Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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.