Comprehensive Depot Project

For this comprehensive project, my task was to finalize my Pacific Northern Railway depot transformation into an artist's gallery, residence, and studio space. As the depot has certain historical significance, adaptive reuse was a large component, as well as including universal design criteria in the residence, as one of the clients has a visual impairment. Spatial organization and concept application were also a focus, in order to have a cohesive design that is successful for our clients. I titled this project "Alternations", due to the geometric and linear qualities of my concept of the roof of the building.

Exterior of Building

One of the most enjoyable aspects of this project was being able to visit the site before beginning any of the preliminary work. This was very helpful in finding a concept that I enjoyed and could relate to, which was the roof and the architectural qualities associated with it. I was also very attracted to the historical relevance of the building and the story behind it, as this was at one point in time a working Pacific Northern Railway train station. This did influence my design process in the long run because I wanted to keep the original integrity of the building in tact. It would have been very difficult to spatially understand this building without first coming to view the whole space.

Parti design

Once I began the concept development portion of this project, I realized that I was initially attracted to the converging angles and variations in color that shadows create on the roof line. Depending on where a viewer is standing and looking at the building, they can see a completely different view than if they were at another point. This continued to be a theme throughout my development and has a direct correlation to my parti design. The varying thicknesses in angles symbolize the variation in the roof itself, and the geometric qualities are seen in the triangle shapes in the center. I also wanted to experiment with layering different lines and repeating them, to parallel this trend in the roof line if viewed from a distance. Later in my design I drew from the colors of the logo of the building, which are black and red. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the design process because it allowed me to express my own personal views of the project.

Textile design

After finalizing my design parti, I moved on into developing it into a larger 2D design pattern and textile. I enjoyed this for the same reasons as my parti, but it was more helpful to see how it correlates into a larger space. This is the main area where I applied the colors of the building, and translated my geometric patterns in a more literal way. In my design career I have never design a  textile before, so it was fun to go through that process and actually get a physical sample of my own design. Further in my residence space I applied parts of my textile into areas that I wanted to express my concept. Without this step in creating the textile it would have been difficult to visualize how it would look in an actual space.

Concept model

My personal favorite aspect of the entire process was translating these 2D designs into a 3D concept model. The main element I pulled from my parti was the triangle aspect, and I repeated this throughout the model in the form of cutouts. This was to show that just like the roof line, every angle of the model shows the viewer a different side depending on how they are viewing or holding it. I continued this application in my residence and gallery space as well, using cutouts with pops of color to tie into my conceptual design. One side of the model includes this pop of color, but can only be seen at the correct angle. The model also is not one sided, and can be flipped or rotated any way and is meant to be viewed in this manner. I loved being able to create this design and see it in a 3-dimensional way.

Process of building scaled model

The most challenging aspect for me personally was the creation of an accurate scaled model of the building. Creating concept models is very different than putting together a model with accurate dimensions, and this was much more time consuming. I greatly underestimated the amount of time it would take to complete this, as well as the math that was involved with the angles of the roof. It was a challenge picking out materials and adhesives to keep the model together, and constructing it was difficult and very easy to mess up. However, once it was complete it was very helpful to see the space as a whole, as there were aspects that were otherwise not included in my perspectives or elevations. The cutouts were one of these elements, and since they were so critical to my concept application, I am very satisfied with the site model as you can see these aspects. I feel much more confident with building models after going through this difficult process.

Overall, through this project I was able to work on aspects that I was less confident in, such as the model. I used to struggle with time management but the time constraints associated with this project prevented me from procrastinating things I otherwise would have. In terms of the final perspectives and elevations, I decided to use different media types to render them, which is something I never used to do. Presenting them in a final presentation allowed me to be much more confident in the way that they were executed. One of the biggest things I will take away from this will be the time management part overall. Working in a short amount of time with a great deal of work is extremely daunting, but doing this allowed me to produce work that I was proud of and in a quick amount of time. I will definitely be applying these principles to any design project that I will be working on in the future.