Program Plan for Living/Learning Community at The Province

 

 

 

 

This is the first programming document that I have ever put together, as such, I realize that mine is a paired down version of a professional document. I approached the document by first coming up with a concept for the LLC. I prepared a statement, including purpose and goals, about the LLC and built the rest of the program plan around my initial idea of the type of LLC of which my space is a part. I then analyzed each room, its expected level of privacy, and required functionality vs desired amenities. I then considered the activities that occur within each room and, based on the activities study and amenities study, developed a furniture plan. I produced an adjacency matrix from which I developed a bubble diagram of the space. The programming document helped me to really consider the activities that take place in each room of a dwelling.

 

 

 

 

 

Living Room Research

 

 

 

 

In preparation for a future assignment, our class was divided into groups and each was assigned a domestic space contained within a typical home. Each group researched their space and wrote about their findings. My group consisted of Beth Lowder and myself and our space was the living room.

 

 

Beth and I approached this assignment by researching the history of the living room. We discovered that the activities common to the living room changed cyclically throughout history, but it always maintained its importance within the home.In our research we noticed how important the fireplace (hearth) was to the home. We discussed how interesting it is that, even in climates where they are unnecessary, many homes still maintain a fireplace. We also how the kitchen could be considered the modern hearth in an interior space in which the kitchen and living room are in an open floor plan.

 

 

Beth and I compiled our information and illustrated our points with many historical images. This exercise broadened my ideas about what a living room is and the psychological aspects of it that we still carry today.

 

 



Cultural Self-Portrait

 

 

 

 

To start this semester, our studio class was  assigned a cultural self-portrait. We were encouraged to research our family history and interpret it in our self-portrait. The end result was an introspective look at how the people and events of our family history shape our view of the world. I am fortunate to have a great deal of information about my family history, as many people in my family have intense interests in genealogy.

 

 

I chose to create a three-dimensional self-portrait that addresses my past and the things that created the person I am, and embraces my future and the people I will help to shape. I also acknowledged my family's strong English background,as well as my German ancestry that culminated in the long-standing place my family has in South Carolina history.


My three-dimensional self-portrait is a shadow exploration,created by cutting paper and strategically layering it to reveal my face. Behind my shadow portrait are pictures of my family and ancestors, showing the people who came before me. In front of my self-portrait are layered pictures of my children, representing family continuum.The entire portrait is attached to a base that has copies of paintings of ancestral homes in Charleston, SC and a copy of an excerpt from my great-great-great-grandmother's diary.


When I completed my cultural self-portrait I analyzed it to see if I could discern my general design aesthetic from both its content and its presentation, and I concluded that I could. In terms of design and based on my cultural self-portrait, I concluded that my design aesthetic is edgy traditional that is deeply rooted in history.


 

 

 

 

 

 

The Future of Modern Living

 

 

 

The purposes of human interior spaces have changed throughout history depending on our perception of the expected functionality of a space and the intended message of what we communicate through our homes' interiors. The performance we expect from our home interiors is cyclical and we think we discover a new way of thinking about home interiors, only to realize that our new revelation has been discovered and discarded many times in the past.With the idea of the cyclicality of how we use our homes, it is nearly impossible to define a singular direction in which modern living will develop and change in the next twenty years.

 

However, as land and other resources become more scarce and there is a continued movement toward resource conservation, a direction in which modern living will develop is interior spaces becoming more multi-functional which will force innovations in space utilization and materials. I also see that there is the potential for modern living spaces to become more colloquial as designers and builders choose sustainable, regional materials that could lead to the development of very specific and varied architectural vernaculars. Additionally, technology will play a huge role in the development of technical materials that will help reduce our consumption of natural resources.

 

As with the first human-constructed structure, architects and designers have begun to base their designs around available, regional resources and have begun to more closely consider organic, natural systems in their designs in an attempt at creating a more balanced and sustainable way of connecting a homes' inhabitants to their surroundings.

Susan Szenasy

         While listening to Susan Szenasy, editor-in-chief at Metropolis Magazine, I realized what a privilege it is to attend UNCG in a program in which important industry relationships have been forged and maintained.

 

Susan discussed design innovation and the different professional fields from which these innovations might originate. She introduced the idea of new innovation by showing a film and discussing the winning design innovations from Metropolis Magazine's design competition. This forum provided an opportunity for Susan to ask us to ponder how we, as designers, connect people to their environment through design. It was suggested in this discussion that designers have a duty to consider social and ecological issues in their designs, while looking at history and incorporating technology. Although technology plays a huge role in design innovation, Susan was adamant that it was not the answer for design problems. It is imperative that designers look to organic structures and begin to design from a molecular level. In addition to technology  and natural, organic structure, Susan stressed the importance of also looking at historical design  precedents. Through the use of new technology, organic structure inspiration, and historical precedents, it is possible to design spaces and buildings that are self-sufficient by way of harvesting water and energy.

 

The topics presented by Susan Szenasy led me to consider the various professional fields from which design could originate. Future design will have to incorporate fields outside of architecture and design to further the technologies required to further design innovation

 

Music Building Interface

Based on our previous music project we were asked to design an environmental interface between the music building on the UNCG campus and West Market Street. The interface was to engage passing motorists, pedestrians, and students. Our design was also architectonic and part of an imagined amphitheater.

Based on Adagio for Strings and our group design, I designed an architectonic form that considered acoustics inside the space and aesthetics outside of the space. I intended the exterior of the form to be an ionic water feature.

Iteration 2: For my second iteration I expanded the wall into three different pieces that extended the width of the grassy area next to the music building. I added stainless structures to the tops of two of the walls that were intended to be water features.

Iteration 3: For this model I removed the stainless structures on top of the end walls. I also skewed the walls so they made interesting architectonic spaces on both sides of the wall. My concern with this design is that it looked too much like a gate.

Final iteration: For my final design, I combined the three individual walls and made one long wall. The undulating pattern that is skewed makes architectonic spaces on either side of the structure. The final design becomes a part of the topography and has planting that marry the designed landscaping to the natural vegetation.

This is my presentation board. There is a plan of the space, north and west sections, north and east elevations, and hand-rendered perspectives of the interface in place.

Adagio for Strings

The second half of the semester we worked on a multi stepped project that began with a group project and ended with an individual project.

My group consisted of myself, Natalie Johnson, Emily Febrizio, and Annelise Tennakken. We were assigned Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber to listen to a design a form that represented the music and our individual ideas. This is the form we made.

This piece of music is very quiet, and gradually builds, although it is somewhat anticlimactic. Our form represents the gradual building of volume, instruments, and layers in the piece. The black plane in our design represents disonance in the music, and the drop off represents the anticlimactic nature of the music. The very small waves at the end of our design represent the very quiet small parts of sound at the end of the music. Our project was made out of Bristol board and bamboo skewers.