Spring Porfolio

Here is the link to my spring portfolio page.

Moving Forward.

Today during our group discussion, there is one question got asked a lot. “What elements can ou bring forward into future projects?” I find this question very interesting because I have never looked my projects in a continues way. Although I do believe that every designer subconsciously use experiences from previous projects and move on to the next one.

I think the most we learn about each project is materialities. I know I have been documenting my experiences with different materials. Material, form and structure are always related terms. There are forms that only certain materials can perform. It is a very important knowledge for us to have moving forward.

Another thing that i have learned this year that will help me in he future is how to understand and interpret a prompt. None of the prompt is randomly picked. There is always connection between the requirements.  For example our recent “linear, planer and solid, Capture nature light” Capture light is more the functionalities aspect to the design. Linear, planer and solid is the form aspect. At the beginning I thought” dots make line, lines make plan and plans make solid.” I thought it would be easy to corporate these three elements together. However it turns out to be hard to be able to suggest all three without making one of them very literal or too much a stretch.

There are many other thing I have learned this year that will help me in the future.

First Year Competition –Review+Materials

During mid-March, we had a first year competition. The prompt given to us was to build a structure to illustrate interior and exterior, structure and non structure and connections between materials. We were given a sheet of bristol,  a 1/2 inch wooden dowel and another material of our own choice. We have five days to finish the assignments. I used chipboard as my third material. Here are some pictures of the final product.

I tried to corporate three materials together, which is one of the reason why i picked chipboard. Because of te color and qualities chipboard have makes it easier to construct with bristol and wooden dowel.

However, as the pictures have shown, there are some constructions problems. The angle that I picked out and the way the dowel interact with the other two materials are too much for chipboard to take.

For future projects, I think it is important to learn both the potentials and limits of the material. I have always been pushing the possibilities. Sometime I feel like I am asking too much from the material. It could be a good thing to explore material but it is also important to learn about the material. Instead of physically bending, cutting to achieve the form, If I know enough about different materials, I could have a similar finish qualities.

Hallgrímskirkja–Iceland

Hallgrímskirkja is the largest church in Iceland. It is 73 meters tall and it can be seen anywhere in the city. It is designed by  Guðjón Samúelsson, the state architect. He incorporated iceland’s landscape into his design. The actual construction lasted for 39 years, it starts in 1945 and ends in 1986. It is a very important landmark in Iceland. The design of Hallgrímskirkja is often compared with Grundtvig’s Church in Denmark.

This church is designed by Jensen-Klint. Due to the style of the building, it is recognized as one of the rare examples ofexpressionist church architecture. Because the unique appearance, it is without a doubt, one of the important landmark.

The reason these two buildings interest me is they are examples of the combination linear, planar solid.  It is hard to combine those three elements without making one of the elements “awkward”. However, these two are great design examples.

Material–Clay

Couple weeks ago, we had a tile project. We created a pattern on computer which later turn into clay tiles.  I had some experiences working with clay in high school. I have learned that clay is very tricky material to work with. The advantage is that it is very forgivable in comparison to wood, metal and plastic. As long as the clay is not fired, we can always make changes to it and even reclaim it to start over. However, clay has a memory. All the manipulations we did to clay will be shown in the piece. All the shrinking when they dry can change the form too. I am experimenting with clay for my lineal, planar, solid project. I am cutting strips of clay and placing them on top of each other to create a plan and suggest a solid volume. 

As this picture shows, the clay are sitting on top of each other. Originally, I didn’t plan on fire the structure but in order to have a glossy finish looking, i decide to fire it, which means the connections between the strips become very important.

Clay is very easy to look messy/unfinished since it’s so easy to make any changes to the form. Any additional force add onto clay will leave a mark. In the further exploration, I am going to be extra careful and try to have a clean finish.

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.