Fall 2009: September 2009

-Concept: node
central point
separates CBI and Durham
-Connects all layers
-Creates a separate conference room
-working showroom
-highlighting the old

The concept that your group presented was the idea of a node used as a central point and a way to separate and also divide spaces. I thought the structure within your building was an interesting way to convey your concept. This was presented as a way to connect all floors together. This shape stretched along the walls, ceiling and floors. I thought that it was an interesting aspect that this space connects the floors together but is used to separate areas on each floor. This provided and way to separate your conference room, which I thought was very effective. I encourage you to consider more ways to incorporate this aspect of the design. When you are exploring your lighting options think of ways to maybe mimic this shape. I feel like this has great potential to be used as a way finding device and a way to divide areas within your showroom. Right now you are using this to connect the floors and draw you into the showroom. I think that this works well but once you walk through the node it has no other purposes. I think that this would be part of your next design steps. Also, remember to consider the windows, I know that this was mentioned earlier, but remember to take in account the size and placement of the node related to the windows. I think that the idea of exposing the brick behind the node would be an interesting way to relate the old to new aspects, and provide you will many opportunities to further explore this. Also, I think the idea of having a working showroom goes along with how our clients want to use their space. I know that you have your minimum square footage and your layout of private and public areas. I think that your next step is to consider the layout of your space and how you can use your concept of a node to further connect and add emphasis to different areas.

The precedent studies allowed us to view different firms and areas. We were able to see what aspects of these locations worked well and what did not work. This provided us with a way to explore the layout of businesses and how they handled the challenges of organization, branding and flow of the users. I feel that visiting the physical place was more effective than providing an example from a magazine. This way you were able to interact with the space and see how the aspects such as lighting, color, finishes, and visible mechanical systems really affected the atmosphere of the space. By viewing everyone’s precedent study we were able to draw inspiration from other projects and discuss how well we thought these design aspects may work with our space, and our client’s needs.