Impaired Vision Experience

A few classmates and I got a glimpse into the daily life of a person with impaired vision. We wore sunglasses with petroleum jelly smeared on the inside of the lenses and walked around our school's union building, the CUB. We also looked through resealable baggies to see a newspaper as a visually impaired person would and looked through a vision simulator tool.

We each completed tasks like walking up and down stairs, using an elevator, and using an ATM. Going down stairs is difficult with a visual impairment, and it is hard to see where the stairs end. The railings on the staircases, however, are very helpful because they are metal and reflect light which makes them easier to see. Using elevators is difficult because the buttons outside the elevator are not well marked. The biggest problem with the buttons is that at one set of elevators, the fire alarm button is the same size and shape as the up and down buttons-- one of my partners almost pushed that button by accident! My group and I visited multiple ATMs, and some are easier to use than others. The credit card slots feature green lights, and all the keypads have a braille bump on the number 5. The enter and exit keys were green and red on the ATMs, but were not bright enough to even be noticeable for someone with a visual impairment. Our union building features a lot of bright colors and high contrast, which are generally great for someone who is visually impaired, but these contrasts are not necessarily in the right places in the CUB. The biggest contrast issue was the glass doors entering the bookie. The doors have no frames, so it is hard to tell whether a door is open or closed.

My group and I were unable to read a newspaper through a plastic baggie. We first tried to read the paper through two layers of plastic, and I could only read the title of the newspaper and headlines. Through four layers of plastic, I everything was much blurrier, but I was still able to read the big headlines.

The vision simulator tool, a piece of plastic with different sections through which to look, showed people with various visual impairments see. I thought the tunnel vision tool was most helpful in understanding that particular kind of visual impairment, which removes all peripheral vision.

Light, colors, and general shapes were most visible in this experience. Overall, the most important design features for someone with a visual impairment include good lighting, contrasting colors, and sound cues. It is crucial that stairs, railings, doorways, walls, and corners are well lit and high contrasting to allow the most comfort for use by a person who is visually impaired. Sound cues, like at elevators, are also helpful. In a residence, sounds from water features to wind chimes can help orient a person in a space.

Art Gallery Experience

I visited Rima Fine Art Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona where one of my interior design teachers, Carrie Vielle, has an exhibit. It was fun to see her work in a gallery with artists like Renoir and Picasso.

I paid attention to how the gallery is designed to best show the paintings and sculptures. The gallery is about 4000 square feet including a few offices. There is a wall through the center of the gallery to divide the space and make it easier to maneuver and view the artwork. There are two sets of two small, movable walls in the front of the gallery to block the sun from the rest of the gallery in addition to hanging paintings. Like many of the other Old Scottsdale galleries, Rima has a large awning that is about ten feet deep to add shade to the front of the gallery. The street the galleries are on is aligned east to west so the galleries do not face the sunrise or sunset. Rima features simple cases for sculptures with black, rectangular bases and glass boxes on top. The cases are placed in corners or in the center of a room to make navigating the room easier. The gallery has a huge amount of track lights with halogen bulbs, and there is at least one spotlight for every single work of art. Wayfinding in the gallery is mostly done through wall placement and placement of exhibit pieces rather than throught color or lighting. Small sculptures are placed in cases that are lined up in the center of a room to guide visitors through the gallery. There are also built-in walls with large, arched doorways so viewers know which art to look at next. The gallery walls are a beige color so that they do not detract form the art, and the floors are dark brown. The gallery's ceilings are white along with the base and crown moldings. The colors, though neutral, add interest to the space without taking viewers' attention from the art.

The most efficient part of the gallery's design, in my opinion, is its method of allowing the public to see inside the gallery without very much sunlight. The awning outside and small movable walls at the front of the gallery both protect the artwork from the sun and without blocking the art from the public.

Here is a quick sketch of a rounded corner in the gallery. The drawing shows some of the spot lights as well as a sculpture case out of vistors' paths.

Client Brief

A few months ago, before I began designing any part of the apartment building, I met with the client to discuss his vision for the project. I prepared a client brief discussing his main goals and ideas for the space so that I could create a design the client would like. Then, I created adjacency and critera matrices prioritizing my plans for the space with the client's needs in mind. Interviewing the client helped me understand his ideas for the space and improved my ability to combine my design ideas with the client's.

Residence Design

Now that I have learned about kitchen and bathroom design and reviewed my designs for two apartments and a common space with my peers and professional interior designers, I created a final summary of my designs and their process. I created four posters describing my design. 

The first poster summarizes the development of my concept with my concept statement, inspiration quote, 2-D parti, 3-D concept model. It also includes some of my early process work.

The second poster shows a floor plan at 1/8"-1'0" of the one bedroom apartment and the common space with a few elevations of the apartment.

The third poster includes more elevations, a 1/4"=1'0 floor plan of both apartments and the common space as well as a few furniture pieces for the living room and perspective drawings.

The fourth and final poster shows appliances and furniture for the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, and a perspective drawing of the kitchen.

Using my concept and knowledge about kitchen and bathroom design, I developed a floor plan for the space. I chose materials and then drew elevations and perspectives of how I designed the apartments and common space. The biggest improvement I noticed in this project was my ability to visualize and draw a space through elevations or perspectives. I think my project has a lot of strengths, and I put a lot of thought into my design. However, there are many weaknesses as well. After presenting my final design to practicing designers, I realized that I should have focused a lot more on natural lighting. I also struggled to arrange all the images on my four posters.

Here is my volumetric model of the one bedroom apartment.

These are a few of the materials I chose to install in the apartment.

Residence Design

Now that I have learned about kitchen and bathroom design and reviewed my designs for two apartments and a common space with my peers and professional interior designers, I created a final summary of my designs and their process. I created four posters describing my design. 

The first poster summarizes the development of my concept.

The second poster shows a floor plan at 1/8"-1'0" of the one bedroom apartment and the common space with a few elevations of the apartment.

The third poster includes more elevations, a 1/4"=1'0 floor plan of both apartments and the common space as well as a few furniture pieces for the living room and perspective drawings.

The fourth and final poster shows appliances and furniture for the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, and a perspective drawing of the kitchen.

Using my concept and knowledge about kitchen and bathroom design, I developed a floor plan for the space. I chose materials and then drew elevations and perspectives of how I designed the apartments and common space. The biggest improvement I noticed in this project was my ability to visualize and draw a space through elevations or perspectives. I think my project has a lot of strengths, and I put a lot of thought into my design. However, there are many weaknesses as well. After presenting my final design to practicing designers, I realized that I should have focused a lot more on natural lighting. I also struggled to arrange all the images on my four posters.

Meeting with Designers

Over Thanksgiving break, I met with a few designers from The Tin Roof in Spokane to discuss my apartment design project so far. Now that I have designed a bathroom and a kitchen for a two bedroom apartment, I am working on finishing the design for that apartment. I'm also designing a one bedroom apartment and a common space between the two apartments. I brought my current floor plan ideas and a materials board to The Tin Roof and three designers gave me feedback on my ideas. 

The meeting went very well-- the designers were able to give me helpful, constructive ideas while also praising my hard work and pointing out the strengths in my designs. One of the most helpful suggestions they gave me was to consider what type of person would move into the space. Since the apartments I am designing are located in a historic building, people who would want to move into this space likely want a unique, quirky, loft-like apartment with an open plan. My current floor plans have a lot of walls and relatively closed-off spaces, so now I plan to remove some walls and make the space more unique. The designers also helped me consider light in the apartment and how to incorporate colors that reflect my concept. I wanted to use a deep red paint color for my living room walls, but the designers pointed out that I should use a lighter color for the walls and use the deep color for something that won't detract from the room's light, like an area rug. The designers from The Tin Roof also gave me general ideas for improving my floor plan in order to make good use of the square footage.

Another idea the designers had was to add a fireplace to the common space. I chose to incorporate that idea into my design because it makes the common space more welcoming as well as adding an adventurous element to the common space, which fits with my concept.

The meeting helped me realize the strengths and weaknesses of my design so far. I think, overall, I put a good amount of thought into my floor plans and materials. The designers liked my material choices and great ideas for improving my floor plans. It was very helpful to get practical, logical ideas for my floor plans in order to improve them for their real purpose. I learned that when designing plans, I should consider who would realistically want to move into the space and what they would like in addition to what the building owner wants.

Thanks to Heather, Molly, and Nancy of The Tin Roof for your time and help!

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