Twins Room Design

The clients for this bedroom design were 6 year old twin boys! The boys needed a room with plenty of space to play together or separate as well as study space in their bedroom.



The idea generator for this design was a children's book; Peppe The Lamplighter. The illustrations and the story were form givers for the twins room concept.





The key words taken from the story were: dream, expression, and aspiration. These words are expressed in the concept model below in the different components of the form. The Blue gray forms represent dream, the beginning and base for a child's aspirations, which are represented by the long orange forms. From aspirations and dreams come personal expression which are represented by the curving wire forms throughout.

The book's illustrations all were dark and rich colored, with light as a strong focal point in each. The curving wire forms also represent these lights. The concept word for the illustrations was: glow.

The concept was applied to the plan in the structure and the interior finishes. The walls curve in expressive lines and then slope up to the back wall in an aspiring line.

One very important interior finish to the concept were the lighting selections. The room's design and concept placed lights as glowing focal points around the room. Small clusters of hanging lights were placed as task lights and focal points. One large statement focal fixture was placed in the center or the room between two sky lights

One special finish for the boys room was the closet bumped into the room next to the door way. The material selected was a transparent green plastic Armstrong product that was lit from within to glow in low light or darkness. This created a very strong glowing focal point like the book illustrations.
This design challenged me as a designer in many ways. Designing for small children that need to stay in a room into their teens takes a lot of thought and planning for the future with adaptable options. Childish designs have to considered for their adaptability or removal for the future. Creating a concept that applied to a child was a challenge even from a children's book. Relating the concept to a child's growth and development through their dreams and aspirations was my solution to this.

Kitchen Sketch Model

This paster-board model is in 1/4 inch scale, and is to give the client a rough volumetric view of the planned kitchen. This photo shows off the ceiling plan that is hard to convey in sketches. The soffits and curved beams can be better understood from this view. Also the island in the middle of the kitchen can be seen through the beams in this photo. Building a model gives you the designer a chance to see how successful the final volume of space will be.

Kitchen Design (Gregory Home)

Designing a Kitchen is one of the most involved projects in designing a home. This room is the modern day hub of a home. Besides it's new role as a social hub the kitchen must be well planned space that allows for preparation and clean up of meals, and provide many kinds of storage. This kitchen design is special and took extra thought since it was for a client in a wheel chair and her family.

These thumbnails are the fist step in exploring the plan of the kitchen, details, materials, lighting, and application of the concept. Choosing materials and finalizing the plan came next with perspective drawings of the space. A lot of planning went into the height and accessibility of every fixture and appliance in the room, as well as the floor space for a wheel chain within the kitchen.

The parti sketch, concept statement, plans, elevation, and perspectives are sketched above with room in the center to lay out materials for a preliminary presentation to the client.

This design is not final and could be changed after talking with the client to fit needs and their aesthetics better.

Gregory Home Concept Development -Fall 2010

Starting the design process begins with a problem and beginning to solving it. As the designer this is what are you being asked to do. To catalyze this process a designer will search for inspiration, a place to begin creatively solving the problem. The inspiration for the Gregory home was a quote: Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

These abstract 2D sketches explore the key ideas and words taken from the inspirational quote in a visual form. They are done very quickly and loosely, to keep them simple and creative. The second to last thumbnail was taken and explored in a series of 3D thumbnails. These thumbnails were turned into 3 quick sketch models in 3D. The best ideas from the models were taken and used to create a final model that embodied the concept words and key ideas in a tangible 3D form.

This model is the jumping off point for designing the space and floor plan of the Gregory home. Taking it's qualities and applying them to a floor plan. With the revision of the plan as a next step the model will undergo revisions. Both the plan and model are under developed, but with revised concept and statement for the Gregory home the new model will soon be made.