Thursday, March 20, 2014

Rail Car Precedents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_class_travel
Characteristics: 
Pros:
- The very comfortable and plush seating
- The curved ceiling
- The option to block the windows
- The luxury look of it

Cons:
- The color scheme
- The use of carpet on the floor
- The drapery pattern
- Use of a wood ceiling

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superliner_%28railcar%29
Characteristics: 
Pros: 
-The curved ceiling
- The color scheme
-The comfortable seating
-The connection to nature
Cons:
- Did not include window coverings
- Not enough space allocated to the walkway
- Wooden ceiling

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/14589121@N00/3199663244/
Characteristics: 
Pros:
- Color scheme
-Comfortable chairs

Cons:
- Aisles are obstructed
-Wooden ceiling
-No window coverings

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http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2011/11/hotels-in-unlikely-places_slideshow_item29_30
Characteristics: 
Pros:
- Color scheme
- White curved ceiling
- Comfortable seating
- Window coverings
- Elegance and luxury

Cons:
- Plaid carpet

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Midterm Pin Up

          When I went to pin up my midterm, I tried to make the layout make sense as much as I could. I organized the documents in order of development. The first sheet explains my design thought that led to the building shape, the next is the site plan with my site shown, the next is the space allocation, then the floor plan, then the circulation plan, followed by 2 exterior perspectives and an exterior elevation, with 2 interior perspectives and an interior elevation last. To the right is my program document with my questionnaire below it. I encouraged people to write on the sheets, which I wrote on them a lot with things that I saw that I forgot or needed to change.

Midterm













Reading Response 9

Exploring Research

Questionaires:

          In this section, Salkind talks about the advantages and disadvantages of using questionnaires. One main advantage is that it doesn't take as long as one-on-one interviewing does. One main disadvantage is that the completion rate is much lower on questionnaires than interviews. He also talks about what makes a good questionnaire, and I completely agree with the factors. I wouldn't want to complete a questionnaire if it was unreasonable, had a hidden agenda, didn't have straightforward questions, or the format wasn't professional. The reading included things that I had never really thought of before, for example, when it stated that a question should not include the word "and" because it makes it two questions and the reader won't know which question they are answering. Also that it is god to give detailed instructions about how to take the questionnaire. People usually assume that it is pretty straightforward, but it could be that they have a specific way they want the questions answered or how they want the questionnaire returned to them. I also never really thought of questionnaires about having a cover letter which it would make sense to have a cover letter to explain the context or content of the questionnaire.
          In one of my other classes, Cultural Geography, my professor is a professional interviewer and told the class about some of his tricks to get good and accurate information. For example, he is an older gentleman and had to collect data from residents of a retirement community in Florida. He explained that  he brought his wife with him on the interviews because people would be more likely to invite a couple into the house rather than just a man, he also researched the most popular car people drove in that community and rented it for the interview, he dressed professional, and he also gave us tips on how to ask for people's income. He said the best thing to do is to put the salary questions in the middle of the interview, because people have already given you all sorts of other information that it will just seem more natural. He suggested to never make that the first question you ask someone or else it will turn them off to the interview. Also, like Salkind, he found that it was better to have them answer income with multiple choice than an exact number.

Qualitative Methods:    

          I believe that sometimes qualitative is better than quantitative research. Growing up, my math teachers would always have us show our work to solve a problem, no mater if you got the correct answer, you would get points taken off if you didn't show your work. Sometimes its more important to understand how things work, rather than to get a concrete number. A lot of what a program is to us is qualitative research while learning and understanding how people will use the space.
          In order to gather more information, we do interview, create focus groups, etc. These , like what we used for the train station and for the mural project, help us to get more information on how the space would be used or how people feel about a certain thing in their community. In my geography class, we talked about how to give a successful interview. My professor told us that he drove the same car as most of the people did, dressed a certain way, and brought his wife so that people would feel more comfortable when letting him into their home.
          While case studies do provide a lot of useful information, it is only about one person's reality. If I was to take the information of this one person who may hate having windows in a building, then my building wouldn't have any windows if I believed that the one person's view help up true to everyone's.
          Something that I would really interest me to do is ethnography because I would love to learn more about different cultures and ethnic groups. I would also be very interested in historical research. Although details are sometimes very hard to find in historical research, I believe that it could help for everyone to design better if they knew what has already been done and how it worked. There is always something more crucial to good research than the information, and that is to make sure that the information is accurate and authentic. If your sources are faulty, then your information is faulty, then your design and work is faulty.

Observation: 












Salkind, N. J. (2003). Exploring Research (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Program Document









          Creating programs has always been a very important element in any of my designs because it allows me to find out all the information I need and have it in one document that I just reference to any time I need it. It helps me to organize my thoughts and even think about things that I might not normally, like the smell of the environment. Probably the hardest part about creating this program was filling out the Space Allocation section. It is usually difficult for me to think about what needs to go where and how much space it should take up so early on in the planning process. Finding the building code was probably one of the most useful because I learned some requirements that I would have never thought of. Finally, I think that filling out the concept section will help me the most in my design because it gives me an object that I can look back to for inspiration and it will help guide me with decision making.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Site Plan Studies

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

          During studio, we got the chance to take our site plans and draw over them with trash paper to try out different areas as our site and to see how the space allocation would be in connection with everything else. I tried to plan out almost every possible site location and see how convenient it was to the underpass, which I think is important to utilize and how close it is to the police station for safety. Through my studies, I found that it would probably be better to have the train station on the south side of the tracks because then you wouldn't have to worry about building a costly bridge over the train tracks or to have the platform on one side of the tracks and the station on the other. Although I am still open to looking more deeply into other possible sites, I believe that the most convenient would be to take over the building with the battery store because of its closeness to the police station and underpass, its possibilities of parking, and its location to the tracks.










Site Plan

Spring Garden St. & S. Aycock St. - Tate St. & W. Lee

          For class, we were to create an existing site plan of the potential areas where we could choose for our site to be. We were to include a north arrow, major roadways, pedestrian walking paths, fences, buildings, parking lots, the underpass, the railroad tracks, and existing landscaping. Creating this site plan, really helped me to study the locations of everything surrounding the possible sites. It also helps me to know the relative size and proportions of all of the buildings and helped me to memorize where everything is in relation to other areas. We were to create one 8.5" x 11" site plan, and also one that was 18" x 24". This was my first time really creating an existing site plan, and I found it quite fun and relaxing because it was just a matter of transferring information.