This post summarises my experience in studio class.

THE WALKING TOUR

This assignment was about doing a walking tour at any area and documenting it in a creative way. I chose to do a walking tour of subway art in NYC. I presented my information in the form of a pop-up book and wrote about each artist and what they did and meant with that art. I loved this project because I never knew about so many subway artists. I haven’t such art in India and I was fascinated by use of different materials by every artist.

BRIDGE 1

This was bridge 1 where we worked in groups of four. My group worked on making a space of joy which we represented through a 3D model, a material board, mood board and concept drawings. We decided to design this space in the shape of a cake because cake brings out joy to people. We created a space which had 5 rooms which according to us would spread joy. The 5 rooms included a ball pit room, a trampoline room, a movie theatre, a park and a dessert room. I really liked this project because this made me understand how everyone had different opinions of what joy meant to them.

BRIDGE 2

Bridge 2 began with choosing a neighbourhood from a list of four area. The four areas were Jackson Heights, Crown heights, Harlem and Yorkville. I chose the area Jackson heights situated in Queens. For this assignment we were asked to observe the area and combine stats with the observation to make a poster displaying everything we learned. On my first visit to Jackson Heights, I noticed there was slow gentrification in the area. I displayed that through difference in quality of buildings, luxury cars etc. This assignment helped me observe an area in a way I have never done before and then I was able to combine the statistics to show the process of gentrification in the area.

BRIDGE 3

For this assignment, we were asked to focus on the neighbourhood and identify the underlying problems in the area. Therefore, I focused on lack of open and green spaces in Jackson Heights. I made a 3D model to better express this problem and a poster to show what amenities were available in the neighbourhood. I made the model in white colour to show monotony and boring vibe of the neighbourhood. Through this assignment, I learnt how to narrow done my focus from gentrification to urban planning to lack of green, open spaces. I also learnt how to express a problem in 3D model.

BRIDGE 4

This assignment was making interventions for the problem identified in the neighbourhood. Since my chosen area had lack of open, public and green spaces, I made a building which would suffice the three requirements. I chose to include activities such as a kids park , a movie theatre, a hammock garden and a restaurant to fulfil the requirement of public space. I made greener patches and balconies with glass to fulfil the requirements of open and green spaces. In this assignment we used various solution exploration through SCAMPER which helped us come up with best solution. I loved the construction of this project even though designing the building was much of a challenge.

Anything that I would like to make changes would be if i could make some floors of the model a bit cleaner while cutting foam board and if I made the poster in bridge 2 a bit more informative through text and less of reading as it was a poster and should be read visually. I think I was pretty successful with designing and making the model of my building. I paid attention to details as much as I could. I also think that the model and the walking tour were my best assignments from this studio class.

Overall, this class helped me understand design process and the value of each process of design especially SCAMPER and prototyping. It helped me create better models because of the techniques Aviva taught us. I am much more confident in coming up with a design now that I know to explore my options well.