Contextual Investigation

     My case study topic was the history of railroad in the west, and depot design in the US. Firstly, I got together with another team who were doing the same topic as me and we each decided a different depot for latter research. I was doing the Union Depot in Lewiston, Idaho. Then, I did some research about this depot including its material, its overall design, its adaptive re-use and I also investigated the railroad that depot used to serve. After that, I put all of the information together and came up with the poster. During the process, I felt that my skills of gathering information had improved. There were not a lot information about the depot online and I had to check every link in order to get those small details. I don’ think my strength had shown in the project, instead, my weaknesses has shown. I think my skills of creating a poster still have room to improve. My poster layout looks plain and not very strong. I should practice more and look for more examples.

     Generally speaking, I think I did well in this project. I could handle problems by myself even though my teammate was absent and I am glad that I went through the processes successfully.

Habitat for Humanity Project

     The project was designed a house for Habitat for Humanity. It was a two stories building with very limited room. So, it was kind of hard and my teammates and I did a lot of modifications to make the space properly and comfortable. Overall speaking, the final result of the project came out pleasing. My teammates and I tried our best and the final poster looked nice. That is the successful part of the project. However, there are still some parts that still need to improve. For example, the team needs more communications on the division of tasks. Every teammate should do the equal works.

     We did a lot of processes works for developing this project. We did the client interview and asked a lot questions about how to planning the space to make it suitable for the family to live. The general principle for designing a Habitat for Humanity’s house is “durable, affordable and sustainable”, so our questions were basically around there three words. Then we did the site visit to make the sure the house is fit to the neighborhood and we then began our drafting works. We did the floor plan, front elevation and perspective drawings and then inked and rendered them and finally the poster came out.

     During the project, I felt my rendering skills had improved and I think my strengths were drafting the perspective drawings and making the poster. My weaknesses were space planning, I was poor at planning the space with that limited room. My goal for my future project is to practice more space planning works and I really should get familiar with the measurements.  For example, like what’s the minimum size for a bedroom or a bathroom. I should memorize all those dimensions.

     Generally speaking, I really put my efforts into this project and I think I did pretty well. In the future, I will try something I am not good at instead of always doing the things I am familiar with. I should push myself and make some challenges. I hope I could become a professional and comprehensive designer when I grow older.

     

First Floor

 Second Floor