Maze

Week one and two

Our last project that we had to undertake before we move on to our final major project took place over three weeks. At the beginning we were all given individual products and buildings to design specifically for us chosen by our tutor.
The building I was given was a Maze.

Initially I was really excited about the prospect of producing a maze as it is fair unusual and not something I would have chosen to design myself. I started by creating an extensive list of ideas for my maze. This included a wide range of ideas from materials to game ideas.

After this I went of to produce a series of small spider diagrams putting some of the ideas into of features, location and objectives.

Over the next few days I started to try and come up with some kind of order for all the ideas that I had had, however this proved harder than I thought as I had so many ideas floating around in my head that I found it very hard to try and put pen to paper.

So instead of just sitting around I started to look in to the history of where the first maze concept came from and also the difference between a maze and a labyrinth.

The concept of a maze come from a greek myth where by a very powerful King Minos would send seven woman and seven men each year into a maze where they would be found but a minotaur - half man half bull, which would proceed to kill them.
After reading this story I decided that I wanted to use this idea of being chased in the maze to give the people inside the maze a challenge and objective instead of just getting to the middle of the maze like the normal traditional mazes.

Over the two weeks, I had very different views and opinions sent to me by fellow students and tutors. some of which were useful but proceeded to make everything more confusing for me as I could not decided whether to show how the maze would work in depth of just show a concept and the area around the maze.

By the end of the two weeks, I still did not have any real clear idea of what I was planning on producing for the presentation but hoped that over the weekend things would become clearer to me and I would be able to start designing my maze.

My Client

Week two

Unfortunatley, I wasnt able to be in college for most of the second week of the project but I still managed to keep doing research at home for my client to look at. These included lighting, seating, ponds, water features and others;

Out of all the pictures these were the five that I really liked and want to encorporate into the design for my client:

By the end of the week I had a pretty clear idea about what the garden layout was going to look like so I took a trip into London to the 4D model shop where I was able to buy some materials and other stuff that I would be able to make a model with for my client to visualise my ideas.

 

 

Over all I really enjoyed doing this project a lot more compared to previous ones. I really liked gathering all the materials in order to make my model to a high standard. It was also nice to have feedback from a specific client and me able to produce something that would have an actual purpose.

My Client

Week one

At the start of the next project we were all given a person in the class to become our client for two weeks. This meant that we all had to produce a product that would be up to our clients standards and meet all there criterias.

In order to start some initial research I took 5 topics that my client was interested in. These included
Urban
Soft
Comtemporary
Autumn
Harry Potter

 

These five topics gave me a broad range of design ideas, colours and thoughts which I was them able to present to my Client to see her opinions.

Whilst talking to my client I got to know her style and also come up with some ideas of what I should design for her. After a long discussion, she has asked me to design a new landscape for her garden as her house has recently been having some building work done on it and as a result the garden has gone in to disrepare.

Straight away I had various ideas about how I would like the garden to be redone but I decided that I would do some more research into some of the features of the garden so I could get to know more about what my client is looking for within her garden.

My client gave me a list of aspects of the garden that she would like me to encorporate into the garden design. These included:

A summer house
Pond/water feature
Storage
Grass area
Patio

I also had a discussion withe she my client about her having her own private area in the garden where she can go to get away from the main house and spend time on her own. We came up with the idea of the place being hidden and magical to encorporate the harry potter theme into the design of the garden.

Over the weekend I started to do some designs for my client to have a look at and also did more research in to features.

Overall the first week of this project has got off to a good start as I have got a clear idea of what the outome of my project is going to be and I am looking forward to presenting it to my client.

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.

Everyday Olympics

Week two

To start off the second week of this project I used the model that I had created over the weekend to bring my ideas to life which I then took pictures of. I also took this day to do some proper research into the ideas that I had come up with in order to further my inspiration as the project went on.

On the second day we started by having a mini group critique with John which was good as it meant that we got to hear other peoples ideas and gather notes about people opinions of our own design. For the rest of the day we were allowed to get on with our own individual work in order to get ready for the presentation on Thursday.

During my self directed study day on Wednesday, I took the time to complete my photoshop presentation pages ready for the group critique. Because the presentation where not due until 1pm on Thursday I spent the day putting together my portfolio and getting feed back from my personal statement which was good as it has given me time to think about all my options. at the end of the day I presented my work to the group which went well. Everyone liked my idea and thought I had presented it well, however there were a few things I need to imporve. To start I need to make sure that during a presentation I let everyone know the whole project as there where somethings that were within my presentation but i forgot to mention so it looked like I hadn't done all of the requirements. I also need to perfect my photoshop skills and make my presentations a lot clearer for people to understand.

Overall this two week project has been challenging in many ways but I think my idea came together i the end.

Everyday Olympics

Week one

To start of this two week project we all met at stratford station where we were told what our project was going to be. The aim of the project was to come up with an olympic sport from something domestic that you would do around the home which actually turned out to be a harder task than I first thought plus we also had to design the stadium that this activity would be show in and how the audience would view the event taking place. We started by going in to Westfield shopping centre where we had to go around the shops taking pictures of different products to give us inspiration. Once we had done this we then took a walk around Stratford looking into how the area is split in to this new massive shopping centre and station that is made from modern materials and looks very new, to walking just five minutes away where there were old run down houses and empty blocks of flats due to the olympics. It was very interesting to see the comparison so close together. To end the day we walked to a viewing point of the olympic stadium  which was strange as the whole area just looks empty now the olympics are over.

On the second day of the project, we were back at college and had to share some of the ideas that we had had. I came up with the idea of extreme pegging, whereby team had to race against each other to hang out the washing in the garden. I wanted the stadium to be as realistic to the actual task as possible so I started to design a stadium that looks like a row of houses with gardens.

To finish the week, I had a good discussion with one of my tutors about how I can make the event more exciting so we came up with the idea of bring the event up into the air by having the washing pegged on to a flag pole and then hoisted up in to the air by the competitors.

Overall this week was fairly useful but not entirely productive so I am hoping that next week, everything will come together a bit more and my presentation will be okay in the end.