Chris Dent

Taking a casual cruise through ArchDaily's pinterest board today, I landed on some stunning illustrations by Chris Dent. This guy knows what he's doing.

I should start doing this in my spare, unemployed time... Yes, yes I think so.

BTW, Your Friends are Already Living.

In the midst of a post-graduate job search at the age of 24 (and a half), one has to reflect on things and figure out what really matters.  This time is one that tests your strength as a person and ability to accept and take criticism to use to your advantage.  You must find out where you belong, what you want to do, and who you want to be.  They didn't tell you this in freshman orientation.

First of all--that whole, "you don't need to know what you want to do until you get to college. There's time to decide" shpeal that your parents and teachers give you in senior year of high school, that's all a lie.  A lie designed to make you relax and enjoy your youth.  What they didn't tell you is that you actually do need to know what you want to do in college/in life, or else you will spend 6 years in school.

Not that I'm complaining about my six wonderful glorious years in that fine institution in southwest Virginia, I'm just saying that my friends from my original graduating class (yeah 2010!) are way ahead of me in this thing called life.

Most of them know the career path they're currently on, and if not--they're in the process of changing it.  They've had time to discover and experience real life and build finances (some more than others).  I'm talking people that own property. At age 25! I have less than a stack (stacks on stacks reference via Kanye) in my bank account, most of which is still a refund from my student loan, and little to no prospects. I have a lot planned for myself and a lot I want to accomplish in life. But it's a paradigm. You can't accomplish without having some accomplishments.

Tough world.

With time something will work out.  I know this.  In the mean time I will enjoy the extra sleep (12 hours last night!), leisurely breakfasts, and lack of communication with people with which I do not wish to communicate. (That was a complicated sentence, no?)

Long live funemployment... For now.

Flashback: Elite Model Agency

I was redoing my portfolio today when I remembered how much I love our renderings for Elite. Special shout out to Denise Pendleton for her craft on these, even though she may never read this! They're truly beautiful.

I have a mild obsession.

When I say "mild" I mean full-blown. Many people can walk through Target without buying a thing. I like to call these people "crazy." I can restrain myself for the most part. When I find myself buying a bikini in January, there are problems--and I usually stop myself. Until I get to that aisle with the notebooks. That god forbidden aisle with the notebooks.

These people that Target hires to do things throughout the store--you know, the random small shops in the US that got a lucky break and ended up selling merchandise in Target--are angels sent from heaven. They make the cutest, most irresistible bundles of paper in the entire world. Hardly ever do I manage to walk out of Target without at least one.

Come in new obsession: I just discovered PaperSource. Yeah. Soak that in.

I found the notebooks of their office section. And I must...

Ughhhh. I die. Seriously, if anyone is stumped as to what to get me as a gift for any occasion... A $5 notebook will make me insanely happy. I still haven't thought of what to write in any of the ones I own except mindless lists of pointless issues, but someday they will come into use. I know this for a fact.

ASD // Benefit Cosmetics

Branded Environments. These two words together make a phrase that is now starting to really, really peak my interest. I'm all about branding. As a graphically-inclined individual, it is my calling in life to create brands. I create a brand for myself through my graphic style in my studio projects throughout my design education, and can only hope to continue to demonstrate that skill throughout my career. To me, branded environments are the only way to design interiors. Specifically for small restaurants and boutiques, but also for corporate interiors. CORPORATE INTERIORS. Those are just *screaming* for a brand. Every office space should be unique to its employees. No one wants to work in a boring office and/or cubicle, and I mean no one.

I stumbled upon ASD, an interiors & architecture firm in Atlanta, and noticed they had a "branded environments" tab on their website. Bazinga.

Reminds me of Serendipity 3 in Las Vegas. I'm not just saying I love this because it's pink and girly and because I'm a girl. In fact, I am not a fan of pink in the least. The graphic nature and boutique-y feel of this is just precious and darling and everything that I love. Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Random Urban Planning Quote...

"One of the transcultural constants of town-making in history is the idea that a quarter mile is the maximum distance that the average person will walk to get somewhere on a routine basis.  Beyond a quarter mile, some people will either seek transport or not bother going.  This theory is born out in many different cultures around the world and is clearly due to the universality of the human scale.  The quarter-mile standard therefore seems to present an optimum arrangement.  It permits people to go about routine business without a car.  Chores that require many separate, tedious car trips in sprawl can be accomplished in a single outing on foot.  (In a culture of walkable neighborhoods, shop owners adapt by offering home delivery of bulky merchandise.)  Walking allows a person to visit many different types of shops--thereby promoting small scale, locally-owned businesses, which, in turn, promote manifold civic benefits from the support of local institutions to the physical caretaking of the street.  Walking down the street permits casual socializing.  Pedestrians make streets safer by their mere presence in numbers.  Finally, walking down the street is spiritually elevating.  When neighborhoods are used by pedestrians, a much finer scale of detailing inevitably occurs.  Building facades become more richly ornamented and interesting.  Little gardens and windowboxes appear.  Shop windows create a continuity of visual spectacle, as do outdoor cafes, both for walkers and the sitters.  There is much to engage the eye and the heart.  In such a setting, we feel more completely human.  This is not trivial."

Aunt Jeanne's House, aka Heaven

We found the cow whilst antique shopping. Let's just say antique shopping was not my favorite activity when I was a child and stuffed in the back seat of the 1988 Volvo wagon with my big sister in the middle of summer days. Yet, as a grown up? Extremely relaxing and fun. I got many things during this same trip.

Dee Oh En Ee

Final Presentation Board

It's done! My thesis project of my twelfth and final semester in college. I called it the Leaf Shadow House due to the conceptual experience of the space. When you look up at a bunch of trees, perhaps in the forest, or walking through campus, what do you see? Layers of light. Layers of green. Shadows. The canopy effect of the trees is one that always soothes me and is quite frankly, one of my favorite little things in life. If it's a nice sunny day, I guarantee I'll be happy to see the bright green and yellow of the trees.

I used this as inspiration to create a house which could live among the trees and use their leaves as sustainable features.  In the warmer months, the leaves shade the house, and the lack of leaves in the colder months allows for more sunlight to get into the space.

My personal favorite time of daylight is sunset. Truth be told, any sort of light between the hours of 11-4 for me are entirely too bright and hurt my delicate scandinavian eyes (yeah, I went there). I'm one of those people that can be brought to tears (not really) by a good sunset--the colors, the clouds, the atmosphere. For this reason, I made the west side of the house almost entirely glass facade. While dinner is on the table, the sun is setting and you get to view every part of it. It's the little things, folks.

A small part of me also did this as a thesis because of my small obsession with English country cottages that are entirely abundant in greenery. My parents watch a lot of British crime dramas...

The pattern on the glass facades? Abstracted leaf patterns to contrast the real-life leaves right next to them.  The combination of both of their shadows creates awesome moving art on the blank walls throughout the day, with the sun as the artist.

That just got deep.

In a nutshell, I love this project. I'm glad it was my last here at design school, and I hope it will also help me get a job... *fingers crossed*

C2C Final Renderings

DINING

2ND FLOOR LOOKING TO COURTYARD

LIVING

MASTER BED

Floor plans to come soon! Wrapping this project up and then... Say it with me. The Sixth Year GRADUATION! :)

C2C Base Renderings

C2C Furnishings

Starting to think about furnishings for the C2C house. Some thoughts:

Dining: Louis Ghost Chairs. Contemporary Turned Leg Table. Light fixtures which cast interesting shadows.

Living: Simple modern furniture. Coffee/side tables with intriguing shadows. Simple pendant light.

Pause: Let's Go Back to the Start.

Making progress on the Cradle to Cradle house.  When I get to this stage, usually I start to freak out a little bit and lose track of my normal design process.  Where am I going with this? What was my original intention?  Why am I making this way more complicated than they need to be?  Exactly.

Here's a few notable images from my original "inspiration & concept" folder made the first day we got this project, approximately a month ago.

Open, industrial, and yet still connected with nature.

Shadows were an original conceptual idea.  I'm still working with how they play off each other and create graphics on walls.

Same idea here: the shadows of the structure can, depending on the time of day, create patterns and graphics throughout the space.

Nice cubby type sitting area, perfect for my courtyard.

Indoor green wall, illuminated with skylights. Umm, hellooo?

Just... Beautiful. I think this is in Japan...

Was going to work with this pattern and make screens out of it, allowing the light and shadows to play off each other to create the graphics on the interior.

This is just a summation of all the materials I want to use, basically.

So what have we learned from revisiting these images?  I want trees.  I want shadows.  I want shadow and light interactions.  I want the outdoors to not feel almost like the indoors.  And I especially want/wish we had a street tree tunnel of white trees like Japan.

All-in-all, it's coming together.  More updates in a few days, when I can manage to get some interior views together.  Sneak preview:

(end terrible, straight SketchUp style view)

Project due in: 5 weeks.

Cradle To Canopy?

Cradle to Cradle is a movement which says, "Hey, designers. Instead of being "less bad" and working against the environment (sustainable/green) so that we can get our cool designs built, how's about we just work with the environment?"  The book by William McDonough and Michael Braungart of Charlottesville, Virginia aims to get this point across to designers (myself included) that don't usually start off the design process by taking the environment into account.  It opens your mind to a world that you had grown to know as typical, usual, and ordinary.  Go get the book.

I had always avoided C2C as I had never fully grasped the concept, and I also knew it took a lot a lot a lot of research.  I just wanted to design cool things.  But, since this is essentially my thesis project and last before I graduate, I figured I'd give myself a grand challenge.

The competition is to design a C2C house on a site in Roanoke, Virginia, about 30 minutes from our campus.  The lot is roughly 45'x150' (give or take) and it resides on a street corner.  The house itself is around 30'x60' at this point... and has a grid module of 15'x20' (6 modules).

My vision for the house is one which can exist with nature and not against nature.  It acts as nature does, using trees for shade in the spring and summer, allowing the interior temperatures to lower.  In the winter, when the trees have shed all of their leaves, the house gains more sunlight for heat consumption and retention on the interior.  Sunlight is harvested in the winter to keep up with heat needs.

A feature wall of translucent glass panels with some sort of pattern will cast shadows onto the interior walls and floors in a graphic manner, and change with season.

The slope of the ceiling is supposed to aid in plumbing and rain collection, which I'm still working on--but the idea is to have the main plumbing in the middle of the building for both floors.

Lofted spaces on the second floor have sloped ceilings (see the roofline) just like I always kind of loved them.  For some reason, I have a memory of a beach house my family stayed in at Kennebunkport, Maine when I was little and the ceilings were slanted.  Maybe it's just my imagination completely making things up. Always a possibility.

Goals for this week: get a floor plan for both levels and at least determine which spaces go where.  Competition requirements are as follows: foyer, living, dining, and kitchen, along with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths.

I'm excited for this first residential space that I've ever designed--I aim to design it the way I would want a home. It's not about winning the competition, but more about being satisfied with the end product and achieving a true Cradle-to-Cradle house.

Sweet Springs, a Real Blog Post

As it seems, I completely neglected this blog as a place to explore my design thoughts and process for the Sweet Springs project, and chose to completely document my findings in my computer.  I'll take this time to fully go through my ideas for this amahhzing (did I just quote Penny from Happy Endings? Yes.) and fun project.

So, in a nutshell, I loved this project.  It will be compared to my firstborn.  I hope my firstborn will be as cute as this project.

When I think of a mountain getaway for a vacation, I pretty much imagine this resort.  Colors from nature pulled into the interior, yet not overpowering nor competing with the natural landscape.  Using local resources to create the interior and bring it to life, from local artisans to farms to gardens.  Speaking of Mark Cline--I used a few of his beautiful landscape paintings.  And, at the Taubman museum in Roanoke this past weekend, there was a very strange exhibit of monster slime sculpture creatures done by none other than Mark Cline.  Artists have the full range.

What I imagine for this resort?  A place where others can come, from near or far, and experience West Virginia.  I, as a person who has grown up in northern Virginia, am aware that our neighbor to the west does not have the greatest reputation, at least among those my age.  West Virginia is a place for [legal] gambling and strip clubs, horse races, and that crazy university that happens to be pretty good at football.  Until being introduced to this project, I had not known of the natural local beauty and neighborliness (made up word?) that existed.  Yes, it's in the mountains.  Yes, it's in the boonies.  Yes, it's a beautiful site.

I picture this resort as a place similar to what the Blacksburg locals would prefer.  If all Virginia Tech students suddenly disappeared from this place, the locals would want this in their backyard.  Living in Blacksburg is all about local.  The town has a slogan, "Eat local.  Buy local.  Be local." It's all about being a community, and being sustainable/green.  Sustainable and green are two different realms, but you see where I'm going with this.

One main feature of this resort:  Lavender.  Lavender is a pretty big deal in West Virginia.  There are local farms and nurseries that grow and house the herb year round.  Lavender is known for it's healing properties, which also goes along with the "resort" typography of the... resort.  I would like guests to relax.  Take a break.  Snap OUT OF reality.  Also, purple is my favorite color second to Tiffany Blue so... Lavender was my top choice.  I find most colors go well with purple.  Just a fact of life.

Need I say more?

The Lavish Cafe (Lav[ender]ish) uses produce/herbs/whatever they can grow in the backyard, in the menu for guests.  I've seen this done on Food Network many times.  When I say "seen this done," I mean there has been that crazy little woman Chef Estez from Next Iron Chef (season 2 - second best season next to All-Stars, of course. Go Nate!) that had a restaurant of her own where she raised the animals, killed the animals, ate the animals.  Grew all of her own produce.  Everything that was needed for the restaurant, she made herself.  Also, there have been "nose-to-tail" (did I make that up?) and maybe even "snout-to-tail" chefs (Nate Appleman, I see you. You too, Chris Cosentino.) which use every single piece of the pig in their food, in some way or another.  No waste.  Now that is economical.

Can you tell I watch Food Network a lot? Yeah...

Reclaimed wood is a huge deal in this project as well.  In fact, most of the products I use claim to be "reclaimed" or "reused."  West Elm was a big help in this project.  The company has a big green policy about their products, which aided in the choices of furniture and lighting and accessories.  I expect there are a few (a lot) of old, abandoned buildings around the property of Sweet Springs with original wood panels.  These will be re-purposed into the interior finishes and furniture, therefore cleaning up the land they were once occupying and allowing more realty to the area.  Also better views of surroundings...  Inside these old houses are glass bottles, which had been used at points in time where people actually used glass bottles.  They come in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes.

My parents made me go antique shopping with them often when I was a child.  I saw a lot of glass bottles.  I started buying glass medicine bottles (like Alice in Wonderland!) this past summer.  Yeah...

All-in-all, this resort has an antique, yet modern, clean, lively feeling.  You are free to do whatever you please.  You are encouraged to stay on the property and enjoy yourself.  Whether you're in the dining room, porch, library, bath house, or even guest room, you are part of the community.  You are giving back to the community just by being present.  The economy of West Virginia is stimulated while the area is still maintained by its original charm and beauty.

Sweet Springs Final Renderings

I kind of got lost in this project.  Lost in a good way.  As I began to fully render the spaces, I felt as if I was at the resort itself.  Hence, no blog posts.  Fully concentrated on renderings and conveying my ideas clearly and concisely through the use of elevations and vignettes.

There are a few features that combine all of the spaces into one cohesive resort:

• reclaimed wood floors, walls, ceilings that all connect and create a "wrapped" or "enveloped" effect down the corridor of the long, narrow main building
• cast resin tile motifs
• recycled materials/decor used in many different ways

Reception

9:30 AM Guestroom

10:00 AM Northern Porch 

11:30 AM Natural Spring

12:30 PM Bath House

3:00 PM Sunroom

5:00 PM Lavish Cafe

8:00 PM Northern Porch

9:00 PM Sunroom Turned into Library