hardest one for me because of the small loops in the carpet and making them all consistently the same size, which I found to be rather difficult.  However, overall I think these value studies turned out pretty well.

Wood Sample

Tile Sample

Textile Sample

Carpet Sample

Social Media

For this project we were given the assignment to create a type of social media.  

Originally I though of making a type of table or desk for the home that could enhance social media.  However, the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea of having it used mainly in office space.  I think it would be more appropriate in an office setting because then you can easily communicate with other companies around the globe whereas in a home setting that is not a very common need. 

My social media is designed to be a table in an office space for meetings or conferences.  It has a touch screen glass surface in the center of the tabletop.  On this screen the people at the table can pass out, read, edit, and discuss documents without having to print it all off.  Everything can be viewed by everyone at the table simply by sliding it across the touch screen.

There is also a holographic projector that can project 3D video up from the screen so if you are having a video conference with someone in another country for example you can see them right there in front of you.

final model of social media

Parti of social media

Theory Reading #3

After reading Robert Sommer’s article Personal Space: The Behavioral Basis of Design I realized how much I agree with the majority of the statements he makes in this article.  I agree with his concept of social increment, which says that a person is more likely to improve their performance if they are competing against someone.  In his article he talks about where people sit around a table depending on the kind of work or discussion they are engaged in.  For example, he talks about how people sit face to face for most communication.   I have noticed that this is usually true depending on the topic being discussed because we are taught to look people in the eye or at least to look at their face and that is easier to do if you are facing the person you are talking to.  With the layout of lobbies and lounges there are usually small groups of chairs so that small groups of people can converse with each other while still being in a larger space.  The thinking behind this is represented by quotes that Sommer makes in his article where he writes “I want to chat with my friend, not the whole cafeteria, so I sit next to her,” and “more intimate, there are no physical barriers between us.”  With the small batches of the seating spread out in a larger space smaller groups of people can converse without everyone else in the space hearing them.  It is also possible to tell what kind of discussion a pair or group of people are having based on their position at the table and their position to each other such as sitting face to face, side by side, or both sitting at either side of the corner of a table.  Sommer also points out how if there is a long park bench people will sit as far away from each other as possible and others would rather stand then sit in between the people sitting at either end.  I have also noticed that this is true with elevators because when people are in elevators they will stand as far apart from one another as possible and will only move closer to one another if they are forced to by the lack of space.  So in conclusion, the position that people sit or stand in a given situation is not as random as it might seem.  People choose where they are based on the person or people they are interacting with and their relationship with them.

Dining Space Story

In 2015 the United Nations decided to mandate an International Memorial Day  that should be adopted by all nations.  By using social media every celebration should include guests from some other part of the world.  This biannual celebration is held on the days of the winter and summer solstice.  The global connections with other social medial participants will be established through a lottery system prior to the day of joint celebration.

This Sunday, June 21, 2015, my family and I will be sitting down to have a dinner with people from around the world thought the use of social media.  My three brothers, my parents, both sets of grandparents, and I will be sitting down to an early dinner and be able to share it with people from different countries around the world that have been chosen just like us through a lottery drawing that my mom got us into at the beginning of this year and we were the family selected for the United States.  We will be using several different interactive screens to view the other families through a live video chat.  Before hand we swapped recipes with the people from other cultures so that each family would have a taste of the other persons life for a few hours.  Then once the meal is cooked all ten of us will gather around the dining room table and turning on the video chat to view the other families sitting at their dining room table.  Then each family would explain their common traditions about dining in their culture and then we would all enjoy our meals at the same time while still being able to talk to the other families via the live video chat.  Then after the meal we can talk with them and discuss the food or anything else we want.  Later this year on December 21, 2015 we get to do this again.

Theory Reading #2 - Babette's Feast

I think that culture can effect design because the culture of the people using the space can effect the way the space is used and what it is used for, which will in turn effect the design of the space.  For example, in Babette’s feast the two sisters grew up and have always lived in a small isolated village with their father who was the pastor of their small Protestant church.  The two sisters are very loyal to their religion and even though they are given opportunities to leave they choose to be loyal to their father and their religion and stay in the village.  Then when Babette moves in with them she decides to cook a feast for their celebration in their father’s memory.  The sisters however start to get nervous about what Babette will cook because she is a Catholic foreigner and so they ask for God to help them to get through the meal.  Over all of the years that the sisters ate in the dining room with their father the space never changed.  There were no candles, no tablecloth, or any other type of decoration on the table and the dishes that were used were very plain.  However, when Babette prepared her magnificent feast she put out a tablecloth that she then ironed to make it look perfect.  Then she put out candelabras with really tall candles that started burning above the people seated at the tables’ heads and slowly melted down.  The taller candles helped to illuminate the table alone and make all of the space outside of the tabletop shrink into the shadows.  So I think that the culture of the people who will be using the space effects how it is used.  When the conservative Protestants were using it they kept the area very simple with no decorations whereas when Babette decorated for her feast she put out decorations that would accentuate the space on the tabletop for the feast.

Babette's Feast

Color Week

All color week assignments 

Color Week Assignment 1: Combination of two colors

Color Week Assignment 2: Combination of two colors

Color Week Assignment 3: Combination of four colors with one color

Color Week Assignment 4: Combination of three colors

Color Week Assignment 5: Color Palate

Color Week Assignment 6: Using colors from color palate abstractly represent the four seasons of the year (spring, summer, fall, winter)