Human Factors

It was the Human Factors unit's hand-in day yesterday. I've been working in a last couple of weeks on this project, hence I haven't updated the blog in ages.

The aim of this project was to re design a space by looking at human interactions with their surroundings. The site I've been given is a little building on a backstreet in Bournemouth town, I came up with an idea of re designing the interior space to a history exhibition of Bournemouth, as I feel like that's what it's lacking in this town - it has a rich history and cultural and it needs a place where the whole family can go to know about this town.

This is the site I've been given to work on. It's located at the backstreet of the main high street so its surrounding is dark and quiet.

This is the floor plan I got from the local council. We needed to consider the disability issue and I realised that disabled people can't access the place, so I re-designed the interior to open up the space and make it available for disabled people.

Ground floor. I removed the spiral staircase and added elevator.

Ground floor. Axonometric.

Lower Ground floor. One of the staircase has been removed, elevator added.

Lower Ground floor axonometric.

Basement. I removed all the rooms, the space where the staircase lead to from the lower ground floor has been changed to a disabled toilet.

And here are the technical floor plans, axonometrics and perspectives of my design. All technical drawings are scale 1:100.

Ground floor design.

Ground floor design. Axonometric.

The idea of my design is focused on stimulating human senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, in order to create an unique experience. On the ground floor (which is the main entrance), I had the idea or the 'starting point of the journey' in mind. People normally start off a journey at airport or train station, therefore I designed the space based on Bournemouth rail station.

Ground floor perspective.

The lower ground floor's theme is the modern, contemporary Bournemouth. I recently came across with this sand museum design in Japan. It invited artists from all over the world to help building iconic buildings in London with sand and exhibit them indoor,  it's to celebrate the upcoming 2012 Olympics. It inspired me. Bournemouth is a well-known sea side holiday resort, so I came up with an idea of building the landscape of the town and exhibit it on this floor. So people can see what are there to see in this town. Sand will also give the smell and touch, plus if you caught a bad weather when you're in Bournemouth and couldn't go to the beach, hey at least you can come here haha. In my design, it will also allow you to see what's going on down a level, I feel like this will interest people to go down to the next floor instead not sure what's going on and end up leaving.

Lower Ground floor design. This is only to show where abouts I'm going to put the sand.

Lower Ground floor design. Axonometric.

Lower Ground floor perspective.

On the basement level, it will be about the old Bournemouth and its history. The idea is to design an indoor pier, the whole floor will be built by old, used materials as they all have unique textures, looks and smell. 

Basement design.

Basement design. Axonometric.

Basement perspective.

You're probably wondering why in all the perspective drawings they seem to have blue walls? One of the project aims is to look at how to attract people to the site. Like I mentioned earlier, this site is not noticeable and it's in a very hidden location. However due to the tall buildings around, it catches sunlight, so I have this idea to build the site in glass entirely. Glass reflects sunlight, so when people walked pass the reflection will make them wonder what is going on in front of them to attract them, on the other hand, it will allow people to see what's in the building and make them want to go inside to have a look.

The model to show the interior layout of the design.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this, please leave me comments! Have a great weekend :)

AutoCAD and Sketchup

I have got to admit I prefer drawing everything by hand, simply because I don't really get on well with computers. But strange enough I enjoyed the AutoCAD and Sketchup lessons.

Our task was to draw up our phones in AutoCAD then import the file to Google Sketchup. And here are the final drawings!

 

Exploring the Third Dimension (Model)

The model of the desk design.
Material: MDF
Colour: Painted white
 

Exploring the Third Dimension (Design)

In part two of this project, we've been asked to design a desk that's most suitable for our room and consider ourselves as our own clients. This is the design named Cassandra.

Front elevation (1:10)

Elevation (1:10)

Elevation (1:10)

Position of the desk (1:10)

Axonometric (1:10)

Axonometric (1:10)

Axonometric (1:10)

(1:10)

Sample and material board

Exploring the Third Dimension (Survey)

This isn't the first project I did for the course, but it was the first project that we have to go measure the space and draw up floor plans.

Side perspective of the house (NTS)

Front perspective of the house (NTS)

Interior perspective (NTS)

Bird eyed view of the house (NTS)

Floor plan of the room (1:20)

Section A-A, B-B of the room (1:20)

Section C-C, D-D of the room (1:20)

Side section of the house (NTS)

Front section of the house (NTS)

Axonometric (1:20)

Interior Architecture and Design

I started this course in 2011, after I have completed the Foundation Diploma. 

To be honest, there were a few people come to me and asked why I chose this course instead of Fine Art. I've always been a Fine Art girl. 

To me Interior Architecture and Design is the right choice, I've always been interested in the relationship between human and the environment. It is also a form of psychology, you can play with the human mind by changing their surroundings. This is something I would love to know more about, plus I think being able to draw some complex floor plan is pretty impressive haha.

Narrative Photography

For some reason, nowadays whoever owns a fancy expensive camera would call themselves a 'photographer'. Maybe because of this reason, before I actually laid my hand on this subject, I thought it was just something anyone can do.

I have to say, after looking deep into photography and having professional photographers teaching us how to analysis a photo, my thought towards this form of art has completely changed. 

We were given a word and a colour to create a narrative. Mine was 'blue' and 'envy'. It wasn't easy as we only have less than a week to do this mini project but it was so much fun.

The story is about a twin sisters - Haylee and Kaylee. And the idea of how Kaylee is jealous about the pretty blue dress that her twin sister has, there isn't a moment she isn't thinking about stealing that dress. Because deep inside her heart, she believes that blue dress is the reason why everybody, especially her mother likes Haylee more.

Special thanks to my friend Lauren Cox as my model and here is the story: 'Only if I had that dress.'

Haylee. Edited

Kaylee. Edited

Kaylee in the blue dress. Edited

Life drawings

I never liked drawing people, the face is far too complex and I can never seem to get the proportion right. Although I really would love to learn how, I didn't have the time to do so. 

When I started the Foundation Diploma course at The Arts University College at Bournemouth, I was so worried that we need to do life drawings. However it was a lot of fun and not as scary or awkward as I thought it would be, and turned out I wasn't too bad at it. What do you think?