Third Year/Project 1

brief: "You are halfway through your course. It's time to take stock, to reflect on the design process and on your own ability to deal with it. You can improve your own performance if you analyse it, indentify your strengths and weaknesses - and then deal with the weaknesses.

"Make 2 diagrammatic drawings, one describing the qualities you think essential in the making of a good interior and one describing the design process."

initial responses

Design Process: My first thought was that the design

process is a journey. You have a starting position (project brief) and a final destination (design outcome). I recognised that I had my own common approach to each project but these could take many form ie. routes. And that I often require direction along the way.

I found a map which I thought suitable for describing this "design journey".

It begins with the brief, and from that point I branch out into the first ideas the brief has sparked. At this stage there is alot of trial and error involved to find an appropriate solution to the brief, and once it has been found it can evolve rapidly - combining both function/practicality with creative/innovative ideas.

The dashed lines describe the vague ideas that happen along the way that quickly dissolve.

Qualities for Good Design: During our first discussions the question was raised "is an interior good purely because alot of people like it?" This made me re-think my initial ideas, as originally I thought about the different components which lead to a "successful" interior ie. light, materials, textures.

But this didn't seem to answer the question brought up in the first review. I tried to think how an interior could attract a mass market and how it should provide some experience for each person entering. This is where my idea for "challenging the human senses" came. I remembered how certain smells, sounds, textures could remind you of past experiences and i thought that if you can connect to the viewer this way then you can make some sort of lasting impression which they will remember.

Team 2 Detail

Brief: Take pictures of interesting details/ materials meeting other materials/ joins

I found an example of copper folding to create a wall/ surface covering in The Lighthouse.

The copper appeared to have been moulded into shape around the existing concrete walls.

Detailed images show how the copper had been folded in such a way that it kept it's shape around the concrete with no evidence of welding or any other form of fusion to the concrete surface.

We considered how the copper could keep such close contact with the flat surface of the copper - if the copper was bent round the concrete in-situ then it would try to pull its edges back into it's original flat state.

I attempted to recreate the folds with paper to display how certain folds can force the metal to hold it's (new) manipulated shape.

As I tried to fold the paper round the solid surface, the paper would pull itself back out of the shape and would not sit flush against the surface.