Studio Makeover...Its Complete!

The Studio is complete! After a lot of disassembling, stacking, moving, loading, reassembling, building, planning, and cleaning we have finally finished. It took an entire group effort, working if shifts throughout the day and night. It took a lot of planning, trial and error, and communication to make this work. I have the bruises to prove it!

The main features are multiple pinup spaces, main entrances in the corner, pinup divider, lockable storage walls, graphic inspiration wall, and a new set up in the work spaces. There is an integration of all the other studios into this new space. Some might include parts and pieces of past installations and some might be ideas and concepts. The open plan allows for collaboration and a community feel. Hopefully this space will encourage creativity and spark a change throughout the other spaces in the department.



The Pinup spaces on the North and South walls take from both the Second Year Bus Shelter project as well as the Third and Fourth Year Vertical studio collaborative Biomech Installation Presentation. These pin-up walls allow for break out crit spaces throughout the space.

"FUN,FUN,FUN"
This graphic inspiration wall includes many words that are indicative of the studio atmosphere spirit. There are also images included as part of the graphic from the high school art class at NGHS.


This Pinup Display wall separates the studio from the hallway that runs through the east side of the studio. This allows yet another space for pinup but more importantly a space on the hallway side to communicate the progress and activity of the students working within that studio. The panels have been recycled from the Lowenstein studio of Fall 07. The vertical elements are repeated as well as the highlight of the horizontal orange band running throughout the base of the space.


Since we got rid of the old panel/cubicle system in order to create an open, more dynamic studio space, we need to implement a storage system to replace what we were deleting. A few students made a proposal in the design development stage of the process to stack some of the overhead storage containers to create lockable and dockable storage units that could also act as dividing partitions that might create smaller breakout spaces within the larger studio atmosphere.


There is also a light installation that grafts in some ideas the first year students explored in a light wall installation in there East facing studio. Overall I think many of the teachers and students are excited about the possibilities the studio will bring and allow in the upcoming year.

My 1st Real Model

I have always avoided models. You can ask anyone who really knows me in Iarc and they will tell you how quickly I have always avoided the "model making group" during any of our team project endeavors. I have always loved looking at intricately constructed wood based architectural models and envied the constructor's talent and craft. But it never failed. Even when I would actually build the required model they would always bea rushed disaster. It has been a secret goal and desire of mine to build a nice model at some point in my Iarc career. ( Now i have actually built 2 product models that I am quite proud...but never an exterior or interior architectural model.

Since this is my last real studio, besides thesis, I decided it was past due time to do a model study of a space I designed. I wish I would have made some more exploratory sketch models throughout my process since this less craftful endeavor is a type of model making experience that has helped me in design development. I started this model before my perspectives but it was the last element of my project that I finished due to our final studio makeover.

Overall I am pretty happy with it. I learned alot by making it on my own and making mistakes. First I made a cut list, then I traced all my measurements on my basswood. I used machines from a friend's shop as well my olfa and x-acto knives. I didn't cut myself once! although I had a few close calls. Hopefully I will continue to work at this skill and will have many well crafted modes in my collection one day.

Art Can Extravaganza

After a few weeks of holding a can drive in our studio, raiding our pantries, and going on can shopping sprees we finally had our Art Can Contest during Earth Week festivities at UNCG. There were many contestants from all over the university, most of which had premeditated designs. We had a few of our own as well but we ended up going for the "tree of life" which illustrated "growth. We had a perimeter of green labeled cans which encompassed the blossoming grouped varieties such as fruits, starches ( beans, potatoes) peas, tomato based, a few boxed delicacies, and last but not least...potted meats. Despite the fact that we faced some pretty stiff competition such as R2D2 and Mario from Nintendo...We came in third place!

Final Boards...

C O N C E P T


Concept: Derived from the idea of Lichen ( a COMPOSITE organism of the association between fungus + algae) Lichen occurs in EXTREME environments. This correlates directly to the idea of specific zones for special moments, entrances and space.
Lichen also has the ability to penetrate through cell walls. The Zones in the circulation spaces also penetrate through the walls, spilling over into the spaces that they are signifying. ( This can be seen in the far right section....yellow band at the entrance.)


P R O C E S S


C L A S S R O O M



C L A S S R O O M



C I R C U L A T I O N



C I R C U L A T I O N

Visual Programming...Northern Guilford Middle Language Arts Seventh Grade Classroom

This is a new presentation aid I was trying out though unfortunately it never made it into my final presentation due to the hard time I had with the presentation template. I had seen one of Frank Harmon's presentations last year at DATS and he had a graphic plan that laid out the entire site using words that described each space's use. He even had some of the words in the shape of their use. I was completely inspired. I did this and added in the center,where the students would experience a variety of learning styles, which influenced the design, layout, and overall feel of the room.

The Site

Circulation through Colorization

The spaces branching off the circulation pathways are signified be the wrapping of color around the entrances of the space.This is used as way finding from one end of the hallway down so that when the users of the space are passing through they can see that everywhere there is color there is a change the context of the space. This signifies classrooms, gym, auditorium, etc. The flooring color changes as well as the wall color. The ceiling color is made able to appear to change because of the drop down plane of an eco resin panel made by lumicor which is lit from above. This makes one feel like they are in a space within a space.



The locker systems also coordinate with the color wrapping, the top shelf of lockers taking from one zone while the bottom shelf takes from another and connects the two visually in the space.
The lockers were designed so that safety of those on the bottom was considered and gives them less of a chance of being hit in the head.






The signage frames are similar though varying in size so that no matter if it is a classroom name plate of a flyer...the eye will notice and pick up that in this product there is information that they need to read. The bulletin board frame takes the same form as well.
The frames are composed of plywood waste product and recycled glass.








Materials:
Flooring: Nora Recycled Rubber, Paint: Mythic, No VOC Drop down plane panels: Lumicor eco resin, Ceiling: Pinta Acoustic Metal ceiling acoustical panels.