MARTHA ANDREWS
INTERIOR & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGNER
Design an Interdisciplinary Space ‘within-a-space’ to reflect the identity & culture DJCAD.
MIRCO>MESO>MARCO
Thinking carefully about the breif; “Design an interior ‘within an interior’ to reflect the identity and culture of an art school experience,” I began to wonder what is a space without people? This lead me to the focus of human movement and human relationships with the built environment; architecture and furniture especially.Innovation is key at Art & Design school. To be a successful designer you have to break trends with cutting edge designs so for this reason I decided to investigate to the theme of “upsetting routine.”
Before redesigning the space I felt it was vital to look closely at how the space is currently used and try to work out why it isn’t as successful as it could be.
It quickly became evident that as the space stands it is used as merely a corridor to over 90% of the people who frequent it. The people who move through it tend to be walking with purpose, on their way elsewhere. Due to this the space at present has a severe lack of interaction with the people. This really answers my initial question; “what is a space without people?” … Not a lot.
The allocated site currently exists as a central void between four floors. The spread of people is concentrated on the lowest floor as it gives access to several lecture theatres as well as multiple studios and departments. Due to the access this is always going to be the case but I feel the key to the success of this space could be encouraging the people to interact with the higher levels.
Concentrating on the need to spread the flow of people to the upper levels of the space and connect all the floors led to the focus on the use of pyramid shaped structures. I developed this basic form from my behavioural mapping creating a series of different combinations. The use of these along with a simple chair structure creates hood like canopies for intimate one on one conversation.
Creating some initial 1:50 models made up of triangular shapes; 2m x 1m x 2.5m high helped to get a handle on scale. Stepping away from drawings for a short while to experiment with 3D form and get a better insight into how these pods may exist inreality really helped the development of the idea.
When looking at the space I had created in plan view an interesting geometric pattern emerged from the design. The positioning of the pods had created a series of angles that were calling out for more attention. Taking the idea of connection literately I started experimenting by projecting out the sides of the pods resulting in a further aspect to my design being discovered. From the projections I created a series of glass slits on the pods opening up more opportunities for students to connect on different levels. In addition to this the continuation of the projections on the ground of level 5 were used to create visual suggestion of further connections.
The final design consists of a series of ten pods set over three different levels. The arrangement of these are sympathetic to my research with the majority of the pods appearing on floor 5. Five different variations of pod structures occur all filtering from the initial pyramid shape.
Each pod features a different coloured floor to allow for the pods to be recognised on an individual basis. This encourages the spaces to exist as desirable destinations and meeting places.
Each pod, bar one, contains two chairs encouraging intimate one on one conversations. The canopy pod (yellow) is designed as a transitory space for brief encounters.
The chair featured in the concept is designed by ROLU; a design company based in Minnesota who focus on simple plywood and OSB furniture. The + chair corresponds really well with the design not only on a materials level but also in reflection of the geometric shapes it’s made up of. In order to adhere to the contrasting materials of the pods themselves the chairs will appear in white.
2014