Concept Exploration + Schematic Design

When I was thinking of a concept for the 3 wards in the Central Regional Hospital in Butner, NC, I really wanted to bring the outdoors in. After all the studies we have done, it looks like bringing in nature is what will make patients feel more at ease and comfortable. Roger Ulrich did a study on how patients who could see a tree from their window, as opposed to those who only saw a wall, had a faster recovery rate. Nature makes you feel so relaxed and I want the patients at Butner to feel the same.

The first three images are from my sketchbook on all three of my concept ideas:

I chose the metamorphosis of a butterfly because it is all about transformation and a freeness of spirit.

The following images are of my schematic designs I have quickly sketched out. I address circulation, ideas, materials and bedroom ideas.

Site + Program Analysis

The site and program analysis are important when beginning to design because you first have to know about your building in depth. Last Friday when we toured the hospital, we got in groups and each group took notes on a different aspect of the building. My group had to focus on wayfinding, climatic and geographical aspects. Here are images from my groups presentation.

Precedent Study [Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas]

The following images are from my presentation about the Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas. Our next project is to design an existing psychiatric hospital in Butner, NC. It is very sterile and dull with little activities to do there for the patients. As designers for the third year students, we are to help make their environment more pleasing to be in and not feel so trapped and locked-in. I did a study on this hospital to find information about how they made their hospital environments pleasing to the patients. It is studied that patients who have views to nature or get to go out into nature have a faster recovery than those who don't have access or views to nature. With the Dell Children's Medical Center, they have really done a great job in bringing the outdoor nature in. They have a healing garden and six courtyards.

Powers of Ten [statement and write-up]

Powers of Ten is relevant to design and how we view the world around us. Mirrors positioned at angles show us distance, time, and scale just like the Powers of Ten. Sometimes the man looks closer or farther and smaller or larger. Time is infinite as everything repeats itself and goes on forever. Mirrors in design make a space look larger than it actually is.

How the Powers of Ten has changed my perspectives as a designer:

The Powers of Ten video by Charles and Ray Eames is all about connections. After watching 901, it is very evident that the Eames’ took their design work to a whole new level. Design was their life as they brought life into their own designs. Their Powers of Ten video shows you how time, distance, and scale are all linked together in our very own world and body that we live in. Zooming out every ten seconds we see a whole new perspective on things. Earth soon starts to appear small just like stars that we see and then soon we do not even see Earth anymore. It is hard to imagine what is outside of this planet because we do not think about it everyday even though we know there is much more out there that we do not know about. Same goes for when the video zooms into the human hand. We cannot see what is inside of us, but we know there are lots of cells, atoms, protons, etc that make up who we are.

It is crazy to think that this Earth we live in is connected to the galaxy and that our cells make up our bodies. Everything is linked, which makes us not feel out of place. Everything has a specific place for a specific purpose.

As a designer it makes you think how things are connected and how perspectives are different. When we design a space, we must think how it will connect with the space adjacent to it. Everything is connected. The Powers of Ten video makes us realize that design comes from the world around us from everything that is seen with the human eye to everything that is unseen.

Powers of Ten model

I decided to make a 3D model with my mirrors having them placed at angles that bounce off each other to make the man in the middle reflect off all the mirrors to make several of him. Here are some of my practice and final pictures of my model.

Powers of Ten precedents

I came up with a mirroring idea and making one object have multiples and farther away then they actually are. Here are some of my precedent study pictures:

Powers of Ten

In class last week, we watched the Charles and Ray Eames video of The Powers of Ten. The Powers of Ten shows you how everything is connected in our world and our own bodies. Everything has a purpose.

My bottom sketch are three words that I thought described the video well. Time, distance, and scale were all things that were evident in the video. From the video we had to come up with a project that presented our ideas on the Powers of Ten. First I thought of making something that dealt with scale and playing with the idea of making something small that you would normally know as big. I got stumped and couldn't think of how to do that well in a design manner. Here are some of my sketches that show scale with space and objects.