Coming Full Circle [The Last Opus]

My studio project has a sense of community in that it was designed for graduate students to have a place where they could relax and perhaps even interact with each other in a way so that they could leave work breifly behind and clear their thoughts.

The term community in a town. In design, many terms share common ground with each other and in turn form a community of a language used by designers when thinking up designs or creating designs. “One of the notable aspects of critical regionalist reactions to imported Euro-American Modernism was the reaffirmation of community, or creating environments for groups of people living and working together in ancestral traditional ways.” [Roth 607] Community was an important element in the Euro-American Modernism part of design and designers recognized this as a habitual way of life and therefore made strides to incorporate this idea into designs for residential spaces. A notable work that is a good example of the community aspect is the Fathy’s New Gourna rehouse project of an entire village area using the elements of consisten comes from the Latin language as a meaning of sharing in common with something, many times in everyday like we think of community as being the general area in which we as people interact in like with a neighborhood community or the general populationt design in relation to families and an appropriate scale in organization for the residents living there.

With the building Casa Battlo in Barcelona, Spain, and example of sustainability and stewardship is shown through taking an older building and renovating it rather then using precious resources to rebuilt something just for the sake of an artist's design ideals.

The taking of responsibility of ones property or actions other than their own is what is known as stewardship. This term can loosely refer to just about anything from taking care of our natural resources in our environment as a human race to taking care of a neighbor’s cat while they are away. In the case of stewardship in context to design, this can include ‘building green’ to conserve resources and energy and even projects of other designers when re-designing an area or space. “A sustainable approach to materials is enhanced by the careful use of energy. Interior designers can, for example, make better use of natural light and exploit the latest technology is glazing design, choosing photochromatic, thermochromatic or electrochromatic glass for windows.” [Massey 222] Stewardship relates to sustainability when it comes to new designs by designers who have a passion for helping the environment and limiting overuse of materials. Designers attempted to use different materials and design alternatives in order to limit energy use and consumption of materials in the twenty-first century.

Authenticity is something designers have to think about everyday, in studio, we as design students must create our own authentic designs so that we may create something uniquely our own. Though inspiration may be taken it cannot completely dictate our design lest it is no longer authentically ours.

Authenticity is the concept of credibility in a statement or action when referring to an object that was created or something that was said and whether this item of interest is authentic or not. Authenticity in design history and theory can refer to different period pieces in architecture and deciding if a building was built in a certain authentic period [like the ancient Greek architecture] or if it was a reenactment of the period [neoclassical period].

In creating our sacred space project, the screens in my rendered perspective are of my own design and instead of opaque panels on the inner parts of them, fiber optic fibers replace that to let more light into the room when the light cannot light the windows enough to light the room.

A creation of something new from a person’s mind that can be a result of a scientific or technological experiment is something known as innovation. Innovations have been happening every since people have been searching for answers and ways to change things in their own way of life, from the light of a candle to the creation of the light bulb, innovations are always being made to make everyday life simpler. Innovations in architecture were much the same in coming into creation whenever someone had the mind to make something simpler or more refined. “In general, the boundaries between architecture, fashion, graphics, fine art and the interior have become less rigid. Architects have become more interested in interior design, and artists are exploring the building environment as part of their creative practice…” [Massey 219]In exploring the boundaries between architecture and the fine arts along with all the items in between innovations with architects could occur as new designs were created as a result of these broken boundaries. For example the House by Rachel Whiteread 1963 with the interiors of the Victorian terraced house. “Other individuals and groups, such as Buckminster Fuller, Superstudio in Italy, the Archigram program Group in England, the Metabolists in Japan, created ‘hyper-celebrations of the supposedly liberating possibilities of endless technological development’ that ‘swept away any tendious connection with reality.’” [Roth 567] In favor of innovation in the late twentieth century of architecture in the post-modern period groups were created to celebrate new ideas and supports for designers as technology advance and met its own pitfalls with experimentation.

This opus of coming full circle represents the details and facts of design in architecture and interiors as it advances from the past based on ideas that where needed since the very beginning. Community is a basic element of life and interaction for people and the architecture designed for them to live in, and with this idea of community especially in the architect circle as innovations were approved of more and more comes the idea of stewardship and taking responsibility for one’s own environment by making innovations in things like design to combat wasteful ideals or mistakes. Authenticity for me was a little harder to make a connection with, but I think it has to do with being able to take from the past without copying completely, taking a design basically and making it your own despite the influence you may have had from another space or place.

::Sources::
Interior Design Since 1900 By Massey
Understanding Architecture By Roth
Drawings and Photographs By myself