Loft Space: Reflection

With the completion of my first assignment for this course, I've narrowed down a few keypoints.

5 Things that I've learned in this loft assignment:

1. Your floor plan should be done to the fullest- thoughtfully and with sufficient detail, by the time the schematics are due. No materials needed yet at this stage, but the feel for the space is essential.

This is the most challenging part of designing for a residential client. It effects your elevations, your axons, what furniture, art, everything that you pick. Do this WELL and you will save yourself a lot of hours, stress, and tears!

2. Stay one step ahead. I am a slow worker. I design best when I take my time. But if you need to get something done soon, you need to get it done. Plan your time well and constantly work on your project.

3. Document your work along the way, so you will have it ready to put together in the end. Otherwise, you'll be scrambling to put your presentation boards and process work together.

4. Label and write. Less is more, but if you want to go down the fine artist route, your boards have to speak for themselves. Which they did not quite do on presentation day, for me. I did have several beautiful ideas for my presentation boards, but I couldn't follow through because of time. Regardless, some board "road mapping" can be helpful for the viewer. Some people grouped the materials, furniture, and such for individual rooms, which I liked. Some people also included their concept statements on their board, parti diagrams, bubble diagrams while others made it clear what the assignment was (eg. - LOFT SPACE Prince Street for home and work, NY etc). Either way, the viewer got a better visual understanding as to what they were trying to design.

5. Ask questions and/or do your research. I didn't quite understand a parti diagram, so I should have asked or done my research. I also wasn't sure at times what was exactly due for different parts of this assignment, and I should have asked as well.

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This was an emotional process for me. The amount of work that had to be due was staggering, and it really hit me in the face in the end, all because I did not work on my floor plan to the fullest. I thought roughing out the space, and making several not to scale sketches, helped, and they did take considerable time to do. But doing it to scale matters 10 fold, and so does throwing around several different ideas. I did neither which is why I got nowhere in large heaps of time. I was so focused on utilizing that large window, as I scribbled plan after plan, it's a no brainer where I went wrong.

Ready to put this past me. We will get our next assignment next week.