Peer Review: Nikki Ware

After developing five different concepts for our space plan for the library we were asked to review a fellow classmates. Nicole Ware brought many various concepts to class but this one stood out to me especially which is the one she ended up pursuing actually. She was able to follow a format between her five concepts that read easily and had bold graphics so they weren't to difficult to understand what the big idea really was. This idea had resonance with me however because it was something natural and was being incorporated into a space and I could definitely visualize these elements within. She uses the metaphor of libraries being able to guide the users and help shed some light on them which I find particularly fascinating because that's essentially the way it works, users are there to learn and the books help them achieve that.  

Conceptual Diagrams: Systems

Shortly after leaving the skin assignment we took a look at the systems from a conceptual viewpoint. We were to base our five diagrams off of structure, light, water, electricity, and technology and compose 11x17 sheets along with brief descriptions about the various diagrams.

Material Connections: Skin

Throughout our studio we’ve been focusing on learning space: spaces that learn and this project was focused on the skin of a structure. We investigated materials for our particular library after finishing the structure assignment. We had to propose four different materials for the inside that abided by different constraints such as being in production prior to 1950, being put out in the market in the past year, one material from our precedent library, and lastly a material in which the surface area is mostly blue. The entire time I was selecting materials I was thinking about how the materials would connect and ultimately the application in which they would be used. I chose carpet, wood, acoustic tiles and structural glass and I thought they were relatively conservative but modern enough and had an overall aesthetic I was interested in pursuing. The carpet would be used on the floor mostly in the group areas of the library and where more absorption would help and the wood flooring would be laid out throughout the stacks area of the library. Acoustical tiles would be applied on the ceiling and provide another layer for sound to be absorbed by and the structural glass would run along what is now the corridor in the music library. If the library is something we can be proud about why conceal it, my mission is to provide a space that is celebrated and that when students pass by you are intrigued by and want to investigate it further. 

Precedents: Structure

So shortly after wrapping up our site assignment we had another do which had each classmate do some precedent research of three different libraries from three different time periods. Each library had to contain seven different diagrams (boundaries, function, materiality, systems, sensory experience, furnishings and users) and this is the final outcome of my individual research. 

How Buildings Learn

The above is a quotation from How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand, he goes on to speak about art more in depth and how it’s an experimental process and that most experiments fail and have more cost to them than expected. Both of these fields are vital to life and they are both forms of expression to which everyone is entitled to but they differ tremendously. Architecture houses art, good design is a skill while art is a talent, art is limited while architecture gives people opportunities. These are just my personal opinions but I believe that design is embedded within everything and has to be conservative in certain aspects to abide by all of the codes and laws established. Artists have unlimited options but architects and designers have so many fundamental and philosophical challenges. Form follows function, less is more, more is more, good design is unobtrusive, many of these deep questions are things we as designers ask ourselves and must confront but may never resolve. Artists have to deal with composition and medium where architects have to deal with people as well as designers and our intent as thinkers is to move these people in ways in which they haven’t been moved before. Sure artists think about people as well, but we have to think about humans in the full spectrum of events from arrival to departure, making a building or product last and making that experience as enjoyable as possible while personally trying to use as little design as possible. 

Assignment 1.0 - Proposal

Our first project for Professional Practice in Interior Architecture was to put together rather quickly a single page cover letter, resume and lastly a summary portfolio and this is my attempt at just that. 

UNCG Music Library: Site

Our first project in Patrick's studio splits our class into two major groups, one looking at the Jackson Library and the other which I belong to is examining the UNCG Music Library. Our first assignment within that entire project was to analyze the existing space as is, and to do that we started off first with a list which gave each person specific aspects to investigate. I was given the task to record and diagram the users of that space and my other classmates focused on various aspects such as materiality, systems, sensory experience, etc. These are the drawings which I generated based on the users of that particular space.

A List

The Magic and Madness

[source]

The Return

Welcome back my IARC friends! Break is over, it was nice (short) while it lasted but today I was able to get some stuff done around the house which was great and even able to hang this sweet print I purchased a while back.