Bathroom Design

I designed a bathroom based on my earlier concept of home. The bathroom is meant to be visitable, so the sink and toilet are wheelchair accessible. Once I decided on a design, I drafted different drawings of it, then traced them and scanned them to put them on a digital poster.

Designing the bathroom was a lot of fun. I chose more fixtures than in the kitchen, like the bathtub, shower doors, toilet, sink, mirror, and task lighting. I like my design and I think the details regarding accessibility and and relation to my concept are well done. There are a few things I would change, however. If I were to re-do the poster, I would darken the background so it matched the paint color better. I would also hand draft my titles using marker lettering and draw them bigger than the typed titles. Another issue with my poster is the darkness on the edges of some of the scanned images, which I would fix with Photoshop.

3-D bathroom model

Kitchen Design

I designed a kitchen for a two bedroom apartment designed for two people. The kitchen is designed around the concept of "home" that I developed last month (can be viewed here).

Throughout the kitchen design process, I learned that there are a lot of small but extremely important details involved in designing a kitchen. Every dimension, fixture, appliance, color, and surface affects the overall function and appearance of the space. I am proud of the outcome of my project, but there are a few details I did not include, such as an elevation bug on my plan relating to the elevation and section drawings. Some of the strengths of my project include the lettering and organization.

Kitchen design poster with 2-D parti, 1/2" kitchen floor plan, materials, appliances, concept statement, two 1/4" elevations, one 1/4" section, and four rendered perspective drawings

Floor Plan at 1/8" = 1'0"

3-D model of apartment with detail in kitchen

3-D model of apartment with detail in kitchen

Showrooms & House of the Immediate Future

In Seattle, I was able to visit the Seattle Design Center, the Pental Stone showroom, the DalTile showroom, 3Form Light Art Studios, the Knoll showroom, and the Habitat for Humanity's House of the Immediate Future.

By visiting these showrooms, I learned about the relationship between designers and showrooms. I was also acquainted with a lot of new materials and how to go about choosing materials for a client. I enjoyed seeing the warehouses, and learning about molding resin at 3Form. It was impressive and inspiring to hear how 3Form Light Art Studios and Knoll got started, and how they have continued designing on a large scale. As a designer, visiting the showrooms showed me the grand possibilities my future may hold.

I sketched two chairs at the Knoll showroom. I had difficulty with the perspective lines in the first sketch, and ran out of room on the page for the second sketch. I did pretty well with my hatching, but struggled with spacing.

Here is a sketch and a photo of the House of the Immediate Future. The house is very environmentally friendly with net zero energy use, and has a bedroom on the main floor which allows for easier accessibility to elderly residents. After volunteering with Palouse Habitat for Humanity, it was cool to see the organization's work on a larger scale.

Urban Sketchers

Last Saturday, I visited the Olympic Sculpture Park with the Urban Sketchers in Seattle. After about two hours of sketching, we all viewed each other's work. It was really cool to see all the experienced sketchers' drawings as well as drawings of my peers.
Here are two sketches of mine from the Olympic Sculpture Park.

In my sketch of The Eagle, I experimented with a color repeat technique by applying red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet to the entire sketch and concentrating certain colors in each area. I think the sketches turned out pretty well, but I should have focused more on the horizon line in the perspective.

Job Shadow

I spent a day job shadowing with Jennifer from Jennifer Randall and associates. A classmate Miranda and I accompanied Jennifer to a client's home in Seattle, and we watched Jennifer and her client discuss possibilities for remodeling her kitchen and dining room. It was interesting to see the interaction between Jennifer and her client. Since the client's home was pretty old, some of the original designs in the kitchen are no longer up to code. Jennifer used her design knowledge to come up with possible solutions to design problems in the kitchen. Miranda and I also helped Matt, one of Jennifer's coworkers, measure in the kitchen and dining room. After visiting the client's house, Miranda and I went with Jennifer to buy a few items from Builder's Hardware and Supply. I had never seen a big hardware store with so many different pieces before (doorknobs, cabinet knobs, doorbells, etc.), so it was fun to look around at the products.

Here is a photo I took inside the hardware store.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of job shadowing. Jennifer was very friendly and offered Miranda and I advice whenever she came across anything we might not know about. She described the differences between life as a residential designer and a commercial designer-- like how a commercial designer might have more freedom when it comes to design decisions since a business is not as personal to the client as a home.