LaCrosse Final Design

 

LaCrosse, Washington has begun to rehabilitate their town with the help of the Washington State University RCDI (Rural Communities Design Initiative) Interior Design students. As my final design, I have transformed their historical basalt rock structures into functional and useful community spaces. With an agricultural education center, the community will have a place for children to learn the towns most valuable attribute. They will have a place for hands on learning with a classroom and computer lab dedicated to their education. Using this for weekly classes, the center will also provide the community with income from class fees and jobs for the teachers and assistants. The design also transforms their bunk houses into functional, year round green houses. These would be rentable spaces for community members and the agricultural education center. The interiors would provide soil plots for the off season in LaCrosse. Lastly, the old service station would be the farmers market with a café/bakery area and a commercial kitchen. The farmers market would allow local farmers and community members to sell their produce or homemade items in a community focused area of their town. The market would potentially bring in visitors off the highway with the lure of fresh and local items. The café and bakery would be used year round as a thirdplace where the community could have somewhere to spend time and chat with friends. The commercial kitchen would also be used year round for the bakery while doubling as a canning kitchen. As a canning kitchen, community members would have the opportunity to can their food items for a small fee while the education center could also use it to teach children and youth how to can as well. These new buildings would still be built from the historic basalt rocks, uniting the town with community centered spaces that bring income and job opportunities to the small town of LaCrosse.

LaCrosse Case Studies

 

As we continue our project on the LaCrosse basalt rock structures, case studies are another vital way to gather information to use in our designs. With several different options of design, my topic was to create an agricultural education center, a community garden, and a farmers market. With this assignment, I researched and preformed case studies on the S.AG.E. (sustainable agriculture education) center in Berkeley, CA and the Moscow farmers market in Moscow, Idaho. With these case studies, I was able to learn about the functionality and necessities of each section of my project. These examples were necessary to know what would be needed in my final design for LaCrosse.

LaCrosse Infograph

 

This infograph depicts information about a small town in eastern Washington called LaCrosse. As our first project in our fourth year of studio, we are studying this small towns historical basalt rock houses and creating designs to rehabilitate them in to functional spaces for the community. The goal is to use the five houses and one service station to unite the town while also bringing income and jobs. This infograph is a great way to collect and display vital information to use in the design of our projects.

Workplace Light Case Study

            For the Workplace Light Design project, we were required to research an interesting light design used in an office space. For this, I found the Pons + Huots office in France. In this space, the transformed an atrium space into a workspace with individual desks and large trees surrounding them. This unique space uses light to enhance the office and found a way to make work more fun. This was a good resource for the project and taught me a lot about what is required in a workspace and what would be necessary. Case studies are important to the concept work for a project and does a lot to help the designer know exactly what is needed in the space by looking at a real life example. They should be done before the start of any project and will help immensely when working later on the design.

Boundary County Library Project

The Boundary County Library project was a semester long assignment that was focused in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. The community wanted to expand upon their current small town library and design a 30,000 sq. ft. total building that would include the library as well as shared spaces that could be at the use of any person. These shared spaces include a wet lab, fabrication lab, digital technology lab, commercial kitchen, classrooms, meeting rooms, storage, and maker spaces. Obviously, this would require a well thought out plan and lots of detailed thought process to come up with something that would make the community happy. Split into three groups, the class was challenged with working with other classmates and come up with three different designs. Working with the community was also difficult because they were not quite clear with what they wanted. We had to try and come up with something that we thought would fit them. Group B decided to stick with a traditional design, cladding the exterior with brick and including arched windows with flower boxes to give it that unique touch. With a large front courtyard, the community would have a place where they could spend time outside when the weather permitted and create a comfortable and distinctive aspect to the design. The interior will include all of the spaces above as well as a coffee shop and roof terrace, ensuring that visitors would feel welcome and comfortable to relax and have the library feel like their own. Overall, this design would be a great fit for the community and would be an exceptional building for them to grow and learn in. Working in groups and with the community was a great learning experience and taught the class a lot about what it would be like to work in the real world with real clients.

Library Case Studies

When working on a project, doing case studies as research beforehand is very valuable. It helps you learn more about the project you are about to complete and is a good starting point information wise. For the Boundary County Project we were required to research four different case studies and create posters for the information we found. These helped to understand what might be required in a library and kick started the design process. It allowed us to think about what we might need to include in terms of shelving, materials, storage, etc. I would recommend using case studies as a form of research for your design projects.

Atrium Workplace Light Design

Based on the Information Technology Building on our campus at Washington State University, this project used light and color to give an empty and windowless space life again. What was once a space open to the air, this atrium has since been covered and is a real eye sore to the overall building. The dark and drab room has windows opening up to about 20 offices and is a real depressing view for those employees. The goal of this project was to create a space where employees and visitors could spend their time and have a place where they wanted to be. Using light and color, this space was transformed from dark and empty to lively and bright. Working with the employees of the building, it was possible to see what they really wanted and also gave us great experience for working with real life clients. The space will include two lighting designs, two seating areas, and a coffee shop. This will transform the place and attract all kinds of people into the space. The two lighting designs used were reflection and diffraction. I used old fashioned bulbs hanging from the ceiling over a reflective pool of water to enhance the space and create a sparkling, unique aspect to the entrance. The other lighting design was used on the entrance wall where you can see the WSU logo is back lit with light seeping over the edges, using diffraction. With will lure people in and will cause curiosity to see what is behind that wall. The entire design is meant to be comfortable and functional to its users. This was a nice project and gave me more experience working with light.