coral reef...urban fabric?

While looking at one of my favorite blogs (architecture.myninjaplease.com) I found these great images from Nick Leavy.
He is a UK-based designer and does some great work. The guys at MNP made a statement about his work..." like what if the urban fabric was based on a coral reef." I thought this related well to my ideas of micro-organisms and phases and stages of formations of color, texture, and form.

Check out this site....You ll love it!

architecture.myninjaplease.com

And here you can see some of Kevin's stuff...

http://anamorphic.cgsociety.org/gallery/

starting to think about color...

After the Explorations from color seen below, I developed this color palette for the spaces of Northern Guilford Middle.
The Colors were pulled from images of Lichen and tweaked somewhat so that there was some sort of meld action occurring.
I used this great tool that Suzanne told us about last semester, where you can upload an image and this tool will take the image and find the main colors and create a color palette so you can for a project or inspiration. Its great and easy! Click here for the site: Try it out!

L I C H E N

After talking to Patrick I found that while Coral and Anemones relate to the overall ideas I have been thinking about dealing with looking at a creative way to add to or take away from one's surroundings and how this addition effects the space, he persuaded me to think about relating these ideas to an organism that is located closer to context in Guilford County. After talking to my good friend Matt, I found that Lichen (basically a marriage between algae + fungus comes close to comparing to the underwater organisms of the sea anemone and coral.

Here are some interesting facts about Lichen that I will be using conceptually...

• lichen are composite organisms of symbiotic association.
• lichen occur in some of the most extreme environments on earth.
• in many species the fungal penetrates through the algae cell wall.
• they take up metabolic products ensuring a perfect level of mutualism.
• lichens possible evolve from phycobiont and mycobiont components.
• they migrate from aquatic environments to dry land.
• lichens are a successful alliance between a fungus and an algae, working as a team.
• through section view under magnification, a typical folios lichen reveals 4 layers of interlaced fungal filaments

a sea annemmmoonneea? or maybe coral...

Since my "origami" idea had to be demolished due to the fact that it does not directly relate to a tree or nature I have started researching other items found in Nature that could lend to my conceptual framework. My reasoning behind the sea anemone has to do with the idea of many micro- organisms working together in creating what many to believe one creature, while in reality this "one" is made up of many.

Here is a little bit of background info on this water dwelling predatory animal.

• closely related to coral and jellyfish
• small sac with tentacles that contain nematocytes which contain the small vesicle filled with toxins known as actinoporins
• tiny sensitive hairs trigger cell explosions in flesh of aggressor
• have a simple anatomy
• host to the clownfish

images courtesy of www.teara.govt.nz/ + me!

This study of the sea anemone then led me to research coral which is very similar...
My reasoning behind using coral as a possible concept was that it like the sea anemone is a micro organism that lends itself to a larger picture and is constantly adding elements to a substance to create the big picture. There is a collection and release that lends itself to the basic idea I have been playing around with, with my ideas of wrapping a space within a space with color and texture.

IDEO...

Today in class we had a charrette using these cool IDEO cards with different suggestions of things to get creative ideas out and brainstorming. We broke up into groups and used these cards to help us start to generate ideas of how to transform our studio space. Sierra, Shannon, and Rachel P. were in a group working on a type of Graphic Programming for our studio Space. We made a type of Bubble Diagram featuring the users of the space,functions, and times the spaces are used. Another group made a video of a skit about our class and Patrick (bow tie,cuff links, and all!). One group drew perspectives illustrating how changing some elements can impact the learning styles of the students within the studio.I think this worked well in helping us get started on this studio transformation.

back to the drawing board....aka the skechbook

Here are some pages directly out of my working sketchbook. I have been working hard on generating ideas to lend to my conceptual process as a support for my design decisions on this project. Concept is very important to me and I feel lost without it.









I have included the entire pages of out of my sketchbook in this post because I want to show how important my sketchbook is to me. While I do also value blogs and the capabilities they hold, I still would not make the trade for that of my sketchbook.
This year as part of my goals I have tried to sketch everyday as well as write more. I feel like, so far, I have been somewhat successful in these tasks. If you click on the images above they will maximize in size enabling you to read the hand sketched notes, ideas, and reminders. While a blog is great for documentation of ideas, I feel the sketchbook is more about the moment's notice, you have it there with you and you document that moment in time..with a sketch or a phrase. No blog can replace that. Not for me at least.

an idea....or twelve

These are some of my sketches starting to think about how ways of signage could change and adapt to the needs of the users here at NGMS. I am also working with my idea, which is not quite a concept yet ( still working on it), of wrapping + zoning and how they relates not only to the classroom and circulation spaces but down to the detail of the graphic representation of the signage.

This is one of my prime investigations for my wrapping notion. This can be used for a unique take on way finding and make the space dynamic in return.

This are some examples how zoning can take place within the classroom as well.

Explorations of LEED signage options...

Preliminary sketches of a frame type structure for generic flyer's and such that used to just be taped up around the building.
This was my idea for a concept that related to wrapping and zoning...ORIGAMI. But it doesn't really relate to Nature so I think it will be back to the drawing board.

inspirin

some words I've been tossing around for my concept

(image generated by wordle)