Study Tour: House of the Immediate Future

In addition to our other study tour visits, our class was able to visit the Seattle Center's exhibit with the House of the Immediate Future, a project put on by Habitat for Humanity. Touring through the space provided a great example of efficient use of space, however as design students, we found a few areas that were poorly planned (oops!). Otherwise, their use of space and consideration of various household necessities were very smart and innovative. Sustainable materials and practices were also fully integrated into the design and provided a great opportunity for our students to learn about utilizing such practices. Although some ideas of the designers didn't seem bery practical (such as placing solar panels outside of a home that is set to be built in one of the rainiest areas of the country). Otherwise, it was an incredibly informative visit and I hope to become involved with habitat for humanity in the future both as a student and as a designer.

Study Tour Sketch Crawl



During our study tour to Seattle, our class had the opportunity to visit the Sculpture garden downtown. We were able to walk around and observe the scupltures, which was ideal for the end of the visit where we sketched the various pieces. Though the weather wasn't the warmest, it was a wonderful sunny day that created interesting shadows and depth within the sculptures. I personally enjoyed the visit because of the oppportunity to sketch outside as well as new subjects.

Study Tour Job Shadow

In September, my peers and myself had the opportunity to attend job shadows with various design firms in downtown Seattle. The firm that I worked with was Weber Thompson, a design firm that works primarily with multi-family housing. As a large firm, their staff includes architects, interior designers, graphic designers, and construction administrators. While doing the job shadow, A classmate of mine and I were able to attend a morning staff meeting, meet with the interior design staff for a short Q & A, visit a site nearby for a client the firm is working with, and tour their offices and materials room.

Overall the experience was very informative as well as motivating. Seeing the projects that the designers get to work with made me that much more excited to be a practicing designer. When visiting the nearby site, (which was a multi-family housing project completed by another firm), the principal designer, Carrie, toured us through the units making note of conderations, challenges, important tips, etc. She also showed us portfolio examples to help us for when we have to create our own in addition to giving us some tips for when we are looking for work after college and the type of skills employers are looking for. The whole visit was a great success and I hope to keep in touch with Carrie for more advice or even for an internship.

Final Residence Design

For this design, I really wanted to draw from the strong points of my previous designs as well as incorporate a new concept. From there considered what I wanted to take from my original inspiration piece, Eric Clapton's "Back Home", while also taking into consideration my first concept model. By using the words "memories", "trust", and "belong", I came to the conclusion that my design should focus more on the common area and successfully creating a communal space and then applying that design concept to the one bedroom apartment.

For me, the words I chose were things that came from experiences had with family and friends, and with the challenge of the common area being possibly useless to the building tenants, I wanted to use the words as a source of inspiration for creating a common space. The issue of the space lies in its ability to encourage gatherings and provide a refuge away from home that would build a sense of community for each floor. This problem was what I was most determined to address. With that in mind, I took the curves from my original concept model and let them be the focal point of my new parti. After completing several sketches, I chose the one above because of its enclosed circles and realistic application to my design ideas. One particular application of my parti can be seen in one of my seating areas located in the commons that is slightly enclosed by a curved wall. By incorporating this niche, I was also able to include a specific request made by the client to have glass blocks. Seeing as how the common area has very little light, but is a very large space, I sought to find some sort of separation of space while still having the whole area still tie together. I was able to achieve this by topping the wall that separated the seating area from the rest of the space with glass blocks, that while dilineating the space, still provide a sense of cohesion by being relatively translucent.

Another area in which I used my parti to create a division of space was in my kitchen where I integrated a bar which also aided in providing a more visible entryway, rather than just a door leading into the apartment.

For the rest of the apartment and common area, I continued with the same approach, seeking to find opportunities that inspired conversations and gatherings. ADA requirements were also considered in the design and were addressed in all areas of the apartment and living area to ensure easy access for any tenant that might be mobility impaired. Similar materials were selected in comparison to the two bedroom apartment and the color scheme also remained relatively similar with the exception of lighter walls to better accomodate the variety of tenants that will be living in the apartments.