Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Studio Final Presentation & Reflections


At the final review on Wednesday, I was not really critiqued on my work, but asked questions like "what did you learn from taking this studio?" and "how is your perception of your project different than from when you started?" I think that I have really refined my process and my approach to designing a project from working through this studio. By starting very conceptually, I was able to not focus too much on the specifics in the beginning but rather think of everything as a conceptual whole and develop all of the spaces at the same rate. Between the midterm and final review, I was able to get much more specific with my design decisions and apply my concept into the details, such as the textured surface on the lowered ceiling in the pharmacy and on bike shop wall, or the hand-crank bike pulley system, and even the color scheme. As the semester progressed, I went from having a very general idea of where I might want things to be to concrete locations, dimensions, and aesthetics for each of my spaces. This is by far the largest project I have worked on so far, comprising two commercial spaces and five apartments, and through the semester I learned how to develop everything to the level I was expected to despite the size of the project. During the presentation on First Friday I was able to show off my work to friends and the general public who weren't familiar with the project, and they all seemed very impressed with the amount of work our class had done. I am very glad I took this studio because I not only learned about historic preservation and designing old buildings, but I learned how to be a better designer all around by refining my process.