Amy Thompson
IAR 222
Close To Home Analysis
The Close to Home Exhibition was built to celebrate Modernism in Greensboro. Edward Loewenstein is one of the main focuses in this exhibit. His work is a great example of "Modernism on the local landscape." This exhibit also includes photographs, drawings and texts that show local Modernism. Close to Home is a successful exhibition for many reasons. The five reasons that I am going to talk about are: the concept of the installation; the material, light, and color selections that manifest the concept; how the images, texts, and graphics support your understanding of the concept; how different types of media do different kinds of work; and the impact on visitors.
I think the main concept of the installation is the notion of exposing structural systems. Edward Loewenstein believed in an exposing many structural elements. This installation shows all connections and joints, and there are no hidden building materials. In addition to the structural systems exposed, this installation has clean lines, slanted beams and walls, and high ceilings. These are all reflections of Loewenstein’s work. He convinces you that Modernism does not have to be "cold."
The material, light, and color selections successfully manifest the concept. From what I could tell, the main materials that were used in the installation were wood, wire rods, and screws. All of the screws were in plain sight to add to the concept of exposing structural systems. The joints were painted in green to emphasize the structural system. Lighting is focused on the main points of the exhibit. These main points would be the images, texts, and graphics, along with the structural system.
Understanding the concept of the Close to Home exhibit would be more difficult if it was not for all the images, texts, and graphics. First of all, the texts help you understand the background. The text in this exhibit explains what Modernism is and how it is used locally, it also explains who Edward Loewenstein is and what kind of work he is known for. The images give you an idea of the local examples of Modernism. The Close to Home exhibit also includes graphics. There are two computer-generated walk-throughs, similar to SketchUp. This gives you a more realistic view of a Modern building than the texts and graphics.
Different types of media do different types of "work" within the exhibit. The media, data, in other words, includes the images, texts, and graphics. The intent of these different types of media, as I stated before, is to relay information. Out of these three, I think the pictures and graphics are more successful than the texts. The main reason I believe this is probably because I am more of a visual learner. If the exhibit contained only text and no pictures, it would be very boring. Though, if there were only pictures and no text, you probably wouldn’t understand the concept. So all of the different types of are very important in this exhibit.
The Close to Home exhibit impacts the visitors of the three-dimensional human experience as the exhibit components interact with the specific space in which they were installed. From my point of view, this exhibit was very interesting. The installation was amazing and very structurally successful with the concept. This exhibit was also very informational. In conclusion, the Close to Home Exhibition was very helpful to me as far as understand Modernism locally.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Suite Intent and Program
Initial Intent:
My intent for the suite that I am designing is to make it modern, simple, and comfortable. I am going to use natural light and unnatural light to create an environment that will make the mothers feel at home. All in all, my main concept will be modern meets comfort.
Program:
Each bedroom will include a full size bed, a crib, and a dresser. The living/lounge area will include seating for everyone that lives in that particular building on that particular floor. The kitchenette will include a sink, stove, dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator. Some materials will include our good, bad, and ugly materials. These are recycled glass (the good), Carrara Italian marble (the bad), and shag carpet (the ugly).
My intent for the suite that I am designing is to make it modern, simple, and comfortable. I am going to use natural light and unnatural light to create an environment that will make the mothers feel at home. All in all, my main concept will be modern meets comfort.
Program:
Each bedroom will include a full size bed, a crib, and a dresser. The living/lounge area will include seating for everyone that lives in that particular building on that particular floor. The kitchenette will include a sink, stove, dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator. Some materials will include our good, bad, and ugly materials. These are recycled glass (the good), Carrara Italian marble (the bad), and shag carpet (the ugly).
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
iar 222: History and Theory of Design II
Self Reflection
Essay 1
Most design styles in the 21st century are based off of design styles in previous centuries. This is the major way this course has changed the way I view design as a fundamental practice central to humanity. As I learned in class, design styles went from Greek to Roman to Romanesque to Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque/Rococo to Enlightenment, overlapped with Technology, overlapped with Revival, and then overlapped with Modernism. Each of these styles probably took something from the style(s) before it. For example, Roman Architecture has similar characteristics as Greek Architecture, such as massive columns and curvature.
Essay 2
The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton in 1851, is one of the first buildings that we have talked about in class that comes to my mind. This building was built in London, England for the Great Exhibition. The Crystal Palace brought together Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Renaissance, Buroke, and Chatoesque revivals. This building was made of wrought iron and glass, and was built over existing elm trees. The Crystal Palace links forward to design practices today mainly because most modern buildings are made of glass and iron or steel. Another reason is because well designed buildings today are built to fit the land, not the land to fit the building.
Essay 3
I think creating a new perspective that both embraces the past and that says something about our present circumstances is difficult. Using the same ideas but improving them is one way. Though, this is what we have been doing all along. Taking previous ideas that we can not live without and perfecting them is what has made today’s life easier. For example, the television. It was first designed with few channels that were in black and white and the only way to change the channel was to get up and turn the dial. Today’s television has more channels, is in color, has a remote.
Essay 4
There are definitely connections between design and culture. Artwork of the civil rights era is a good example of showing connections between design and culture. Because of the civil rights, artists started expressing their feelings and their views of what was going on during that time. This was there way of responding to the cultural events that were taking place. They focused on artwork that expressed human rights, discrimination, segregation, and even bring people together. Most of the artwork during this period were by African Americans responding the these experiences.
Essay 1
Most design styles in the 21st century are based off of design styles in previous centuries. This is the major way this course has changed the way I view design as a fundamental practice central to humanity. As I learned in class, design styles went from Greek to Roman to Romanesque to Gothic to Renaissance to Baroque/Rococo to Enlightenment, overlapped with Technology, overlapped with Revival, and then overlapped with Modernism. Each of these styles probably took something from the style(s) before it. For example, Roman Architecture has similar characteristics as Greek Architecture, such as massive columns and curvature.
Essay 2
The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton in 1851, is one of the first buildings that we have talked about in class that comes to my mind. This building was built in London, England for the Great Exhibition. The Crystal Palace brought together Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Renaissance, Buroke, and Chatoesque revivals. This building was made of wrought iron and glass, and was built over existing elm trees. The Crystal Palace links forward to design practices today mainly because most modern buildings are made of glass and iron or steel. Another reason is because well designed buildings today are built to fit the land, not the land to fit the building.
Essay 3I think creating a new perspective that both embraces the past and that says something about our present circumstances is difficult. Using the same ideas but improving them is one way. Though, this is what we have been doing all along. Taking previous ideas that we can not live without and perfecting them is what has made today’s life easier. For example, the television. It was first designed with few channels that were in black and white and the only way to change the channel was to get up and turn the dial. Today’s television has more channels, is in color, has a remote.
Essay 4
There are definitely connections between design and culture. Artwork of the civil rights era is a good example of showing connections between design and culture. Because of the civil rights, artists started expressing their feelings and their views of what was going on during that time. This was there way of responding to the cultural events that were taking place. They focused on artwork that expressed human rights, discrimination, segregation, and even bring people together. Most of the artwork during this period were by African Americans responding the these experiences.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Materials
These are examples of our materials and examples of where they can be used: good - recycled glass, bad - carrara Italian marble, and ugly - shag carpet.
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