Interval Development

After being out of action for a couple of weeks with illness, I've found it extremely frustrating and hard to get back onto the right track and my design work has stalled abit because of it. With the extension, it will still give me time to hopefully finish the project to level of quality I want but has not left me with a whole lot of time to develop my concepts further. I've moved on from my previous ideas and have gone with the idea of rotating a particular shape, in this case the pentagonal shape featured in the facade of the Design school. I decided to stop making sketches and trying to think 3-dimensionally in a 2d format (the cause of my problems in the last project) and realised the only way to explore my ideas to their full extent and resolve the design was to make and develop a series of maquettes. Below also is a piece of furniture designed by Marc Newson that has also provdied a source for inspiration.

My 3D thought process began by making a Lego block piece, playing with a module and repeating it to form an object.



From that i decided to use a single shape that had been inspired by the facade and that would be practical to make using the 6mm MDF available at the Workshop. The next problem after this, would be to manipulate form and use similar connections to make an upstanding side-table that features and controls light.

The maquette below is a scaled model of what will be the final version of my Interval project. It uses the pentagonal shape and dimensions developed from the facade and will be made with 6mm MDF with slit connections and no requirements for glue for the final piece. Perforations will be considered to allow light to filter through the centre of the model and disperse as it travels through the core. This is symbolic of the atrium space in the Industrial design building and have provided a platform for inspiration and design.

Interval Concepts

The Interval project has given us the scope now to take a break from all the architectural ideas we have to consider when designing and we now have the freedom to design for something on a much smaller scale with the opportunity to build it. It provided an opportunity to play with form and light on a more accessible scale with responsibility and design focus limited to a much smaller spectrum of events. I have decided to make a lamp/ table that will reside in the lounge areas of the building (eg. staff lounge/ common room).

Ideas for the form of the Interval project have been driven by the facade of the building. The curves seen on the Clare St facade that were driven by prominent streamlining seen in many industrial design projects, might feature in my design. I'm hoping to incorporate a lamp or lighting system with a stand that also holds books or is able to provide a stand for other items.

I am also wanting to carry on with my ideas of repetition and the idea of modules - having one particular shape and creating a pattern through rotation and manipulation of it. In the sketches above, I've begun experimenting again and hope to carry this idea through the form of the model.

At the moment I'm considering using the pattern on the faces of solid square-like segments through a fabric or material that is semi-transparent and that will allow the light to filter through. I might start to think of actually using a shape in a pattern or manipulate it to form the actual structure of the model.

DDI review

After getting it all together frantically for the review, I was left feeling happy with what I had come up with but disatisfied at the same time. I felt my concepts were strong but I had just not given myself enough time to explore different parts of the project, parts that may have been more important in conveying the design than others for review day. As seen in my posters below, I spent considerable time on the planning and my facade worked, but as pointed out by the review panel, I didn't explore the design 3-dimensionally as well as could have been and didn't have any sort of images to show this.

After reading about industrial design there were 2 phrases that stuck in my mind most that Shakespeare had written and that apply to industrial design. They are:

'Ornament is but the guilded shore to a most dangerous sea'; and

'Weary, stale, flat & unprofitable'.

Perhaps in future assignments I should spend more time on presenting my ideas to enable others to understand the building and what it might be like to inhabit it. More time also needs to be spent on thinking of the building as a whole 3-dimensional form, not as seperate entities driving by planning, elevation, then a model.