We got a chance to design the Pufferbelly depot in the downtown area of Pullman. Pufferbelly depot was once the largest train station that transport people and help the city of Pullman become prosperous. The owner Antoni bought the property of the station a few years ago and transferred the depot into his office and residence. We are given a chance to choose an artist and design the space according to his needs as well as ADA and universal design codes. We are expected to put artist's studio, retail for art produced by the studio artist which also served as the gallery and residence for the artist and spouse together into the floor plan. The design challenge is that the artist's spouse has diminished visual ability and is considered legally blind; therefore, we need to make careful considerations when planning the space and choosing the design features. In addition, everyone choose different artist who perform different kinds of artworks.
I chose Stephen Powell, who is a talented glass blowing artist as well as a professor of central college in Kentucky as my client. Designing the artist studio floor plan is perhaps the most challenging part for me because I need to research for every equipments a glass blowing artist would need and place the equipments very carefully as kiln, glass blowing furnace, glass lath, pipe warmer, etc... are equipments work with fire and produce lots of heat. Therefore, I managed those dangerous equipments in an particular area and defined that area as hot zone. I also found out that glass blowing studio should include a water zone for artist to cool down the glass work, tool and sometimes performing chemical toxic involved job. The safety concerns play an important role in the studio design that I decided to install firewall, sprinkle system and ventilator to ensure the safety of the studio. The office is also located in the area near the entrance to the gallery space because I want the artist to have more opportunities interacting with his clients and make the transit from office to gallery more convenient and efficient.
The concept development is where I keep finding my inspirations through out the semester. I initially focus on the whole train I found in Pufferbelly Depot because the color combination catches my attention and gives me an powerful feeling. I am interested in how the development of train changes people's life by connecting people and distant places. I think that train really connects people and gives people an option to get to far places; however, due to the nature of the train, train transportation cannot take people to everywhere. It indicates the limitation of the train and drives me into the thinking that humans are oftentimes restricted by the stereotype and the natural world. We are sometimes limited ourselves according to how others think of us and their perspective. However, the red in the train clearly explain that people want to break out the rules and overcome the challenges. We are people that desire to keep improving ourselves and break down the stereotype. I chose the parti which introducing the main railways with many little secondary railways as my final module and use bold color such as red, orange and yellow to transform the eagerness of exceeding the limitations.
After choosing the final module, we play with different kinds of repetition and combinations of the module to create beautiful fabric pattern which we are going to use in the interior of our Depot design. I found the textile design inspires me a lot as I need to pour more meaningful thoughts into my design. I first tried different color arrangement and finally I discovered that the interchanging of yellow-based and red-based modules reveal the rotation of the train spokes and most important of all, it symbolizes the life cycle of human beings. As people stare at the center of the star-looked shape, we can somewhat feel the rotation of the spoke and the speedy movement of the train. It looks like a circle without definite starting point and ending point just like how human beings go with the life cycle. Though we have date birth and come the world and we also have the last day of our life span, people are inherit from the ancestors and keep developing the world and making it a better place.
Another project that facilitate my thinking is the bench design. To my surprise, the bench involved in so many curves which is extremely different from my fabric design. The bench design is where I got the idea of life cycle and the continuous daily life. Tie on the railroads repeats continuously and creates a rhythm. Railroads traveling in different direction intersect and interact with each other and form an intricate pattern that symbolizes one's relationship with other. People who rely on the train to commute go on the train to start their day and take train to get back to their home. Trains involve in the continuous daily life of people and it goes continuously. Therefore, I design my bench using the idea of intersecting rails roads and make the bench into an abstract representation. The cutout of the bench reflects the intersecting pattern of railroads as well as predestined relationships among passengers. I think the bench design project really gave me a chance to develop more possibilities and potentials of my inspiration that facilitates and contributes to the rest of my designs.
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The final gallery perspective is another challenging part to me because I feel like I am not good at visualizing the space. With that in mind, I start to work on my perspective early and find pictures to enhance my visualizing skills. Drawing perspectives also help me decide the more detailed parts pf my design such as material and furniture selection, outdoor landscape seen from the interior windows and doors, and lighting features which I never thought about on the furniture floor plan. I remember the thing I want to improve the most of the project I done in last year is the rendering perspectives. At that time, I was not quite familiar with the rendering skills and I felt that I didn't do well on communicating my space through perspectives. This time, I think I have a better understanding of how to make the rendering perspectives effectively communicating my interior design. I believe rendering perspectives are the most crucial part of the design in translating and visualizing the design project and I think I successfully make the most of my rendering perspectives.
After this competitive and overwhelming semester, I strongly believe that I did improve my abilities as being an interior design student especially in critical thinking, interior design strategy and rendering skill. I also learn the importance of time management that I hope I can push myself to work more efficiently and perform the works quickly while still maintain the quality of the drawings. I experienced the team work through the historical research paper and understand how to value different perspectives. I think I improve myself a lot in overcoming the fear of presenting in front of lots of people. I can clearly feel my personal progress through the difference and changes from the past.
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