Archinect - spatial awareness

under the table

2013-04-12T04:31:43-04:00

The House Lab studio, taught by then Assistant Professor of Interior Design Lois Weithal* at The University of Texas at Austin, was comprised of a series of projects that culminated in a final project: the dining room. The studio looked at the the work of Hella Jongerius, Droog Design, Adolf Loos, and many other dining references to frame our reexamination of the conventions of a dining room.

I actually looked at how the practice of dining is portrayed in literature. I chose to look at an exert from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Miss Havisham shows Pip the banquet room that had been set up for her wedding feast. The wedding never happened because her groom abandoned her. So Miss Havisham stopped all the clocks in the house and left everything set up for the wedding feast just as it was for decade after decade. I found the idea of dining being a way of marking time very intriguing. In Victorian times, people would never leave the table set up after they finished dining. ...

2D space

2013-04-10T11:50:13-04:00

Can 2 dimensional space define 3 dimensional space? Maybe. These headboard wall decals by Working Class Studio, a design coop out of the Savannah College of Art and Design, say yes, it can. The decals are not only low cost and space conserving, they are well designed and versatile. Those who love high brow design and trueness to material may scoff at this headboard made virtually of a non-material. But I find the idea that a 2 dimensional object can define the boundaries of space quite fascinating.

http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/i4/i4m21x8p53ys258e.jpg

http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/mid-century-gothic

http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/06/06fax7vyksn2g0c0.jpg

http://www.whatisblik.com/shop/nessa-bed-frame?___SID=U

highlighting space

2013-04-02T17:25:00-04:00

The Jones Center for Contemporary Art in Austin, Texas designed by Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis Architects houses, in my opinion, one of the best grand staircases I have ever experienced. Upon entering the lobby of the Jones center you will encounter an information desk constructed of metal and wood. The wood table top, which aspires to be more than just a desk, reaches over to the right to becomes one of the staircase treads. The wooden treads of the staircase seemingly float in place and fold up to become the wall of one side of the stairwell. The large gallery at the top of the stair is a warehouse-like double height space. The folding bands of wood lead you upwards and have the effect of highlighting the changing of scales between the space you just left and the space you are heading towards. The feeling of shifting scales is made more acute by the relatively narrow width of the stairwell which encourages your focus upwards.

http://www.ltlwork.net/

written parti

2013-03-26T17:34:14-04:00

This is a written parti for what you can except from spatial awareness.

I believe that all designers and architects possess a set of influential factors that either consciously or subconsciously affect their design point of view.

I have been a ballet dancer for nearly twenty years and a choreographer for nine. And it is to this that I attribute much of my personal design point of view: the concept of spatial awareness. One of the fundamental principles of any dance discipline is understanding how to use space. This is an understanding of how to create space with the body in a static position; how to carve space with movement; how to occupy the high and low levels of space and air; how to transition between the different levels and between static and mobile actions. As a dance instructor, it has always been one of the most difficult principles to teach. The concept of spatial awareness has subconsciously manifested itself in all of my projects (from undergrad to graduate work t...