Reading Response 5

Sources:
Ching, A Global History of Architecture
http://intranet.arc.miami.edu
http://www.historic-uk.com
http://www.paradoxplace.com

Design and Culture

Design and culture have a two-way relationship; design is always influenced by its surrounding culture and culture is in some ways influenced by design. We saw an example of this after viewing the film “Babette’s Feast” in class. In the 17^th century Puritan community of Jutland the architecture and design elements reflected the peoples’ culture. Since Jutland is an isolated peninsula on the Scandinavian coast, the houses were closely clustered together to provide closeness for this tight-knit community. The architecture as well as interior elements were very simple, reflecting the pious, rigid ideals of the people: their focus was on God and worship and not on material things with ornamental flourishes. The main interior room of the religious leader’s house was very plain except for one table to accommodate neighbors who worshipped there together. The only artwork was dedicated to their minister who had passed away. There is a contrast however, when the French maid Babette proposes to cook a feast in honor of the minister. The table in the scene of the dinner party was very decorated, with candelabras, linens, and multiple place settings with fine china and crystal stemware. This reflects the French culture of opulence, and it is seen that the plain people of Jutland are uncomfortable with this…the decorations are showed to cause somewhat of a culture shock. A main way that Babette brought her culture to the people of Jutland was through design, and the space along with the food were the main vessels through which the people experienced this.

Social Media Product: The Portal

Imagine coming home, opening the door, and instantly being greeted by all of your friends. The social networking entry door automatically logs a user in when they come home, allowing the homeowner to check what's new on Facebook and Twitter without unpacking their laptop. This will cause a change in the way people transition from being out and about to settling into home life-- they will set down their keys, hang up their coat, immediately check Facebook notifications and tweet, all conveniently within a minute of standing in their entryway. Before leaving home, the user can update statuses of what they are about to go do. This will all happen by means of a touch screen that will be projected onto the entry door when the user returns home and will also automatically log the user off when they leave. If the user's hands are full while entering or exiting, they will not miss out because of the voice post feature of the networking door. While the networking door isn't being used, it will have the appearance of either an elegant traditional raised-panel door or a sleek modern door with horizontal rectangular sections. The internet features can also be accessed at any time by a small button under the door handle.

Parti

a modern version

a traditional version

model version, renamed "The Portal"

Reading Response 4

Source: Ching, A Global History of Architecture 

Blog Post 4: Commodity, Firmness and Delight

photo credit: uncg.edu

The Moore Humanities building is the best example on campus where commodity, firmness, and delight coexist at their highest potential. As you enter the MHRA building, you are greeted by doubled doric columns into a grand circular entranceway. Materials include tile, granite, stone, glass and metal, each repeating and developing their own design language. The floor design uses stone tile circle segments to mark the distance from the center of the circle, getting further and further apart as you go further and further away from the center of the lobby. Glass is used not only to let in light through mirrors around the entranceway, it is also used to provide a distinction between the research side and classroom side of the building. Frosted glass is used to provide privacy to the research offices and clear glass is used to show the way for students to the balcony on the second floor where most of the classrooms are located. This also gives an open, airy feeling to the lobby. The lobby has good light quality since it is surrounded by windows and has a clerestory at top. Glass, tile, and metal also are reflective surfaces which gives the interior more light. An industrial-looking metal facade covers the wall where the elevator doors are located, which matches the actual doors and directs people to them. The interior uses light, neutral colors throughout the building, along with the university colors of blue and gold on the floor; warmer wood tones are used in the hallway to make the transition from the large open entrance seem more intimate.  Columns inside the MHRA lobby mimic the stone columns on the outside of the building, creating the feeling of a complete circle, although they serve no structural purpose. The lobby being a circle has significance, it marks the entrance to a building dedicated to research which is a priority at UNCG. The building is very functional from the academic and research standpoints dedicating ample office and classroom space, as well as a student lounge. The entrance has good circulation with multiple entrances and ample space to move about, thus getting a high commodity score. The stone columns and solid structure of the building gives the building a high firmness score. The overall experience along with materials used, light and color all give MHRA a high delight score, which is why it is one of my favorite buildings on campus.

Manifesto

Design is not something you can just “whip up”, by thinking of a solution after being given a task and saying you are finished.  Richard MacCormac put it very well, “I don’t think you can design anything just by absorbing information and then hoping to synthesize it into a solution. What you need to know about the problem only becomes apparent as you’re trying to solve it.”

Design is all about process. Process is all about failure. This is one thing I know for sure since coming to Greensboro this fall to embark on this scary, overwhelming, yet exhilarating and rewarding journey that is becoming a designer.  Starting on the first design tasks was very daunting; you are given instruction and have to think creatively, coming up with a design solution by a certain deadline, which gave me an enormous feeling of pressure during the early projects. Then after some experience working on these crazy projects, I realized that each time I came up with a “solution” something was wrong with it. I had failed. But these failures led to great discoveries and “aha” moments, forcing me to design the same project over and over again until they showed significant improvement.  This gave me more confidence in myself, and a drive to always figure out what it is I can do to make my work better. This could be looking at similar works of previous designers, talking to professors, peers, or just looking at my work again in a few moments time, trying to discern what should be changed about my work to make it come closer to the goal of the project. After failures have occurred, thought, precedence and community brings a designer into final stages of refinement and a great result.

Color Week

Color week (also known as color bootcamp) was an exciting week of learning about color alignment and creating compositions using 220 hues of Color-Aid paper. 

The colorful hallway: classmates' work on display

2 colors with a middle mix in between 

2 "overlapping" colors and their middle mix

4 colors with a shade in the center and their middle mixes

After the first two compositions, I got used to cutting the color-aid paper and learned how to dry mount; my craft improved a lot. 

3 triangles with their three-way mix

Color Palette

An abstract, artistic composition of spring, summer, fall and winter using the colors from my palette.

my body of work from the week