"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community - these are the most vital things that education must try to produce." (thinkexist.com, community) When I came into this program I felt like an individual who was alone and didn't know what to expect. As the semester unfolded and the projects began I started finding new friends and people to interact with. I found very quickly that in this program, having supportive peers was essential to being successful and not as stressed out as I could be. I feel like we as first years have created our own little community in which we share the same types of interest and work loads. We know that although at times the road looks rough, our minds are set for what the future holds. We are each others motivations, as our goals are. More than anything, through this community, we have became friend's and I know that throughout these next 3 years we as a community will get stronger and continue to be supportive to each other. "Life is all about stewardship. It all belongs to God - he just loans it to us for a short period of time. The first command God gave to man was to take care of the Earth, which includes managing..." (thinkexist.com, stewardship) Although I have been in college for 4 years now, I can truly say that as a first year as an IARC student I have been forced to learn how to be a good [steward] over my time. In many other classes and majors, last minute work and half doing something usually will still get you by. In this major, last minute work causes a great amount of stress and I had to learn this the hard way. Now that it is the end of the semster, I can say that Im still not there yet as far as completely staying ahead of my work, but I have progressed tremendously. "There's nothing quite like the authenticity that comes with seeing a real person..." (thinkexist.com, authenticity) I must admit that some of the critiques and advice that was given to us from our professors was pretty harsh, and sometimes hurtful, but to be honest it was needed. One thing that I never really had in high school was teachers who pushed me to be better at everything that I was doing, and although having that would have made me work harder I really wish that could have been incorporated into my high school years. All of the professors and TA's that I have come into contact with have been both supportive and motivation to me a designer, there authencity is what set them apart from other teachers and professors that I've had, and I appreciate that. I feel like every ounce of criticism that I received was constructive and I benefited from it. "There are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond our reach." (thinkexist.com, innovation) Throughout this semester I feel that one of the main goals that our professors have tried to instill in us is the ability to be [innovat]ive and have a mind to think for ourselves. My mindset was that we would immediately start to design interiors, and jump right into the main focuses of our major. I was definitely wrong. Our first project was to design a place for a leaf. Those types of projects that really made us use our brains seemed stupid then, but now I am grateful for those experiences because I have a broader view on the world of design, and how designers should be able to think outside of the box.


thinkexist.com

[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.

Audience, Character, Transition

"Designers should be fair and candid with their clients and serve them to the best of their abilities..." (Deitch, 22) We as designers are characters and our clients, employers, teachers are our audience. As designers or characters our job is to intrigue our audience with something expressive, innovative and inspiring. We can get inspiration from things that interest us or things that may relate closely to the concept of the project. As inspiration for my pattern layout for studio, I focused on the contours of berries and how they interact with one another. In the Baroque period, artist and designers were innovative and fresh with new ideas, but they also took inspiration from previous periods. Just as a writer writes a play and is in control of what happens, we as designers have that same opportunity when it comes to our work. Although our audience may have ideas and suggestions about our design, it is our slate or canvas to create. "The artist has a responsibility to the blank page..." (Robin, 80) With in our designs there are many characteristics that help our work stand out. We have to figure out what characteristics are needed to make our work "pop." In studio, my curves and strong contrast of positive and negative space are the characteristics that added a element of interest and uniqueness. Transition in design is very common as designers move from one idea to another. It can also be evident in our work as one concept can transition into the next. In the Baroque period, emotion was evoked and change was identified. The transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque period forced designers to be more creative and innovative targeting a new audience, but also taking from the past. "There is one profession and only one, namely architecture...in which the reference is always to yesterday." (Le Corbuisier, 109)

[Re] vision:

"Without vision there is no art..." (Collier, 235) Revisioning or revising my work as a designer a key is a step in every design process that I am faced with. Through experimentation with different shapes and lineweights, I found patterns that did and didnt work. With the patterns that did work, I revised them to make them better and came to my final pattern. The Baroque period can be looked at as a revision of the Renaissnce. By taking what did work from that period, the designers then made improvements to further advance design in the world. In drafting, we always practice revision because we are required to produce atleast 2 copies of each assignment. That is succesful in that when drafting the final product, we are able to use what works and fix what doesnt.

Datum

"The distinction of a fine face lies in the quality of the feature and in a quite special and personal value of the relationship b/t them." (Le Corbuisier, 203) Through datum we understand order, compostion and overall organization in design. In finding/creating a pattern for our studio project, datum is an important factor in the final design. Though datum has a greater reference to straight lines, it can also be about how to organize positive/negative space. With that being said, my design/pattern is inspired from berries found in nature so its datum will be more organized around the contrast of positive/negative space more so than lines. Since datum relates also to organization, today's sub-divisions are composed around a datum on both a community scale and an individual scale. Just as Patrick suggested, the way the homes began to be organized in the 17 century around and enflade is the same way homes are organized today.

Works Cited:

Collier, Graham. Form, Space, and Vision. 1972. Prentice Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs,

NJ.

Corbuisier, Le. Towards a New Architecture. 1986. Dover Publications Inc. New York,

NY.

Deitch, Ronald M. Professional Practice. 1931. Peguis Publishers Limited.Winnipeg,

MB.

Landa, Robin. An Introduction to Design. 1983. Prentice Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs,

NJ.

Pee Week

Professional:Portfolio:Process:

"Interior designers are educated to become creative professionals who analyze problems from many different perspectives" (Veitch, 7) Taking from Ronald Veitch, designers are not only limited to designing a space well, but in addition, we must be able to explain our designs to others whether they are in our field of professionalism or not. The presentation board that we are putting together in Suzanne's class is a good example of this, as well as a good way of making a formal presentation very professional. Whether it is a digital or physical presentation, certain "rules" remain in effect such as datum, grid, order, and craft to make it look professional. In the professional world, a very common and successful way of representing yourself through your work is by putting together a portfolio. "The audience may be a client, a committee, or merely someone browsing for an idea. Whether produced to assist the client's imagination or to obtain a commission, either privately or through a competition...it should communicate as clearly and accurately as possible..." (Ching, 322) A portfolio is a representation of an artist or a designers best work, and it shows how he/she has progressed and how their work has became stronger. Both my digital and physical portfolio's include my best work, but they also include my process work. That to me is very important when presenting work to clients or employers b/c process is what shows them where you started and where you ended up. It also shows them that you are both experienced and willing to do the project right by taking time to carefully plan out every step. "Writing the design program is clarifying, to the satisfaction of both the client and the designer, exactly what is needed and wanted in the space under construction...it is a lengthy investigative process, sometimes taking up to one-third of the project's total time." (Veitch, 92) Stoel instructed us to include both a bond and vellum copy of all of our work in our portfolio's. "rough draft," or bond copy is the beginning phase. In this copy, the assignment is started and it serves as a reference for the final copy, but it doesn't include the aspects that make it final. The "final draft" or vellum copy is the completed copy with all details such as the borders, name of assignment, north arrows, scale, etc.

Periphery:Perspective:
The job of a designer is to take a project/problem and complete it or solve it. With this, I feel that designers should be limited to nothing. The periphery or boundaries are in a sense not present. Of course somethings are not going to work in every design, but the idea is to think outside of the box. Our minds should be more complexed and detailed than our clients. Whether we are given a lead as to what they want or whether we have to start from scratch, the end result should be extreme but functional, and aesthetically pleasing. If our clients have and idea, we should make it a reality. "If nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come, nothing is so enevervating as an idea that's been sitting around for years like money not earning any interest. That is precisely the concept of moving from the design of things to the design of the circumstances in which things are used." (Caplan, 152) Also as a designer, our skills should be advanced and practiced enough to where we are not just single-minded about designs. We should obtain different perspectives of design. "The challange in mastering perspective is resolving the conflict between our knowledge of the thing itself...how we perceive its optical reality - as seen through a single eye of the spectator. (Ching, 201) With that being said, we should view the world of design through atleast 2 perspectives: our as the designers, and others as our clients, employers, co-workers, or people in general.

Tying it together:

As designers, we must be professionals in which we always have our work ready to be viewed by generating a portfolio, know and understand the process of design and be able to carry it out, be open to try new things and see design from not just our perspective, but others, and lastly be able to think outside of the periphery of normality.

Caplan, Ralph. By Design. 1982. St. Martin's Press.
Singapore.
Ching, Francis D.K. Design Drawing. 1998. John Wiley and Sons.
New York, NY.
Veitch, Ronald M. Professional Practice. 1931. Peguis Publishers Limited.
Winnipeg, MB.

Micro: Macro

Impression:
Impression kind of reminds me of a precedent, only I feel as though it is something stronger than a precedent. In Suzanne's class, the inspiration artist was suppose to influence us and help us learn to incorporate different styles and techniques in our own work. I feel as though the artist I chose actually had an impression on me because I will now in most if not all of my drawings focus more on line weight, shading, and cleanness just as she did. "It's not what's there that counts...but rather the received impression." (Raymond Price, Impression)

Porch, Court, Hearth:
Through diagrams we can better understand the porch, court, and hearth of a area or space. For instance, when diagramming the MHRA building, the porch would clearly be the entrance to the building, and the actual space once you enter the building. The court would be the main gathering space for students and faculty which is the two-story area which is domed in. The hearth(s) of the building would consist of personal offices and bathrooms. Although the classrooms are one of the main aspects of the building, they could go for the court or the hearth of the building depending on how they are used. In Florence, porch, court and hearth were important aspects of the architecture of the medieval time period.

Detail:
Details are one of the most important aspects of design. "The artist should fear to become the slave of detail. He should strive to express his thought and not the surface of it.What avails a storm cloud accurate in form and colour if the storm is not therein?"  (Albert Pinkham Ryder, Detail)  We were prompted to choose 3 out of the 5 best drawings that we completed in Suzanne's class and detail them to perfection. Line weight is an important detail for drawing, and especially in drafting, because it helps communicate things such as closer/distant walls/elements, where a plan is cut at, invisible lines, dimension lines, and so on. Without these details, we cannot ensure that a structure is constructed and read the right way. As we install our portal panels in Studio, we understand that each detail is essential in making the final product a success. Details are also the hidden elements that can help keep a project together. For instance, with our portal panel designs, we cannot just stick cardboard to the wall and hope it stays, but instead, we must plan and prepare to include small details in which will successfully and aesthetically hold our projects together.

Diagram/Composition:
In design, diagrams are used to help us better understand plans and they give us a more in depth understanding of how things will or do function in that space. It is a way of simplifying a plan so that clients and other's who aren't educated in reading plans can understand. "The hallmark of a diagram is its ability to simplify a complex notion inot essential elements and relationships by a process of elimination and reduction." (Ching, 289) In Suzanne's, we as groups were assigned to diagram our buildings into four different parts. My part was to diagram the function of the space. I highlighted the public and private areas, and used different hatching and line techniques to diagram offices, bathrooms, classrooms, etc. In the 13 century medieval world, the city of Florence as a composition was also diagramed into public and private spaces. Composition and wholeness go hand in hand in my opinion. When thinking about something that is whole, thoughts about all of the parts that play together to make it whole come to mind. The same is true with a composition. "It is not an isolated fragment in itself, but part of the world which includes the gardens, walls, trees, streets beyond it boundaries, and other buildings beyond those. And it contains many wholes within it- also unbounded and continuous in their connections. Above all, the whole is unbroken and undivided." (Alexander, 80) The composition of Florence was based around the "unified center" which was the Duomo. From that, the city consisted of churches, markets, and palatzzo’s which were the main house forms. Although separated into public and private, the city of Florence was still a connected composition. In Studio, our portal panel designs are pieces coming together to form a composition. While there is the actual installation of the cardboard and paper, there are other elements such as our 11x17 graphics, our translucent graphics, and our digital presentations in which all compose the final project.


Tying it all Together:

This weeks words all communicated circulation and order to me. With relations through diagrams creating compositions and vis-a-versa we can understand things such as the porch, court, and hearth. The details are remenant of diagrams because they help us better read and understand certain things.

Alexander, Christopher. The Nature of Order. 2002. The Center for the Environmental
Structure. Berkley, California.

Ching, Francis D.K. Design Drawing. 1998. John Wiley and Sons. New York, NY.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/quotes

Voices

PRESENCE

When it comes to design, presence in my opinion is the ability for ones work to stand on its own without explanation to a viewer from the designer personally. It is also a feeling that is felt when experiencing someone's work. I feel like overall in the previous week I exemplified presence both in my drawing and studio courses. For Suzanne, the newest phase in our project was to take 5(out of the 12) thumbnails we previously sketched and emulate the style of an inspiration artist of our choice. I feel as though I succeeded in taking the artists different techniques and incorporating them into my work. When we presented the drawings on Tuesday, my work in my opinion created presence by itself. Our pathways phase of found in translation required us to create one model from the 3 previous models constructed that incorporated the successful qualities. I feel as though my final model held its own presence because the pathways were clear as well as the word that I focused on which was contrast. The Romans wanted to create presence through their architecture specifically focusing on the interiors. "Images of stylized reality, captured in the glittering mosaics, evoke a spiritual presence in an outer wordly atmosphere of resplendent grandeur." (Roth, 298)

METRIC

"You cannot manage what you cannot(or do not) measure..." (Unknown)

As designers, we have to use metric in a literal and not so literal way. Of course being able to understand scale and different metric systems as we are learning in Stoel's class with the completion of Pat's Chair is the literal and very important side of metric. We must be able to also apply the concept of metric by choosing solutions and ways in which we go about designing a space or structure. I found that in doing my 8" x11" drawings of the MHRA building, I had to use a system of metric in applying people/scale figures to my space because as I was drawing movement was occurring all around me. In my sketches I had to get a feel for the placement and gestures of these people since I couldn't just freeze time. Creating a pathway model also enabled my thinking to become metric in a sense because I had to find ways to satisfy the requirements of the project such as focusing on one word (with my word being contrast), using only black and white, and incorporating a scale figure within. "In the most profound centers which have perfect wholeness, there is at the heart a void which is like water, infinite in depth, surrounded by and contrasted with other clutter of stuff and fabric all around it." (Alexander, 222) This void that he is speaking of is what we as designers must fill and know when, where, and how to incorporate it within the space or design.

DUALITY
The duality in which was created in our 5 inspiration drawings was in my opinion very abstract, but very understandable. The whole idea of duality focuses on multiples or twos and in that you find common ground as well as differences. In those drawings it is almost as if the duality of the two styles creates its own style, and I find that to be very interesting. Drafting holds a duality in itself in which different line weights are created to form an overall better view of a plan or section. White and black create a duality of contrast depending on how they are used together or separate. Since contrast was my word, the duality that I wanted to create was one of not just color, but also shape and size.
MOMENTS
Moments in life and in design are those times when it seems like life stands still for a split second. Moments go hand in hand with presence. When something has presence it creates moments in which you feel like it is just you and the structure or piece that you are focusing on. The moments in experiencing the early Christian churches I would assume occur at various times. For instance, when a viewer looks above at the high vaulted ceilings and the architectural detail, the presence of heaven may be felt. They may feel one with the space physically and one with God spiritually. "In an atmosphere of shimmering light from countless windows, reflected from high, mosaic lined domes, and the flickering of innumerable lamps and candles filtered through the rising haze of pungent incense, the early Christian and, later, the Byzantine Church celebrated the fusion of secular and religious rule and the endeavor to create a blemished simulacrum pointing to heavenly perfection." (Roth, 298)
PRECEDENT

The use of an "inspiration sketch" to further develop our MHRA project is successful in the way that it challenges us to emulate a precedented style as well as incorporate our style with in it. Drafting the crit space in our building is helping us understand the concepts of floor plans and we are encouraged to find precedents of representing windows, doors, etc. to create our own style. The Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu as a precedent is helping us structure our portal panel. While we are not remaking the ziggurat, we are taking the important elements such as the heirarchy and the progression of moving the eye upward to further our design innovations. Precedents dont have to be still standing today. The architects of the medieval period recognized this when they decided to use the remains and memories from invasions in Rome. "The memory of Rome lingered as well, especially in Southern France, where many Roman ruins served as models..." (Roth, 313-314) Although the structures were destroyed, they still acted as precedents in that they created such strong features and details.

Tying it Together:

This weeks words took my knowledge and my investigation to another level in defining and understanding how to use them in everyday life and in design. I never thought to use metric in my vocabulary unless I was specifically talking about drafting until I realized that metric is more than just a definition, it is a concept(especially for designers). Presence happens all around us, but it is when we make that distinct connection with someone or something that a moment is created. As I become more of a designer, I finding inspiration in so much, whether it be from another designer or a thought or memory that I have. Duality as a designer is an important quality to with hold because you must be versitle enough with your style considering the fact that you never know what your client may want.

Works Cited:

Alexander, Christopher. The Nature of Order. 2002. The Center for the Environmental

Structure. Berkley, California.

Roth, Leland. Understanding Architecture. 2007. Westview Press. Boulder Colorado.

http://www.computerworlduk.com/technology/development/software/how-to/index.cfm?articleid=1584

Parts: Whole

"Thus the personal order of nature appears in nature as much as in buildings and artifacts." (Alexander, 309) From that I realize that order is the source of everyday life. We as humans all have a rather standard order in which we go about our day. Although things may sometimes be "out of order," for the most part our world and everything in it is organized around order. In relation to design, order is one of if not the most important aspects. When designing something, there is a process that we must go through to get from point A to point B. Our project that is currently underway in Design Drawing is a great example of this. We first had to create floor plans of our given building. From there we went on to create thumbnails of important features that outline the building. Our next step is to refine those thumbnail sketches and get more detailed in what we see. The ending result will be a presentation of the information we have acquired by studying the building. Just the same in drafting, we have been gradually advancing in the creation, construction and visual recording of Pat's chair. From our fairytale stories that we received on the 1st day of class this semester, we are still building from the artifact project now in which we are creating pathways still relating to our fairytale and creation stories, but also moving to new concepts. The idea of order also makes me think of archetype, prototype, and hybrid because this combination of words is the process that establishes order. The archetype for our translations project is the fairytale. Taking inspiration from that story, we began to develop more ideas and create the prototype which in this instance would be the artifact that evolved from the story as well as the design process. From the artifact or prototype, then developed was the hybrid in which we had to progress from the creation of the artifact to creating the special place for it as well as embarking on something new in creating a wall frame. In drawing, we are using the same concept of archetype, protoype, and hybrid to develop our research and understading of the MHRA building. The same holds true with Pat's chair in drafting. From the archetype of understanding what the requirements and materials were, we then created the prototype which was the actual model, and now we are in the process of creating the hybrid which in this case is the different drafting drawings and elevations to better understand and even improve our intial ideas. The thumbnails that we were assigned to create for Suzanne's drawing class enables us to understand the entourage or interior/exterior surroundings that inhabit our building. Being an interior architecture major requires a keen sense of how to interpret and understand our surroundings and how they interact with everyday life.

“It started as a big idea, and in the process of designing it grew even bigger.” (Thomas O'Brien, Think Exist.com)In the passageway phase of found in translation, the idea of creating a functional passageway forces me as the designer to think about how a person experiencing the space would feel and how the entourage of materials, shapes and scale would influence their overall connection to the space. As Winston Churchill once said " we shape our buildings; and they shape us." Alexander goes on to ask "how do they affect us." (Alexander, 372) I feel like that is the question that we as designers need to ask ourselves. We should work to convey a way of feeling whether positive or negative that makes sense and relates to the space, and world around us. Hierarchy plays a big role in convey a feeling or marking importance. In making my 3 models for the pathways portion of the translation project, using heirarchy was an important factor in two of the three models. In balance, the heirarchy was important in that the taller walls communicated a new element of progression and advancement through the space. In gradient one of my main concepts was not just to create a gradient of colors but also to create a gradient of size(relatively a progression from smallest to largest or vice versa). The hierarchy of the linear element as well as the taller planar elements in comparison to the smaller gave that illusion. In both hierarchy not only showed levels of scale and importance, but it also acted as a part to the whole. "A natural hierarchy is simply an order of increasing wholeness" (A Brief history of Everything, Ken Wilber) Sources are a good foundation for things to come. The can act as an archetype in which they can give us inspirations and ideas of how to incorporate things in our own work. In finding 5 different sources that give us variation in how we sketch/draw, I found that my style is very similar to some of the artist and very different from others. With the 1st floor sketch of the MHRA building, I used Helen South's technique and found that I wasn't very successful in trying to do it just like hers, but when I added my own technique and put a touch of her style in it, it was successful. "The past is for inspiration, not imitation, for continuation, not repetition." (Israel Zangwill, Think Exist.com, 1)

Through sources we are able to create an ordered design that takes from the past, draws from the present and innovates the future. We highlight important structures and objects by using hierarchy to convey importance. By using archetypes, creating prototypes and eventually making hybrids we understand the cycles in which we create design and entourages.

Flying Colours (1. great success; 2. to paint in bright/dark colors)

"The return on a public structure is not merely the task that it facilitates. It is the whole pleasure that it provides the community..." (Roth, 155) Since last year this time when I first heard these three words together (commodity, firmness and delight), I have been forced to analyze architecture and spaces differently and measure them up to each word. The Zigguart in Mesopotamia exemplifies all three words in its mass. The commodity or function was believed to be the connection to heaven on earth. The most important part of the structure was at the very top where the temple was located. The sustainable materials and the method in which they were built exemplify the firmness. There are still remains left today. The delight is evident in the way it stands out from the earth, and gives the eye many different dimensions and aspect to gaze upon. In drafting I have found that in producing different elevations, sections, etc. , and in drawing using different media and techniques, commodity, firmness and delight are the main categories in which I should judge my work. Together, all three aspects of "good design" work together to form the whole which is functionality, strength, and beauty. "A view of the building as a whole means that we see it as part of an extended and undivided continuum ." (Alexander, 80) In working with water colors for the first time in my life (i think), I have found that just a little splash of color adds so much interest and definition to a drawing/sketch. In my opinion, it is a way in which you can help better convey an idea but also add a very classical or abstract look your work. Through experimentation with the water colors, I learned that sometimes alot of color looks nice, but when you want to highlight a certain aspect of the drawing, painting only that specific part can illuminate the picture better. Illumination doesn't just mean adding light or color, but it can also mean adding definition and life to something. "...we must first see how life springs from wholeness, and indeed how life is wholeness. Wholeness exist all around us and life springs from it." (Alexander, 55) The Ziggurat in Mesopotamia is a great example of this. It illuminates the area that it encompasses. It is such a grand, amazing, huge feature and it is also a precedent for the latter pyramids in Egypt. In sense, it is illuminating another era.

They way that the Ziggurat gives the illusion of a mountain is a way to look at idioms. Although we know that it clearly is not a mountain, the way that it is constructed and layered could lead one to believe that it was possibly a mountain or hill, and not a structure. "These artificial hills served as a way of elevating the temples to make a link between the human realm and the heavenly realm of the gods." (Roth, 183) The hieroglyphics that the Egyptians used to tell stories of the Pharaohs lives was their way of communicating then as a people and throughout time to people of the many ages. The way in which we document history and important events now is so much different from the way that it was done then. What color means for one person or culture may not mean the same for the next. For the fairytale artifacts, alot of people tied meaning to good, bad, love, hate, etc. to color. I think that this is interesting because in North America, for most designers the color red for instance in any given room conveys energy. This color in another culture could mean death, hate or negativity.
Taking from the 1st critique of the semester that we had on Friday, the thing I got out of it the most was the importance of utilizing the most effective materials. This I feel is important to designers because materials(color, weight, firmness, bulkiness, etc.) are not only meant to convey meanings and evoke feelings but they also need to be sustainable and work well in the environment they are in. The materials that Charese and Carlos decided to use for their fairytale artifacts in my opinion had a balance of the importance to the story, and the artifacts were "items in which the design was simple and of good proportions." (Massey, 159) They were both artifacts in which could be used in everyday life.
I feel a very strong connection to this weeks key words because all in some form or another are a part of the next. Illumination brings forth beauty, life and experience. Different designers have their own taste/style and artistic language(idiom) which conveys functionality in a particular environment, and materials are the aspect in which one's design is successful and sustainable . All three of these aspects of design come together to create Commodity, Firmness, and Delight.

Title:
http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_idioms/id-c.htm

Hieroglyphic Image:
www.ctlibrarians.org

Create : Design as Tell : Story

In this first week back in classes the key concepts for thought were STORIES, ARTIFACTS, MULTIVIEW, CYCLE, and TRANSLATION. There were some very interesting comparisons and contrast throughout each class dealing with each word.

STORIES:
Architecture in itself is a story. It is a story about successes, failures, innovations places and change, but the end results/functions/purposes are the same. In 221 Patrick talked a lot about how architecture has changed over the years as we have embraced different eras and periods. In the end, the result is architecture. In the movie Mid Summer Nights Dream, there were many stories within one film. Although these stories had similarities and differences the main goal was to convey love with many meanings. Just as in the fairy tales we read, the stories ranged from love to hate but the idea was to communicate morals. The five items that I chose to represent my story for Suzanne’s class held a lot of different meanings, but they all connected to me.
ARTIFACTS:
In Arts as with many things, different parts work together to create a whole. This to me explains artifacts. From composing my inspiration board to creating a table/chair/work station/server for Jan, every separate piece communicated and offered an important part of the end result. In 221 a statement that really tied this together for me was "Artifacts shape our world." This was proven true in Suzanne's class on Tuesday(1/27) in the film by the Eames brother's the Power of 10. From something so small(people) to something so big(galaxy) and everything in between, each artifact is important to create something so beautiful and powerful(universe).
MULTIVIEW:
In the built environment there are different views whether you are refering to different opinions and ideas or exterior vs. interior. I feel as though views coincide with artifacts although they are not necessarily physical b/c each different view can help with the end results. In a literal sense, the multiviews of shots that the film captured helped to communicate emotions, important information, and a better overall feeling for the viewer. Stoell requested that when making Jan's furniture piece we needed to try to make a different view from each angle. Although it would have been simpler to make the object symmetrical, adding variation and slightly manipulating each side made it more visually pleasing.
CYLCLE:
From one period to another one or two things happen: Change or No Change. In 221 discussions about architecture from the stone ages to now lead to understanding that something is always taken from the past in the present. We learn to be innovative and try new things but most is learned from a previous experience. As the scripture says "there is nothing new under the sun." In Mid Summer Nights Dream, the cycle of love was continued throughout the film in different ways. Also there was a cycle of beginning, middle(climax), and end.
TRANSLATION:
In architecture just as in our very lives, there are going to be things that work and don't work, things that change and don't change. On Monday(1/26)Patrick talked about things that don't work well in one interior setting but may very work in another, or how something may start out working in one setting but overtime it doesnt work anymore. There then could be use for it found in some other space at any given time. In Mid Summer Nights Dream, the actual story was translated from time period to time period(Shakespeare to 1999). In constructing Jan's furniture, I learned that where something start's doesn't have to be where it ends.

Tying it All Together!

Artifacts, Cycles, Multiviews, Stories, and Translation all have a common ground. Each distinct word has its own meaning, but they all get to an ending point. They all also repeat themselves in our lives on a day to day basis.
The inspiration board, nautilus shell, seat/table/server/workspace, 5 meaningful artifacts, and the broken chair all tell their own stories.



Although temporarily permanent, they are all capable of change whether it be location, growth, new meanings, different uses or further inspiration. In this first phase of the OPUS, I have learned to take each word and look at it more critically, and really apply them to my designs, work, and life.