Finding ancient ideas in modern architecture turned out to be a much easier task then I had first anticipated. Around campus, I found numerous examples of circles, groups, and stacks.
CIRCLES:
Circles were the most prominent design element I found around campus. Circles were used to represent the sun and the moon as well as sacred spots.
This circle is located on College Ave. Before the campus became as built up as it is now, it was the main pathway through campus. All the circles located in the bricks on College Ave are at crossways, with the directions leading to important locations on campus.
This circle is located at the clock tower. Not only is the clock tower sitting on a circle, but it is a circle itself which you can see from the shadow. I found this symbolic because people look to the tower for direction, even if it is just how quickly to walk to class. The clock tower is easily spotted and grabs one's attention.
These two circles are located in the EUC. This is symbolic because the circle in this case represents the heart of campus. People come and gather in the EUC daily. The circle is a focal point and represents going around while gathering. The top circle is in the ceiling while the bottom one is in the floor. You can find these same circles at the front and back entrance of the EUC.
GROUPS:
Groups are seen like groves of trees, always reaching vertical, and represent groups of people.
This photograph is of the Alumni House. This was the best example to me because there are many examples of groups all within this one photograph. The columns are the most prominent example, which are found in great numbers over campus. You can also see groups in the railing.
STACKS:
Stacks are seen like mountains and expressed as gathering resources.
This example of stacks is the library. You can see stacks in the windows as well as in the siding. Each level represents another floor. I found this to be a great example because the library is a primary place for gathering resources.
This example of stacks is a residence hall. The windows are stacked all evenly apart.
The environment impacts rituals in a different way now then it did thousands of years ago, however it still plays a vital role. Architects build for the current needs expressed in their communities. I've realized that people generally just do as they've been taught instead of straying. For example, if an architect built you a church, you wouldn't continue to worship outside. You relate the structure to its purpose. Just because you were built a church doesn't mean you would sleep in the church, you have a house for that. I feel that environments influence rituals far greater then rituals influence environments.
The city of Gonur, Margiana was completely revolved around earths natural elements in the time period of 2200 B.C. These elements consisted of earth, wind, fire, and water. Gonur was the capital and it was located on the Murghab River.
This leads into the first element, water. Because the city was directly along the Murghab River, it shows they're dependence on the river. They used the river for daily activities but more importantly, they found the river very significant. The residents of Gonur dug glacier fed canals into their gardens in order to water their crops. Archeologists have found rooms filled with clean river sand. The rooms were unaccessible; we know this because there were no doors or entry ways in. In order to keep the sand, they had to find great value in the river.
The next element that I found of vital importance to the people of Gonur is fire. We can conclude that fire was important to them because of what they left behind. They had low altars that suggested fire rituals. They also burned the dead's bodies before burying them in order to purify the bodies with fire.
There isn't much written when it comes to the element of wind. However, we know that the altars they built were left exposed to the elements. Therefore, wind must play a role because they could have easily enclosed the altar.
The final element essential to the lives of the residents of Gonur is earth. This element could be tied back into the element of water due to the fact that they had stored clean river sand in inaccessible rooms. They used the cardinal directions in the placement of the civilization. We also find that they had a large burial site to the west. They used to earth to grow crops preform ceremonial activities.
This object represents me as a designer because of the contemporary design. I feel like it is contemporary while playing off a bit of a modern feel. I enjoy modern design but I find contemporary to be more home like. I also appreciate the asymmetry of the similar shapes.
Culturally the lamp represents the convenience of electricity and advances in architectural design. We have moved from simply covering the bulb of a lamp to using it as a design feature.
Sub-culturally it breaks what we would typically think about mass production of US products. This lamp was actually completely manufactured in the United States which is becoming more and more uncommon. I learned after a conversation with a customer at work that the products made in China aren't able to be sold in China. The prices of items over there is ridiculous compared to here. Although the Chinese are making our products, they can't buy them without traveling to the USA. That bothered me and made me begin to think more about local manufacturing.
Scott Richardson came and talked with us about lighting and the effects of it within the space. Honestly, I didn't take all that much away from it for whatever reason. I think if he had experienced the IOB it would have been different but the only example we could really give him was hospital lighting. With that being said, the lighting in the space is horrible. There is a fair amount of natural light in the lobby and landing spaces but not enough to speak of. We have spoken of our lighting being decorative in the lobby and landing spaces, possibly integrated into the way finding structure. In the factory, the nape pad room is the brightest out of all the spaces. All the spaces with the exception of that one need more lighting added.
How many times does your pets food get in the way? Not to mention the lack of aesthetic appeal even the cutest bowls have with the rest of your decor. This solution takes the bowls off the floor and into a cabinet so that both of these problems are resolved. I think this image originally grabbed my attention because of the style. From this, I felt as if it gave off a contemporary country image. Although its the strangest mix of styles, thats exactly what I have fallen in love with for interior spaces.
From first glance, this image looks like a modern black and white kitchen. That's not what I want you to take away from this picture though. Upon closer examination, you notice that the appliances are actually in a cabinet with sliding doors. Its always such a pain to have to take everyday appliances out so most people just leave them out. In the design aspect, those really take away from the aesthetics of the space. This idea is neat because it allows easy access to the important appliances and hides them when you're done.
Out of these principles, I feel the IOB group can relate with the idea of balance, unity, and proportion most closely. Balance- Our triangle tree has to have balance so that the beginning doesn't seem completely disconnected from the end point. We have tended to lessen the density of the triangles toward the end but keeping it balanced with the full bottom is necessary. Unity-Unity is key because we are trying to unify the entire space. We want to reduce if not eliminate the disconnect felt from the lobby to the factory through the use of a common theme. Our triangle tree would act as a way finding device through the lobby and office space. In the factories, it would be the bulletin boards to unify the space from the utter disconnect its currently in. Proportion- Proportion is important because we don't want the triangle tree to take away from the people and stories within the IOB. Keeping the tree in scale allows us to use it as a way finder as opposed to the main focus.
Out of the elements, I feel that line, texture, and space are the most important. Line- Clean lines are essential to the IOB. Our triangle tree is a play off the use of positive and negative space within an object. The use of line in this directs your eye in the way it should go, leading you through the space.
Texture- This is the most important element we have faced thus far. Visually impaired people rely on their other senses much greater because of their lack of sight. Tactile experiences allow the blind to rely on their hands to tell them what their eyes cannot. In developing this, we started with the idea of braille which is very organized. From this, our textures were organized and patterned out. We chose not to use braille as a texture because it isn't fair to play off of someone else's disadvantages for your own gain.
Space- Space is important within this concept because of the constraints they are faced with. They are not able to create more space and then over use of walls makes the space they currently have appear a lot smaller then it is. Using the element of space, we would like to introduce an open concept into the design, utilizing their limited space for all that its worth.
This just might be the cutest guest room I've ever seen. Typically when I see the color scheme of red, green, and white used it always reminds me of Christmas. With this room that wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind. Its such a successful color scheme without being overpowering. The idea of this is what really captured my attention though. Far too often, guest rooms don't have near enough space. This allows more sleeping room then the typical queen size bed. It also is done in a classy way, not taking up too much floor room but more grown up then bunk beds everywhere. I feel like implementing this into my future house would be important with my large family.
A while back, I posted an image on storage drawers under the staircase. I recently came upon this and thought it was an awesome addition. If you're not able to put drawers on the side of your stairs due to the configuration of your house, this is an alternative option. This isn't quite as convenient space wise but it is still additional storage which you can never go wrong with.
My little preparation the night before was far from sufficient for this speech. I bombed it, I knew it as well as everyone else. I've never been one for public speaking; I'm too soft spoken and shy for it. However getting up in front of people I knew so well should never have presented the issues to me that it did. I didn't think the speaking presentation was incredibly helpful because it was more of a review session of what we've learned all our lives. I also didn't visit the speaking center beforehand and maybe next time I should but with my lack of public speaking skills, I'm not sure it would do much good. I will certainly improve from this point before the next speech, of that I have no doubts.
As soon as I saw this object, my mind was taken back to first year. We created places for so many things from leaves to twigs. This object is a place for cookies, too precious. I don't think anyone would actually buy this but the concept behind it is cute.
Seeing this as the laundry room makes me wonder what it takes to consist of a room. From what the photo shows, I don't think this consists of a room so I hope the designer didn't stop here. I love the idea of the hanging ladder and the contrast of the blue against the yellow. However, I think the metal drying rack detracts from the overall picture. For this to have been so thought out, the drying rack seems cheap and out of place. It reminds me of the saying coined in first year, "whatever you're going to do last, don't."
My first step in transforming this image was adjusting the brightness and contrast. I then adjusted the color balance. I began to play around with the filters. All of the filters did something very different but I decided on the filter "cutout" because it truly brought out the beauty of the Lincoln Memorial. I think far too often people are focused on the steps you climb to get there or the reflecting pool (or lack there of) behind but when you focus solely on the architecture of the building, its beautiful. Within the building, there was so much detail on the walls and ceiling which certainly made it worth the walk over. However, when you step back and just appreciate the simplicity of such a grand monument, its mind altering. I feel like the cutout filter allows the viewer to "step back" and see the memorial for the true beauty that comes along with the simplicity.
How neat is this? I never would have dreamed this up. Maybe my way of thinking isn't quite as abstract as it once will be with design but right now I find it fascinating the things more developed designers have come up with. One day, I hope to build my dream house and this will certainly be apart of it!
I recently discovered the online pinboard, pinterest. It is filled with everything from recipes to design ideas to fashion and beauty advice. With so much variety, I decided to base my additional blog posts for the semester on images or ideas I find from this site. The first image I selected was an architectural addition to a house. They placed sliding drawers under the staircase. I think this is an awesome idea because everyone can always use more storage in their houses. The space under stair cases is often such wasted space and this fills it nicely.
The first impression I received from this exhibit was actually quite captivating.I loved the contrast of the light quotes against the dark wall.This lead me to wander farther into the exhibit, entering a room with hundreds of pictures of people and a few words explaining a picture or two here and there.Up till this point, I was very pleased with the way it was all set up.I continued walking and stopped in a large green room.The room itself had a nice flow and easily led your eyes throughout the space however the dark green was a far cry from the soothing colors on the wall in the prior rooms.What I consider to be the “green room” contained information on the first residents of Greensborough and many, many battles. After you’ve been visually led through this room, you’re brought into a deep red room.This section begins with a lot of information on farming and then ends with slavery.In the slavery part of this room, there was a poster on the ratio of whites to slaves to free blacks back many years ago, which I found to be quite interesting that this data was kept over this time span.As you make your way out of this room, you’re brought into a room that made the others seem small.This room has a sewing exhibit set up in the center and similar exhibits around the room.The part of this room that drew me in was the army section in the back.I learned that from 1943-1946, Greensboro was an army town and was able to see the type of beds the soldiers would have slept on.Continuing on you come across a bar set up where you learn about the sit-ins that occurred in Greensboro in the 1960’s.In the same room, they have banners set up to inform you of all the colleges in Greensboro.Finally, you enter a room representing today’s gate city, beginning in the 1980’s until today.In that room, there are items I can relate to such as a part on Yum-Yum’s Ice cream and the different neighborhoods that exist in Greensboro today.From this exhibit, I feel that we were supposed to take the knowledge that the voices of the past helped create the city that we know today.
[2] the period rooms and pottery display
This exhibit was my least favorite out of the four I visited today which was disappointing because it was the first one you get to when your going to the others.I did enjoy the period rooms more then the pottery because it was a clear way of how people use to live.I liked the bedroom the most because I felt that it gave you the best idea of what life was like.The other rooms didn’t appear lived in from my point of view.There were five period rooms that I took notice of in this exhibit.They were the living room, the bedroom, the dining room, the parlor, and the clothes display.The pottery display was in the center whereas the period rooms were on the outer parts of the room.The pottery exhibit was titled “The Art of Turning Clay: The Bluebethenthal Pottery Collection.”The pieces of pottery were all in glass cases with information posted behind them.The first case told the story of Jagstown.The people who founded Jagstown pottery were Raleigh natives.As I viewed more cases of pottery, I learned of the Asian translation of the pottery.However, all the pottery looked incredibly similar to me.The pottery has been featured nationally in magazines and newspapers.
[3] the “Gate City” exhibition
This exhibit was my favorite by far of the four we visited today.Before you even enter the exhibit, you see a map on the wall outside and a note that says, “Based on actual commercial and civic buildings.”I thought that was interesting because all museums are supposed to showcase actual items, which led me to believe this exhibit wouldn’t be a typical one.When you enter into the room, the first thing I noticed was that it was set up like a town.I have always been very interested in seeing how people used to live, not just reading about it.This exhibit allowed me to see what their typical towns would have looked like.The rooms made up to be apart of the town were the Richardson and Fariss Drugstore, the Crystal Theatre, the Hotel Clegg, the Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1, the city market, and Miss Lina Porter’s schoolhouse.The drugstore was about what I would have expected after seeing many exhibits like this over the years; it was a narrow room with cabinets on both sides and a counter.I know that in later years they would have expanded the idea of a drugstore into one with a soda machine and such but I liked that this stayed true to the time period.The theatre was much different then I was expecting.It was one room with very uncomfortable looking wooden seats.It might have seated twenty at most, certainly not what we think of when we think of theatres today.The Hotel Clegg looked very official with the double doors, the only building in there I remember having them.Inside there was a telephone exchange in their lobby space, which I found interesting.The firehouse was pretty typical, even still a main idea of what we see today.What I found interesting about this was that the fire engine weighed 4000 pounds and was pulled by two horses.The schoolhouse appeared to be a typical one-room schoolhouse with benches that appear like they would seat two children to a bench at a time.In the schoolhouse, there was a wood burning stove in order to heat the schoolhouse in the colder months.
[4] the traveling exhibition titled “Down Home”
This exhibit was focused on Jewish life in North Carolina, what that meant to them and what it means to the state.As soon as you enter you notice a sign (or the dreadful music that plays nonstop the entire time you’re in there).On the sign it explains up front that Judaism is a culture, an ethnicity, and a religion.The exhibit as a whole was divided up into a few different sections.These consisted of keeping the faith, family comes first, building businesses, creating communities, and love of learning.The part that I remember the most from the exhibit was the food section.I’ve always heard about kosher and the different types of rules for eating that the Jewish follow and never understood them until this exhibit so I feel like they presented it very positively.They had a refrigerator that had inside what they would be able to eat.They also had “food” in the process of being “cooked” for the viewers to see.As you move through this exhibit, it’s a bit unnerving.Everywhere you step, you’re bound to set off something talking to you, usually more then one thing at a time.I didn’t like that part of the exhibit at all because it would catch me off guard and then I would walk away from it because I couldn’t focus to read the signage with the speakers talking.Overall, I feel like it was a very informative exhibit because I know I am guilty of not understanding religions apart from my own as well as I should.I think that if someone had any questions about the Jewish culture, this would be an excellent resource but if you had a question about their religion, you should find somewhere else to research.
The “industries of the blind” walkthrough was an experience like I never could have imagined. The image I had of the space from driving past it hundreds of times on Lee St was about accurate of what was experienced within the walls of the building. Upon entering the building, you are brought into an overly white and boxy space. There is no flow within the design to speak of. The main lobby space is broken up into an entrance, a seating area, a gift shop, an office, and a stair well; all of which are given their own (unnecessary) room. Once you are have braved the redundant walls, you are led to the staircase. The staircase leads you up into a more private sector of the building. There is a seating area at the landing followed by a hallway containing the offices of those in charge. Continuing on to the right there is a conference room, which fit our class nicely, but truly when are there that many people in there? The end of the hallway dumps you off into the factory. The feeling completely shifted in the factory setting. Suddenly, it was dark and cold. The lighting looked as if it had been taken straight from a hospital and placed within this factory. The set up of the factory couldn’t have confused me more but there were many different sections. It was divided up into a nape pad section, a clipboard section, holding place for all the brooms, pen section, clothing section, and a cafeteria. When talking with the employees, this place is a horrible reflection on the true atmosphere. I got the impression of a family environment, something joyful and proud. The space presented something quite different. It was more of a the employees are here to do there job and then leave, no socializing or being any form of comfortable. I hope that we are able to bring to the IOB a sense of place and purpose not only within their building but within Greensboro as well.
[1] I would most prefer to be on the project team for the Industries for the Blind. I could most contribute to this project because I would love to work in such a positive environment for a great cause. From the moment I stepped in, there were so many ideas running through my head which gave me a positive vibe towards this project.
[2] I see my skills carrying forward in this project in many ways. I'm good at building upon existing ideas and since this structure is already there, it would be a blast figuring out which walls can go and where new ones can come up. I'd also love to talk with the employees there and figure out what would help them the best and what they'd like to become of the space. I have a heart for disadvantaged people so I feel like working on this project would put me right in my comfort zone in one aspect while completely taking me out of it in another.
