On Family: Design Brigade Week 5
How can we refine and visualize our design ideas?
Student Team: Ivy Li, Janelle Schmidt, Huy Truong, Vicky Wu, Sasha Zwiebel
A project co-sponsored by the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media and Atelier Cho Thompson.
Design Work Under Way
This week, we developed our proposal to present to a group of our mentors at the end of the week, including Daisy Ames, Myles Brown, and Starling Childs. Our design development continued on from the week before, in which we decided to pursue two main courses of development: a Tower Trail, which uses graphics, signage for protocols and circulation markers to create a walking trail around the campus of the Towers, and various “Pods” dotted along the trail.
Out of a list that includes “Exercise Pod”, “Crafting Pod”, “Tranquil Pod”, etc., we chose to develop the “Gathering Pod” first and to present at Thursday’s review. We decided that each pod should contain Shade, Seating, COVID Partitions and Programming. Chair design presented a challenge, as we aren’t quite sure of our budget, and so we looked at precedents ranging from the Tom and Will Butterfield’s 19 Chairs project that we could build ourselves to high-priced, high-quality options for specifying for purchase. In the end, we proposed an option for hackable IKEA furniture as well as an inexpensive chair that wouldn’t require “hacking” but would require our team to match the rest of the furniture throughout the project to its design language for the sake of continuity.
In addition to the Gathering Pod, we proposed a participatory mural to be located on the side of the wall in the Southeast corner of the site and ideas for acrylic moveable partitions that residents and visitors could write messages to each other on.
With the development of the Tower Trail, infographics were drafted for signage and wayfinding purposes to be dotted along the trail. This included drafting a comprehensive site plan, ideating on the look and feel of the map and iconography, developing physical trail markers, and laying out instructional graphics for COVID specific protocols.
In our design review, Daisy Ames, Myles Brown, and Starling Childs were excited about the project and gave great points of feedback. Firstly, they mentioned that as we age, our eyesight begins to yellow such that colors need to be in higher contrast to be easily legible. Next, they brought up a need to emphasize sturdiness in furniture design because the elderly are at risk of falling and need additional support. They loved our shading devices and how we are considering temperature control and, resultantly, encouraged us to consider colder seasons in our designs. Lastly, they questioned how much furniture we really need because many seniors use wheelchairs and walkers.
Roadblocks
Not quite a roadblock, but we capped off the end of the week with an internal battle between which patch of grass the gatherers of the Gathering Pod should gather on. Left Grass was the underdog (underdog not meaning “hero”, instead underdog meaning that there was an AC unit adjacent to Left Grass which would be hard to look past) while Right Grass was the obvious frontrunner. However, what Left Grass lacked in grace, it made up for in being the location that residents were currently gathering in. Alas, Left Grass’s moxie fell short, and Right Grass’s looks and charm propelled it to the winner’s circle after a nail-biting vote.
Next Steps
After our 6-Week Review next Friday, Design Brigade will receive 6 new M.Arch.1 first-year students/orphans that were supposed to be spending the summer building a house for the 2020 Jim Vlock Yale Building Project. They will begin next week, and On Family’s team is gaining Yushan Jiang and Alex Mingda Zhang — welcome ya’ll! Their involvement will mark the 2nd phase of this project which our fearless leader, Dana Karwas, gracefully fought for us to have. Unfortunately, we will also be saying goodbye to our current Project Manager, Sasha Zwiebel, as she is committed to another project during Phase 2. Onward, Sasha! We love you.
Other than a shift change, this week we will refine the ideas presented last week so that they are client-ready, draft a preliminary budget, and establish a schedule for phased implementation so our client can produce the project piece-by-piece as they acquire funding.
