The Bridge

On the second week of this project I started to come up with some ideas for designing a bridge that would progress through the design eras as you walked over it and incorporate as many of the eras as possible.

I started by looking at separate parts of the bridge including the railings which I decided to do in the style of minimalism.

 

 Along with looking in to the railings I also wanted to add the extra feature of an archway in the conceptual style which has been inspired by the artist Marc Andre Robinson with his chair sculptures.

Lastly I put together some drawings from different artists for the flooring of the bridge which included famous pieces of art from Piet Mondrain, Vasserelly and Joan Miro which would form the abstract part of the bridge.

All of the elelments of the bridge that I have been putting together were working really well however, I dont think the idea of it just being an average bridge was inventive enough so I decided to try and rethink the overall purpose I wanted to get accross.

On the last day of teaching for the two weeks I eventually came up with a concept that would take in to concideration all the design eras that I wanted to commemorate whilst showing a different interpretation of the overall project.

I have decided to express the concept of form over function. This statement is widely thought about when it comes to designing a new product and you can see the difference between products fairly easily. One product from alessi, the lemon squezzer looks great as a piece of art but the product doesn't actually function properly.

 Over the weekend I spent time producing a model that would show my designs.

The final concept for my bridge is that when a person comes to the bottom of the bridge they have got to make a decision of whether to turn left and go up the bridge that will take them on a experience through the conceptual and abstract design eras. However once that have reached the peak of the bridge they will realise that the bridge does not actually complete its function and you have to turn around and go back the other way. However, if the person decides to go right at the bottom of the bridge they will walk across a fair normal minimalist and moderist bridge made with tradition materials and produces its function of being a bridge.

After presenting my structure to the class I got some really good feedback from the other students and tutors which was encouraging and it was overall a good experience of making a model that really showed the point i was trying to get across.

The Bridge

To start off the first project of 2014, I spent time over the christmas holidays researching in to the different design eras. These included:

Conceptual

Minimalism

Modernism

Abstract

 

After looking in to each one in depth, it was interesting to find out about the artists and designer involved with all the eras. Once I had started my main 2 week project all the research that I had done came in really handy and provided most of my inspiration.

The main aim of the project was to pick one of the design eras and use them to inspire a piece of architecture which proved harder than I had originally planned as I had a lot of ideas of how I could interpret all my research.

My initial thought was that I would combine both the modernist and abstract eras together in order to produce a building that would show the differences between the different styles of art and design.

Here are some of the initial drawings that I produced:

By the second taught session of the week I started to look more in depth into certain artists that took my particular interest. These consisted of:

Mies Van Der Rohe

Tadao Anda

Le Corbusier

Frank Gehry

Picasso

Dali

Henry Matisse

Vasarely 

Donald Judd

Piet  Mondrain

Marc andre Robinson

All of these designers had some amazing pieces of architecture, sculptures and art. I think that the way we were given the chance to do some proper long term research in the subject area gave everyone the opportunity to experiment with many different and more inventive ideas when it came to actually producing a structure.

On the last day of the week I was still struggling to come up with a solid idea for my structure but I decided that I did not just want to design a building and maybe look more into a covered structure or walkway for a park.

Overall this week has been relatively productive as I have spent a lot of time research which has given me a lot of ideas to think about. However, it is quite frustrating that I have not yet come up with a solid idea that I could be working on during my self directed study days.