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.

Timeless Design

This semester, I focused on the Pufferbelly Depot in downtown Pullman. In my design, I transformed this historic building into a residence, studio, and retail space through the concept of timeless design. Taking inspiration from the worn brick platform outside of the station and considering ADA/UD and adaptive reuse aspects, I created a unique and traditional design perfect for my client, jewelry designer, Rachel Ryen. 

During the project, the inspiration object, concept development, bench design, final floor plan, and final perspectives were the components that I found extremely vital to the success and completion of my design.

The worn, herringbone brick pattern outside of the depot that inspired my design

The inspiration object that I based my design around was a worn brick in a herringbone pattern, found outside of the Pufferbelly Depot. This was the basis of my entire project and without it, I would have no purpose to any of my design. After exploring my inspiration object, the concepts of meeting, movement, and unity stood out to me and inspired my parti and textile design. I had never gone into such detail with a concept before, and I believe that it is a valuable process and I learned a lot after spending time exploring with it. I will definitely continue to use this process in my future design projects. 





My final parti after concept exploration



My parti, derived from my inspiration piece and concept words, had a big influence on my design this semester. I had created the parti based off of movement, unity, and meeting. Meeting can be seen in the joints and intersecting points of the parti shape, unity can be seen in the different shapes and curves working together to create one, and movement can be seen in the shape as a whole. The color blue was used in my parti due to the fact that my client is inspired by blue and I wanted to incorporate her into the design process. I found that creating this parti was very enjoyable and I am extremely happy with the final product. The parti's that I have created previously have not been this thought through and I am proud of the depth that I put in to this one. 

My final, scaled model of my bench design

The bench design was something that I had never done before. I created a bench based off of my final textile pattern that was derived from my parti. This pattern can be seen in the shape of the "bench" that is made out of poured concrete. I am extremely proud of my bench design because I thought it was something that I wouldn't be able to succeed at. I had never gone that in depth into designing something of this magnitude. While it was challenging to me, the result was something that could actually be created and I think that is the best part.

My final furniture floor plan, rendered



My final floor plan for the Pufferbelly Depot was obviously an important part of my final design. This was the largest and most complex floor plan that I have created as a student and I believe that it was a very well thought out and planned design. I took ADA and UD design aspects and created a floor plan that would be accessible to all people and would especially be designed for the visually impaired. Through  this and applications of movement, unity, and meeting, this floor plan is such an important part of my growth as a student. I was able to learn a lot about ADA and the visually impaired that I did not know before. This will help me in my future designs so that I can plan an environment for everyone to use safely. 

Lastly, the final perspectives that depicted my design, were components that I felt to be very important to the project. Without them, you would not get a chance to actually see what my design would look like. I created five perspective of my design. Large perspectives of the retail space, the kitchen, and the living room and two small perspectives of the master bedroom and master bath, really brought my design to life. Using what I have learned about drawing perspectives, I was able to draw a render these, creating some work that I am really proud of. I spent a lot of time perfecting each and I think it shows. Without these perspectives, my design would be incomplete. In the future, I will continue to draw out my designs and work my best to show my clients what they will be receiving. 

After this semester, I think that I have grown as a student and as a designer. I have learned a lot about ADA/UD design aspects and I will continue to research and try to incorporate that into my designs. I have learned how to make better floor plans, perspectives, and concept development. I have grown as a designer and I think that I have really advanced myself in terms of what I can do. I have worked really hard and I can only hope that it shows in my work. I have had a great year and I cant wait to see what I do in the future. 

Art Museum Experience

Located in Seattle Washington, the Frye Art Museum opened in 1952. The creators, Charles and Emma Frye, were early-twentieth century Seattle business leaders and art collectors who made the museum what it is today. The 18,000 square foot space contains pieces from the Frye Founding collection as well as different exhibitions hosted at various times. Upon visiting the museum, there was an exhibit called 36 Chambers, the title of James Joyce’s first series of poems. This particular exhibit helps to continue the Frye Museums commitment to the “citizen curator” by inviting staff members to choose works of art from the Founding Collection based on James Joyce’s poems in 36 Chambers.

            The overall design of this museum is simple. Walking into the museums lobby, you immediately pass a gift store and enter the gallery portion of the space. This gallery space is divided into massive rooms with very tall ceilings. The expansiveness of the gallery’s rooms allows the visitors to enjoy the pieces from different angles and distances. Benches were placed in the center of these rooms, seating up to 8 people, and were the only form of seating offered in the space. This encouraged people to continue to move through the rooms and also provided a space to rest your feet and take in the art. Each exhibit usually has a description of what the exhibit is displaying, helping guests understand the shows. The paintings are spaced out nicely; far enough for guests who are viewing one piece wont bother another guest viewing another piece. The art is hung at an average eye level. The design of the space encourages the best possible viewing experience of the artwork. The walls on which the art is hung were mostly white throughout the museum although in the 36 Chambers exhibit, the walls were painted lilac and the lighting was dimmer than in the other spaces. The spaces with white walls had track lighting on the ceiling, which was the only source of light in the space. They were placed to prevent glare and made the viewing very pleasant. The white walls, light hardwood floors and soft light made the space calming and neutral. In the 36 Chambers exhibit with lilac walls, the art was mounted in thick frames to separate them from the colored walls, emphasizing the artwork.

            My visit to the Frye Art Museum was enjoyable in that I was able to see some incredible pieces of art as well as learn about the layout and structure of a popular, public museum. This will help me in my design for my next project and in future projects.

Impaired Vision Experience

I participated in a temporary-impairment experience two weeks ago to be able to have a sense of what diminished vision capacity is like for potential vision impaired clients. After completing a set of tasks while wearing vision-obscuring glasses, I was able to better understand the daily life of a visually impaired person. Looking through a plastic bag represented 20/60 vision. A person with this eye site is still able to legally drive during the day. While looking through the bag, I briefly glanced at a nearby newspaper. The writing on the page was blurry and hard to read, although the bigger the text, the easier it was to see. For example, titles could be read while the smaller text was blurry and difficult to see. Next, we folded the plastic bag in half, creating a total of 4 layers to look through. This represented being legally blind. Once looking through the plastic layers, it was extremely hard to see anything. I was only able to see colors and color changes as well as the shapes and outlines of objects such as people. The lights in the room were helpful for direction and way finding purposes. Next, I looked through a vision simulator, a tool that allowed me to gain a basic impression of the effects of several kinds of vision loss. The first type of vision loss was central vision. Here, the middle of my vision was blocked and forced me to turn my head in order to see what I wanted. Loss of parts vision loss gave a fuzzy and distorted view, sometimes making me see double. The tunnel vision part also forced me to move my head around in order to see everything, giving me a limited amount of vision. The last type of vision loss was completely blind. There was no vision, everything was dark. The next exercise was to put on a pair of sunglasses smeared with a layer petroleum jelly, giving off a blurry vision. Walking around our campus book store, using the elevators and stairs, and using the ATM machine while wearing the glasses turned out to be a hard feat. It was hard to see signs and read the writing on descriptions around the building and at the ATM. To help people see and identify objects, it would be helpful to use high contrasting colors and to use brighter colors on important pieces, like the card acceptor at the ATM machine. Hand rails for the stairs are helpful as well as the sand paper like strips on the edges of the steps in order to help a visually blind safely get down the staircase. After participating in this experience, I have learned a few helpful ideas to create a safe and accommodating place for a visually impaired person.

Normal Vision

Looking Through the Plastic; 20/60 Vision, Legally Able to Drive