Pinterest

My new obsession for browsing hundreds of interiors is Pinterest. Researching previous assignments I have spent several hours looking at images on the internet only to forget to make a note of which website they were from! When producing your assignments every last bit of secondary information you use must be carefully referenced, so keeping track of all the sources you have used is critical. Pinterest is proving to be a great way to do this. I can pin images to a 'board' and the source of the image is shown below the pinned image so I can refer back to it later when I am compiling my reference list. Here is a screenshot of the boards I am beginning to compile.

It is important to ensure that your assignments also contain sufficient Primary sources, e.g. your own photographs, sketches and site surveys.

Adding my Pinterest link to this blog however was not so easy and I resorted to a search on google of 'how do I add Pinterest to my blog?' Top search option was the following link http://www.bloggersentral.com/2012/02/how-to-add-pinterest-follow-button.html which gave a very simple explanation and it worked first time! Click on the link top right and take a look.

Module 4 - Creative Lighting and Technology

The course notes cover both natural and artificial lighting, the design principles, lighting features and effects. It finishes with examples of lighting in different building types and looks at manufacturers and designers.

For the assignments I am to use my completed floor plans from Module 2 - Space Planning and design a lighting and Audio Visual scheme. To recap here is a screenshot of my final floor plan layout from Module 2.

Time to get on with reading the course notes...........

Module 3

Thought I should post a bit about module 3 'Design in Historical Context' before I start on the next module. Whilst the mere mention of History at school used to immediately switch off my interest (this was the time before Horrible Histories, all dates and no fun) this module had completely the opposite effect. The study material guides you through the changes in architecture and interiors from early cave paintings through to present day. Key designers and architects through time are discussed with links to websites for further research. Changes in Architecture and Interiors tend to reflect advancing technology, the wealth and ideals of society of that time. A useful 'Timeline' is downloadable as part of the course content which summarizes the changes in Architecture in parallel with historical events. Also included within the reading material is a glossary of architectural terms to aid you with the completion of assignment D.

There are four assignments  for this module each of which require considerable research.

Assignment A - produce a report placing elements of a chosen period within a social and political context
Assignment B - demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a chosen building and its influence in the local area
Assignment C - produce a presentation board and specification sheet to select and source appropriate furnishings for your chosen building
Assignment D - produce a presentation board or report showing 4 key stylistic features of your chosen building

I am fortunate to live close to several buildings of architectural interest and settled upon The Winter Gardens in Blackpool. Built in 1875 this building has seen many changes in the fortunes of Blackpool. The introduction of leisure time and the influx of visitors with the development of the railways lead to the development of Theatres and Amusements in the town and the rather unpredictable weather required undercover venues. The Winter Gardens was designed to incorporate all of this. To ensure I had sufficient primary sources I booked on to a guided tour of the complex with camera and voice recorder in hand. The online library also proved to be a great source for newspaper articles from the time discussing the plans for the building with letters to the editor giving locals views on the Winter Gardens. I purchased an old OS map for a small sum online to include within the report showing the location of the building within the town plan at the time of completion. A much different Blackpool to the one seen today!

For Assignment C I settled upon Art Deco as, apart from the Theatre set design style seen throughout, this is a key interior style of the Winter Gardens. Sourcing furnishings online I found that antique dealers were the main supplier for this era. Here is the Mood Board I produced for this assignment.

Sticking with the Art Deco features I then produced this presentation board.

You can access all of the completed assignments using the tab above.

Decorating frenzy

Flush with the success of revamping middle daughter's bedroom I have finally tackled our bedroom. It has been on the to do list for quite a while ever since the new bedside reading spotlights were fitted which made a mess of the wall. Felt it was time to change from the dramatic purple we had chosen a few years back also and choose something a little more calming. Scanning the paints at B&Q I came across Crown's chocolate suede effect paint ideal for covering up uneven walls. A couple of coats later and the walls were transformed. The paint effect has to be put on with a brush so it was a little slower than a roller but it really does look like suede when finished although to touch it is quite rough.

The downside is that I had promised youngest daughter I would decorate her room when ours was finally decorated. She wants to change her room from girlie pink to a striking red. Quite sad really as it reminds me how quickly my girls are growing up! So it is time to cover over the fairy castle I painstakingly stenciled above her bed .....

Module 4 Creative Lighting and Technology

This module looks at lighting and Audio Visual design for the office. Whilst I have experience of lighting design, AV is usually left to a specialist supplier so this will need more research. I am intending to use Dialux for the first time to produce some visuals for the lighting. The first step however will be a product search. Key to a good lighting design is a variety of sources to enable changes in the lighting effects. An important factor in offices is also ensure correct lighting levels are evenly distributed at working height.

Module 3 Passed

Huge relief that I somehow (with the help of an assignment extension) managed to get through and pass module 3 despite illness and changes in family life. Comments were pretty fair as always. Best marks went to my study of the Winter Gardens in Blackpool which reflects the fact that I gave most effort to this part of the assignment. Everything seems to be back on track now. Hubbie has started his new job and I am busy with my day job. Currently we are designing the services to exclusive flats in Mayfair in two Georgian Terraces. This has given me plenty of ideas for room layouts and the type of finishes on high end interiors design. Large bathrooms, walk-in wardrobes, bedroom 'snugs', libraries and cinema rooms are all included here.

Managed to decorate middle daughter's bedroom too just in time for her birthday sleepover. Rather let down by Next though as the delivery of the day-bed we ordered is delayed by 9-weeks. So she is sleeping on a spare put-me-up for now but this is the before and after shots so far.

BEFORE....

.....AND AFTER

The bookcase, chair, medal hooks, picture line, shelf and bedside cabinet are all from Ikea. The desk is from Next and the lampshade is from http://www.loopy-lu.com. The sticker is from http://www.iconwallstickers.co.uk/sports-and-hobbies/swimming-diving/swimming-butterfly-stroke-wall-art-stickers#. The quilt and cushion cover were made with love by Grandma. One very happy daughter!

Scrapbook

I had forgotten the simple pleasure of creating a scrapbook. In my childhood I would spend hours carefully cutting out Peanuts and Fred Basset cartoons, postcards and drawings, pasting them into colourful pads of paper. A need to do something with my ever growing collection of interiors magazines has returned me to the joy of scrap booking. This time however I have ditched the coloured pads for a beautiful A3 moleskine. My eldest on seeing it immediately asked for one for her next birthday, although fashion rather than interiors will be her theme.

Deadline approaching......panic!

As usual family life is using up all my energies. Now stuck in bed with the flu having spent the weekend ferrying my daughter to her swimming competition. 6.30 am starts on Saturday and Sunday was not fun! Do wish someone would make the plastic seats in the spectator area more comfy.......something like the luxury seats at the cinema would be perfect! Continuing her current swimming obsession she has asked for her bedroom to be redecorated with a swimming theme for her birthday. Found this great sticker online which will be the basis for the design.

http://www.iconwallstickers.co.uk/sports-and-hobbies/swimming-diving/swimming-butterfly-stroke-wall-art-stickers#

Her room is pretty tiny so we had thought four years ago that a mid sleeper bed with drawers and pull-out desk underneath would be ideal. However I hadn't considered that she has nowhere for friends to sit which seems to be the priority these days. Next does a gorgeous day bed which seems to fit the bill and her mattress fits it so will keep costs down. 

http://www.next.co.uk/x513234s1

Had looked at Ikea which has some great stuff but their beds only fit their mattresses making it more expensive. Just need to find a small white desk now.......once I have actually done my assignment that is!!!

Module Two - Space Planning

For this assignment you are given details of a building together with a brief for a new office space. You have to design the office layout to accommodate a specified number of staff with different departments and the associated utility spaces. As well as the space planning you have to choose furniture and finishes for the space. Your final design has to be explained using scale drawings and mood boards together with a short written piece on the design rationale.

Having studied the brief I first considered the regulations which must be allowed for in the design in particular disabled access, fire escape and health and safety. The government planning portal is a really useful source of information in particular for the Building Regulations. This can be found at http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/. As part of my day job I have access to a wide variety of technical documents associated with buildings via http://www.ihs.com/en/uk/index.aspx  which proved really useful for this assignment.

As the company in the brief specializes in design I started gathering ideas on existing office spaces used by design companies and in particular architects practices. I looked at the type and layout of furniture and the spacial working area individually and as a group. The internet proved to be a great source of images. From this I then looked at the size of the types of furniture needed and started to manipulate arrangements using CAD software.

Another great piece of drawing software is Google Sketchup which is free to download from http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/download/index.html. I used this to produce a 3D drawing of the building shell and tried different partition arrangements within it until I felt the flow through the building worked whilst still meeting the requirements of the brief. In my final document I produced some 3D images using Sketchup to help explain the design.

Other software I tried out for this assignment included Photoshop and Adobe InDesign both of which proved pretty useful once I got the hang of them. Its worth noting that Adobe has great discount rates for students when buying software as long as you can send some student ID.

Module One Feedback

I was relieved to get through the first module having had to ask for a weeks extension to complete it. I passed with 71% mark so pretty happy with that. Thought the comments were fair and glad that the board for lighting was considered to be the best as this was the one I had spent most time on.

 
I definitely need to spread the work across the 3 months better next time. Image size and layout is something I need to work on and I now realize it is not necessary to cram a mood board with information to put across your design as I did on the objects moodboard.

 I knew I had concentrated too much on domestic interiors for this assignment but I had been pressed for time and this was the easiest to access. If I did this again I would have taken photos in hotels, shopping arcades, and museums to cover more primary research. Whilst this is a distance learning course via the web you do have to be prepared to get out and about to local cities for research purposes. I did manage to get to London to see the Barbican exhibition and 100% Design in 2012 and I am keeping an eye out for things closer to home. Unfortunately even a trip to the Birmingham NEC exhibitions is quite a trek from here but I am sure that is the same for a lot of the students on this course.

Learning how to use blogger

Finally getting the hang of using Google Blogger, although arranging photos on posts has been a bit of trial and error. Learnt how to use Google Drive today and have impressed myself by being able to use this to post links to the documents of my completed assignments and the feedback I was given.  Full marks to Google for producing such a simple system with great results and its free!!

I have to produce a reflective journal throughout my course which is all a bit of a new experience for me. I tried starting out with a scrapbook, then tried a PowerPoint, until finally settling upon the idea of this blog. It seems the ideal way to keep all my info in one place and store quick links to all the brilliant interiors websites and blogs out there. There is a bit of catching up with my journal to do as I am now working on assignment 3 (40 days left and counting!) so dates might seem a little odd on my posts. It actually takes about three months to study each module and produce the assignments.

Spent New Year covering myself in gloss paint as we finally got around to making a start on decorating the new stairs (after all its only a year since the extension was finished!!!). Still more to do and flooring to sort but hopefully I will get to post a picture soon. Of course our smelly basset hound is already doing her best to shake mud over the paintwork, so glad we did it ourselves rather than spending money on a professional!!! Next job is to sort through family pictures to cover the wall.

Busy designing a large Care Home at work which involves lots of electrical systems, so spending my days drawing up schematics. My technical drawing skills certainly came in handy for module 2. I am lucky enough to have a drafting program through work but the NDA also gives you details of how to access a CAD drawing program for free for the duration of the course. They also run workshops on technical drawing if you have no experience in this.

Module One - Research Methods and Contextualisation

Module 1 assignments

- produce 7 presentation boards of the 7 interior design elements

- produce a report on an interior designer or architect

It may be 20 years since I last studied but I am just as good at procrastinating as I was then! This time round I have family life and work to contend with also so plenty of excuses to put things off. To ease myself in I spent the first week gathering materials and downloading resources. The deadline counter on my student account is slightly unnerving but I can see it galvanizing me into action as the days lessen.

A key part of this module is learning to reference your sources correctly which I find, to put it bluntly, very dull. To cut down on this I tried to use my own photographic images for the mood boards as much as possible but my photography skills definitely need improvement with regards to lighting and exposure. Here are a few of the pics I took for the materials mood board.

And here are some pics I took for the colour mood board........

I used my following photograph as a background image for the lighting mood board

If you would like to read the final version of my attempt at this first assignment and the following assignments as I complete them, I have uploaded links to the documents in the associated tab at the top of this blog.

Whilst my messy family may do their utmost to ruin my dream of a minimalist uncluttered home, I can dream can't I? My love of simple, clean lines and modernist architecture lead me easily to choose Mies van der Rohe as the subject of my report. Several of Mies' famous quotes clearly explain his design vision.

"Less is more......God is in the details.....Skin and bones architecture"

Mies played a major role in the development of present day city architecture.  Here is, in my view, a selection of his best building and furniture designs.

The BBC documentary Visions of Space (available to watch on YouTube) was a great source of information in addition to the following text books

Mies van der Rohe by C.Zimmerman

Mies van der Rohe A Critical Biography by F.Schultz
Mies van der Rohe at Work by P.Carter

as well as the following websites

www.miessociety.org
www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.html
http://en.wikipedia//wiki/Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
http://bauhaus-online.de/en/atlas/personen/ludwig-mies-van-der-Rohe

At the time of writing my report the Barbican was running its Bauhaus: Art as Life exhibition to rave reviews which featured many works of art, design, architecture, photography, textiles, ceramics and more. My visit to the exhibition helped me to understand the changes surrounding and informing Mies' work.

Bauhaus: Art as Life

3 May 2012 - 12 August 2012
Barbican Art Gallery

"The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years presents the modern world’s most famous art school. From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology, this London exhibition presents the Bauhaus’ utopian vision to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production that made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age.

Bauhaus: Art as Life will feature a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation. Exemplar works from such Bauhaus Masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl, will be presented alongside works by lesser-known Bauhaus artists and students. "

(source: www.barbican.org.uk)

'Tracing the trajectory of the radical German art and design school from its founding in Dessau by Walter Gropius in 1919 to its closure in Berlin in 1933, the exhibition Bauhaus: Art as Life is superb' - The Guardian

'...a thrilling description of a community engaged in an unprecedented artistic and social experiment. For anyone with even a passing interest in the development of the arts of the past century, it is essential viewing' - The Telegraph

'A survey of the German school devoted to the synthesis of art and architecture is the perfect blend of the instructive and the entertaining' - Brian Sewell, Evening Standard

'This useful show leads us through Bauhauser paintings, furniture, even puppets, all forged in the years between the darkness of two world wars' - The Independent

Here are a few postcards I bought at the exhibition