3rd year critiques

On Monday December 6th I listened to the the 3rd year studio as they presented their final projects.  They had it set up so you walked into this closed area with their projects surrounding you on the walls.  They individually had to design a psychiatric hospital and with another person, or in one case two other people, had to design an apartment/lounge area.  For the hospital, they had three different client areas to attend to: Adolescent Female Unit, Adolescent Male Unit, and Children's Unit.  I was really impressed with all of the presentations and thought they all had a clear design.  After they had all presented their individual projects, Stoel asked us which we thought was better: if the presenter read off of notecard, off their board, or if they memorized what they would say.  He said he though that it was more effective of a presentation of they memorized what they would say because they could stay facing the audience and be more open to questions.  He said that reading off the board was the least effective because the presenter was turned away from his or her audience so they wouldn't seem as open.  Out of all the presentations, there was one that seemed clearly different to me.  Kalai Gonzalez' board was a lot sketchier looking than everyone else's and seemed to have a theme behind each unit.  His Adolescent Female Unit was represented by the sky and a crane, his Adolescent Male Unit was represented by land and an elephant, and his Children's Unit was represented by water and a koi fish.  The koi fish is supposed to represent courage, strength, and endurance.

My favorite concept for the psychiatric hospital was Cassandra Gustafson's.  Her inspiration was a seashell.  "A seashell serves as a temporary home and refuge to many organisms, just as Central Regional Hospital serves as a temporary home for its clients." 

After each person presented their individual project, they got together with their partner and present their group project.  This was to design a building on 106 West Parish Street and turn it into apartments and a lounge area.  Out of all the presentations, my favorite was the group of Smith, Dean, and Loloci.  I really enjoyed how they brought in natural light to the top two floors of apartments using a light shaft.  Also, they explained how the windows on the bottom level opened up to the street so walkers could hear what was going on inside and maybe want to make them go there.  The had a place for a band and had different levels on the ground floor so they could be viewed from different angles.  Besides their project, I also thought their presentation was the best.  They knew what they were going to say and presented their idea very clearly.  

Because they had a group of three people, they also had to make something that could go in their building.  They designed a light fixture made out of recyclable materials that created a soft light.  I talked to Dean about it when they had finished presenting and she explained how she made the paper that was used in the fixture.  She also said that the curved cuts corresponded with the larger curves so it could show more light.  I asked her where she would most likely see this and she said it could fit in the residential area, the wine bar, or really anywhere in the building.