A Redesign Of the PufferBelly Depot

The PufferBelly Depot project involved the redesign from train station to a gallery, studio for the artist, and home for the artist their visually impaired spouse.
 

Design - The proposed apartment has two-bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a sizable kitchen, and master suite containing the master bedroom and bathroom. Sharing a water wall with the master bathroom is the utility/laundry room containing the hot water heater, washer, dryer, and an industrial sink basin. Floors original to the home were preserved, refurbished and stained in a warm honey glow. Color contrasts
throughout the home add character and also create visual signals for the visually impaired so that the person can navigate freely throughout the home without the danger of tripping and falling. The studio houses the artist’s tools of trade, with storage, and workspace. The space has vertical and horizontal spaces, plenty of work surfaces, and quilting loom. The studio sits just outside the residential hallway and adjacent to the utility/laundry room. This allows the artist to readily access the industrial sink basin for the curing of fabrics and accessories. Windows fill the spaces where the original sliding doors existed. The gallery is an open space with display space for a number of pieces from the artist. Movable partitions are scattered throughout enabling the artist to choose the arrangement of future exhibitions. Plenty of wall space is provided for display. A public restroom is available for clients.

Sustainability – Many of the original walls were retained for repurposing. The master suite contains a predominant number walls adding to its character and function. All the windows including the ticket, express, and baggage windows have preserved to add historical character to the home Two water wall locations were repurposed. One room is the half bath which uses the plumbing location from the original women’s bathroom and the other being the plumbing location where the original men’s room was.

The original wall that separates the studio from the gallery is partly demolished allowing the artist to pass freely from either area. One of the display tables is the original operation table from the ticket office. The original sliding doors were repurposed around the home as to not waste any door.

ADA/UD – Accessible rooms include living and dining areas, kitchen, half bathroom, entryway, master and guest bedrooms, master bathroom, and utility/laundry. Accessible rooms include the gallery and restroom. Plenty of space is made for the ambulation of wheelchairs.

There are a few things I've learned from the duration of this project:.

There is such a thing as being too detail-minded in the learning stages of design. It isn't that the details aren't important it's that the creative part of learning can't be perfected in a few months time and holding it to a standard of perfection diminishes the afterglow of creativity. 

Also, I see the importance of the informal, napkin, scrap paper sketches as it pertains to spatial planning. Practicing this will help me capture the moment I see the space when I'm imagining myself standing in the middle of a room. These moments aren't planned, they simply occur and a formal sit down can stifle the small bits of creativity that lie dormant in the rush of deadlines.

Overall, this experience was exhausting and amazing. The process created anxiety through my feelings of utter joy and excitement. I'm looking forward to being pushed like this again and blossoming as a designer.

Vision Disability-Ability Workshop

Attempting to read through 4 layers of plastic

The effect of petroleum jelly smeared on the inside of sunglasses

Attempting to find the keypad and card-swipe at the ATM

-Looking through two layers of plastic bag made my vision blurry. I could make out the images with some shape within the picture and the title came in legible. The text of the articles was illegible. -Looking through four layers of plastic bag made my vision more blurry. I could make out the general shape of the newspaper and I could recognize the shape of the images, but the titles and article text was illegible. -The varying degrees of vision impairment tended to be very frustrating because parts of my field of vision were blocked. I need to constantly repositioning my head to gather all the information from the newspaper and my surrounding environment. The simulation of complete blindness was completely frustrating within seconds. It is important to remember that a person that is blind must feel a great amount of irritation and the last thing they need is a built environment that doesn’t relieve their physical burden. -The exercise wearing the sunglasses with petroleum jelly, was, well, gross, but I forged ahead. I stood in front of the elevator and found that the buttons were easy to see, but once in the elevator the lighting was so dim I couldn’t make out the buttons as they were the same steel as the panel; fashionable, but completely unhelpful. -Still walking around wasn’t terribly difficult because the ripples in the jelly created a prismatic effect which enabled me to guide myself down a hallway. -At the ATM machine I was able to navigate the keypad because the tactile texture of the keys changed from a braille symbol on each key to a central bump in the middle of the keypad. I did have difficulty finding the key swipe as it blended in with the rest of the machine and it wasn’t illuminated. -The stairs down the atrium were tedious. I was unsteady and worried I would miss a step. The tread on the steps worked well to contrast, but with the jelly glasses the prismatic effect warped the contrast.

St. Elmo's 1 Bedroom Model

The model of the 1 bedroom helps elaborate my message a little better. In three dimensions, you can see how open the space is for a 1 bedroom. Even though I set up turns and angles with places to explore it still feels open with room to breath. The orientation of the rooms served to purposes. I wanted St. Elmo's to stay on the historical registry which means that I did not want to move or add any windows that would alter the exterior side of the building. Within this restriction I set for myself, I thought it best to provide the most light to rooms that we may spend the most amount of time in. Access to lighting helps the aesthetics of the apartment allowing wider array of design options and simply being able to add plants.

St. Elmo's Common Space

The common space on the second floor of St. Elmo's hotel was a challenge, but proved to be rewarding. Once I set up the partitioned private entrances the space started to make sense. It effectively separated personal space from public with walls of reclaimed and restained lath. The fireplace was meant to be a welcome to patrons of the spa, maybe as an extra waiting room. To further promote the image of professionalism, I created a water feature that advertises and calms. Still amongst all the calm this is meant to be a primarily transient place.

St. Elmo's 1-Bedroom Apartment

This is the detailed breakdown of the 1-bedroom floorplan and elevations. Technically, the toilet and lavatory are ADA compliant and all measures in the apartment fit within the parameters of interior design standards. I liked playing with angled, built-in shelving in the kitchen, living space and bathroom. Playing with these angles made the space feel alive. I oriented the slats of the wood floor north-south, so that the space welcomes you.

1 Bedroom & Common Space Parti Plan

The theme I used to create the one bedroom and common space plan was based on the dynamic bending and shaping of human growth in relationships. I wanted the foot steps to lead somewhere interesting keeping within parameters of warmth within the home. My parti lays the pathway for the floorplan.

House of the Immediate Future

Habitat for Humanity held an outdoor and informal symposium about The House of the Immediate Future. I toured a house made for developing countries and one for a developed country as ours. What struck me was how little we really need to survive and be happy. The concept of the wet core is a wonderful idea, but still needs some fine tuning. I'm looking forward to seeing what advancements come up in the future. In this image, I sketched the ramp and entrance of an immediate home.