Organic Flowing Movement - The Pufferbelly Remodel

My concept model is derived from the graffiti in my inspiration image. It is made of wood beads and wire and is easy to move around in your hands. It captures the feelings of organic, flowing movement as the shape has an organic feeling, the bead are made of wood and the beads slightly move along the wire.

For this project I designed a residence, artist gallery and studio for the Seattle photographer Peter De Lory. Some of the things I thought worked well were the use of curved walls and the color scheme. I have never used curved walls in a project before but I am happy with how they carried my concept of organic flowing movement into the residence. I felt as though I took a risk using a red and green color scheme because it is challenging to prevent the home from looking too "Christmas-y." I fell that by using earthy, warm reds and browns and a brighter green the color scheme was successful and helped to bring the concept to life. I also think that lowering the ceilings over more intimate spaces worked well, I think it really helps to make spaces like the bedroom and office more private and cozy. I also like that I used carpeting in these spaces to add to the feeling of comfort and to separate them from the public living spaces that had bamboo floors. If I could change some things about this project I would change some things about the living room and the kitchen. Since the living room is a central seating area, I would add a rug under the furniture to define it more to aide in visual impairment. For the kitchen I would change where the appliances were placed because they don't form an ideal work triangle. I might also locate the dining room closer to the living room to allow for interaction while eating and provide more of a great room feeling. Overall I'm very happy with how the project turned out and I can see that I have made several improvements in my design abilities this semester.

Preliminary Design

I designed this residence/studio/gallery for the local photographer Peter De Lory. The concepts of organic, flowing movement are displayed the curved walls and details used throughout the home. Reds, greens and browns are used to tie the home to the inspiration image.

Office Design and Pattern Application

I designed the home office as a place to get away from work and take care of home matters such as paying bills and checking email. The office consists of a large desk with storage for books an other trinkets as well as a computer work station. There is also a couch to relax and enjoy a book. Warm browns, reds and greens were used to tie the office to the color scheme of the rest of the house. Carpeting and a 12' ceiling add to the comfort of this room.
I like that I used carpeting and lowered the ceiling. One thing i did change was the couch. In the final office design I used a chair instead to allow for a bookcase.

For the pattern application I chose to apply it to a small side table. I thought it was an interesting and original way to use a pattern. I like that it is small enough to add the fun of a pattern to a room without becoming overwhelming. In the final project I applied the pattern as stained glass to the front door so that it would give visitors a preview to the rest of the house rather than having it hidden in a room.

Visit to Peter DeLory's Studio

I finally put my spring break to use for school today. I have been communicating with my regional artist, Peter DeLory, and was fortunate enough to be invited to visit his personal studio in Seattle. Peter and I chatted about how functional his studio was and the type of equipment and space he needs. He said that a studio space of about 800 sq. ft. was sufficient because he does a lot of work digitally. Because Peter moves frequently throughout the studio, he requested that all items be on wheels and that a computer table where he can stand and work be installed. Though Peter uses the computer and printers very much, he enjoys using film for his black and white photos. His studio includes a small dark room where he develops his own photos. When it came to the dark room, Peter's only request was that the one I was designing be wider and that it include a table and utility sink. When talking about the gallery space he said he loved the idea of movable display walls and that natural light on his photos isn't a concern. It was great getting to meet my artist and experience a real studio first hand. The interview will certainly help me in my design.

Carrie Vielle, a very talented local artist, displayed her art last weekend at the Bank Left Gallery in Palouse. Carrie was very generous to my interior design class and showed her studio to us recently. I fell in love wither her art and was very excited to hear she was having a show. The gallery in which Carrie's art was displayed was not your typical display space. It gave off somewhat of a boutique sort of feel, but still gave me great ideas to apply to the gallery I am designing. Bank Left had extremely high ceilings, probably near 20ft, which is similar to what I will be dealing with in the gallery I'm working on. To bring down the ceilings, the walls were lined with molding and painted at 9ft to give the illusion of a lowered ceiling. There was also a small room that was separated by the other space with a 9ft wall instead of a wall that went all the way to the ceiling. The lighting in the space was interesting. Along with natural light, wire track lighting was used to illuminate the art. I think I will probably use the same type of lighting because it wasn't visually distracting. Carrie took time out of her show to speak with Beth and me about her art and the show. Carrie likes to make snacks to bring to her show, so I think it might be a good idea to include a buffet table in the gallery for the openings of shows. I'm glad I went to the show, it both gave me ideas for my gallery design and gave me an opportunity to enjoy Carrie's art.

Concept Model Textile

Concepts

PARTI CONCEPT
The source of the inspiration, a train home to flowing graffiti, brought to mind the words organic, flowing and movement. The powerful rusted train is situated on tracks covered and wound with grass and weeds which lead to the word organic. Flowing represents the shapes of the graffiti, they’re smooth and round and keep the eye moving. Movement relates to the normal use of trains, in traveling. The parti, that represents this train car, has organic shapes and colors and keeps the eye flowing and moving. The parti captures these key words by displaying a zoomed in aspect of the graffiti. An egg shape followed by four dots shows organic shape and allows the eye to flow throughout the parti without concentrating on one point.
PATTERN CONCEPT
To further emphasize these words, the parti was rotated to create a pattern. The pattern creates pinwheel shapes that embrace the ideas of flow and movement while the colors of the pattern and the shapes use help to show the organic nature.
MODEL CONCEPT
The concept model embraces the words flowing, organic and movement. Wooden beads wrapped in color represent the word organic. The red and green contrast each other and gracefully sit around a brown wire. The shape of the wire represents the word flowing. Its organic “s” shape creates a pinwheel shape that can be seen and felt. When taking the model into your hands it is easy to understand how movement is represented. The wood beads slightly move along the wire when the model is moved.

*pictures will be posted asap

Renaissance Cabinetry

Sophomore studio took another feild trip today, this time to Renaissance Cabinetry here in Pullman. In hopes to understand more about how designers work with craftsmen, the class met with the two owners of the shop. It was great to hear that craftsmen are designers themselves and that they appreciate the help and education of other designers in different feilds. The two owners explained that they were self taught and took their love of woodworking and transformed it into a career, stressing that it is important to love what you do. It was nice meeting people who don't just work for money but work for the love of the craft, which helps me know that what they make is quality because they want to be proud of their products. Though the shop was relatively small, it was packed full with storage, work tables and equiptment. I was impressed by the handmade storage solutions throughout the shop, such as shelving with racks for saw blades and organization of tools. The people who work at Renaissance Cabinetry really take advantage of all the space they have. My favorite thing the owners told my class was that it's important to have fun when working on a project because if there's no fun in it then it's a drag. It was reassuring that professionals still want to have fun and be relaxed during their projects.

This is a sketch of my experience of visual impairment while in The Bookie. All of the books blended together and made a sort of rainbow. It was impossible to understand what the books said or see the distinct shapes of the books. I didn't even know what I was looking at until I saw them without the Vaseline glasses.

WSU Museum of Art and Artist Studio Field Trip

I have been to a few museums in my life time, the Tacoma Museum of Glass is the largest one I have visited though I have seen a few other small galleries. The museum here at WSU is not one I frequent, but I have been there a couple times. Normally I just walk in a peruse the art, not paying attention to how it is layed out, the architecture of the space or the type of lighting. Now faced with a project that includes a gallery space all of these aspects are crucial. During the tour of the WSU Museum of Art, our guide was kind enough to explain to us the ins and outs of setting up a display. He explained that the art is displayed in a order that gets people ready for the rest of the gallery, a sort of preview. The rest of the space was very open, which allowed visitors to walk through the space in any way they wanted. The display walls were all on wheels, which I thought was a good idea. It allows for a different set up depending on the type of show. The lights were on tracks which also allowed flexibility. Overall I think that I may take a few things from the WSU Museums and incorporate them into my project, most specifically the lighting and movable walls.

The field trip to the artist studio was also very beneficial. It showed that a small space can accommodate an artist quite well. Carrie, the artist, took great advantage of using the space in multiple ways. The back storage closet kept her "messy" things from plain view, provided storage near the ceiling and could also be used as a model's changing room. Eye hooks attached to window sills allowed her to hang a drapery to provide a clean background when photographing models. Her blank wall space gave her room to hang her art, and track lights allowed her to light them in the occasion a client wanted to stop by. The windows in her studio were situated in such a way that they provided natural light to her work spaces eliminating the need for a lot of artificial light. Florescent lights were installed to provide light when she worked during the evenings. Carrie stated that she wished she had much more storage space and that when asking an artist how much storage they need, to double it. Space for large garbage cans was also a thing Carrie wished she had considered because constantly emptying her small garbage cans is some what of a burden. The last two things she thought would make a great addition were a bathroom and an office area to provide separation between her residence and her studio. I will defiantly take into account all the things she wished she had included and be sure to apply them to my artist's studio space. Seeing her studio made me want to build one for myself, so I am looking forward to the opportunity of designing one.

Visual Impairment Workshop

I never really realized how lucky I am not to be completely blind and how bad my eye sight actually is. It was a bit comical to look through four layers of plastic, which simulates being legally blind, only to find that my eye sight without my glasses or contacts is worse. So today I discovered I'm way past legally blind! Walking through the CUB in sunglasses covered in Vaseline was quite an experience. I really appreciated even lighting and contrast in color. The lights on the ceiling put a glare on the floor in such a way that it looked like the floor had several holes in it. A more even lighting system would have been much appreciated. The bathroom lighting was good except that when I walked in the door I was confronted with darkness before seeing any light. There was no braille on the sign to the bathroom either. When attempting to ride the elevator, my partner almost pushed the fire button on the key pad because it is the same shape and size and the up and down buttons. The buttons in the elevator were hard to see because there wasn't much contrast between the silver buttons and the numbers on them. The ATMs were surprisingly easy to understand because of the light surrounding the card swipe and colored buttons for enter and cancel. It would have been nice to have braille on the key pad though. The doors into the Bookie seemed hazardous, the glass doors next to the glass windows were confusing, I wasn't sure what was a space to walk through and what was a window, running into glass would have been horrible. One of my classmates pointed out that the stairs were hard to understand because there was no contrast between what was a step and what was a floor which was a major tripping hazard. I also tripped a bit on a tile that wasn't flush, which shows importance in proper floor installation. Overall I learned that the best thing to help those who are visually impaired is contrast and even lighting. Those two things are aspects I will be sure to incorporate into my design.