Habitat for Humanity

Volunteering

Volunteering for Habitat of Humanity was a great experience, not only the fact that it is for a great cause; to help people with low income to build their own houses, it was a hands-on experience which made me think of the other side of deign. All the construction that goes with it. It was fun to cut drywall and to learn how to put up. All the insulation and what it does to the house, very energy efficient.  

  One thing that caught me by surprise was the passion that the people in charge they put into this houses. They strive to make those places a home, and not just a simple house with walls and a roof. Taking a concept and carrying it throughout the entire design was pleasantly surprising, from rounded arches in the living spaces, to curved beams on the outside and a curved fan door. I have to say this is not very usual, I have volunteered before for habitat of humanity, yet I did not see the same passion.

Overall I feel very fortunate since I got to learn from people who care and are passionate about what that they do. That inspires me to keep fighting for what I want. At the end all that matters is whether I am happy with what I do, and that is something that shows on people.   

Client Brief

Client Brief

Over the course of the semester, we had to design for Seth Anawalt, the owner of the St. Elmo Hotel, in the Palouse. Over this short period of time we had an interview with him to know more about what he was expecting from us, what his needs and wishes were. This was just the beginning of a very long process, in which questions kept adding up and more issues kept rising. In this document, we briefly describe the goals for the project, the client's philosophy, the challenge presented to us and much more. Every project seems to never end, since it keeps evolving and changing with time. 

The client brief is a long document, yet, this time I turn it into a poster, once again the same rules for visual communication apply. In this instance I based my grid on the rule of thirds, I also have blue strips that move up, diagonally, which help carry the eye through the entire poster. The right bottom corner is balanced by the top left corner, which gets the eye attention due to its hue.
Overall I tried to come up with a layout that makes sense to communicate such long writing visually.

Prefessional Designer Consultation

Over Thanksgiving Break, I meat with the practicing designer, Carolyn Corrado, from Spencer & Carlson, as well as the owner Paula Spencer, who reviewed my final project for the semester. I got great feedback from Carolyn, who carefully looked at my floor plans and sketches for the St. Elmo project.

As I previously mentioned, we have been redesigning the St. Elmo hotel, in the Palouse. For this final project, we have to design an entire one-bedroom apartment and common area on the second floor; things are becoming a little bit easier since I previously designed the kitchen and bathroom for the two-bedroom apartment.  

The time I spent with Carolyn was very helpful and inspiring; she and Paula suggested making some changes in my plan, which I’m very glad to make, since it will make my design more functional and livable. Pulling furniture off the wall makes a space more livable, since that is how people live, great advice from Carolyn, which makes total sense and helped me view space differently. She also suggested making 3D renderings of each area in the apartment; it will help see the plan in a different light. I had the opportunity to view some of the catalogs they use in Spencer & Carlson, which will enhance my design. Walking around the showroom inspired me as well; I have become an idea machine.

Great ideas to better my design resulted from this consultation. I am very glad I was able to experience this since I have several resources, provided by a professional, which will further develop my designs. Carolyn also offered her help for whenever I have more questions further in the design process, as well as looking at my work once again if need be. This resulted in a wonderful experience; I never imagined that professionals in the field were so eager and glad to help students like me.

Bathroom Project

Bathroom Project

This bathroom project, as the previous kitchen project, was challenging and new to me. Designing a bathroom that meets ADA standards, while still keeping it aesthetically pleasing and incorporating my design concept is a challenging thing to do, yet the struggle made me realize and learn more about design, especially bathroom design.

This bathroom is part of St. Elmo Hotel, Palouse, apartments, and it is located in the same place as the kitchen, below. It is important to carry the design aspects of the kitchen to achieve a harmonious and holistic design in the entire apartment.

As I mentioned before, this is my very first time designing a bathroom, and it is incredible to see the amount of information, specific standards for bathroom design, that I learned in such a short period of time. I built my knowledge by first learning about bathroom design through reading and keeping a record of that information, which later I put into practice. I designed around the ADA standards and sustainability, some people might see this as a challenge, yet this is when true inspiration and creativity kick in, to please the client and produce a functional and aesthetically pleasing design. The client asked to re-use the most possible of the materials in the building, this is when I decided to use lath, one of the most abundant materials in the site, in one of my bathroom walls, it became the main wall, representing the key element of the project, sustainability.

It is amazing to see my design transform, from a parti sketch, a concept model, to later develop into a bathroom design. It is fun to see the transition from my kitchen design to the bathroom, how the use of different materials and location does not affect the cohesive relationship between the two.

 

Bathroom Project Poster

 

It is very important that, after all our hard work and effort, this information is presented in a clear and readable manner. It is important for the client to visually see and understand all the phases of the project. For this poster everything was drafted, and then all the work was scanned and arranged in InDesign to produce a digital poster.

 

 

Volumetric Bathroom Model

A volumetric model helps us visualize the space created in a floor plan, 2D drawing, in 3D. It is important to understand the relationship between 2D and 3D drawings and the correlation in the actual space.

In this image elements in the shower can be appreciated, a 5' turn radius allows a wheel chair to enter the shower. The toilet is also ADA accessible, allowing a side approach!

 

 

Kitchen Project

Designing a kitchen is a very complex task, and a few days ago I came up with my own design. This is a very challenging task since there are many considerations that need to be taken into account, little things such as 3 inches clearance to open a cabinet door so it won’t block any other doors is vital. Or having a 5 feet turn around for accessibility.


The owner of St. Elmo Hotel, Palouse, asked the WSU interior design sophomores to design a kitchen for his hotel, and sustainability and accessibility are key components in the design.

 This was my first time designing a kitchen; it was very interesting and educational to see the design come together. Learning about all the clearances and all the things that need to be taken into account goes over the aesthetics of the space, things such as programming, surveying the owners and understanding what the needs of those occupying the space are very important. Aesthetics is just a minimal part of the whole design process, I knew it was beyond that, yet I did not know to which extent. I have learned to appreciate design in a deeper level, and now I over analyze things, and think of their functionality. After dealing with all the design aspects of the kitchen, it needs to be presented to communicate ideas in a clear manner. This was the second part of the project, organize and communicate our ideas.

 Poster composition is very important, as well as the quality of drawings, elevations, sections, plans, and perspective sketches. Everything has to come together in the final presentation, since this is when all the hard work shows off and communicates our ideals. Producing high quality work takes time and effort something that can’t be done overnight. I learned that the hard way, and managing my time is very important and crucial.

 Volumetric volumes are also part of the design process, this helps us see ideas in paper in 3D and allow designers to visualize the space biegn designed.

Accessibility Sketch Journal

Ride, Don't Walk

One challenging experience was to ride on a wheelchair, to experience how people with disabilities view the world, and how the world looks at them. For one it was very interesting to notice how people keep staring at other people with disabilities for a long period of time, making it very uncomfortable. The other aspect is to notice how many buildings are not suitable for Accessibility, especially old buildings, which don’t even have big enough doors to allow people in a wheelchair through.

Doors in Daggy Hall, WSU Pullman, had barely enough clearance for the wheelchair, yet no clearance for my hands, hence I'd hurt my hands rolling  the wheels while going through the door.

  Elevators are also a problem when it comes to accessibility if they are very confined, not enough clearance and space to move around. This was my first time getting in an elevator using a wheelchair, a small elevator I have to say, and it was very challenging, as it can be appreciated in the image above it was hard to enter the elevator and little clearance made it hard to maneuver the wheelchair, to the point that the doors were closing on me, if it was not for my classmate helping me, those doors would have bruised up my arms.

  

I had to exit the elevator by backing out in reverse, since it was hard for me to change my position once in the elevator.

 
Entering a restroom was hard, yet trying to enter a bathroom stall was even harder when it is not accessible. The clearance behind me, was not enough to turn and the stall was not big enough, period.

I was not able to get all the way in, this is the farthest I could get into the stall, if it was a real emergency, I don't know what whould have happened.

One more thing in accessible restrooms other than enough clearance, is to have space under the sink, which in this case it did not became an issue, there was enough clearance underneath, yet the mirror is not tilted, I had to stretch my neck to see my reflection in the mirror.

When asking for a cafe in our Expresso Bar, it was hard to see beyond the counter, my view point is very low, compared to the people standing behaind the bar.

This is the first thing I saw looking straight at the bar, I had to look up to see beyound this point.

People behind the coffee bar had to stretch over the counter to see me.

This sketch shows all I could see after looking up, I do not see any of the appliances behind the counter, not even the big refrigerator, all I see from it are the red and yellows stripes on the back. It was also hard to read the signs.

  This was my second try at entering a bathroom stall, an accessible one, there was enough clearance for the wheelchair, yet I found it hard to turn around.

After this exercise now I understand why ADA stalls are so big and usually the toilet is at the corner, before this I had never really paid attention to this fact.

Opening the door was hard, as it was before entering the bathroom, the handle is in a very awkward position and as it can be appreciated in the image above, reaching out to it was hard as opening the door was blocked by my feet and wheelchair.

This experience taught me a whole lot, not only as a designer but a human being as well. Design is for people, and its major goal is to be functional for everybody not only for certain people, design needs to be universal, and I am very glad that in recent years people have become more conscious about this issue. Personally, I have a friend with a disability and it is irritating when design does not accommodate to his needs since it's hard for him to accommodate to design. I have a new respect for people with disabilities, since they have being adapting to design, and this is very hard.



Showrooms and House of the Immidate Future

Attending showrooms was one important aspect of the study tour in Seattle, we had the opportunity to attend many including Knoll. Here we met the representative of Knoll and had some time to sketch furniture in the showroom. We also visited the House of the Immediate Future, which was designed with sustainability in mind.

During the Knoll visit, I learned a lot of office design, specially furniture and textiles. Knoll has great desks chairs which allow for comfort in the work place, which nowadays is more open and cooperative; hence furniture is designed around these specific needs. Walls are lower to allow communication in the work space, and storage space is maximized.

  These are some of the sketches in Knoll showroom.

One of the many visits in our study tour was the House of the Immediate Future. A prototype house honoring the 50^th Anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, which commemorates the houses of the future, latest technology.  This house is a display to showcase the work and passion that goes into building these houses as well as the energy-efficient aspects of the prototype home. One very interesting feature in this particular house is the “Wet Block,” a yellow block in the middle of the structure, where all the plumbing, and wet aspects of the house, connect to. This is very efficient as well as the thick walls filled with insulation to keep cold air entering the house. Big windows that run all the way to the floor allow natural light to come in the space, maximizing natural light and minimizing the use of artificial lighting.

House of the Immediate Future Exterior

This sketch shows the House of the Immediate Future's exterior, just behind the samller house, horizontal lines that go from top to battom of the side of the house can be appreciated, this is the Wet Block I mentioned earlier.

House of the Immediate Future Kitchen

This is the kitchen in the house; here once again we appreciate the yellow wall, the Wet Block. I like the white cabinetry it is very clean and interesting. The window right next to the kitchen allows a great quantity of natural light to come into the house, as well as the other windows in the hallway to the left. Do to the width and thickness of the window this could work as a sitting area or storage.