Happy to ReDesign

Here is a bedroom that I would be happy to redesign. I chose it because it has some good bones to start with. There is a fireplace that could be emphasized more and there are great white panels on one side of the walls in the room that would look great if they were seen better. It is a very bland room and it could use some tender, love and care.

Happy Design

We have been talking about design happiness in studio this week and were made to find a picture of a thing or place that makes you happy. I knew exactly what I wanted to post. This is a picture that I took last summer in Martha's Vineyard. It is in Edgartown, one of my favorite towns in the world because it is so charming and friendly. I have always loved New England homes like this one especially ones with gamble roofs that are all of wood siding. This place makes me happy because I have always wanted a house like this on a cute street that has a porch to look out onto the ocean to watch the boats and sunrise while swinging on the porch to feel the breeze and the smell of the ocean.

Unity Village Phase 3 Reflection

Phase 3 of Unity Village was a success! I did however run into rendering problems that kept me behind the last few days before it was due, but as always it got done. I am very happy about my design and have learned that the most important thing is designing for the clients in mind at all times, not yourself. I can just imagine myself meeting with clients and asking about their wants and needs for a space they want me to design. As for my design, I wanted to make the foyer feel big when you first walked in. The ceilings are not very high and I wanted to have an open floor plan so it felt bigger than it actually is. The girls Sara and Karen love hosting small dinner parties and cooking so the kitchen is emphasized by it being on the curve wall of the space and has plenty of counter space for serving and cooking on. The dining, living room and kitchen are all open to each other to better entertain. The bedrooms have personalized casework pieces like the dance shoes displays and the desk for recording music. The colors I have chosen are soft and relaxing because after a long day at school it is nice to come home to a place that is relaxing and refreshing. I will continue to develop my designs based on creating community for any client.

In Memory of Cameron Wagner

My boyfriend's brother died at age 20 two years ago yesterday (April 17). His name is Cameron and he was an amazing guy with a smile on his face at all times. A few months ago, I was thinking about Cameron and how he has impacted my life as well as many who knew him so I decided to make a handmade book filled with stories about Cameron so that they will be shared and lived forever. I asked all his friends and those who knew him to write their favorite memory or story of Cameron. I got several responses back, but not as many as I had hoped since I sent out about 400 messages to people. Im guessing no one reads their inbox messages on facebook so I am sending out more reminders this week for those who did not see my message before so more stories can be added. Today I gave my boyfriend (Grant) and his family this book. I feel so blessed to have met Cameron! He sure was a great guy who knew how to live life to its fullest.

This is the cover of the book made of chipboard and this nice paper I found.

Here is the inside of the first page. On the left it says, "Memories of Cameron Wagner fill these pages so his stories will be shared and lived forever." There is a spot for where the pen goes so people can write their own stories about Cameron. The first page is a picture of Cameron with his Z28 Camaro that he loved to work on in the garage and take to the drag-strip. Grant now drives it and is the one sound of Cameron's that is still alive.

I made 5 of the pages with a pocket since one friend wrote hers and sent it. It is big enough to put pictures in or any keepsakes.

Here is a picture of what most of the pages looks like with stories that people have sent to put in this book. Some of the pages are blank so that they can be filled in with more stories.

The binding is of hemp string and here is the back of the book with the knot that holds it all together.

Concept for [Unity Village]

Rhythm and flow create an oasis that connects music and dance coming together as one. Dance and music have rhythm and flow as does an oasis has orientation.

Cassandra's Design Strengths

In studio, our assignment was to ask someone in our class what their design strengths are that is different from ours.

Cassandra sits next to me in studio and sometimes we get each others opinion about design decisions. I know each time we talk about design we have completely different opinions and design approaches. Cassandra says that she has the ability to take things she has seen from her past and incorporate them in her own designs. Her experiences that she has had in her life become inspirations for her in new designs of her own. She will apply things she has seen from traveling the world as inspiration and abstracts things she has seen used in spaces before in her designs. She loves to travel as do I and I will start to see things I have seen as inspiration to me in my designs. I probably don't do enough of inspiration on my own from things I have seen and it's a good idea to start to make that more of a habit. Thanks Cassandra for sharing this with me.

Collection of Standards for Residential Apartments

Where minimum overall apartment floor areas are recommended, the measurements should be internal wall-to-wall dimensions. The standards apply to units on one floor; duplexes should provide the additional floor area required to provide for stairways and landings in accordance with the Building Regulations. The minimum standards are intended to apply to new apartment developments; while it should be an objective to achieve such standards in refurbishment schemes, existing site/ structural configurations may require some flexibility of approach.

General storage

3.1 In addition to the recommended minimum room floor areas as outlined in the Appendix, provision should also be made in all new apartment schemes for general storage, particularly for bulky items not in daily use (e.g. suitcases, sports gear, winter clothing etc.).

3.2 General storage should be additional to kitchen presses and bedroom furniture, but may be partly provided in these rooms. A store off a hallway or landing will facilitate access, but hot presses or boiler space do not count as general storage. As a rule, no individual storage room within an apartment should exceed 3.5 sq metres. Some apartment schemes may provide storage for bulky items outside individual units (e.g. at basement level), and this may satisfy part of the general storage requirement.

Refuse storage

3.3 Adequate provision needs to be made for the storage and collection of waste materials, with appropriate reference to the projected level of waste generation, collection frequencies, and types and quantities of receptacles required. If insufficient provision is made, problems of dumping, odour and vermin are likely. Developers should therefore ascertain the relevant local authority requirements for waste management storage and collection.

Shared circulation areas

3.5 Shared circulation areas should be well lit, preferably with some natural light and ventilation. The apartment building should be navigable by all users, including people with buggies. Internal corridors should be kept as short as possible, with good visibility along their length. Acoustic wall and ceiling treatments should be considered. Entrances to apartment buildings should be clearly identified and welcoming; hallways should not be unduly narrow.

Daylight and sunlight

5.5 The amount of sunlight reaching an apartment significantly affects the amenity of the occupants. Dual-aspect apartments are likely to maximise the availability of sunlight, and should be the norm, but this solution may not always be possible (e.g. with corner units). Single-aspect apartments should allow the main living rooms to face south, west or east; north-facing units should be excluded. Particular care is needed where windows are located on lower floors which may be overshadowed by adjoining buildings.

Safety and security

5.10 Apartment design should provide occupants and their visitors with a sense of safety

Recommended Minimum Floor Areas and Standards

Minimum overall apartment floor areas

One bedroom	45 sq m (38 sq m)*
Two bedroom	73 sq m (55 sq m)*
Three bedrooms	90 sq m (70 sq m)*

Minimum aggregate floor areas for living/dining/kitchen rooms,

and minimum widths for the main living/dining rooms

Apartment type	Width of living/dining room	Aggregate floor area of living / dining / kitchen area*
One bedroom	3.3 m	23 sq m
Two bedrooms	3.6 m	30 sq m
Three bedrooms	3.8 m	34 sq m

Minimum bedroom floor areas/widths

Type	Minimum width	Minimum floor area
Single bedroom	2.1 m	7.1 sq m
Double bedroom	2.8 m	11.4 sq m
Twin bedroom	2.8 m	13 sq m

Minimum aggregate bedroom floor areas

One bedroom	11.4 sq m
Two bedroom	11.4 + 13 sq m = 24.4 sq m
Three bedrooms	11.4 + 13 + 7.1 sq m = 31.5 sq m

Blog 4 for Phase Three [Unity Village]

Floor Plans and Models:

Here is the final floor plan that I chose

This is the tracing paper with all 12 of my floor plan ideas and space planning

Here is the coffee table that I designed. The big and small circles come from the inspiration the way ballet shoes, violins, and guitars are shaped since the girls love music and dance.

This is the wall display in the dance room bedroom. It is shaped like a shoe is but exaggerated more.

This is a desk that is shaped like a guitar. It will be used to put your laptop on and record music.

Blog 3 for Phase Three [Unity Village]

Concept:

words that describe my concept:

contentment, secure, safety, peace of mind, socialization, happy, unexpected, community, orientation, flow, rhythm, and harmony

Strengths as a Designer

As I have been in IARC for just about two years now, I have really noticed my loving for organization of things. I love to lay out floor plans and figure out what does and doesn't work. I have an eye for simplicity. I always try to keep things simple because I feel that it is more appealing to the eye than having way too much going on in a space. As a designer I want to strengthen my weaknesses by working on renderings and hand drawings.

Phase Three Programming

[Unity Village] Phase Three

Here are some inspirational/precedent images for the next phase in the Unity Village project. We now have to design an apartment in the Gateway Plaza and my clients are two roommates that both are graduate students at UNCG. Here is a layout of their needs and wants:

[Karen Smith]

-27 years old

-studying music therapy

-owns a number of instruments that will be displayed around the apartment

-must have easy access to instruments

-enjoys having friends over

-likes to entertain small dinner parties so there must be an open flow between the kitchen and the dining and living room

-must have a serving table/counter that makes it easy to serve friends when having dinner parties

-must have sitting areas and desks for practicing and recording music

[Sara Brady]

-28 years old

-studying dance

-loves to cook and experiment with new recipes so there needs to be lots of counter space

-she loves to bake so maybe two ovens would be necessary since she shares the baked goods with everyone on her floor on Sundays

-needs to have items within react in kitchen

-she has lots of dance shoes, including ballet and tap that she wants to creatively display in her bedroom

-must have a built-in display system for the dance shoes

[Part Two] Floor 2 of Neighborhood C

Here are a few images from our presentation on Wednesday. I feel that our dining space could of been a bit more developed since it was last created in sketch-up. We had great ideas for the panels in that space which I still think are strong, but I wish we thought out the tables and the arrangement of them in a different way. Our strengths in the space are the planters and how they are the foundation of a system where the children come up on trips to plant seeds and take care of their plants as a responsibility and the seating around the columns. It is unusual to see steppable plants that are placed under where your feet are while sitting on a bench indoors. Weaknesses of our design would be the ceiling because I feel it could of had more movement going on up there instead of the lighting at different heights. Also some of our podiums turned out dark and not how we imagined the lighting to look in the space. We should of stated the podiums earlier. We split up the jobs for our project just to get things done faster and I have learned that it would be nicer if everyone got to contribute to the sketch-up equal amounts instead of one person making important design decisions as problems arise in the sketch-up. I think that having plants and living things that are not where you would normally see them in a space is eye-opening to others in the class. For design thinking, I used an open mind. I felt that this was really important to have when designing our space because we had to think of a way to use plants in a different way than you would normally see them. Overall we need to focus more on the clients and not how we want the space to be.

Part One: Neighborhood A analysis

[Ground Floor]

Some strengths that this group designed was their social area by the laundry room because it allows the residents to socialize and relax while waiting for their laundry. It forces communication. The color coded shelves in the store work well with what kinds of food or clothing is sold at each color. It's an easy way to organize. Some weaknesses for this design is the hardwoods on both the floors and the ceiling. I think if you saw that in real life it would not look appealing to the eye. Advice I would give is that it would be nice t see the courtyard before they talked about it in their presentation. It would be easier to view the plan on all slides to visualize where everything was because I was having a hard time seeing how all the spaces related spacially. Also labeling the rooms would be helpful as well. I loved the light blocks as transparency in the space. The colors on the presentation reflect the colors on in the space, which is nice. "Clean lines appeal to everyone" stood out to me as well as refection of bright colors because both bright colors and clean lines were definitely in their space and I do agree that clean lines are appealing to everyone even if they don't realize it.

[Floor 1]

Some of the strengths of this space include the circles that mimic a conversation and how the center of the whole floor is called the hub. The textures that were chosen create movement. I really liked how they dealt with the pathway leading to the Gateway Plaza because non of the other groups did. I found their big red line on the floor to be really distracting and that it took away from their design. I was just awkward. The circle graphics on the presentation related to the circles in their space which is a plus! I liked how all the slides were unified and they didn't change the layout for any of the slides. Labeled things and hand and podium drawings looked nice and were well laid out. The word core and direction stood out to me in their presentation because they literally made a direction in their space with the line and the core with the hub space. The direction line I feel was not a strong point and they could of made more of a direction in a different way that would of worked better for their space.

[Floor 2]

The ceiling design in their space was amazing! It created movement that was inspiring to look at. The tree graphic in the space worked because of its direction it was blowing and the concept of organic shapes and things. It would of been nice if everyone spoke up just a little bit and not spoke so quietly. The darkness of the space was not very inviting to me. Adding some more lighting would be a better fix. I liked the meditation room because it was very well thought out with not having any signs or symbols that would relate to any one religion. However, in a way it felt really off from the rest of the floor. The wood in the space made it feel spooky to me. I would not feel comfortable praying in that space. I loved the simple waves in their graphic presentation because I feel that the more simple it is the better it reads to understand. I was not so sure about the children's area because it was not enclosed anywhere and it had way too many steps. Children would fall all the time and having them not enclosed would not get them to stay in the same spot the whole time. I would advise to put some kind of enclosure so they cannot escape. The words mind, body, soul, and organic stood out to me because the organic shapes in the space really reflected their concept. I feel though that only the words mind and soul relate to the meditation room and not the other spaces on the floor, but he word body really relates to the actions that take place in their main area; exercise.

Blog 6 for Phase Two [Unity Village]

This week was busy as we had to make our model and do the final finishes to the project, which included the powerpoint and finishing podium pictures. It was so hard to get the podium pictures right since the lighting was not showing as well as we had imagined our space to look like. As it got down to tuesday night, we were rushing to get things done and the podium was still not working fast enough as we would of liked. Now we know for next projects to start them much earlier so we can assure ourselves that they will look how we imagined the space to look like. On monday night I spent my night making the model so that on tuesday we didnt have to deal with the model, it would already be done. Im very proud of my planters and the benches around the columns that I made, they turned out great!