KEM STUDIO-VIRGINIA TECH: INTEGRATED DESIGN STUDIO

Thank you for your hospitality Virginia Tech.

After two fast-paced weeks the Integrated Design Studio came to a close this Monday with the presentation of the 4 final projects below.  We had a great time being Hokies for two weeks, and probably learned as much from the students as they did from us (hopefully they learned a little). 

 The premise of the project was to explore the possibilities and power of interdisciplinary collaboration… challenge the students think differently about design. All four teams should be proud of what they achieved. The quality of the work was high and there were many intangible moments throughout that equally validated the process. 

Jonathon, Brad and I left invigorated, and ready to try it again next year.

Brad here, posting remotely from Kansas City. I received preview photos yesterday from Jonathon and Jon and was genuinely impressed. Two weeks, new design thinking, diverse group, and you met the challenge. We hit the ground running day one and were sprinting all the way to the finish. Congrats! Keep your eyes peeled for complete postings of the final schemes and thoughts in the coming days.

Saturday night at the studio.

Well armed with a seemingly endless supply of Red Bull (I’ve heard tales of a Red Bull dealer in one of the studios) everyone is steadily generating renderings and laser cutting model parts. With the finish line in sight, concepts coming together and a full moon outside the freakout level is low… but it’s early.

Today marks the beginning of the sprint to the finish.

All 4 groups seem to be working well together, have a clear(er) direction, and are making final refinements in preparation for the presentation on Monday afternoon at 3:00. A press release went out today on the front page of the university online news site inviting the public to the presentation… no turning back now!

To see the preliminary concepts from each group checkout the links on the sidebar to the left on this page under the heading “PROJECT INFO”.

This first studio has a been an adventure for everyone and we’re confident that the students will respond on Monday with presentations that will set a high bar for future studios (no pressure).

Below is some process work showing where the groups have been heading since they presented concepts Monday night. 

An interesting (and unscripted) part of this studio experiment has been doing portfolio reviews with several of the students. There are many seniors in the group actively thinking about and pursuing jobs after graduation, and juniors looking for internships.

With such a diverse group it has been revealing to see how the different disciplines approach communicating their work. We were speaking with an architecture faculty member this morning who commented that ID students tend to have a noticeable human/user focus to their presentations as compared to the architecture students… which we have found to be true as well.

That conversation made me think that it could be just as valuable for the students to take this rare opportunity to present their personal work to students of other disciplines as it is for them to present to us.

Shepard Fairey.

There has been more talk in the studio about how these projects can proactively connect with the community… think about how the proliferation of Shepard Fairey’s work and message relates to the themes we have been discussing.

P.S. – Rebecca gets the credit for the Fairey reference.

Everyone is starting to think about the details and execution of their spaces. Here is a sample of a screen wall designed and made by Egawa + Zbryk, artists from Kansas City. Take look at the work on their website as you start thinking about the idea of “craft”, and how craftsmanship influences your design.

http://www.egawazbryk.com

Gold star for the “Bike” team (aka team “Awesome Badness”).

 They waded back into their research and re-examined their core ideas based on the feedback from the presentation Monday night and a desk crit Tuesday. This is EXACTLY what all of the groups should be doing (hint, hint). They got their ideas up on the wall, evaluated them, and immediately started sketching…  good job.

You can even see the progress from the street at night.

FIRST watch this today and while your moving forward with your refinement remember to have FUN, MAKE IT FUN & THINK DIFFERENTLY!

As your working tonight on the project remember to THINK DIFFERENT… challenge opportunities… be BOLD

Watch this, be inspired and amaze us and yourselves…. 

Monday night was the presentation of initial group concepts and the culmination of a frenetic first week.

All four groups did a good job of communicating their ideas, their progress, and their unresolved questions. The group as whole also did a great job jumping in and giving meaningful feedback to each other about questions and opportunities.

But there is not time to rest. This second week will be a sprint to the finish to get a single concept refined.

Here are some overall thoughts to help focus the refinement phase:

WORD OF THE DAY

Distill: def – extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of.

THE IDEA – DON’T FORGET THE RESEARCH

Go back to the research framework established last week – use it as an organizing tool for your thoughts and reactions. The presentations last night forced all of the groups to synthesize their ideas – and in most cases realize that their ideas aren’t quite there yet. There were a lot of good comments and suggestions offered, more than enough material to launch the final concept phase. Now is the time to rigorously evaluate the questions, comments, opportunities and ideas that were stirred up at the presentation. Remember, the goal is to come up with a single CLEAR IDEA.

PROCESS IS IMPORTANT

This studio is as much about how you work as it is what you produce. Now that all of the groups are moving into the refinement phase it is critical to start adding detailed thoughts and ideas about the sensory aspects of the final solution. Everyone talked about interaction in general, but not many people talked about the experience… how would a seat feel? What is the impact of shade/light? How does material selection impact how long someone stays engaged (how long would you sit on a steel plate bench versus a cushion-backed seat)? How do sound and smell factor in?

HAVE FUN

This a unique opportunity to work with students you wouldn’t normally get a chance to collaborate with… make the most of it.

The group that has chosen to design a mobile gathering space focused on “play”  and “cycling” has been doing a great job of researching the user and understanding the constraints + opportunities. Early on we noted that they were leading the research, and since then have owned letting the research lead them instead. By doing that they found out about the culture and lifestyle of cyclists, as well as a need for a social gathering space/hub for group rides.

Interviewing an employee at Hokie Spokes revealed that when gathering for a ride, they all seek out the one small patch of grass to protect the metal clips on the bottom of their riding shoes and protect themselves from slipping. This opens up the potential for the creative use of surface materials with a purpose.

Saturday morning they observed and interviewed a VT cycling club as they gathered for a group ride at Bollo’s Cafe & Bakery. Jon Taylor and I stopped back their later in the day for our afternoon espresso fix and coincidentally met some of those same riders. Reid and Andrew were nice enough to share more thoughts, revealing opportunities for social interaction with the hub (most of which they had already shared with the students). Cycling advocacy for the public and ride etiquette/education for the cyclists is an opp. About 7oo adults and 250 children cyclists die each year from automobile accidents. Centralized and available ride maps, trail tips and schedules would be beneficial. It would also be a central place to gather for club meetings. These came from asking more about their culture, interests, lifestyle and routine than the typical ” If you had a place like this what could you use it for?” 

Thanks again Reid and Andrew, ride on!

Full steam ahead. Each team now has three distinct conceptual directions and they are starting to take shape. The cafe/art team has produce a series of gestural models and parti sketches. I’m intrigued to see how these will develop for Monday’s presentation.

Today was a combination of conceptual design charrettes and ad hoc portfolio reviews. The reviews were good, gave us a chance to see more of their work and where they are coming from. Hope our perspectives were helpful.

above: “The” Richard Miller dropping some knowledge

The teams have now settled into the specific subject for their Mobile Gathering Space; a group rider cycling hub, cafe seating that integrates and supports local graffiti artists, gathering space associated with a restaurant, and a reading space that fosters social interaction for book clubs. Teams are required to generate and “big idea” statement that is a result of the research and defines their conceptual approach. Each team will present three distinct schemes on Monday and will critically evaluate them to identify the most compelling direction. Our focus for today was to advance conceptual thinking and get conceptual designs on paper. We set short time limits to generate schemes and divided up into smaller groups within each team to divide, conquer and regroup.

We have been excited to see that each team is approaching the projects as “designers”, not identified by their studied discipline. They also seem to be appreciating the value of simultaneously evolving their written design statements while coming up with illustrated conceptual designs. I can tell that they are getting in a groove… discussions are more heated (Ben is a pot stirrer!) and they are gaining more ownership of the project.

Seconds after our presentation to the school of a+d, Jonathon and Ron sprinted to catch a flight to Vegas for their IDSA transition meeting/bender. I (Brad) took in a big ACC game, VT hosting # 12 Clemson. Great atmosphere, dedicated fans, and a disappointing loss. The Hokies blew a 14 pt first half lead despite looking like the superior team for most of the game. Watch out for VT at tourney time.

On this off day, Jonathon and Brad gave a presentation to the School of Architecture + Design about “Design Thinking”. We believe we can make life better through design and illustrated how we achieve that. 

The teams are transitioning between research and concept design. As they do that many are using words to describe the experience they are trying to create based on results from the research.

Day 3 and the signage is growing. There are three now! Will there be one for each day that wraps the wall? Will we meet the artist? We’re intrigued.

We are moving fast! The 4 teams are comprised of one member from each discipline represented, architecture, industrial design, landscape architecture, interior design and graphic design. The project, design a MOBILE GATHERING SPACE (see Project Brief under Project Info on the left sidebar) associated with an urban, social place/business. Some have focused their study area and others struggled to reign it in. After a group discussion to reinforce the challenge at hand, the teams quickly pulled together their research. At this stage we are looking for the research to lead us to a big idea, not for us to lead the research.

We briefly discussed the lessons learned from the Medici Effect – “When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” Good read, check out the excerpt on the sidebar.

On Day 1 we arrived at VT and were pleasantly surprised to see a red screen print sign of our logo, adhered to a white CMU wall identifying the studio space. There was something mysterious about it… we didn’t know it would be there, it just showed up. It sort of has a graffiti quality to it with a little bit of the paint smeared on to the wall. The type face is off a bit and red is not one of our brand colors, but it works… it feels like us. Thanks!

We hit the ground running on the first day! A 2 hour QUICK FIRE design charatte gave everyone the chance to get in the right frame of mind and stretch their design muscles.

The challenge – redesign the ordinary. Construction scaffolding is quickly making for a homogenized look in dense, urban cities… especially cities like NYC that feel like a constant construction site. As both a spatial condition and a surface condition, scaffolding has the potential to raise many issues in design today (the full brief is under project info).

This group accepted the framework as an efficient solution and developed a surface application concept of an “urban quilt”. It’s designed to be a multi-sensory experience within a grid of controlled chaos.

Other proposals will be posted shortly.