In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Three

Recently, I've had quite a few people tell me I'm crazy. Frankly, this isn't an uncommon occurrence. Somewhere along the way, my brain wired itself to do things the hard way and somehow, it wired itself to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't go out of my way to make things difficult for myself or anyone else, but if you give me the choice between the shortcut and the scenic route...I'm likely to pick the latter.

Anyway, why am I crazy you might ask? Thesis. But honestly, who isn't? Regardless, I'd been having trouble visualizing just how the four distinct buildings connected and interacted with one another. Since it is a semester long project, and since I desperately need a refresher course in Revit 101, I've been working on modeling my space in the program. I'd really like to give up on that notion and just use good ol' familiar SketchUp, but honestly I'd like to milk my thesis for everything it's worth. Unfortunately, my progress in virtual modeling has been much slower than I'd hoped, and I was getting pretty impatient without a visual, 3D representation of my space.

Enter two days of chipboard, exacto blades, and some serious sobo glue. This is where the crazy comes in. There's this magical thing in the Warehouse shop called a laser cutter...Woah. Fancy. I could have easily plopped each wall of my space into CAD, submitted a file, and emerged victorious with a perfectly cut, speedily produced model of my building. Where's the fun in that? Instead I measure, cut, and glue the entire thing by hand - certainly not a quick process by any means, but it's definitely one I enjoy. The physical act of making a model is extremely satisfying and somewhat therapeutic.

1/8" = 1' - 0" of the CabFab Building in all its glory

On top of its stress-relieving benefits, manually cutting and forming each space really helped me to understand the ins and outs of the building and gave me some formal ideas moving forward.

After discussion over the model with one of my professors, I got an interesting spin on what space planning I had done prior. One of the biggest issues I was having with my space was deciding on where to put the main entrance. I knew that for my programmatic requirements, it would have to move from its original location, but the area I thought about moving it to seemed to be in competition with the existing entry. Enter Professor Zeke flipping my project in the best way possible:

Why not move the entrance to the shipping & receiving dock?

It never would have occurred to me, but it's brilliant actually. This new entrance would be away from the existing one, allow for more traffic to access the building, and open up the existing parking lot to be used for outdoor green space. Needless to say, I was thrilled with this idea. What's most interesting to me at this point is the potential for the aesthetic and conceptual design of this entrance and the immediately adjacent reception/lobby/public space inside. My biggest concerns are keeping and emphasizing the existing industrial nature of the three larger buildings while also creating a visual and formal concept of those two familiar words - empowered pursuit. 

Space Planning Reloaded: The Sequel

So far, a lot of my thoughts on this involve a series of dualities - trade versus art, light versus dark, interior versus exterior. By opening up space between floors, my intent is to expose key structural elements while allowing for an interesting play of light filtering through the building - an idea that really drove some of my conceptual form work last semester. (The visual idea of empowered pursuit kept leading back to something with a strong direction and a movement from dark to light). Similarly, I'd love to introduce some element that ties the interior and exterior visually. In this way, the activities occurring within the walls of the center are literally and figuratively a starting point for a successful launch into the rest of the community and world. 

At this point, I'm thinking of using some sort of strong, angular forms referencing both my concept work from last semester and the structural beams seen in the current showroom space of the building. With steel or wood beams or columns being used in almost every space of the building, it'll be an exciting challenge to emphasize these elements in a thoughtful, designed way.

Talk to you soon!

Why Design?

Sometimes, I realize just how lucky I am. I was raised by two awesome parents, made it through high school graduation, have had the opportunity to travel the world, and have been studying something I love for just under four years. Pretty awesome if you ask me. I often get so caught up in the stress of thinking about graduation, getting a job, and becoming a "real person" that I forget just how amazing my life is.

Anyway, I'm feeling extremely thankful for the way my curriculum is set up this semester. With the former events lingering over me, it can be pretty overwhelming to think about putting together a portfolio and gathering myself enough to think about job interviews. Thankfully, one of my required courses this semester is Professional Practice - a class in which we take a look at the business side of design and prepare ourselves to begin careers in design. So far, we've been talking a lot about what potential employers are looking for during an interview and how to really present yourself well.

The first prompt given was to think about our personal design philosophy. In other words, what does design mean to you? or why do you design? Talk about a tough question. There are so many reasons I love to design, but I really boiled down why I love it so much in just two short sentences.

Here goes nothing:

Finished project: We were required to include a photo, font, and quote 

representing ourselves as designers.

I realize the text may be hard to read without making the image full-size, so here's what it says:

"Design involves empathy for those inhabiting the spaces around you. I design to create positive change in the way people experience their environment, and ultimately the world at large."

After thinking about this prompt, I can finally answer the question "Why do you design?" with confidence.

Cheers!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Two

I've been spending a lot of quality time with construction documents lately. We've really been taking the time to get to know one another - romantic dinners, candlelight, the works. Scratch that painfully bad attempt at humor, let's pretend it never happened.

Moving on, in all seriousness I've been starting at the construction documents for my thesis building for a solid week. I swear every time I look at the building in plan compared to my notes, I find something new. Problem is, my "building" - if you're a Syracuse local, you've probably passed it on the highway (see image below) - is actually made up of four, distinct buildings joined by awkward hallways and disjointed corridors.

The tall, brick building in the back can be seen from I-690

This jumble of unique spaces creates a variety of interesting opportunities, as well as it's fair share of challenges, for my senior thesis. For those of you who don't know, I spent the past semester doing tons of research on education, creativity, current public school curriculum, art therapy...the list goes on. In the end, my research posed an interesting problem and gave me insight into a thoughtful solution:

Long story short, I've found that middle and high school students are in need of motivation to learn as well as an outlet to deal with issues occurring outside the classroom - often in the home environment. My solution? To create a space that fosters improved academic performance as well as a sense of self-efficacy among inner-city students through a creative arts lens.

So, looking at this building with the intent to establish a creative arts center for at-risk youth, I'm both excited to play with space and form as well as nervous to figure out what the heck will actually work. The somewhat disjointed nature of the building as a whole allows many opportunities for different types of spaces - a plus considering the wide variety within my program. On the same note, however, the challenge will be to create a cohesive design between spaces that makes sense. 

General space plan so far. Public and lounge areas will be of particular interest for my concept.

So far, I've decided on a general space plan and started to move forward with it. After speaking with classmates and my professor, I feel really comfortable with my decisions so far. The really difficult part is just starting though - tying my concept work from last semester (seen here) into the entirety of the space. How can I bring the conceptual idea of empowered pursuit into fruition within the space? Hopefully, I'll have the beginnings of an answer for you next week! 

Until then!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week One

So, it's week one of the sixteen short weeks remaining in my final year of my undergraduate career. Let's just take a moment to let that one sink in. I really do sound like a broken record, but I'm truly at a loss when it comes to how little time I have left here at Syracuse.

Anyway, enough dwelling on the future. Perhaps one of my most exciting, interesting, time-consuming, and anxiety-inducing projects this semester is none other than my senior thesis. I know you're no stranger to my thesis stress (or see this post if you are), but this semester will certainly encompass all of the above emotions even more than previous ones.

Not to beat a dead horse, but with this being the last semester in college, I'm facing the challenge of extreme time management in my thesis class, not to mention my life in general. This semester has the potential to be particularly challenging due to the relatively loose structure of the class. Less a few scheduled in-class reviews, my day-to-day progress and "assignments" are almost exclusively determined by me.

Generally, I consider myself okay at managing my time...once I get into the ever-elusive "work-mode." Give me an end goal and say "Go!" and I'm usually set. Although, with the end goal being sixteen weeks away, I'm finding myself mildly overwhelmed by the tasks at hand.

Time to use my noggin...

In a sort of "Ah ha!" moment, I decided to set out weekly goals for myself. Honestly, I'm not sure how productive I'd be on a day-to-day basis without some sort of plan in mind. It's pretty common knowledge that us college kids tend to avoid doing the majority of work until a week before we have a deadline or critique. It might have took four years to get here, but I'm seriously attempting to avoid that this semester. I guess I'll just have to keep reminding myself:

Do or do not. There is no try.

- Thanks Yoda -

Attempting to organize my life...maybe I should start with my desk.

Part of my need to give myself milestones is the fact that I want to get as much as possible out of this whole thesis thing. I figure, with a semester-long design project I should learn as much as I can. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly learn Revit (a building information modeling program for architects/engineers/designers) when I had a class devoted to it. My hope is that I'll be able to get really comfortable with the program by forcing myself to use/learn it for my thesis. I'm sure it'll be frustrating, and I'm sure I'll want to go on a computer smashing rampage at least two or three times, but it'll be worth it in the end...right?

Anyway, mentally preparing myself has been a valuable first step for me so far. I'm hopeful that I'll stay on task without placing unrealistic expectations on myself - guilty as charged. Can't wait to share my progress with you as I work through this exciting project! Check back next week.

Until next time,

A Danielle by Design Year in Review: 2013

Forgive me for sounding repetitive,

but did this year fly or what?!

Let's take a look back at 2013.

JANUARY

Preparing for the U.K.

Arriving in London

Stonehenge and Market Stalls

FEBRUARY

A Trip to Hogwarts

Visiting the Queen's Place & Borough Market

MARCH

A Look at my Love of Coffee Shops & Pubs

Ethics & Design

A Trip to Paris

The Great Outdoors: Dorset & Kew Gardens

APRIL

A Weekend in Amsterdam

Our Trip to Firenze

Traveling to Dublin, Ireland

MAY

Leaving London & Coming Home

A Week in Santa Maria de Jesus, Guatemala

Starting an Online Portfolio

NOVEMBER

In Which I Stress About Thesis

You may have noticed a lack in representation for many months of the year...oops. I'm a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad blogger. Anyway, 2013 can easily be called the most exciting, most challenging, and certainly most rewarding year of my life. And honestly, I'm sad to see it go. 

For the first time, I'm starting a new year with no idea where I might end up or what I'll be doing next year. It's one of the most terrifying yet exciting things I can think of and I'm ready for whatever comes my way. Goodbye 2013, it's been great.

& Hello 2014.

Cheers!