REVIEW OF FINAL MAJOR PROJECT (FMP)

Final Major Project Title: RESIDENTIAL PIER

The final outcome of my project is a luxury holiday house held onto a pier based in Limassol, Cyprus. It is aimed for retired people immigrating into a hot country set by the sea, or wealthy families. I feel that throughout my project I have made significant amounts of progress in regards to researching in depth about my project, sketching up professional perspective drawings, and learning new software’s. I feel that I truly know more about the history of piers and piers in general due to the amount of research I carried out and feel that I have reached my targets throughout the 7 weeks of my project. Methods I have used for my project is following my action plan and time management plan, being organised and to date with all work that needs to be completed. In addition to this I have made a daily/weekly blog of my process throughout my project. 

I think keeping up to date with my blog was a vital requirement needed for my project to show not only others my process but to also remind myself of my process, and note down everything that had been completed for that week. I feel that my sketchbooks have helped me enormously throughout my project. It enables me to write down, sketch down and note any progress throughout and any development I have made. I am also constantly going over the pages of my sketchbook to view visuals of research I had made and read about and remind myself about all the ideas I had formed during exhibitions and visits. It was also really enjoyable to be able to tick off my progress on my action plan each week. It was exciting to work towards the end of the project being able to begin my final model from the past 7 weeks of research and development of ideas. I believe that I have met the majority of my targets I had set for myself during this project. I was able to carry out significant amounts of research. I was able to finalise my idea properly from changing the apartment/house idea to a definite luxury holiday house. I was happy I was able to experiment with models to realise and find out which one I was most certain on using.  

Reflecting over my development process, I realised that this was the most vital point of my project. The process of building test models I believe is a crucial point for all projects. If it were not for my experimentation of models I would not have formed a model for my final piece. Once I had built test models out I then combined them together with my other test models and was able to form a new design, which I was truly pleased with. From this, I decided I wanted to adapt the design onto illustrator and laser cut it. I then put this together and was really happy with the progress I had made from a small test model idea. I then thought more into the scale of size and re designed it again on illustrator to be laser cut. After doing two test trials I then adjusted some small changes to my design and used this for my final model. I was really content with the way I progressed from a test model and was able to develop it further to be my final model. During my project I carried out questionnaires, which really helped in regards to my project as I had a better input from the general public and what their requirements were. I feel that the tutors helped me think more clearly and professionally about my project and also positive. I believe that doing crits in groups really helped as well as I was able to receive feedback of different ideas generated from students and tutors, which was useful information to have throughout my project.

 If I would change anything about my approach I would improve on my time management in regards to research, test models and drawings. I felt that timing was an issue occasionally as I was following my action plan to complete everything according to the weekly set targets. I feel that I have developed enormously with Photoshop and Illustrator. For me, these were programmes I was not familiar with and was finding it difficult to get the hang of. I feel that I really pushed myself to spend a lot of time learning how to work around these programmes and am really pleased with my progress. This will help me in the future, as these are programmes that are used all over the world in designing companies. Next year I am staying at Ravensbourne university to begin my degree on Interior Design and Environmental Architecture, which I am really excited to begin. I feel that not only this project but also this whole year has prepared me immensely to begin my degree course.

FMP Week 7

For the final week of my final major project I began to feel under pressure to finish my final model and all my work. On Monday I continued to further put together my models, not only did I have to put together my house design but I also had to put together my pier design. Once I started getting all the pieces together ready to glue down I realised that some of my pieces that were laser cut had actually gone wrong and not cut to the correct size. This therefore, again put me under more pressure to get it all finished and at this point I felt that I was struggling to complete my model, as I had to adjust the sizes to fit. However, I did not let this affect me with my work and continued to further develop my model. I felt that I was working well with my time management at this point as I had everything organised and planned out as to when I would complete my model and other bits and pieces. However, because of the slight mix up on the laser cut I felt I needed more time. My Monday and Tuesday of the week consisted of me putting together my model and adjusting any size that needed attending to. I was happy I had it completed early on during week 7. However, I noticed that once putting the model together it began to look wonky and was weighing down to the right. It was again another size issue that was difficult to fix. I felt that this was really challenging to fix at this point as I had done 2 test laser cut to make sure the sizes were correct and did not understand why everything had started to go wrong.  The main reasons for this mistake was the laser cut printing incorrectly and wished that I had done another test piece just incase. Moving on from my model, I took various photos of my model from different angles and took photos of my development/process of building it. I then decided to finalise my floor plans using Illustrator and not drawing them out again so I could visualise a more professional look.  I was happy I did this as not only it looks more professional, but gives a better-detailed page of where everything goes inside the house. I quite enjoyed doing this, as it was exciting to be putting everything together and show all my designs off. I felt that I took a reasonable amount of photos. However, realised only after putting my building together that I should have taken some more of the interior side from different angles. This again, is another mistake I have made and if I could re do my model I would take more images from the inside. Nevertheless, I still found a good image I took from the inside of the kitchen. I decided to put this into Photoshop and put it into context containing the sink, hob, table etc. I was really pleased with my final design after, as I am not familiar with using Photoshop so this was challenging for me. However, after spending hours on Photoshop playing around with it I was able to produce something I was really proud of doing, especially as I didn't know how to use Photoshop at all. After this, I tried very hard to put my pier into context in my chosen location with the house design on it. I found this the hardest to do as it was difficult to place it in the right angel and put the house on as it was so zoomed out. I figured that I would have to re continue this on the weekend after taking some more photos of my pier at a good angle. After spending time on this I began to put together my presentation sheets, which was taking a long while to do, as it was hard to narrow everything down to a minimal amount for my sheets. I spent my weekend finishing off the sheets, which took some time to do but happy with the outcome. Overall, this week was by far my most stressful and time consuming week but I am really pleased with being able to complete it all and felt that I have really achieved well on illustrator and Photoshop  as they are programs I am not familiar with at all and was able to learn and adjust to the programs after putting in a lot of hard work and time. 

Figure 1: Final model, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 2: Pier model in context (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 3: Kitchen design put into context using photoshop (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 4: Floor plan of pier design (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 5: Floor plan of ground floor (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 6: Final pier design (Authors own, 2014)

FMP Week 6

Week 6 of my final major project I decided to begin by improving my previous model I had made on the laser cut to then use this as my final model. I began to re design the model on illustrator by changing the scale of the design, making adjustments to windows ect. I also added in stairs to my design as I forgot to add this into my last laser cut design. Again, it did take some time to draw up these designs but was all worth it in the end.  I also drew up my pier design on the laser cut to do a test build to see if this would work for my final idea and if I were happy with the design I would also use this design for my final model. Once I had cut all the designs up and put them together I was happy with my changes of scale however, gave me better view of some more adjustments to windows to change. Therefore, I had to again make some more adjustments to scale and to the interior so it was perfect size ready to laser cut on wood. However, I was almost 100% happy with my laser cut design of my pier design it turned out just as I had expected, I only had to make a small change on the size. I was happy I laser cut my final design twice onto cardboard as a test model before cutting onto wood. I felt really organsied at this point and confident with the scale and printing.

Once I had spent hours adjusting the idea I was ready to laser cut onto my white wood I had bought for my final model. I found that cutting into wood was a lot more difficult and time consuming than cardboard. I was on the laser cut machine for a good 4-5 hours laser cutting. I had some issues at the beginning as the laser cutter was messing up my design so had to re cut again. It wasn’t cutting through the wood entirely so was difficult to get it cut out with a craft knife and also using a woodcutter machine. This therefore was a lot more time consuming than I thought and became stressful to fit everything in.  I also made some adjustments to the interior side of my design. The only way to resolve my problem was to build two models having one with the whole downstairs open. However, due to the laser cut taking so long and messing up at the beginning my only option is to take photographs. Though, after a long week I had most of my final model printed ready to put together. I then moved on to looking at wallpaper designs with a brick affect to use for the exterior of my final model and also interior designs. I really enjoyed looking at some different designs and was exciting to start putting my final model together.

Figure 1: Illustrator design, page 1, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 2: Pier design test model, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 3: Pier design, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 4: Adding in stairs to second laser cut, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 5: Final design complete without conservatory, (Authors own, 2014)

FMP Week 5

For Week 5 of my Final Major Project I focused on making several models to then finally making a decision on the one I think works the best. I began by experimenting with unusual house designs that would stand out. I made some boxes to act as apartments and played around with them on how I wanted them to appear. At first, I wasn't sure where this would lead with a design but after experimenting it helped me out immensely. I also played around with using spiral type staircases in a house and played around with shapes in general. Once I made a few models and photographed them I then put them upside down, changed the angle of it and played around with it some more to see how it would appear from a different perspective. I found that once I had made several separate designs I wanted to then combine these all together somehow and make something spectacular that I would have never imagined making. I was using the trial and error experimentation technique, which sometimes didn't work or help me form an idea in any way but also helped enormously to help me invent an idea to draw up. After a long day of adding the models together and a lot of thinking I chose my design I wanted to further develop on. From this, the following day I began to use illustrator to draw up my design. At first, it was quite complicated to draw up everything to the right scale to fit as a whole but once practicing it more I was able to use it better. I decided I wanted to make my model to a 1:50 scale. After drawing up measurements and calculating the size for my laser cut I began with the design. Furthermore, I made huge adjustments to the design to then laser cut. I was then going to decide how I felt on the design from there onwards. I really enjoyed using illustrator and laser cutting my design, as I was able to develop it enormously into something I was quite happy with. In addition to this I drew out some floor plans of where everything was placed in the house and which rooms were which. Drawing the floor plans actually really helped in regards to designing it on illustrator and gives myself a wider view of how I want it to appear. After putting my model together I was really pleased with the design I had made but realised that it actually covered up the interior side of it which I spent most my time designing. This is something I need to develop on further and a problem that needs fixing as I was covering up all the work I had spent time doing. Later on during the week I began to research into Ergonomics and Anthropometrics as I found that designing a small model to scale or in general was something really important and needed attention to detail. I found that researching into these topics was something really knowledgeable and really interesting to me as it gave me a clearer mind into scale and made me think more professionally. Finally to end the week I did some research into materials such as glass and marble which I would potentially use inside my house design. I was able to gain a little more knowledge into glass especially and which types you would use in a holiday house environment. Overall, I believe I was back up to standard this week following my action plan accordingly and felt I was making significant progress with my final model and am ready to continue further into week 6 to finalise my model.

Figure 1: Apartment boxes (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 2: Test model using staircase, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 3: Adding test models together, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 4: Final test model, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 5: Laser cut design from back, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 6: Laser cut model, conservatory design close up, (Authors own, 2014)

Figure 7: Laser cut model, (Authors own, 2014)