Griffel Retreat: A Musician's Retreat-Poster

This here is the presentation poster that goes along with the architectural model that I built for the client in the Columbia River Gorge, Oregon. On it are the floor plans of both the top loft/studio area and the main living space below it, an elevation/section cut of the South side of the structure, parti sketches from my process work, the inspiration piece, views of the finished model (exterior and interior), a statement about the client and finished space and lastly some nicely rendered views of the inside of this wonderful space. Of course with any projects comes many lessons of what not to do next time and also improvements from last time. After having been reviewed by some local designers and interior design professors here in Spokane, WA, I learned what was working overall and what could be changed to make for a better design. I feel I could have researched a bit more about some of the fixtures that I choose to use in the space and perhaps find ones to better suit the overall design. For example, the patio door that I choose to insert in the main living space as the rendered living room view shows could have been replaced with a nana wall. This nana wall rather than the goofy looking patio door would have been a better solution to my design, opening the view up to the exterior that I tried so hard to make apart of the over all design. I also learned that understanding the significant parts of my design and touching upon those while making them a huge part of the over all presentation is very important. For example, talking about how I created this space to ultimately define the line between public and private. I do this by having the North side (entry side) all wood and no windows eye level, and then on the South side of the structure having large floor to ceiling windows that overlook the gorge in both the bedrooms and living room/kitchen area. This was something that one of the reviewers really liked about my design, and said was done excellently, but was never talked about in my presentation. It's the small things like this this that make for an even better design next time. Very fun assignment, yet so hard to move from 2d-3d.

Griffel Retreat: Light Moment Study Model

Part of this Gorge project was to explore the different variations of types of light and their effects on different shapes, spaces, mediums and materials that may be relevant to your design. With doing so, you were able to move forward from this design with knowledge of how light may be cast when designing an actual 3-D space. My Light moment was then used in my space with the knowledge of when and where the sun rose and set on my existing relic. This was an over all great experience that helped me design a great space for Brandon to retreat to. I learned that dark spaces with a punch of light can really make the space memorable and inspiring. Also, that materials such as copper, reflective surfaces like mirrors and glass can also inter fear with light differently and cause un expected "light moments".

Griffel Retreat: A Musician's Studios Space

For this project we were asked to design a unique space under 1200 sq. ft for a musician, artist or writer and dedicated solely to his or her's art. This here is my musician's Columbia River Gorge Retreat where Brandon is able to come and relax while also having the freedom and space to write and record music. This space is a unique experience that begins at the entrance to the space as shown in the first image. The glass tubular like forms that are protruding both inside and out of the space are remittance of the light moment model I experimented with in an earlier study as explained above. This idea of the tubes that filter in light from the inside and out are carried to the top story of my space (Brandon's Studio) which acts as a loft. As you are able to see in the other two images, this light moment is a very inspiring phenomena and thus is the reason why I placed them in Brandon's recording space. The energy of the light that is produced from these tubes is in a high up and dark area, making for a big impression and more importantly a perfect place for writing and producing creative music. The retreat includes two 88 sq. ft bedrooms (one with a full master bath), a kitchen/living space, a full public bath and two patios on the South side both over looking the beautiful landscape of the Gorge. The top half inner tube patio includes an outside wet bar and room for patio seating. The landscape around the retreat allows for vehicle parking and also aircraft parking, as my musician is also a US Army helicopter pilot who owns planes of his own. This is truly a space that one can escape to spend time with family, friends and or himself. This space has all the amenities he needs, just not excessive amounts.

Depot Study Board Models

These are my depot study models that were built as a way to study space. We then were able to space plan and design a well working layout for our bed and breakfast. The purpose of this is to make yourself start thinking spacial wise about the area and how you might start to apply your concept inside the actual space instead of just drawing it. Yes, this does take more time and is a pain, but it is truly worth it. You are able to think more abstractly when you are actually able to see the space in 3D and play around with it. I wanted to incorporate the concept of strict structures and forms being intersected by fluid shape and form. This is why I have the curved walls in my designs and also why I have curved walls going into straight walls. This part of my design process actually came first and is what ultimately got me thinking of how I might utilize and make an aesthetically pleasing and functional space out of this old depot.

Final Depot Project

These are my final presentation boards for ID 203. For this project we were to take the old train depot in downtown Pullman, also known as the Pufferbelly Depot, and turn it into a bed and breakfast that was to have an 800 square foot apartment for the inn keeper and his wife. The only struggle/problem was that we had to keep the building's original structure and facade and could only change windows into doors and doors into windows and also had to keep the old ticket counter and basement stairs inside. The inn keeper's wife is also visually impaired so we had to take her disability into account when designing this B&B along with their residence. We also had to pay attention to the types of materials that we chose for the B&B because they had to be commercial and also ADA approved. Choosing materials and finishes for the inn keeper's residence was tricky because we had to make sure the materials were going to work well with her disability. Making sure we had materials like non-reflective surfaces, slip resistant flooring, non bright colors, contrasting colors and a good furniture arrangement to keep her from tripping had to be taken into account. My concept for the B&B is that we all perceive the human body as a universal structure that is unchanging and is the same amongst all people. It isn't until we take time to get to get to know the person inside and out that we see their individual beauty that shapes them entirely into a beautiful form. The inspiration for my depot were the hand carved wooden beams inside the WSU Visitor's Center. These beams along with Martin Blank's inspirational glass work is what helped me form my concept. Evereything in this depot from the floor, ceiling, walls materials, fabrics and finishes represent my artist and concept. This project will be reviewed by my future professors and also employers so alot of hard work was put into this project to show my potential. I am very proud of this project and have come a long way since last year around this time....I DID IT!!

Bed and Breakfast Concept Model-"Human Body as a Beautiful Structure"

This is my concept model that came from my module and textile pattern. This is my interpretation of the concept behind my design in 3-D. This shows my artist and my inspirational object with in the depot. The concept of this 3-D model is that "we all have this preconceived notion of the body as a strict structure that is universal to all and never changes. But the human body is so much more than that and the beauty of one's personality, curve, fluidity and motion breaks up this idea of the body as a universal structure never changing and shows that there is beauty with in". The universal structure aspect of the the concept relate to the wooded beams which are my inspiration of the depot and the beauty in the human body through curve represents Martin Blanks works of bright color and fluid, body like shapes. Displayed above are some images of the first model I came up with and then the bottom four are the images of the final concept more developed and revised. I really think that this model came together well and stays true to what my concept is all about. It visually explains the concept and I believe it will make for a great element in my final design of the bed and breakfast.

CONCEPT STATEMENT:

True Beauty Lies Within a Universal Structure

The wooden beams as my form giver show strong, structural support and represent a stable, unchanging form. In order to soften the look of the beams and to be able to further incorporate my idea of the human body as a beautiful, shapely structure, I worked from the beams textural like pattern. The beams were hand carved, with chunks shaven out of the beam. These wooden beams in the visitors center, demonstrate the stability, structure and shape of the human body as a universal structure unchanging.

There is a strong relationship between the beams and Blank’s work representing the human body through curve and shape. For me to show the relationship between the beams and the human body’s beautiful curve, I have the tear drop shapes in my model, which are demonstrating the individual, specific beauty that is present in the human body, but often unseen. This beauty acts as an interjection to the thought of the human body as an unchanging structure. This tear drop is to represent the beautiful curve, fluidity, movement and balance of the human body with in a structure.

Together, these two inspirations of the beams and the human body as a beautiful structure represent the human body as more than just the preconceived view of the body as a universal structure that is never changing and permanent. The beams, which show a strong stable form and yet have beauty to them portrayed through the textural pattern of the shavings. This pattern acts as the universal structure the human body appears to be. It’s not until you incorporate the tear drop shapes that interrupt this strong universal structure idea and evolve that structure into a beautiful form. The human body is a structure that is beautifully shaped by one’s personality, natural curve, movement and form.

With the wood strips being interrupted by the teardrop shapes, this further shows the body as more than a universal structure. The tear drops have the beautiful energetic color representing the beauty of the body, which helps to break up the idea of the body as a universal structure. This shows that beauty goes beyond a body’s structure, one that everyone has. Each person’s body and shape is special and specific to him and her. We must learn to step back and realize that there is more to structure than a universal shape.

With this concept that is demonstrated in this strong, abstract form, I am able to incorporate this in my design of the bed and breakfast and make for an over all aesthetically pleasing, interesting and comfortable design applied to all aspects of the over all design.

Final Textile Design

Displayed above is my final textile design which I will be using at some point and place throughout my bed and breakfast. I was able to come up with this textile pattern after playing around with a number of different modules (like the one displayed on the bottom). The modules that we were to draw were supposed to some how represent our depot's inspiration object and also your artist's work combined. We were to choose the best two modules from a selection of eight that we had chosen from a prior fifty. I took the best two and played around with them in photoshop and indesign. I experimented around with different color schemes and patterns that I could lay the module out in and discovered that after transforming, shrinking, flipping, rotating and reflecting, I had alot of different patterns to choose from, all coming from the same module. I was able to come to a comfortable stop with this pattern. I thought that this module made a strong pattern and also a good interpretation of the wooden beams, (which is my depot's inspiration object) and my artist's work. I think that the over all pattern is working well in my design and displays what I want to portray, but I think next time I would design a module whose over all pattern is more loose feeling so that it doesn't look so heavy and strict in shape. I need to figure out what part of my design is most important whether it be the concept of the structural part of the design or the concept of fluidity, movement and the curves of the human body of the design.

TEXTILE REFLECTION ESSAY

After receiving my textile, I feel that my concept and is portrayed at large through out the whole textile. Both the colors and way in which I chose to lay my module out to make the repeated pattern explains my concept well. The straight beams and the round bursts of purple and magenta really help to model the concept of beauty with in a universal structure.

When looking at this textile as a whole your eye begins to flow from one corner to the other, making an over all well rounded textile design. You really do start to feel the concept while looking at the textile.

The only thing I would have done differently with this design is play around with the pattern a bit more. I know that after I sent in my textile order I tried some different pattern ideas and the mirrored pattern made for an even better concept relation. The way in which the mirrored modules met each other made a beautiful, organic, round shape through out the design, which would have made more sense to the view right away.

Other than that, I really do like the textile and cannot wait to begin to think 3-D about my space and this textile that will be incorporated in it some how.

Artist: Martin Blank Client Brief Poster

This is my poster that I created to go into my client brief folder, a folder that contains some information that is going to be used while I design the bed and breakfast. I was to design a poster that showed some of my chosen artist's (Martin Blank) work along with a blurb about them as an artist and heir design philosophy. This allowed me to think in depth about what the artist is trying to portray in their work and then think of ways in which I may be able to incorporate their work into my design. This was also a way in which I was able to show the rest of my class who I am using for my inspiration and get some feedback as to how I may use their design in mine.

205 Final: Sunset and Nightlife

This is my end of the semester studio project that entailed me going through the process of interviewing a client (one of my classmates) and asking them a series of questions that would better help me design the perfect room for them. I was to design a room out of a 2,500 sq. ft living space that was chosen by the client, along with a desired paint color, inspirational piece and furniture piece. From this I was then able to come up with a concept for the room just from the pieces I was given and also design a space. This space's concept is derived from the idea of a sunset and how someone can have a bubbly personality (sun/bright) but also a serious one (sunset/intense/rich). This is apparent through my space's design and color. The bright colors of orange and yellow represent the bubbly side of a person and the deep mauve color shows the person's serious side. This is a place that can let in the sun during the day, the sunset in the evening and the glow of the city's nightlife at night.

Vision Disability Workshop

This is the hand out that we were given to follow. It told us what to do and where to walk while we were "visually impaired" (not totally blind). I made some notes on it talking about how it was hard for my partner to walk down the green marble stairs located in the cub because the black strips that usually are an indicator of the edge of the step, fell back into the green and were not very visible. The green stairs were so shiny and all seemed to mesh together. However, the tan stairs that I walked down outside the libraries were easier to navigate down because the tan steps had a duller finish to them and I was able to see the black strip more easily.

These are some of my notes and sketches that I made while on my walk through the cub "visually impaired" (not totally blind). This showes that in the elevater it was hard to determine what the buttons said and so it made it frustrating to decide what to push. This is something that Ifeel needs to be addressed and maybe better planned and designed. It really is sad how often people with disabilities are disreguarded when it comes to design and I am glad that I was able to participate in this workshop. Now when I am designing the depot for the inkeepers wife, I will know some of the common things that are ignored when designing for the visually impaired, and also how to address them properly.

This is a sketch that I drew of my interpretation of the CUBS environment while I was "visually impaired" (not blind). This workshop asked us to walk around the CUB in glasses smeared in petrolium jelly which stimulated how it would feel to be partially blind. This sketch I drew shows some of the environments problems that I encountered, such as the CUBS lighting that reflects off the marble flooring. This makes it hard to determine where you are at and makes for a hard time determining where you might be at. This sketch also shows the ATM in which we had to locate. I thought that the flashing lights around the card slot did a great job showing where the card goes and then you were able to know that the key pad was close by, along with the brail to help guide you in number patterns.

Railroad depot: MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION

This is my depot case study of the Michigan Central sation Depot that I did for part of the research and the process of the final project in studio. This involved researching a depot across the US and then making a poster using indesign to show our graphic skills and elements and principals of design. Each person in my group of 4 did a case sudy and all followed the same template. We then got together as a group and presented our research to the rest of the class that had different case studies as well on different topics. This is not only a way to show my understanding of the the elements and principals of design and my graphic presentation, but is also a way for me to research a bit about the adaptive re-use of old train depots. Our final project is asking us to take the old train depot (Pufferbelly) in pullman, and restore it to be a bed and breakfast art history hotel. I hope with what I have learned and research that it will help me with this process of designing a great bed and breakfast!

TRANQUILITY EMERSED IN WARMTH -Habitat for Humanity board 1/2

This is the Habitat for Humity house design project that we did in our studio class. Habitat for Humanity is an organization that builds homes for the lower income population. The homes are built with the owners and volunteers of the area. This is way for the home owners to "pay" for their house with out money. We were paired up with a partner and together were supposed to come up with a 3 bedroom floor plan, no bigger than 11,000 square feet, and fall right on or below the desired budget 80-85 K. The idea of combining tranquility and warmth with in the home is what katrina and I decided to go with. We then came up with this house design built around the idea of having a shed roof. At first we were told not to design a house with a shed roof because the clients just didn't see how this would work, but with persistance katrina and I designed a funtionable, cheap, aesthetically pleasing and sustainable home containing a shed roof. The first board contains our floor plan, the main living space perspective, some pictures of the site where the house is to be built and also the 2 exterior elevations. This was an excellent experience working with another designer to come up with such a design. The color pallet, materials, over all layout and interior features all connect and support our concept of tranquility emersed in warmth.

Habitat for Humainity board 2/2

This is the second board of Katrina and I's habitat home design. It displays many of the elevations and some of the perspectives that were done for the house. The interior elevations describe and show how the chosen shed roof design is handled when it comes to the interior aesthetics of the home and also why certain aspects and details of the home are the way they are. the windows in the living area that are set high are because of the shed roof, allowing for natural light to come in. The lowered ceiling heights in all the bedrooms are because of the shed roofs large void it would leave in personal and private areas. The bedroom interior, bath interior and kitchen interior perspectives all show show the homes tranquility and warmth through out the chosen materials. This is a home that anyone can enjoy, relax and experience true nirvana within.