Thursday, October 25, 2007

Seeing in Color Charrette


Final Tecnocolor Model














Inspiration from Breuer and Bauhaus


Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Self-Reflection

1. This course has opened up my thoughts about design being an important role in the culture and the lives of the people experiencing it. It has taught me what factors to consider when I design. In studying different buildings and styles I have acquired a broader perspective into the design world and what certain "design" elements can offer to an object, structure, or building. This course has provided me with a library of knowledge to use when designing later works.

2. One building that we have discussed in class that links forward into today's society is the Post Office Savings Bank by Otto Wagner. This building stood out during its time in the development of modern architecture. This building deals with aspects of design that we are still dealing with during this time period of design. The Savings Bank influenced the idea of incorporating all parts of the design and not just certain parts. It spoke a language simplifying the ornamentation while still keeping it aesthetically pleasing. This building is acting as an example on design today.






3. As designers we cannot forget where we come from. By discovering innovations and ideas from the past we are able to develop the present and future in design. In this way we embrace the past. We have study the cultures and living styles of the past and the architecture and designs that follow it. In doing this we are able to see the patterns and styles that work. This can then be applied to the present design. The knowledge that we have today and the technology we have is added to past designs and ideas to come up with a new innovative design that speaks a language of present day time.

4. For the Icons of Modernism, my group had All In the Family. I learned that the design world had a huge impact on the lives of people in the 50's and 60's. With advancements in technology, the designs also became more advanced with products such as the portable radio, and color TV. Technology allowed the designs to become more innovative throughout the decades. Now, in the 21st century, we are living off the same concept of technology. It is still improving, allowing the design aspects to improve. The products are able to become solely to benefit the consumer and are not having to work around the absence of technology. Also, we are able to have HD tv and ipods, which are a huge advancement from the 50's and 60's, but could not have happened if it wasn't for the designs of that time.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Monday, October 8, 2007

Design Statement

Our direction is to be innovative and to build off of each of our charrettes, as well as keeping in mind the intents of our individual architects and designers. Our intent is to create an innovative design, centralized around an open and simple floor plan, allowing for form to follow the function of the space, and reinterpreting moments with elimination of ornamentation.

Best of intentions just won't cut it/ what have you done for us lately?

We have begun the project, My Sister’s House by doing several charrettes and smaller portions of the project. These “mini” portions include, a light study of the site, a researched book of architects, designers, and artists, a sketchy model of the building, and meaningful moment in the building from our sketchy model, a study of good, bad, and ugly materials, an exterior model of the building, and a refined sketchy model. All of these charrettes have helped our group to develop further into the project and to gain knowledge of what we are trying to convey in our overall design.
In the light study we individually designed a light “machine” to see how the light on the site played on the device we created. This helped us to better understand how we would incorporate light into or design. Our research of different designers, architects, and artists gave us ideas and thoughts about a path to take on our future designs. The sketchy model showed us a general layout and direction for us to go off of in our next designs. We took a closer look at the model in a “moment” in the model. This “moment” we created was an intersection that we found meaningful in the overall design. This helped us to develop details about the space and how different spaces would work together as a cohesive design. In the materials study we learned what materials could be used where. This also allowed us to see what certain materials would be able to do. While developing the exterior we began to tie in all the previous charrettes and studies to decide where the windows should go and how the building would ultimately be designed on the outside. In doing this we looked back to the research on the architect we had studied and the ideas and works of the designers and artists. In our refined sketchy model, we did this same thing, by changing a few things based on our findings.
Overall we started off with small pieces that joined into a whole in the project. The charrettes and studies we did in the beginning are helping to develop our ideas in the larger parts of the project like the exterior and the layout of the interior. We are incorporating our research findings and our study findings into one idea so that are design becomes a cohesive design instead of a plethora of ideas all jumbled into one.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

seeing a single brick in the wall CHARRETTE

The good, the bad, the ugly

good: recycled steel
bad: fake brick
ugly: chrome

seeing a single brick in the wall CHARRETTE

The good, the bad, the ugly

good: recycled steel
bad: fake brick
ugly: chrome