Mixed Worlds-Final Project

MIXED WORLDS

My long term project is finally complete, after a long semester of hard work and effort it's great to see the finished product. This project consisted of re-designing the Pufferbelly Depot, in Pullman WA, which used to be a train station and later on served the purpose of a clean canvas to let our imaginations fly. The new design had to accommodate a residence,studio space and a gallery space for an artist who has a spouse that is visually impaired. One of the challenges involved in this project was to design for the visually impaired, and as I have mentioned before on my previous post, Can you Design to Help them "See," a lot of research and hard work went into this aspect of the design. As designers we design for people and our task is to make their living spaces functional and practical. Another important aspect was to come up with a sustainable design allowing for adaptive reuse. This aspect was fun and interesting, understanding that design is not about demolishing existing structures to create something new, moreover, it is designing creatively to mix the old and the new to create the unthinkable. This idea is what inspired my design, mixing the old and the new worlds to create something different.

These boards are the final product, the compilation of this semester's hard work, all arranged in a simple yet interesting way to communicate the basic and essential information about my design to the client.

The first board is the process development board, here the core of my concept evolves, telling the story from beginning to end, inspiration object to final floor plan layout. This board is one of the most crucial boards since this is the foundation of the entire project. Everything links back to the concept developed here, every decision made, every material chosen, every little element  part of the design is not
chosen randomly, it has a purpose and roots from the concept. Two worlds coming together to form a new, unified world; nature and technology coming together.
One drawing is not enough to inform the client and others about the technicalities of the design, there are several of this technical drawings needed, here I have just a few, yet crucial drawings. A section and the demolition plan along two elevations are part of this board. The demolition plan consists of the original walls in the building as well as the new construction walls, designed by me. The section informs the client about the height, third dimension, of the design and the elements found in the floor plans.

This drawing is specially helpful when it comes to understanding ceiling changes. Other drawings that help the client see the space are the elevations. These are "flat" drawings, 2D only,depicting specific areas in the design, here elements such as furniture, accessories, are drawn with great detail and clarity.

The furniture plan is another crucial drawing, here all the selected furniture pieces selected and all the wall changes are depicted. For this project, I decided to render the furniture plan since it is such a easy drawing to read and helps the client understand a bit

 more of where things go and how they relate to the concept and the floor plan.

Other drawings, a bit less technical yet not less accurate, are perspective drawings. These are a bit more fun since this is literally a picture depicting what the spaces designed will look like once built.

I decided to draw two perspectives of the kitchen since it has a key feature in my design. Two round islands with two vertical elements signifying the union of two worlds, nature and technology. The concept of this design. Samples of materials in these spaces are usually shown on these boards as well, this helps the client see what their spaces will look like not only through a picture but through these samples.

All these aspects are great, fun and exciting, seeing my design come to life, yet other crucial elements are also part of design, the safety of individuals interacting with the space is as important. In this board this aspect is addressed. The egress plan informs the client and the validated authorities about the available exits needed in case of emergencies. The egress path is also recorded that is, the distance from the furthest point in a room to the exit. For this project, the distance could not be more than 75ft. This distance allows individuals to exit the building in a safe manner without any obstacles.

In this following board I decided to include two more perspectives. A perspective depicting the master bathroom and the family room. These rooms have key elements that inform the client about the overall design decisions made. Not everything can be shown hence the importance of choosing wisely to provide the client an accurate overview of their spaces.
This bathroom posses great features such as curved walls and a round shower stall, allowing for a 60 inch turn-around. Drop downs are crucial since they lower the ceiling, making the space feel more comfortable
and intimate. The family rooms shares the ticket wall, a

wall that had to be kept untouched requested by the client. A revolving TV is also found in this room making the space flexible to accommodate people in wheelchairs. Once again material samples are provided to give the client a deeper understanding of the spaces.

A board containing a rendering of the exterior view of the Pufferbelly Depot and a rendering of the site plan is also important information for the client. This drawings show the current state of the facade of the building and the landscape. This is another aspect which I am proud of. I designed the landscape around my concept. This can be seen in the parking lots and landscape features all throughout the depot. I focused in the balance between curved and rectilinear lines.

                                                                                                                                                                                Last but not least is the board containing information about the gallery space and the artist. This was another challenging aspect of the project and a lot of time and research went into learning the best strategies to display art and to keep it safe. In my previous post Art Gallery Visit, I dedicated one day to visit a gallery and learn more about he mechanics involved in these spaces. This was my first time designing a gallery space, this was really fun and interesting. I have applied my pattern, a textile pattern that I designed earlier in the semester; I will talk bout next. This is one way of how I incorporated my concept. Curved clouds and the orientation of the display walls, forming implied movement, are other elements that link back to my concept. I refinished the concrete floor and stained it to create a design mimicking the clouds. Little things like this make a huge difference in design, they make the depot more sustainable. I carried the same color pallete used all throughout the depot, neutrals with blue-green accents. This pallete was inspired by my fabric textile.

Over all this project was a great experience. It forced us to learn and apply new concepts into our design while keeping in mind the restrictions that as designers we come across daily. All that I have learned this semester will definitely help me next semester as well as all throughout my design carrier.

Can you Design to help them "See"?

Our long term project, in my studio design class, consists of designing a residence,studio space and a gallery space for an artist who has a spouse that is visually impaired. As designers is important for us to understand our clients and their necessities in order to design a functional space in which they will be comfortable and happy. Most of us do not have a background with visually impaired individuals to help us understand this subject more in depth so our entire class participated in a temporary-impairment experience to give us a "sense of what diminished vision capacity is like for potential clients." We participated in a set of tasks while wearing vision-obscuring glasses, this completely opened my mind and helped me understand that to be a successful designer thinking of the majority is not enough sometimes, we have to take that extra step to go beyond and above.

It is extremely hard to read small font,
and pictures, everything is blurry
with a 20/60 vision.

Looking through the plastics bag was
challenging, yet our eyes do distinguished
contrast between materials.

Our first task was to look through a plastic bag, folded in half, and read a newspaper. We were all surprised to realize that everything was blurry and the newspaper was impossible to read for some of us, yet some others were able to ,barely, read the title font only! Our eyes captured blurry expressions of peoples' faces.It was easier to see light,we were all attracted to well lit places which served as a guide to experience the place. It was also really hard to recognize forms/shapes/people from afar; it was hard to see their faces. This first task made us realize the importance of light for visually impaired people. Now I understand why entrance/exit signage is illuminated, as well as why task lightning is mounted under kitchen cabinetry. Our second task consisted of looking through a vision simulator.


The vision simulator completely broke my heart, I had never stop to think what individuals with impaired vision see, or how  they experience the world.  One common vision impairment is central field loss; as it

Central Field Loss

is appreciated in the picture there is a little dot that blocks vision, making
it impossible to recognize facial features and making reading hard. I can
not imagine what I would do if over time I am not able to see and recognize my loved ones, touching their faces would be a way to hold on to memories of what they used to look like, this simply breaks my heart!

Multiple Field Loss

Multiple field loss is another common vision limitation. The eyes get tired quickly since they are trying to see the "entire picture" through patches. This usually happens to diabetics, making driving hard, as well as reading.

Tunnel Vision

With tunnel vision peripheral vision is lost, forcing people to turn their heads to "read" the environment. This is the exact opposite of central field loss, yet both of these limitations are equally tiresome.

Complete Blindness

The last limitation in our visual simulator tool is complete visual loss, blindness. To me this is such a scary thought, loosing sight and never be able to see what is around me and my loved ones is excruciating. Moreover, after realizing that the design world is forgetting these minorities when designing, leads me to see how we create big issues for these individuals. With a broken heart, after looking through the simulator tool, we continued to our last task, which involved putting on glasses that had a layer of petroleum jelly on the lenses. This was so challenging and an "eye opener" as well.After putting on the glasses, I wanted to take them off right away, I kept blinking my eyes in hope that the blurry vision I was experiencing, at the moment, would go away! These were just natural reflexes asking for a clear vision.

 This task required us to walk around different floors, and spaces in the CUB. Looking through the jelly lenses felt like looking through stained/textured glass. It was hard to identify masses of people from afar, they all looked like big blobs merging together, same as the lights on the ceiling. They all merged into a big blob of light. One thing that really surprised me is that the shade of green zoning the elevators was really hard to see from afar. I was able to see the change in color until I was maybe three to four feet away from the elevators, the wall sconces surrounding the doors helped as well, yet this specific shade of green diffused the light in a way that made it hard to see the color. Riding the elevator was also challenging. The numbers on the elevator were hard to find since they were made from the same material in the elevator, yes they had braille lettering, but it was hard to find them.The buttons lit up after they are pressed, yet it would be a better  idea to have all the buttons lit up at all times, and then when pressed they can change to a different color letting the individual know they have been pressed already. This would also make them easier to find. Having audio announcing the floor numbers is very helpful as well since it does not force people to step out of the elevator to find the label of the floor on the outside. We were all able to identify different materials by contrast, yet when two of my classmates were coming down the stairs the last step confused them and almost made them trip.

Stair steps were either a different color from the flooring, or same color yet with paint/textured strips on the edges to let people know that is the end of the step. This feature is very helpful, yet at the end of the staircase, on terrazzo flooring, there were brass/metal separating strips that made it look like there was one more step, making people trip. One more task was to find ATM machines and find out if the design was "visually impaired friendly", and even though they had many helpful features they are poorly designed. The card slot blinks, making it easy to find, yet reading the numbers and the screen is really hard. We came

Trying to read the numbers on an ATM machine is hard.

across an ATM which had an audio option, yet the font was hard to read, and even though it was on braille as well, it was hard to find, and if people  opted for this option, they had to plug in their own earphones. Why not provide the ATM with an integrated speaker for those who might not carry their earphones with them at all times, or simply don't have them? These are great ideas with wonderful intentions, but sometimes good intentions are not enough to design something that works and that is functional.

I am truly amazed by this experiment. I had never realized the importance of light for human beings and how it can work as a way-finding element. It is easy for designers, who have never experienced what their target audience goes through, to get lost in a sea of good intentions forgetting that a successful design should be functional! I hope this experience helps me design in a smarter to provide a safe space for those who are visually impaired!

Art Gallery Visit

During Spring Break I visited the Allied Arts Association Gallery, Richland WA, also known as the Gallery at the Park, due to its location. This is a small gallery space, approximately 1,800 square footage, with a great sense of community. Most of the staff organizing the gallery comes from volunteer hands, this wide variety in background makes display-decision-making even more special. The work exhibited the month of March is by the artists  Joyce and Roy Anderson, paintings, and Susan Bernadine Swanson, beadwork. The variety of work displayed allows for different display mechanisms.

Sketch of Allied Arts gallery

The smaller beadwork pieces were displayed in clear plastic and glass cases on a pedestals, of varying shapes and sizes. These pedestals were positioned at the center of the gallery in a diagonal line, while the pedestals were angled to make the display more dynamic. The rest of the exhibition pieces,paintings, were displayed on the walls. In general, when the exhibit contains only two-dimensional work, a set of approximately 6’x 3’ canvas panels is used. These panels were donated by volunteers. Overall the space is open and full of light.
Track lighting is the main source of artificial light for the gallery, with one big “box” fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling, which seems to be used as emergency lighting since it stays on most of the time, even when track lights are off. The tracks run all the way around the perimeter of the ceiling with a few track on the center. One thing that caught my attention, was the amount of natural light in the space.

Sketch of skylights and beams on concave
ceiling.

There are three elongated windows, reaching from the ceiling to the floor.  There is also a row of skylights near the entrance of the gallery space, five windows ranging from, approximately, 5’x 5’ to 4’x 3.’ When asking the staff about the treatment on the windows, they clarified that this information was unknown and that the artwork displayed stays in the gallery for only a month. It is also the responsibility of the artists to protect their work since most of it comes in framed and ready to be displayed, yet the structure of the building allows for minimal damage, if any at all, since there are many interesting angles that shape the structure. Curved walls, and a portion of the roof limit/control the amount of natural light coming in.

Audience is definitely guided through the use of exhibit pieces and position of any movable devices, panels, cases and/or pedestals. As mentioned before, the pedestals were positioned in a centered diagonal line, diving the space into two zones, foreground and background. Key elements such as the artists’ names and their “star” piece, usually positioned under the name, go on the back wall; clearly visible from the entrance to the gallery emphasized with a spotlight. There is also a special challenge at this gallery space since they have to display work on a curved wall, limiting the positioning of big art pieces on this wall.

As many other gallery spaces, the environment colors are white and soft neutrals. The walls are white with a satin finish, a bit of light is reflected yet a balance between function and aesthetic is kept  since it is easier to maintain this finish than a matte finish. The floor is covered with a gray carpet, complemented by an off-white/gray grid paneling system on the ceiling. These color choices allow the artwork to shine without any visual distractions in the environment.
Overall this was a great visit, I got to learn about gallery spaces while enjoying a great exhibit. This confirms why I have decided to become an interior designer, realizing how small details such as lighting or color direct us in a space unconsciously,this is just amazing!