Psuedopod:shelter/bus

postcard: Dear John Linn

Precis

I think I misunderstood the precis. I fee as if I did not condense the information enough and explain the project well. Now I will know what to work on next time.

murphy bed

Guerilla Marketing

murphy bed

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Codes++

Codes+

This si my first experience dealing with codes. I understand the necessity of codes but I feel like it puts designers right back in the box they are trying to escape. Sitting there reading all the codes it was such an overload. I hated looking over all these regulations and restrictions. I am glad though that codes make design accesible to all. It opened my eyes to how difficult it would be to navigate through a building in a wheelchair. I do believe that design should be open to everyone so I'm glad I had this expirience.

CatAsTRophE

This is the beginning of my process. i started thinking of very simple shelters that people could easily take with them. One was a fold-up shelter that built off of other shelters. The other idea(the one I ended up going with) was a livable wheel. I called it the cheese wheel.
These are some preliminary sketches of the form and the interior.
This was my first crisis moment of the semester. I tried to build a wire frame and put clay over it. My wire frame collapsed and the clay was basically unworkable. So I had to use another material and edit the shape.
The livable wheel.


This is how you would pull it.

Our group decided to design for the refugees of Darfur. They live in camps in awful conditions and are always moving. I wanted to design a house that provided all the necessities and was easily portable. My shelter functions as a round hut that can be lived in and then you flip it on its side and you roll it along with you like a big wheel. I wanted it to be very durable yet lightweight. I used paper because it represents how light I would like it to be. The interior would all be fastened to the wall so nothing would come out of place when you rolled it. I was inspired by the interior of japanese houses, Actually using the dirt as a floor and then having a raised platform to live and sleep on. My platform curves to fit the shape and is a foot and a half off the ground. In the middle on the floor is a small stove with a small pipe that comes out of the roof. This would function as a place to cook and a source of warmth at night. The fireplace pipe also functions as a place to hook the cable when you want to rol it and take it with you.

aaaahhhhh

Sorry katrina i left my camera cord at studio so i will have pictures up of my model tom. morning.

mobile home....literally

Here are some makeshift homes. They have nothing to work with except the elements around them. These houses must be rebuilt every time they move to a different refugee camp.
This is a refugee camp in Chad, a bordering country. The genocide that is taking place in Darfur displaces thousands of people. They live in makeshift shelters like these.
It gets very hot during the day so any shelter is helpful. People are crowded into spaces and families rarely have their own unit of space. There is no such thing as privacy.
This is an aerial view of a refugee camp.
These may look like piles of garbage to us, but these are homes. They are very unstable and not tall enough to fit a grown adult in.

I know how you love process

Our final product.
A front view.
Emme and Laura building our miniature city.
Our bus stop is slowly coming together.
Katrina working hard.
Our wonderful, clean, organized work space.

Bus stop

Gesture + Symbol: This bench caught my eye because it has a slight curve to it. When I was thinking about Cultural and social meanings I was thinking how the bench was fit to acomodate slouching. I think this is a cultural thing because we all like to lean back and relax, and the bench was built to fit.
Symmetry + Balance: This shelter can be cut into symmetrical halves from the front and the side. It is divided into 2 by the support on the side. From the back the supports divide the shelter into six equal pieces, which can be divided in half. Where I think this shelter missed the bar is the roof throws the shelter off balance. It looks just stuck on the top without any thought.
Repetitive + Unique: There were repetitive support bars all over the shelter. It drew your eye across the form. There wasn't a unique piece in this bus stop.
Mass + Form: This bus stop was a rectangular form. It had three walls and a curved roof. there were glass panels and the roof was opaque. It had two benches inside to sit on.

The bus ride

> Our only roadblock.
> This was my favorite advertisement.
> Ugliest seats in America!




Going into this assignment I had no idea what to expect. I lived on a road that buses drove down every thirty minutes last year and had a bus stop across the street from my house. The only people I had seen get on the bus were somewhat sketchy, so I made sure to go with a group. As I waited for the bus I started to think of how little I knew about it. I had only seen nameless faces ride by on it. I stood there taking pictures and waited and waited. As soon as it rolled up I was true to form and became a clumsy mess. I was trying to get my camera to take a picture and my student ID at the same time. I climbed on the bus, swiped my card, and assumed my position between Josie and Krista. I briefly noticed the vague shock of the people already on the bus as we settled in. I immediately started taking tons of pictures. Out the window , the seats, the emergency exit, and Ron Hatfield, our bus driver. I felt that the air wasn't so crisp. It was just cool enough so you would only develop a slight sweat. It smelled like chemicals, city and diesel. The chairs were a hideous print and color and were not very comfortable. I felt like an idiot pointing out all the brand new bus things to people. After about 10 minutes of pictures nausea started to set in and I was forced to just sit and endure the ride(the bus apparently has better brakes then my car, and they like to use them often and very sharply). As I sat there I finally noticed the people on the bus. They weren't the sketchballs I had seen before, in fact most of them just wanted to go to the mall. Most of them sat quietly or listened to music. I felt as if I had been tricked into some IARC social experiment. We stayed on the bus for an entire loop and I was thrilled to be on solid ground.
I decided to save the reading for after the trip so I could go in with a fresh outlook. I wanted to focus on everything and I thought the reading might confine me. Now that I have done the reading I think this was an attempt to get us outside our comfort zone and experience something new. It was a different world in a way, but at the same time I felt relaxed and comfortable the entire time. I think it was kind of fun to be the oddballs in a group, to be the unexpected and to meet or fail expectations.

seond year?...hmmmm

I never thought i would say that i'm glad to be back in school, but I am. My first taste of second year was pleasant. I liked collaborating in the smaller groups. I think it is an essential part of a designers job to learn how to work with other people. Working with over 50 people in a group was an impossible task, although we managed to come out in the end with something. That was something I learned was to try and commit to an idea that wasn't mine. It was cool to see what the group could come up with as a whole. I love the location of my new desk, which sits next to a fabulous, shiny window(the view outside the window is a different story). Over the summer I finally had time to get myself together and get some of my priorities straightened out. I am looking forward to being a 100% totally committed student. I look forward to this year and am excited for all the new things we'll get to create.

Wayfinding