“PoolFinder” is a project associated with the Studio and Seminar: System & Strategy.
As I talked in my Seminar Final Paper, I have been influenced by blue as my favorite color, a connection with childhood, and the artwork of David Hockney. All of these motivate me to choose swimming pool as a system.
The next step is “Suitcase of Curiosity” in which I have conducted in-depth ethnographic research, through visual ethnography, observational research, and some interviews. I ask myself several questions about the swimming pool at the beginning of the investigation to provide inspiration for further steps. The questions are: when did the swimming pool originate and what made swimming pool popularize? I went to one private swimming pool in a luxury apartment and one outside public swimming pool for on-site observation. I wrote on my sketchbook for the private one: approximately 17:00-21:40 in a day would have the most people visiting, 20 and more people using the pool in total daily, and only residents allowed.
For the next step, it is time to think about any problems in the chosen space so that the further design well target to it. I have read several resources including website articles, books, and academic articles. I noticed that urban swimming pool is categorized into two divisions: municipal and private pool. Throughout American history, there were more affluent people and most of them were white who dominated the private pool and early period of the municipal pool. on the other hand, poor, black, and marginalized people were more likely to use the municipal pool. The municipal pool whether opened or not was highly dependent on weather, season and federal fund. I also searched more for the history of the swimming pool in America which involved with gender, age, and race lines. Above all, I came up with an idea which is about designing an app to make it easy for people using a swimming pool in a way informing an available swimming pool in the city and its location, also providing an opportunity to get trained. More details can be seen in the video rendering of the app which named “PoolFinder.”
Extra work
It is a 3D printing work done during the design process.
