Sunday, October 12, 2008

Waterbed in a space



While the waterbed was first invented for the use in hospitals, they later became popular in homes. I have had the experience of lying in two different waterbeds in totally different settings. I encountered a waterbed in two vernacular style homes. One home was out on the lakefront, and the other out in a rural setting. Knowing the consumer of the bed in the rural setting I feel that they was trying to gain the feeling of being on the water, due to their enjoyment of going to the beach. On the other hand I unofficially know the person that lives on the lakefront, only through my father. So I have chosen to place the waterbed in a vernacular style home, which was located on a lakefront. From what I remember, the room that encloses the bed was similar to a glass screened in patio room. The room media seemed to have been stained pinewood, with an abundant amount of natural light screening in, there was also a ceiling fan placed overhead center ways of the bed. I interpret that the consumer of the bed took into consideration of his liking of the water and, probably want the feeling of being out on his boat while lying in his bed due to the motion of the water in the bed makes. He probably also chose the room due to the natural light that would be entering, along with the glass windows that could be open for fresh air that also has the accompanying component of a screen to block-out unwanted company and elements. He possibly chose to place the bed center ways underneath the ceiling fan to receive the feeling of a breeze from it that has a close relative feeling of a natural outdoors breeze. Surrounding the exterior of the room is a forest of tall pine trees, which I feel that he probably encouraged the designer to incorporate in the construction of the room. In comparison to other beds the waterbed was said to give an even distribution of the body, today the sleep number bed is relative to the waterbed, in the case of evenly distributing the body. In contrast the sleep number bed has an air chamber design in a mattress that can be adjusted to you desired comfort, by the touch of a button.
Jessica

Friday, October 10, 2008

Shelter Bus


In the above images are layouts and diagrams for a shelter bus that we as students at UNCG are designing. The drawings above was done by me, Jessica Crews, which is my proposed design. There are anotations for the drawings and a concept statement to explain my overall approach to the project.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Detail Drawing of A&T Bus Shelter





With in this project one had to design a bus shelter for the North Carolina A&T campus. The bus shelter would be arranged in front of the St. John Lodge #12 on east Market street. Above a couple of images there is a more thorough explanation of the project in the concept statement.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Postcard to Jay Lennatson


In the above image is a postcard to a Professor Jay Lennartson,who work in the department of Geography at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. He came to a Theory Hour session that the department of interior architecture set aside for speakers to come and give a educational lesson about design or any educational aspects. The last four sessions including this one, the speakers spoke about green design and sustainability, but this lecture stuck with me the most, due to the speaker was very enthusiastic while delivering his perspective of sustainability and green design, and why green design is important.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bus Shelter Power Point Precis



After two weeks of no clear understanding of defining the meaning of a Shelter-Bus-shelter, at the end we as a class presented what a Bus Shelter was or is , and what a Shelter Bus is. With in the presentation there were slides designate for each of the following groups, for explanation of each: context, pre[c]dent, community, client, container, codes and communication. At the end or during the presentation we were to observe what we saw and interpret it in this assignment which is labled as a precis, which is a synopsis, summary, or abstraction of one's interpretation of each of the presentation. Above are the images that I have provided from my interpretation of the two week long project.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Ideas for Guerilla Marketing


In the above images are ideas for the marketing the activities that the second year students of the Interior architecture students are doing, this year. Above is a invalid ticket to catch the attention of the people in the community. It ask one on the back wouldn't rather buy a ticket rather than get a ticket, meaning why illegally park when you can't find an available parking space, than ride a bus.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Shelter -Bus-Shelter Codes




In this assignment, which is still a spin off from the other bus assignments, as a group we are to find codes that the shelter bus and the bus shelter must meet, the diagrams also touched on ergonomics and proxemics . After finding the codes we were to draw up clear self-explanatory diagrams of the required codes. Above are images of the diagrams that I sketched. You can click on the following linked names to see what my other group members sketched (Erin Marshall, Jennifer Cochran, Kurt Huizenga). The following paragraphed was put together by my group members and I to answer questions about our experiences and more.

Our groups experience throughout this exercise has helped us to analyze the more overlooked details of the ways a person would interact within the space we designed. We needed to take into consideration the personal space that people need for themselves while in public spaces. Throughout our research we discovered that a majority of those waiting for the bus would stand outside of the bus shelter because of the relationship of proxemics and the space, even during inclimate weather. One aspect that we overlooked in the beginning of our design process is the how those with special needs would access and interact with our bus|shelter and shelter|bus. We thought about the space that one would require to walk around, but we did not consider the room that a wheelchair would need to maneuver around the bench inside of the bus|shelter. Handicap accessibility is one part that we explored in the codes+ charrette and we now realize how important it is to plan and design for all possible clients.

We would like to recommend that other designers should take into consideration the varying abilities that different clients may have. All spaces should be easily accessible for those in wheelchairs, visual language such as signs should be used to let the deaf know how to interact within the given space, and certain spacing standards should be used when trying to accommodate for the blind. As design students and professionals we need to put ourselves in the clients position and ask ourselves," Is this space user-friendly to me and my needs?" Then we need to analyze the whys and the why nots and tweak our design to make it universally accessible, whether it is someone who is in a wheelchair or simply someone who might be very short or very tall.

All designers should research codes and design standards as part of their initial design process. The amount of information may be overwhelming at first, but codes can actually be a very helpful starting point. The perimeters they set make the end result a more feasible design. In the future, our group needs to take our designs to the next step past simple aesthetics. The codes and standards that we were able to look up in class gave us some perspective into the more functional side of design that we will definitely put into use in our future projects.

Shelter Bus




Above are images that I sketched for one of the two buses that my group and I designed for the needs of hurricane victims. The first part of the assignment was to put together a list that addressed the needs of hurricane victims. Our list consisted of ...
- Food/preparation
-Sleeping Quarters
-Communications/Survey
-First Aid/ Medical Assistants
-Hygiene
-Pet Accommodations
-Salvage Equip.
-Water
-Clothing
- Counseling
The bus that I chose to sketch up ideas for, along with Erin Marshall are for the counseling bus. Her images are posted below , and below hers are images that one of the other two group member Kurt Huizenga drew up for the Communications/ Survey bus which was the other bus we selected as a need. Along with bubble diagrams to explain the relations between the needs on each bus.






Bus Shelter

Above are images of a built prototype model, that depict a design that as a group,Kurt Huizenga, Jennifer Cochran, and Erin Marshall and I, came up with after doing communal research of people input and observation of the surrounding area of the designated spot to place a new bus shelter within, which is Located on the corner of Tate and Spring Garden street on the University of North Carolina-Greensboro Campus.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sustainability Postcard



In the above image is an expression of my feedback, about last week Theory Hour topic, which was about sustainability. The expression is express through a postcard. To the left is an illustration which is on the front of the card, and to the right is the back of the card stating my opinions.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Three R's






In this reading, riding, and recording assignment, I chose to do the riding first, then the reading. I found the outing enjoyable, because me and a group of peers rode the city bus together, however if I had to ride the bus alone I would prefer not; because I do not like riding with a bunch of strangers. The images that I have chosen to post was influenced by the bus ride, and from the reading. The images that are sketched are images that I took on the way to the bus depot. At first I randomly took the photos to sketch, but after reading I chose the image of the Bennett water tower from the few photos I happen to capture, because Bennett college was mentioned in the reading. Then I chose the sketch of the bus station because that was the route I chose to take. The other images are of the sit-in which the article spoke of continuously, I took that photo on a trip I took with the architectural department trip to Washington, D.C. The others of the interior of the bus was to show the interior of the bus as I rode. As you probably have noticed one of the photos are in black and white to expressed the past when things were segregated, however in that time blacks were not allowed to sit in the front of bus. The key moments in the reading was when the four students from A&T took a stand to make history. I have had a major affect on my life, because if it was not for them I would be able have the friends that I have, or be very careful where I travel to, along with choosing where I am allowed to eat. And the key moment in the riding was having a group of peers to ride along with. From this experience I somewhat learn how to ride public transportation, and its not so bad if you ride in pairs or groups. And after reading the article or passage I learn that there was morning than the four gentlemen involved in the boycotting of the sit-in lunch counters, there were actually women from the UNC-G, which at that time article called The Women's College. Overall the experiment was enjoyable, with a group of friend to enjoy it with. However I would have rather taken a path to the Greensboro Historical Museum after reading the article.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

First Week of Second Year Experience

This picture above expresses a lot of how I felt my first week back into the interior architecture program at UNC-G. I was very stressed and there seemed to have been obstacles hitting me from every direction. There was grouping arrangement within the class of 56 people. The groups contained 13 to 15 people in a group. I really am satisfied with my group, because we have a great sense of communication. However, everyone had to do an individual assignment of way finding. The assignment was not hard, but getting to your assigned destination when you are without transportation can be a big dilemma. After doing the assignment which consisted of drawing or expressing a depiction of how one arrived to their destination. Afterwards, we were to come together as a group and come up with a composition of our entries, which was kind of hard in the beginning, because of everyone's creative ideas. That was while we were in a group of 15. However, later the whole class f 56 had to come together and combine all projects in cohesive composition, and that was even harder, there was a great amount of miscommunication, but somehow we were able to come up with something. Overall, above the group work and finding a way to get around I have enjoyed the first week, and it seem like it is going to be a great semester.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Elsewhere Project



Elsewhere is a place located in close proximity of downtown Greensboro, NC. It is a quite interesting place to visit, but your first visit would be so over whelming, because of all the object and figure rings that have been accumulated there over the years. "Can you say PACK RAT" yes this place would be a great example of what a pack rat can accumulate. This place was started in the early 90's and over the years things were accumulated; it is a great joy to see all the toys that you once may have had as a child. Many objects brought back great memories.
The only negative about this place is the disorderedness, the owners or the members of this organization try different ways to organize the mess but there isn't but so many places or ways to store the mass amount of objects. As a class we went to visit different areas throughout the building, and later we had to pick five object and draw them. The image of the have and the California raisin are two of the five objects that i chose to draw. Later in the project we were to mark out a space on the floor and draw with in those boundaries. My space was filled with suite cases in the beginning and things seemed to have been added every day after when I would return. I started off drawings little piece of my space, then somewhat a full view. Once again it is just impossible to draw every single detailed item, because it is too overwhelming.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Pat's Chair



You may have viewed on my blog in the past the plans of my project Pat's Chair here are some images of the Chair that designed.