Habitat for Humanity- Building house for local family in need

We got an opportunity to work on building house for local family in need. It was very nice to work with classmates, professionals, and the family who is going to live in the house. Although it is an exhausted experience, I found it very meaningful. We were trying to helping people with our interior design knowledge and strive to make the world a better place to live. We worked on insulation and doing some paint job for the exterior. The fiber glass seemed to be very soft but it is actually very stinging and dangerous. We have to wear a pair of gloves to protect our hands and glass to prevent our eyes from being irritated by fiber glass. Also we need masks to prevent us from hurting our breath system.

As the architecture on site reminded us, "safety comes first and then quality quality quality", we make every effort to meet the family's needs and architectural standards. We had a blast learning the structure of the house and having the hands on experience of "constructing" the house.

Harmony: One bedroom Apt

     My concept for the one bedroom apartment is harmony. The idea came from a home song describing a man is looking at the moon in a dark night thinking of his Mom. The three angles in a triangle shape represent the most important three elements in our life- Family, Ourselves and home. Therefore, the triangle shapes are been adopted through our the apartment. The dynamic triangular book shelf, triangular panels on the cabinets located in entry and triangular dinning area are all suggesting the connection between those three elements.  The color scheme is basically neutral color with purple pick as an accent color because purple pick represents the love from Mom associated with the home song. Because each triangle pieces are tighten together, I made each space have a intimate connection. 
     It is very hard for me to come up with an ideal floor plan with just a little try. In face, I drew lots of different floor plan and referred to accessible guide when I design the space. Besides, the 86 inches long windows really limit my possibility of design. I was very happy that the reviewer who is an architectural professor like the z zag shape along the bathroom and bedroom. I like the storage space I planted for the one-bedroom apartment. I believe an ideal amount of storage space enable people who live in the apartment to have a tidy and organized living area and thus make their living experience happier. After this intensive project, I believe I have an better understanding on how to draw elevations, sections and floor plans efficiently and effectively.

Meeting with a designer

     We got a chance to meet with professional interior designer on campus to do a review on our floor plan for one bedroom apartment. It is a great chance to grab some input and brand new ideas for improving the current design we have. Sharon Macy is the interior designer working for school facility includes dorms on campus, apartment out of campus, major dining centers and other design project.
     I was very frustrated on the living room I planed for the one bedroom apartment because it looks quite small and inflexible. Sharon suggested me to extend the wall in front of the entrance to create a more enclosed living area while add little more space for it. The original setting for the entrance is first a closet with shoe rack beneath adjoined with a sofa for people to put on their shoe. However, the adjoined part with limit the function of the closet and thus she said it will be nicer to separate them into two individual and make the sofa near to the door. In addition, the space mainly used for passing each different rooms seem to be empty. Therefore, she recommended to add a small desk for informal use. In that way, the circulation will not be interfered while making the space become more lively. The most importance improvement of the design is the advice for bathroom design. As grab bars are important for making the space accessible, the length of it and how it install become important. There are two windows on the wall where I need to add grab bars for both the toilet and the bath tub, so the best way to make the grab bars seem smoother is either make two of them into one long grab bar or make two separate bars without interfere with one another.
     I came with  new thoughts in mind. I decided to add a wall cabinet with mirror in the middle beside the front door. I believe it can not only create a sense of harmony but also enhance the number of useful storage. I also determine to add 1' wide wall cabinet at the front of living area to accommodate television and other stuff such as art works and books. I also want to add some decorative book shelf above the sofa. Since I was a little fear about not having a required distance after putting those shelves. I turned to the guideline to figure out the proper distance between television and the viewers which is 4 to 10 feet for a 30" television. I now know that I can install those shelves and still keep a nice distance. It is perhaps the meeting with a professional designer and the input of their design tastes that let me think of more possibility of my design. Making me can't help but being eager to improve and polish my design later on. 

Feeling of Home

Home Song as a Inspiration

     The song gives me a sense of homesick cause the man is far from his sweet home and dreaming that his Mom is looking at the same moon. Moon is the connection between him, the family and the sweet home. Moreover, the song indicates that "there is no place like home."I want to emphasize the importance and unique feature of a home.

 2D Parti

     Partis I came out with is based on my observation and inspiration of the song. I mainly focus on the path to go back home, the feeling of warmth and darkness and family element. There are plenty of paths to go back home and some of them are full of challenges while some of them are very comfortable to go with. No matter which path you chose, we would get home eventually.

 3D Concept Model- Connection, Contrast, Harmony

     I chose the triangle parti since I felt that it can represent not only the path of going home but also incorporate moon, family and home. Three corners of a triangle shape represent home, family and ourselves which also emphasize the intimate relationship between each others.Although I intended to create a warm-feeling model, I end up having a black and white 3D model. I felt that the black and white model has a better connection to the song and my concept.Moon shows the connection, darkness represents contrast while family indicates harmony. I really enjoy this deep-meaning concept model.

Adaptive Re-use of late 19th centure buildings

This is my draft poster and I found that the background is disturbing and make words not east to read. Besides, there are edges around my picture but didn't fit the size of pictures which is very odd. Presenting the poster in vertical way is kind of reducing the space we can you. Then our team decided to do it landscape. 

The final poster is presenting in landscape and we changed the opacity of our background to make our statement stand our. We also made a bold and attractive title for our poster not only for arising more attention but also to incorporate our topic. We make adaptive in a front of old fashion and set the rest of our words in one modern front. We tried to indicate the transition between the old use and new use of the building.