Group Project–Bathroom

For The past two weeks, our studio had a serious of group projects. I am in a group of four and we need to design a bathroom. Doing a group project is very different from me doing a project myself. For example, I am very bad at time managing and planning out my steps. For group project, we had to plan out every steps in order to finish on time. Everybody in the group worked together and I think we contribute what we are good at. We did research and then have discussions. We all contribute to the form of the bathroom.  Anyways, we finished a model, a poster and a booklet. Here are more pictures.

GLUE

Glue had always been a go-to tool for me before college. it’s so convenient and useful to hold pieces together. Glue has always been a tool for me instead of a material. However, after first project at Tech, I learned that glue is a material. I do understand that glue is a too easy solution and as a designer, it is important to push the possibilities. For one of my project last semester, I used glue to hold a 6-inch applied cube. I had a hard time applying the glue to start with and the cube looked bad. I made another by using only metal strips and a applier. The strips just hook onto each other. It is way sturdier than the one before. Half way through the semester, my first glue cube started to fall apart. Whenever people walk by, a piece just fell off the cube. That’s when it hit me that as useful as glue seems, it is not the best solution over a period of time. Now I always ask myself, how can I construct this without using glue. The picture above is my glued six inch cube right now.

Roanoke–definition of a city

On April 13th, my studio took a trip to Roanoke for an exhibition of John Cage. I spent about 3 hours there and Roanoke left a big impression on me. I grown up in a very crowded city in China and spent two years in rural area(horses, deers, cows and farms all around) in Massachusetts. I had experiences with two kind of extreme environments. Because of whatI saw as I grow up, I define city as in cities like new york city and Beijing. However, when I see Roanoke, it changes my view of city. City represents mixtures.  It can be a mixture of culture, a mixture of building styles and a mixture of old and new. The juxtaposition and balance among different elements are what define city. Roanoke is definitely an interesting city. It has a lot to offer to the visitors. I would love to go back if I can. Here are some pictures I took during my visit.

Material Video–Foam

Here is the video about foam.

(I had some audio problems last time I upload, let me know if there any additional issue. Thanks)

Permanent

Until today, I am still afraid to do anything permanent. For my felt project, I could screen print some content onto the felt piece. But the fact that whatever I chose to screen print will stay there forever. It has to be something that the viewers are not going to get tired of and it has to be something that most people will enjoy reading. The permanent element in design always scares me. I think its because I will always question whether the content is value enough to be permanent. Also, I am afraid what I think is valuable right now might not be so good  10 years from now. Is it okay to have something designed with a mark of that period of time or a mark of who I am as a designer? I understand it is important to express yourself as a designer but leaving something permanent around is scary.

Fishing line

For my linear, planar and sold structure, I am considering fishing lines as one of my material choice. So i started researching about fishing line in design. The most “famous” use is the fishline chair by Nendo in Japan.

The reason they started this project is to explore a new way to polish and finish wood product. The fish lines are dyed before use so that they can also give chairs different colors without losing the nature wood grain. “just a hint of color  – I try to keep color selection real simple.” said Oki Sato. Tithing the fishlines around the chair gives it a varnish-like shine.

The picture above is when the chars were displayed in Belgium. Because of the qualities fishlines have themselves, they have an interesting play with light too.

I couldn’t really find other design using fishing lines. Most times, designers choose fish line because its transparent. However, there is more to it. In the example in the picture, fish line played a big role. If there isn’t the special surface and light-playing quality that fishing line provided. The chairs wouldn’t be as special.

Anyway, I am not so sure if fish line is the right material for me but it definitely worth exploring.

Against the grain: Wood in Contemporary art, craft ad design.

Against the grain is the exhibit put together by Museum of art and design. It mostly presents contemporary methods of word working and the new relationships between function and form that are discovered by 57 different artists and designers. There are total of 90 pieces.

The following image is a “bird nest” created by Nina Bruun. She used curled strips to “mimick the organized chaos of a bird’s home in her Nest chair”. The curves are fluid and flow into each other. Also this is an example of linear, planar and solid (maybe?)

Here is a link to a slide show about the exhibition: http://www.dwell.com/post/slideshow/against-grain#1

How to use/follow the prompt.

Ever since the first year competition, I have been realizing that any good design has combination of many design principles. For example, the prompt for the competition was using three materials, to make a structure that address interior and exterior, structure and non-structure and material connections. Most of people try to figure of a way to use all three materials and fit all the requirements in. However looking at the final 17 designs, it occur to me that a successful design doesn’t have to try to fulfill the requirements. Those three relate to each other. Since there are three different materials, material connection is definitely part of the project. As a structure, there is always structural and non-structural parts and they are shown by having both interior and exterior parts. That was just a break down explanation of why they relate to each other but more often, the design itself should be able to present these ideas without viewers try to find each parts. It should be a fluid combination instead of three ideas stuffed into one object.

For this new project, our prompt was building a linear, planar and solid structure that capture natural light. I will try my best to build structure that “naturally” combine these three requirements.