For your final project in Professor Leonhardt’s Architectural Foundations class, you will be asked to design a space or series of spaces that will help travelers achieve rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation.
Brainstorming
Experiences of Travel
Why we travel
– We travel to get away from problems
– Going on a business trip
– Visit family
– family emergencies (someone sick or dying)
– pleasure — to visit other cities around the world
– educational purposes
– honeymoons
– to find inspiration
– to create life experiences
– sightseeing
– to meet a penpal
– moving
– layover between flights – sometimes you go somewhere because it’s midway between two destinations
In each situation, people will come with different agendas and emotions
Aspects of Travel
Frustration
– luggage
– waiting in line
– getting searched
– long layovers/delays
– taking off shoes for searches / metal detectors
– find your seat
– TSA going through your luggage
– (being treated like a suspected terrorist)
– Not being allowed to take certain items out of a country
– Jet lag
– uncomfortable questions
– Everything is more expensive – pretzel for $3.36
– Being out of contact
– Being lost / feeling lost
– nothing is straight — moving from one side of airport to other
– constant anxiety among passengers especially as departure time nears
– last-minute rush to get where you have to go
– crowding
– mistreatment of minorities by authorities (some people are questioned more pointedly than others)
– getting to the airport — traffic, taxis, tolls, finding parking, etc.
– little handcarts
– lost luggage
– waiting for luggage once you arrive
– other people who are mad, angry, upset, have attitude problems
YOU ARE DESIGNING SPACES FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE ABOVE ISSUES AND PROBLEMS!
– Design a space that breaks people out of those problems, issues, and attitudes and takes them to a new emotional/physical place through an inventive use of space to find REST, RELAXATION, AND REJUVENATION
people are coming to this space feeling angry, upset, irritated, stressed-out, frustrated, uncomfortable, violated, sad
Spaces have to incorporate digital media
– what role will digital media play in the space you design?
how can you use digital media to make them feel more at home?
how can you use sensors?
how can you use ambient informatics to make people feel more at home, more connected?
create an interactive space that RESPONDS to the visitor’s mood, physical state of being, etc.
– how can your space REACT/RESPOND to the visitor in a way that relaxes him or her?
Prof. Leonhardt’s class: design a model and make drawings
My class: Two pieces of writing related to your design/space
1. Manifesto
2. Research paper
Manifesto (1-2 pages)
– explains ideas/beliefs behind arh
– expression of intentions
– Declarative and forceful expressions of the beliefs and attitudes about a given subject by a person or group
– should be very strongly written. Shock people out of their beliefs
– advocate a strong position
–
– “I combat and despise . .. . and proclaim”
your manifesto has to relate to the principles behind your design project
RESEARCH PAPERS (4-5 pages)
– write a research-based paper about the ideas, forms and cultural history behind your redesigned transit space
things you could research:
– type of technology you’ll have in the space
– history, biography, works of architects that have inspired your project
– cultural history — ex. research the history of travel and the design of travel-related spaces. ex. railroad stations, airports, etc. ex. maybe you’ll find design inspiration in the design of a 19th-century german railroad station
– not just biography — but cultural history — what *function* did that space play in society in which it was located?
– who you want to build for and what interests them — ex. building for businesspeople — include stock updates
DEADLINES
Nov. 30
– come with a paragraph written about the central idea for your space
Dec. 2
– First draft of Manifesto Due
Dec. 7
– Manifesto Due
Dec. 9
– Works Cited/Annotated Bibliography are due
Dec. 14
– Research paper is due
