Building Analysis - Design Concept
- Viktoria Dekany
- Jan 4, 2016
- 4 min read
I want to make a particular post about the process of this section of my portfolio. Building analysis modul was about analysing an old building in Manchester, Ordsall Hall. The building operates as a museum nowadays and it has many visitors every day.
Under the analyse word, I mean we had to visit the site, measure the space, taking photos, note all fire exits and everything else. Based on this informations we have to produce a Feasibility Report of the building and create a design concept for the building's 500th anniversary. It should be an exhibition of its occassion.
This modul is quite useful as an interior architect/designer always have to assess the terrain before any concept. These report elements should be our first step in every project. With these skills we can make the best reuse out of an existing space.
In my exhibiton plan for Ordsall Hall, I wanted to find something interesting theme which could attrack more people to visit the building. I was thinking like 3-4 days when suddenly I recall a really good thing. In some countries, such as Scandinavia, there is an existing place where everything is made by ice. They actually created an ICE HOTEL and asked the best ice-sculptors to design the whole building and its rooms. It's so good!
My idea was to recreate Ordsall Hall from ice and place the best ice-sculptors' creations to the building as an exhibition.
I wanted to leave Ordsall Hall's original furnitures as the occassion its 500th anniversary. To be honest, I thought it really should be a celebration of its great enduring of time because it's so rare. I wouldn't have changed the original plans of the building. The ice event could be an attractive power to get more visitors and experience the building's magic world. :)
Another thing is that in England we can't see snow too often and children sometimes doesn't even know what is it. It could be fun for them.
I also designed a bar area from ice which is an existing idea as well. It operates in London, called London Ice Bar where everything is made by ice and again, the place is created by the best ice designers. I think these places are amazing, they have a mystery feeling and you just want to experience it!
I like that it's not a usual daily thing what you can see everywhere.
How did I start the design concept?
I was thinking how I should do the visuals of the space. Building it in SketchUp or playing with images in PhotoShop. Actually, I builded the first floor, but I couln't do the entire design of Ordsall Hall in SU. I decided to stick with PS and playing with the images.
Thankfully, I took lots of images of the building. Then I collected some images from the Ice Hotels. I took them to PS and overlayed them. It took quite long time to get the effects what I wanted. It was a bit hard to mix them together but I am happy with the results.
I show the images and the results. :)
Reception Area
Bedroom
Kitchen
First Floor
These were my favourites. I have two more images but they are not really represent what I wanted to reach. I am going to experiment with them and hopefully they will be better. :)
Bedroom
This image is too blue. And I couln't get any contrast yet. But I don't give up!
Then, I started to make the posters:
The first page is the introduction of the project - mainly about the inspiration, people can tune in to the concept design of the theme.
The second page is shows the reception area recreated visual and the title of the exhibition.
I think I am getting better in graphic designs of my portfolio. This will be the first page of the concept. I like this image the best.
The third page is about the construction method and materials.
This page is explaining further informations about the Ice Art design elements in Ordsall Hall. The image purpose was to give an insight to how rooms will look like with using of coloured spotlights. There will be additional ice columns in each room and a thin layer of snow on the floor.
I think I used the most PhotoShop layer in this page's layout. I wasn't satisfied with the original bluish image and I spent such a long time to make it better. At the left side of the layout I placed an ice column and an ice sculpture. On the right side there are some coloured light bubbles.
I wanted to design a more clear page after the previous colourful one. This page shows the exhibition's main room where would be different kind of ice sculptures.
This page is about the Ice Bar of Ordsall Hall.
The last page shows an outdoor art creation, the Ice Chess of Ordsall Hall. This is an interactive play opportunity for both children and elderly people. When people have seen Ordsall Hall's exhibition inside, they can have a welcoming ice drink on the bar, and at the end, they are welcome to play with the Ice Chess outside.
Hopefully all visitors will leave the place with nice memories at the end of the day. They will know more about Ordsall Hall's 800 years history and enjoy a mixture of old and modern design, crowning it with the extra art creations.
I also would like to include 2 special pages of the Feasibility Report which I completed:
This pages about the History of Ordsall Hall. I have designed two horizontal - and several vertical timelines to show the informations. Ordsall Hall colours are mainly brown and white, that's why I designed the layout in this theme. In the middle, I put my first illustration which I created with my digital drawing tablet. Below there are my group peer's drawings. I also included some of my photographs of Ordsall which I took on the site visit.
The following page is about Ordsall's Climatology:
I wanted to include lots of visuals of the weather types and I thought the triangles would be a good idea to make the page much interesting. Weather diagram's in the middle - as these are the most important informations.
All in all, I really liked this module and I have learnt a lot about building analysis. I never used Photoshop as much as I did in the last 3 weeks, and I feel I have improved a lot in this softwares, including InDesign as well.
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