MA Interior Design Degree Show 2013
Creative Studio Interior for PR1 Gallery
This is the quickest project that I’ve ever done – from site measurements to design proposals I’ve got only a weekend to finish.
From the email of our tutor Steve Bennett, the studio could be used for
- Providing visualisation and projected success for business’ concepts and providing ‘step by step’ advice to avoid financial waste
- Market and competitor research for companies already in possession of concepts, in identifying definite rationale to move forward
- Providing tactile and realistic identity to new scientific breakthroughs
- Creation of entrepreneurial courses for start-ups and graduates
- Product prototyping projects for businesses
- Product refinement concept creation
- Simple ‘one off’ prototyping
- Assisting businesses with product diversification ideas
- Assisting businesses in their first steps in taking a valid concept to ‘pre-manufacture’ status, understanding location, stock, distribution limitations, etc.
- Testing, proving out, validating concepts (user/wearer trails, focus group activity)
- Collaborative projects between Schools and Services WITHIN UClan
- Collaborative projects between School of ADP and external businesses or organisations
- Branding ‘ethos’ guidelines and evolution of visual representations of products or services
- Product research regarding materials, manufacture methods, pricing comparisons.
- Proposals of various promotion methods, marketing strategies, slogans, claims etc.
- Promotional styling projects for businesses
- Public relations roles for businesses
- KTP’s (knowledge transfer partnerships)
- UCLan Innovation Voucher projects
- Summer Internships based in ‘Co-Lab’
- Summer courses
- Twilight courses
- Mini lectures
- Academic and support staff – experiential learning and research
- New / potential client meetings
- Showcasing previous successful and current ‘Co-Lab’ projects
- School marketing presentations via ‘slideshow’
- Small group projects (UG and/or PG)
- Software and technical training
Option 1 is based on the floor plan and requirements from Steve Brindle. The studio will have three desks for Mac computers, two height adjustable tables, one meeting table and a storage. The budget of the project is around £2000-£3000 so I did a price search of the materials and furniture that we can potentially use.
For Option 2 I did an adjustment of the internal layout and a minor change of the colour scheme. A sofa and a coffee table were added to the corner where it is the only area that would receive natural light in the room. So It’s good to use there as small communal space, e.g. chatting the clients, reading books and magazines, or used as waiting area and etc.
Option 3 is a bit different to the two options above. This room was a small lecture room before so it had a wavy ceiling to reflect the sound. I quite like its unique shape so I designed three rows of light boxes following the ceiling to emphasise the shape. To save the cost we could purchase wood boards from suppliers and build the light boxes in our own workshops. In addition the long table along the side walls could be made by ourselves and it’s less difficult than the light boxes too. I find bespoken furniture in interior design projects very interesting because it is unique and also only dedicated to one project, although it can be costly.
The Final Project
This is one of our final projects of MA Interior Design at Uclan – The Mari-tech Park, the redevelopment of Preston Bus Station. Below are the posters about this project.
I am very happy that I have made full use of my one-year study as I have finished six different projects :
- the parasitic structure project
- the lighting design project
- the Halton Mill project for Lancaster Cohousing
- the Preston Bus Station project
- the caravan project for Lunar Caravan Ltd
- the garden refurbishment project for my friend Sun Tao
All of the projects were in different design ranges so they really enhanced my knowledge about Interior, architecture and landscape design.
Big thanks to my tutor Steve who gave me the opportunity to get involved in all the projects. And also thanks to my classmates Alice, Tina and Sarah as we’ve been working very well as two teams.
The 7th (perhaps the last) project will be the renovation of the creative studio (‘Think Tank’) of our department. It will start from next week!
The Second Time To York
This is the second time I’ve been to York, the first time was in 2005. I like the roads of the city center – there are so many alleys that you probably will lose your way as a tourist. But that’s also a charming thing that you will see many interesting shops along the streets, such as model shops, toy shops, clothes shops, traditional food shops and etc. It was the York Races when I visited there, so many people were celebrating it after the race that every restaurant was fully booked. The Lendal Cellars pub is located in a basement so you can see the beautiful brick vaults. With the shining crystal chandeliers the whole pub looked like a luxury secret tunnel. Unfortunately I didn’t stay there for long because of the crowd.
Then I took a long walk along the River Ouse and I saw some lovely things, for example a small coffee shop (The Perky Peacock Coffee Shop) was situated on a bridge across the river, many red boats which have a nickname of each.
After that I went to see the York City Wall, the York Minster and the St Martin’s Church. I always love churches and cathedrals although I don’t have a religion, so I will go to see them whenever I visit a city.
It is nice to go out and have some fresh air sometimes, and you always learn new things from a trip.
Chimichanga, Hola!
I found these photos when I was uploading photos from my mobile phone to laptop just now. It is already two months after I finished the garden project for my friend. He works in the food industry so he knows very well about it and I was very lucky that he took me to many different restaurants – Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Greek, Mexican, American. I reckoned this restaurant had the most ethnic elements that I had been to – bamboo arch ( I seemed to hear the pleasant music of mexican bamboo flutes), and the curved mosaic floor (reminded me the mexican strawhats) – I was very impressed by its entrance. The columns looked like hand-cut, rough but cool; while the wall decoration was very unique too. And of course you can’t miss the Corona and Tequila when you go to a Mexican restaurant!
Garden Refurbishment Project – Individually Work Onsite
When I was visiting exhibitions in London my friends told me they wanted to refurbish their garden for their 2-year old child and asked me whether I could do it for them. What they wanted was a very basic patio for BBQ and where their litter girl could play her outdoor toys and ride a bike. They were told by a garden builder that they needed to spend around £2400 for a 20 sqm patio (£900 on materials and £1500 on labour). But their budget was £1000 because they didn’t know the cost of labour was so high. For me it’s a great chance to practice my skills in real life and turn my design drawings into real things – although it’s not interior design I was still very glad to take the job. So I headed back to Preston, got my laptop with some tools and then went to London again.
I did a quick sketchup model when introducing my ideas to them. After confirming with my friends I browsed the prices of materials and tools and started the physical work.
Process of Physical Work
The difference between computer and physical work is that you can’t copy/paste. When you do a construction job, even as small as this one, the weight unit is always calculated by ton: I removed more than 1 ton of soil and grass, and bought over 2 tons of materials (ballast, sharp sand, concrete, paving, kerbs, pebbles, logs, play-pit sand). However I felt very satisfied that I could finish it individually and very happy that my friends loved it. In addition we saved £1500 on this work.
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