Monday, March 24, 2008

bottle caps

We were comissioned in our latest project to design something made from the left-over bottle caps that the company Terracycle could produce. Not only can the guitar picks be punched from the tops of the caps, but the cap ring makes for a perfect container, with the teeth grabbing and holding the picks perfectly. We decided a simpler approach would be best, using the smallest amount of initial overhead as well as labor.



Thursday, March 6, 2008

Produce Production

We had to select a piece of produce in the beginning without being told the end reason. We had to draw some pictures of our fruit (mine was an orange) and then create some patterns from the pictures. We then had to enact a tool on the pattern (I used a clamp) to alter and transform the pattern. The pictures with the blue border were the major role players for me because they were what led to the next part of my project.
The stippling was the perfect shading technique given the texture of an orange.
This is merely a zoomed in view of an orange- I liked throwing it into sharp light, to get a nice contrast over a small area.
I focused on this action for a lot of my following pattern, but it was not what I ended up going with in the second half of the project
This drawing ended up being the inspiration that I used for a good number of patterns as well as in the second half of the project.
This pattern ended up being one of the important ones in my process.
In this pattern and the following pattern you can see the action of the clamp at work, squeezing different parts of the patterns to transform them into something new.
Below are some shots o our group presentation boards- I worked with some people that I really like so it came together fairly easy for us- despite some differing opinionsThese are some shots of my 3d model off of the patterns that I had created from my patterns the first one was fairly basic- I decided to use cones because it allowed me to give this illusion of volume and mass while still keeping the linear profile that stuck to my patterns
I moved my next model onto its side to give it a more linear quality to help accentuate the main part of my pattern. I pulled several details fro here and made several models trying to emphasize different aspects and I ended up going with my sixth.
The model below is my sixth model and represents some aspects of the former model that I like. This is also my first architectural statement so I tried to give some real thought to a lot of different concepts. I pulled this idea of reaching from my last model, hence the use of blue to emphasize this play on proportion and oversized balance. I also looked at Saarinen's shell structures for inspiration with my curved "roof-like" forms and tried to keep the linearity of the model by looking at the cantilevered feel of much of the prarie style. This long extending roof also helped me play with the sense of scale and balance. To further play with the sense I stuck with the cone shape to give this dramatic and huge entrance that became steadily more intimate as one was to enter the space. I thought that this was a very solid project and wanted to move in a different direction to prove to myself that I was actually headed in the right direction with this one.
This leads me to my eighth and final model which is quite a bit different. With this model I focused on the interior space more than the exterior and tried to establish a sense of repetition and rhythm with the overhangs layering in front of and behind each other. I turned to the Sydney Opera House for inspiration in this phase of the design and I was quite happy with it. I feel that this is a separate project from my previous line of models and both have merits and qualities all their own. If I absolutely had to latch on to one I would hold on to my sixth model as my architectural statement, but its hard because of how different they are.


I cannot say that I like this project until the very end and I was glad that it was over, but I did like the final product and am very proud of what I did.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Mossman- the process





The final outcome pleased us all. We thought (and over-thought) every decision to the last detail- but the result was a cohesive and well presented board. I personally was very pleased with how we came together and took care of business.







Here are some shots of the group getting together and putting the information on a board for presentation. Decisions aren't easy in a group (as we all learned) but we were able to move forward.







Drawings based on some architectural illustrators that I liked. All images courtesy of www.asai.org The first inspiration image is from Nairi Haran, the second is from Frank Costantino, and the third is from Henry Zeng. Different things attracted me to the several styles, but I mostly feel as if they fell short of the goal- I do like the way that Haran has drawn trees and I think that I may attempt to incorporate the style into my drawings more.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Drafting Scans









here are the rest of the digitals for Stoel's class that I don't have posted yet