From Houses to Homes: Guatemala

¡Hola design world! Let me start by apologizing (again) for completely falling off the face of the planet for the past months. It's been a whirlwind of a semester - not that it's any sort of an excuse for my absence. There's so much to update on but there's one aspect of my life that I'm really excited to share with everyone.It's been a semester full of opportunity for me, and I'm feeling truly blessed to be able to participate in it.

Way back in early September, Syracuse University alumni, Maureen Baker, approached the interior design department looking for a group of students to work on a real-world design project. The project was to help design a Montessori style school for the New Jersey based organization From Houses to Homes (check out the school under the "education" link). The school, called Kemna'Oj, is currently being built in Santa Maria de Jesus, a rural village just outside of Antigua, Guatemala and is scheduled to be completed in April of 2013.

At the beginning of this project, I was excited to participate in a project that would actually be applied and built. As a design student, it's very rare that any project I design would ever be constructed. Now, with the project nearly at its end, my excitement stems from so much more. What I've come to realize over the past few months is just how much of an impact design can have on those who inhabit it. It's one of those ideas that, as a student, you're aware of, but really have no idea how true it is.

In Santa Maria de Jesus, the literacy rate is at a meager 69% and of the few children who attend school, many don't make it past second grade. What Kemna'Oj will do is allow students to attend the school completely free. With the nearest public school being about an hour away, this is a coveted opportunity for most children.

The Kemna'Oj Design Team from left to right: 

Lex Struble, Erin McCarthy, Meghan Thomas, Me, Jessica Greenlaw, Emily Groemmer

Now for the part where we step in...

Starting off, we had ourselves a full program. We not only were tasked with designing the entire interior of the building, but also most of the furniture within it. After months of tirelessly putting ourselves into this project, we came up with a solid, cohesive design for the classrooms, cafeteria, and courtyard of the building which fueled the design decisions in the secondary spaces.

We took the idea of a huipil (traditional Mayan garb seen above) as well of the name of the school itself, which means "weaving minds, weaving knowledge," and created an overarching motif of weaving, diamonds, and thread. The diamond motif was first established in the courtyard and hallway railings. These elements referenced the diamond pattern seen on Santa Maria de Jesus's huipil. You'll also notice a sculptural string element located in the cafeteria as well as the entrance of each classroom. This element gives the school an identity as well as serving as the identification of each grade (the threads are different colors for each grade). Obviously, this was a very brief summary of our design intents and processes, but I'd rather you see the results than me describe them (:

Upper Level Classroom

Pre-K & Kindergarten Classroom

Courtyard Area

Cafeteria

I'm so proud of these renderings and all the effort that exists behind them. The team I worked with faced numerous challenges from language and measurement barriers, to changing deadlines and time shortages. What's even more thrilling is that we'll soon be able to see our designs come to life. With construction underway (the roof of the building went on just a few weeks ago!) we'll be seeing images of color and life coming into the building very soon.

Most spectacularly, drumroll please...

...the six of us will be going to Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala in May to do a post-occupancy study. I still cannot wrap my head around just how truly blessed I am. Being able to design the school was enough of a blessing in the first place, but actually being able to see it is beyond what I could ask for. Not only that, but I'll be able to see just how much of an impact the school will have on the children who attend Kemna'Oj.

And on that note, I'll leave you with these amazing faces and a little video:

    

Life as an Intern

Big news! Today was my first time as an official intern for a local design firm. I was super excited (and a tad bit nervous) but it turned out to be great. The woman I work with runs her own business and has a ton of experience in residential design. So far it's great and I'm feeling really privileged to be able to have hands-on experience in the field. I've already been able to dabble in specifications as well as some sight measurements. This coming week I'll be putting my AutoCAD skills to good use and I can't wait! Overall, I'm really starting to look forward to this summer.

Maybe this is the naive design student in me speaking, but specifying products isn't so bad.

Sustainable Housing Project

My most recent project involved creating a sustainable residence for a given client. I was assigned a newly constructed apartment building located in the Near Westside of Syracuse, NY (The Lincoln Building). My design intent was to create an open home that utilized subtle sustainable details and locally sourced materials. For my single, middle-aged female client, the open floor plan not only led to a cohesive aesthetic throughout the apartment, but also gave her a seamless environment for entertaining.

Renderings:

Floor Plans & Sections:

Model Work:

Great Room Project

So I realized it's been far too long since I've updated anything here - sorry for the long hiatus in posts. Anyway, what better way to enter back into the worldwide web than posting some of my work from this year? For this particular project, we were given a particular room in the home with our only requirements being that it fit into a certain cubic footage. I was given the great room and 2400 cubic feet to play with. So what's in a great room? We discussed the space in a variety of ways: the great room as a space for "togetherness", the great room as space for technology, etc. I chose to take the FLW route and look at the concept of the hearth as the center of the home. By omitting the use of technology, I was able to focus on different functions of the great room. Both private and public spaces surround a peninsula fireplace.

Renderings:

Model Work:

Floor Plan & Sections:

Adobe After Effects

As an interior design major, I've never really given much thought to some of the amazing motion graphics software out there. For my presentation techniques class, we were required to play around with Adobe's After Effects program for our current project. Today we covered some basic tools and put together a quick, five second video using...wait for it...the almighty pen tool!

After Effects' user interface is surprisingly easy to navigate once you've played around with it for a few minutes. I especially appreciate how similar the layout and commands are to Adobe's other programs. Considering the level of my motion graphics knowledge is limited to iMovie and basic at best skills in Adobe Flash, I'd give the interface an A for usability.

And that's not even getting to the technical aspect of the program. The main techniques we played with today were tracing a path, using the 3D tool to create perspectives, and basic "lighting." To my surprise, the 3D/Perspective tool was much easier to operate than that in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Being able to numerically control the angles of each plane was something the former programs could definitely benefit from. 

That being said, my favorite aspect of After Effects has to be the lighting tool. Imagine your own tiny film set in your lap - pretty cool if I do say so myself. Even in the virtual world, lighting completely changes the way a project looks and feels. And, again, being able to control the color, intensity, and angles of the lighting was definitely a plus.

In the end, we made a basic video of our name being written across our "hand-made" wall. Basic stuff, but still pretty awesome in the eyes of someone who has no idea about animation or video editing. I can see this program doing really interesting things with presenting motion through a space. Can anyone say virtual design walk-through?

Sustainability in Context

Throughout the past couple of weeks, we've had a particularly narrow focus on sustainability in my design classes. Needless to say, it is one of the most pressing issues we as designers face these days. Whether you believe it or not, climate change is directly affected by our decisions in day-to-day life and especially in the environments in which we live. As an interior designer, I think we can have a direct effect on moving towards a more sustainable way of life through the spaces we inhabit.

While we typically look at sustainability through the lens of conserving energy and not wasting resources, there are other ways to move towards sustainability. My interior design class recently went on two trips - one to EcoVillage at Ithaca, NY and one to two of Frank Lloyd Wright's quintessential homes. In both instances, we were asked to consider the idea of sustainability at all levels.

EcoVillage took the idea of sustainability to an extreme (and not necessarily in a bad way). Currently, two "villages" exist there, with each village housing about 30 people who share a common house for laundry, community gatherings, etc. The villages featured small building footprints to conserve land, large south-facing windows to utilize passive solar heating, as well as many other innovative eco-friendly technologies. What's even more interesting is how they set up a sustainable community. Thinking about spatial arrangements in a way that promotes social interactions was something I'd never thought of in that context. Any changes to the village have to be approved by ALL of it's residents, strictly following the idea of co-housing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Frank Lloyd Wright's Kentuck Knob and Falling Water did not necessarily consider sustainability yet managed to display some characteristics of it. Most prominently, Wright's unintended sustainability is displayed in his use of natural materials - especially those sourced from directly around the site. Stone quarried from each home's location as well as timber from locally grown trees, although made as aesthetic decisions, ultimately ended in an eco-friendly place. 

Shifting towards these aesthetics, Wright utilized a form of biophilia in both Kentuck Knob and Falling Water. He constantly referenced organic materials and forms. This is unmatched in his cascading cantilevers of Falling Water as well as his direct connection to the waterfall. On top of these links to nature, I found Wright's use of space impeccable. While his communal spaces were largely open, he managed to maximize every inch of space. His built-ins create a sustainable space not only because they utilized every inch, but also because they created a timeless and permanent environment to live in. Considering designs in the long-haul is something I consider pivotal to sustainable design. While we tend to focus on new technologies and contemporary images of interiors, I think a key element of sustainability will, in fact, be creating classic spaces that won't "ugly out" before they wear out. 

Starting New

Hello All!

As a start to my blog, I thought I'd give you a look into what I've accomplished in my studies so far. I recently put my portfolio and resume together and was able to see just how much I've done. You really don't realize how much time and energy you've put into something until you have time to sit back and really look at it. These are just a few examples from many of the projects I completed last semester. Sorry for the small size - there's only so much you can do on blogger!