[Pair]ing Down

Shadow is created through light. Whether it is natural or artificial, when light shines on any 3-D object, a shadow is cast. Designers are given great opportunities to allow light/shadow to become a part of their designs and it can be very effective when it is done well. "Today's designer is trained in controlling natural light within a living space to contribute to the occupant's comfort and aesthetic sense." (Allen, 98) As with our design of the grad spaces, one of our main objectives is to create natural light through out the space. I have decided to incorporate light within my design by making hanging panels that are half transparent and half translucent. In drawing, although we are working in 2-D, we are challenged to even create light and shadow in our final composite drawings. "The essence of intelligence is skill in extracting meaning from everyday experience.." (thinkexist.com) When designing whether it is something individual or an actual space, sometimes it is worth or effective to be literal and sometimes it is important to extract the literal. Designing the office spaces is for me a good example of how we are taking inspiration and elements from our last project, but we are not JUST re-creating the window effect in the models. Being literal in this sense would take away from my design, but extracting the different elements is what I will build my project from. "The concept that guides our pencil and that later will guide our eye in equipment, furniture and fabric selection is itself guided by such practical considerations as the functions to be met, the space to be used...." (Abercrombie, 163) One of the strongly enforced concepts in our grad space design is centered around meditation and celebration. I feel that the whole space is generated around meditation because it is a place where there is a sense of escape. In separating the space, however, the meditative area is the private oasis in which the space is smaller and more personal. The sectioned off spaces will serve as meditative areas or even resting areas. The communal area is designed to be a celebration of space and freedom. It will also be celebrating things like materials. In transposing the current offices into grad spaces I am arranging the space to be separate but mutual. "Today's designer has received as an inheritance of open planning a new freedom from the rigid repetition of separate, closed discrete rooms. Spaces can now be subdivided by an inexhaustible vocabulary..." (Abercrombie, 37) The juxtaposition of the vertical elements in my space are used as a unifying component for the whole space. "Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms." (thinkexist.com, Hitchcock) The communications between monologue and dialogue are elements that I am trying to convey. The private elevated area that is smaller and darker is the monologue or personal area in which students are presented with a more closed in and concealed experience. The public lowered area is meant to be more of a dialogued space between more than just one person. It is an area that can be used for small gatherings or just somewhere to get away and relax and do work if wanted. The space as a whole is a dialogue in itself of public and private. In my composite drawing, the dialogue create within the composition as a whole is between linear and curves, and it is also about different innovations of the explorations unit, while the monologue is created with each individual side and each individual building.


Abercrombie, Stanley. A Philosophy of Interior Design. 1990. Harper and Row Publishers Inc. New York, NY.
Allen, Phyllis S. Beginnings of Interior Environment. 1990. Macmillian Publising. New York, NY.
www.thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/dialogue

Road Trip

"It all starts here. This is the opportunity to start building a base that will last a lifetime." (Piotrowski, 15) When I think about roots, I think of a foundation. As a designer it is good to have a foundation or roots to your style, your work ethic, and your inspiration for each project that you do. I feel like throughout this first year as an IARC major, I have created and developed my own roots as a designer from experience and also from those in whom I took inspiration from. For the 18x24 composite drawing that we are working on, my roots or inspiration comes from a varitey of things. Number 1: how others who have completed this project before me produced this type of project, (2) how I have learned to compose and display my own work over this past year, and (3) how I feel the layout(colors, fonts, etc.) will related closely to the site I am referencing which is Falling Water. "A designer tries to make thinks better..." (Bockus, 1) As a design student, we get compressed with so many assignments to do that sometimes we have to take it all compile it together and deal with it. I feel this too will be true in the design world just because there will be so many projects to complete that we will have to condense it all together and make the very best of it. When ever something is compressed, there has to be a release somewhere along the way. When comparing compression/release to design, the release is the inspiration and burst of ideas and concepts to began a project. The compression aspect relates more to the assigned duties of the project, or what the client wants. "The best solution is often a compromise that blends the most positive aspects of all." (Piotrowski, 15) Congruence in design is the ability to be versatile. In having versatility, it is important to know how to bring every idea, opinion, and concept together. However, the designer has to take control of the project and all though taking from the clients opinions and ideas, must figure out what works and what doesn't. This is very evident in all three of my IAR classes because the professors are there to lead we as students in the right direction, but we as the designers have to understand the project, but be able to decide what will and what will not be efficient. Researching, learning, and understanding different materials as a designer is very important. For studio, we were assigned 3 different materials to research and from our research, we were to create 11x17 graphics for each. From the three I had (Teak, Brick, Grass Wood), I found the material Teak to be the most interesting and inspiring. Although this was my favorite, learning about all three materials was both interesting and helpful. "Concept is the designers analysis of those factors which must be satisfied to acheive a solution." (Bockus, 13) Concepts are something that we are still learning about. However, I think I have a general idea of how to project one with in a project. For our project in studio, the idea is to celebrate light in two ways. I took interest in creating light in two opposite but similar ways, so my concept will be positive and negative space. The concept for the composite drawings that I have came up with is creating Falling Water in an 18x24 graphic. I plan on creating that by connecting the whole composition with similar colors from falling water and the use of a waterfall throughout.

Bockus, Bill. Designers Notebook. 1977. Macmillian Publishing Inc. New York, NY.

Piotrowski, Christine. Becoming an Interior Designer. 2004. Wiley & Sons Inc. Hoboken, NJ.

Between Silence and Light::A Falling Water Experience

Craft is an essential element in design. Although it is easy to make something look nice, craftsmanship takes practice to perfect. Frank Lloyd Wright is an excellent craftsman. His world famous architectural structure Falling Water is a great example of his level of craft. Touring the home, one would think that for the most part it is a very modern style of design, when in actuality it was constructed in the 1930s and that to me shows how talented and advanced his mind is. The techniques that he used to build the home were innovative and he took a risk. "The guide format becomes a behavioral design logic." (Heimsath)
"Designers have to be able to inform, persuade, motivate and direct their audiences..." (Landa, 169) Language in design should communicate with the viewer/client in a personal way. The language communicated to today's design through falling water is a very modern and advanced language. In other words, it in my opinion was not the same language of that time period(1930s). From the style of the design to the cost(considering that it was built during the Great Depression), the language communicated was definetly more advanced and 21 centuried design. Although Wright specifically created the residential space for a shorter family, i do not think that a language of comfort for someone 6ft or taller was communicated. I almost want to ask myself: Though this was intentional, would the home be more welcoming for more people if the ceiling height was higher, or would it take away from the intimacy of the space? Would the language be foreign in that case? "The environment can create positive support for goal seeking or it can work negatively against the individual goals." (Heimsath) The public and private spaces in Falling Water are very well defined and easy to read. One thing that was successful in the design was the narrowness of the halls where the spaces were meant to be more private(bedrooms/baths), and more openess where the space was meant to be public. Intimacy was a connection that I felt with the whole space, and that is to me a well designed space. The actual placement of the structure within the woods over a waterfall also created a sense of intimatcy and so overall, I felt like the whole space was private in relation to the world around it. Design is a system that orders and translates reality and ideas into meaningful units which are intelligible and communicative (Landa, 169) Physically, I was present at Falling Water, but it in a sense was still a virtual experience to me. Virtual reality may be the correct term to describe what I felt while I was there. The combination of the actual beauty of the design intertwined with the intimacy that I felt and the sound of the flowing water put me in a state that was unreal.

Heimsath, Clovis. Behavioral Architecture. 1977. McGraw-Hill Inc.
Landa, Robin. An Introduction to Design. 1983. Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

[Re] Actions

Movement
Movement is a very important aspect in design and more importantly in interior design. When designing a space, the designer must know the function intended of the space as well as possible functions. Designing an interior space for Suzanne's class forced me to think about the amount of space I had to work with, as well as what I had to incorporate within it. The movement around the space was also essential to consider and because I chose to do a split level design, I had to be sure that spacing around the staircase and entrance was accurate and reality. Doing my perspective in plan also helped with the organization of the space. In my sudio project, I chose to emmulate light through movement and reflection.