Design Firm Visit

Over thanksgiving break when I was at home in the greater Seattle area I visited a designer by the name of Alyse who works for Build Urban in Seattle with two of my classmates. While meeting with her we presented our final projects for our interior design studio. The presentation took place at a quaint little coffee shop across from her place of work.

We presented our drawings and our designs for a commercial space turned residential apartment that is accessible for a person disabled in a wheelchair for the first floor, and visitable on the second floor. I presented last, and had all of my final work on my laptop (I had scanned my work previously and had it saved on there). I originally was nervous going into the situation not knowing what to expect but Alyse gave me great feedback that really put all of my designs into perspective. On my floor plans she pointed out practical things that would work and what would not, because what we put on paper is not how we would interact in the space in real life. She also reminded us that a few inches here and there would really provide a big difference when experiencing the space as well.

It was very interesting to see what a professional thought of my college project. Alyse's feedback was very helpful and put my work and thoughts into a perspective that I had neglected to see them in before. Overall the visit was beneficial and I appreciated the time Alyse gave to us.

Assignment 4B: Graphic Reflection

Throughout this semester in interior design 205, visual communication I have learned many useful skills and have improved with each technique over the course of the semester. This shows throughout my weekly homework as well as the various assignments that were to be completed. I was taught how to effectively render with marker while making progress with sketching a space with depth and accuracy in scale. My improvements in being able to effectively communicate a space are shown through my weekly journal entries. The progress in my marker renderings are shown through my weekly rendering practice, from not being able to effectively layer colored pencils and markers to being able to successfully communicate the visual appearance of an object as realistically as I can. Throughout the duration of the semester we completed a series of three assignments that were to teach us how to correctly represent the depth of a given space by using 1 and 2-point grids. By learning this I eventually became confident enough with my understanding of showing an area accurately to be able to freehand perspectives, but I still have much to learn. With each assignment I feel that I improved as I continued to practice the techniques we were taught in class. I personally enjoyed learning how to render with colored pencils and markers to give the illusion of a realistic space. I find this vital information for us to learn because the interior design we are expected to communicate our ideas in the best way possible. Being a visual person, as most people in the creative field, this is highly important. In the words of Confucius, “Learning without thought is labor lost,” and I am excited to keep learning more and giving everything into my future work to improve my abilities.

Habitat Experience

I volunteered for Habitat for Humanity on Saturday September 28th, 2013. It was such an incredible learning opportunity. When I first arrived with my group we were less than excited to work in the rain, but it ended up being one of my favorite service trips I've done in my college career. At the site, we framed, sheathed, and erected the exterior walls of the house.  A group of people from my Interior Design studio and I helped put the exterior walls of the house together, manually nailing them and then put a protective layer to prevent molding once the house is finished. After doing this we lifted the walls up and helped put them in place, we got to help put up the skeleton of the house which started to give the site more of a perspective in regards to the final product. Putting the walls up and together there was quite a bit of hammering to be done, needless to say I jammed my fingers a few times but I got the hang of it by the end and felt like a real pro! We also got to meet the owner of the house and her children, it was so touching to see the lives of the people we were directly helping.

Putting up one of the exterior walls

Sketch Crawl | Seattle Center

After being let loose in the Seattle Center with free range of field sketching, I decided to pick the most cliché building to draw—the Space Needle. At first I tried to build my drawing from the top of the structure, which I quickly learned to be a bad idea. After that lesson I started from the ground up and I started to piece the building together in sections, by drawing the contour of the lines that make up the space needle rather than a failed attempt at trying to draw the whole thing at once rather than viewing it in pieces. I would say that defining the components that make up the Space Needle and building my drawing in a progressive manner was strength of mine during this sketch. I spent the whole time on it and am actually pleased with the final product, however the top “saucer” part of the tower is a bit lopsided- but I just took it how it turned out because not every sketch can be perfect, but I can be conscious of the issue next time to try to get the contour of the line more accurate to the actual shape of the slope. I learned that I need to approach seeing the object that I am drawing as an object, not a whole definable object, but an object with many layers that can be gradually built off of rather than all piled on at the same time.

 Above is the Space Needle and the right photo is my sketch that I did while at the Seattle Center. The photo to the left is a different view but the same structure.

Job Shadow | Interior Architects

Outside Interior Architects' office

1    My experience at Interior Architects made me rethink how I want apply myself in the professional world. Originally I thought that I wanted to go into design purely residential, but now after my few hours spent at Interior Architects I am finding myself reevaluating the field in which I want to go into once I graduate. I was with my classmate Cole and we were first introduced to a Washington State Interior Design Alumni by the name of Amanda. She was very helpful when we asked questions about the transition from the college programming into the real-world working environment by saying that there is a bit of a learning curve but as long as you apply yourself and do your best you are likely to succeed. The second person we spoke to was named Tosh. Tosh is one of the senior designers and he was working with one of his colleagues trying to figure out how they were going to compromise and collaborate, to come to a decision on what finishes to choose for a particular client’s space. This was exciting for me because I got to see a firm working first hand on how they work as a team to solve design problems and make choices for a real life space. By getting a taste of how an architectural firm works, I have reevaluated what field I want to enter when I initially hit the job market after graduation. I see how the commercial industry has many more opportunities for networking and can still have fun aspects of design- just like residential, with more of a professional work atmosphere of a firm is most definitely something I will be looking into thanks to this experience.

 The photos to the left and right are of Interior Architects' lobby/ waiting room

The Frye Museum | Seattle, WA

My field sketch of a wall feature inside the museum

The entry sequence was unexpected. Initially I thought the entrance was at the front, but there was a completely different interactive entry. This entrance is ADA accessible that had an exhibit at the bottom of the ramp and leading up there was a water feature to the left which had the purpose of calming the viewer down giving them a sense of tranquility before entering the museum. The light affects the visiting experience because of all of the natural lighting incorporated throughout the space. There is a lot and the option of having the natural light shut out in order to protect the quality of the art work if it is damaged in any way by it is also a useful and aesthetically smart feature of the space. The interior form is very open and barren with completely white walls- it leaves it crisp and puts a modernized twist on what a museum means. The important aspects of human interaction within this museum are being able to view the art in an impressionable and artistic way. This is a solemn and respectful way to view art, the viewer and person experiencing the space needs to be able to walk away from this space with an entirely new outlook on what a museum is and what the art inside of that museum says about it. 

The three photos above are the series of features in the entryway leading to the museum

 The photo above to the left is a shallow water pool that is a feature of the entryway, it's purpose is to calm viewers down before entering the museum. The photo to the right is a skylight at the entrance of the museum that is to welcome viewers into the museum and give them a transition from the entry to the art.

St. Ignatius Chapel | Seattle University

                      The photos displayed above are the interior of St. Ignatius chapel

My Field sketches of the interior and exterior of the building

Alternative to stain-
glass windows on
interior

The daylight defines the spaces interiors. Without it, the chapel is a chapel with interesting interior wall structure that is completely barren and white on the inside. With daylight though the St. Ignatius chapel develops color accents of blues and greens—livening the place up. The light being strong during my visit helped me appreciate the space to its full potential. I got to experience the chapel for its defining and unique feature. Although the walls were plain and white the space had personalized texturing added to give it character. Other textual qualities of the chapel were the differentiation of the ceiling heights. There was a high variation of heights that created the natural flow of the space, playing with how the natural lighting came in as well as setting the atmosphere. The important aspects of human interaction with this space, being in a chapel is really channeling in on the religious experience. When you think of chapels you think of stain glass windows with murals and high ceilings and rows of seating leading up to a platform. The St. Ignatius Chapel redefines that experience, with modern art interpretations of old stories made into frosted glass window panes, high ceilings with different variations of elevation and so forth. The movement throughout the space is very unique and puts a unique and modern twist on the religious experience with respect to the traditional value to the space.  

Street Bean Espresso & Teen Shelter | Seattle, WA

 The photos above are the interior of the Street Bean Espresso space.

The shelter is for teens that live on the street and come from unhealthy family situations and their families are not looking for them. This philosophy made me rethink residential design. Designing for impermanent housing for a variety of residents. This made me think about how to make something feel like home, to people that have never had a good and healthy idea of what a home is in the first place. The most important ideas that I took away from this visit were the relationships of dorms and how this sort of commercial design can be applied to this space with a little love and understanding of how to give these teens and idea of belonging through the use of such aesthetics of design. The most important interaction between the teens that pass through and the space is being able to develop a personal relationship with it. Giving the teens a feeling of safety and belonging is the highest of importance when it comes to developing the design of the space. The most important ideas that I took from the visit to Street Bean espresso were the use of natural woods and colors and making it a very calming environment, that is welcoming and incorporates the community that surrounds it. I liked how the space displayed pieces of artwork from local artists that interchange every month. This gave the space personality and personality, which is important in both commercial and residential design.

Westlake Construction Site | Seattle, WA

(Photos from left to right: Left & Middle photo- views from the roof of the building, Right- view of one of the studio apartments under construction) 

The Westlake residence is located in Westlake, Seattle. The first half of the construction site will house the business by the name of, “MadArt”. MadArt’s mission is to support emerging artists in the Seattle community, to bring art into the lives of those in the community in unexpected ways and to create community involvement in the arts. The other half of the building is for residences and studio apartments. The philosophy of the building having half residential and half business, made me realize how to maximize a space to its full capacity. The layout of the residential spaces is beautiful and they made me think of spatial planning differently. All spaces apart from the top floor penthouse apartment are studios. These studio apartments have one level with a kitchen and recreational space and they have stairs leading up to the bedroom space. All of the residencies made me rethink the use of natural lighting and the sizing of windows. Each space has floor to ceiling windows for natural lighting. This made me think of how interaction with humans and their needs to be with nature and the outside is important. This really made me rethink the idea of what a studio apartment means to me and how vast the opportunities for natural lighting in a residential space are.

zHome Visit | Issaquah, WA

On their website the Z-Homes that are located in the Issaquah Highlands are described as, “zHome is a revolutionary, 10-unit townhome development that uses smart design and cutting edge technologies to radically reduce its environmental impacts. zHome will prove that homes that use zero net energy and 60% less water, emit net zero carbon emissions, have clean indoor air and use only low-toxicity materials are possible and scalable to mainstream home production.” By visiting this particular site and learning about their particular design philosophy I have grown to be more aware of how to be as energy efficient as possible. When designing for residential this makes me think of how I can make the home as comfortable as possible by decreasing the cost of energy, making it easier on both the environment as well as on the pocket of the client who will be living there. The most important ideas that I took away from the visit at the z-home was the wall insulation, and how that contributes a big part to the depleting energy costs.  It made me think of not just the interior design of the space, but how important the details of the structure that make that space are to the residents and designers as well. The most important aspects of human interaction with these spaces are how the residents are contributing to the energy costs. The natural light and recycled energy that the solar panels at the top of the units produce are big contributors to this as well as the humans that are partaking in the consumption of the energy. 

(From left to right: Left- the wall insulation for the z-homes, Middle- stairs leading up to the loft in the home, Right- a section of the kitchen design)

Ride, Don't Walk

There was a recent assignment in class, where we were paired with a partner to do everyday tasks in a wheelchair. The purpose is to put ourselves into the shoes of our client for our semester project where we are designing a residential space for a couple, with the husband in a chair. Through this assignment I came to the realization of how privileged I am to have a set of legs.

You don't realize how everyday tasks are more difficult to perform in a chair. First of all, moving through a commercial space in a chair, not all buildings are 100% ADA accessible. ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act. I found it hard to maneuver myself through hallways, I felt out of control while trying to safely roll down a hill. I also found it difficult to reach on top of counters and wheel myself through doorways. The most astonishing discovery I made was how difficult it was to wheel into a handicap stall of a bathroom. It was frustrating that I could barely make it in the stall without squishing my hands and I found it to be a challenge to turn around to exit the stall as well.
Over all this experience has given me a new appreciation for my independent mobility provided to me through my legs.

Blog Entry One: Home

When I think of home many things come to mind. Whether it means thinking of my family and my pets or the physical space that I think of and the many photos that are scattered sporadically throughout my house. I think of the smells and aroma that drifts from my mother cooking in the kitchen.

But when it comes down to it; home to me mainly visual. Visually this is my big bedroom window that sits at the front and center of my house.  It is what I identify with home visually when I drive home from every break at Washington State. There are so many memories that I have looking out and into my window.

Graphic Reflection Poster

For the final in one of my interior design courses this semester was a reflection poster of some of our works that we completed over the duration of the class. I appreciate the aesthetic approach at which I came at this project but I wish I would have played around with the colors of fonts and formatting a little more. Maybe I would have changed the orientation of the poster too, but in the end I am pleased with the final product.

Sketch Journals

The progression of the notes is prominent through my sketch notes over the semester. I appreciated the earlier ones that concentrated on the basics of drawing and enjoyed how each assignment introduced a new skill. My sketch notes show my strengths and weaknesses. I believe my strengths in sketching are shading and still drawings, and my weaknesses are definitely the 2d and 3d perspectives. My favorite sketch that I did this semester was the fruit/crosshatching sketch- I believe it illustrates my strengths the best.

Palouse Sketch

This is my final product of my Palouse Sketch assignment that had to be done on Illustrator software. I have had little background with Illustrator from a class I took in high school for graphic design but I definitely struggled with this. It definitely wasn't the best articulation of the photo on my part and I think that I should have played a lot more with different line weights as well as shading and contours of the actual object rather than the simple outline of everything colored in.