Project 3: Living and Working Smart

Container homes: Tranquil Lake Pad

For our last project, we had to design a home using 3 containers for our artist. I had to design the container based on my artist and just for my artist to live in. This project was based on living smart and living in compact design and working with small spaces. Since the first project, I have known more about my artist, Haris Rashid, and his work also and how I could design the home just for him and fit his needs and make it comfortable for him to live in.

The first thing I had to do is know what spaces my artist would need, public and private space. I had several main spaces that I had to consider when I design the spaces in my containers which were: gallery (public area), bedroom and living room (resting area), kitchen, toilet and workshop/office. The second part I had to consider is the arrangement of my containers. I have laid out my container to be like this, having two smallest containers at bottom and one long container on top of it, to separate the different areas and spaces. First containers at bottom is only for public area, which is the gallery, the other container at bottom is for workshop/office where it is a private but also public area when he wants to invite clients in. Lastly, the top container, which is the main house, is all private only.

During the whole of project 3, we had to do a lot of technical drawings and perspective drawings  for our final presentation. We had to do it several times because it was corrected over and over again to make sure all off our drawings were correct. I had trouble doing some of these drawings such as the oblique because my containers were arranged in a weird angle and I wasn't sure how to draw it but at the end I did it with also some help from lecturer. Perspectives were also a very important part to put in our final presentation because it shows the interior view of the different spaces/rooms I have in my house design.

One of the things that was a challenge for me in this project was to make sure that I have put my key words onto the design of my house. This was difficult for me because my keywords were a bit difficult to use. I used my keyword exotic by placing a lot of house plants around the house and I tried also from the furniture, I used vibrant by showing the bright red colour scheme I have throughout the house, and I used experimental by having many different mechanisms in my house.

One of the main things we needed to have in our house is a compact design and also a mechanisms which I had quite a few. My compact design was a seat/shelf unit where the TV wall could be moved to reveal a small seating area and the other side is a shelving unit where she shelf can also pull out.

Coming to the final presentation, we had to compose all of our drawings onto two A0 using digital and then print it and then render. This was one of the hardest part for me because I was afraid of rendering and making a mistake and also took a long time to render everything. I also named my house 'Tranquil Lake Pad' since the site that my house is in has a small lake and the area can also be quite and breezy. My site was located in Bangsar South.

Lastly, we had to do a model for our house design. This I found very difficult and also took a very long time for me to do because I had quite a lot of small components. It was really challenging to make all the furnitures in the house but luckily, I did almost all of the furnitures. If I had enough time, I would've tried to make the mechanisms actually work and able to move so I could show the judges. Also, we had to do a sample board by including some of the materials that my design of the house have.



 

Finally, the day of our final presentation.. I was nervous but I knew what was to be expected since I've done a presentation in my first semester. I was more confident this time around because I knew what to say and what to do also. The judge who critic me was very harsh but also gave me a lot more help for my next semester and future assignments and told me how I could improve which I am grateful about. I really enjoyed this project because I could finally design the interior of a house and the outside of the house. It was really fun designing all the interiors and rendering the interiors of the house drawings. The model was quite hard but it really did help me improve to make my modelling skills much more better in the future. The rendering of the drawings also will help me to improve my rendering skills for future assignments. I am grateful to all the lecturers that had helped me.

Solution to Lighting Problems

ASSIGNMENT 2

Solutions & Proposals

CAR PARK

A car park is the ‘front door’ of the building, while also serving its primary functional role. Therefore, the car park needs to have that initial appearance, ease of use, signage, bright lighting and clear directional marking. All of this will help a car park to be a more safe environment. Furthermore, a light and airy environment should be one of the major goals of a car park. These are all problems that the Suriamas Condominium have: no bright lighting and no bright signages to indicate which block is where. This makes the car park in the apartment very confusing and not safe, especially during the nights. 

       

      

-Dark corridors during day to clubhouse

-Dark corridors at night on each floor of the building

-Lack of light in parking lot during day and night

-Broken lights found everywhere -causes lack of light

Solution to Problem:

• Add more colours: 
• Adding more colour helps reflect natural and artificial lights on the material’s reflective properties which will overall make the car park more brighter and safe for people to go through and park. 
• Bright colours could be added to the columns and also to the floor so the light can reflect of the ground, automatically making the car park brighter. 
• Pigmented resin coating systems can be used to protect the parking structure but also adding more colours and improving lighting levels through the reflective properties. 

   

 

• Change type of light: 
• Another way to fix the light problem is to change the intensity of the light bulbs to make it brighter. One of the problems that this apartment have is also that the light intensity is very low, therefore it does not really have a major impact when the light is turned on, it is still dark. 
• Also, to change the type of light used since most of the light in this car park is mostly broken or can break easily and then the light will not work. 
• LED luminaries, such as the Monsun 2 LED lights, could perhaps be used in the car park instead because it conserve energy and cuts operating and maintenance cost. 

CLUBHOUSE CORRIDOR

Another place that also has a lighting problem is in the corridors of each floor and also the corridor to the clubhouse. For the corridor to the clubhouse, it is pitch black when the light is turned off during the day and it is dark in the corridor of each floor during the night when some of the lights are broken or not even on. First of all the corridor for the clubhouse, it is dark during the day and therefore residents won’t even know that this corridor actually goes to the clubhouse because the corridor is not welcoming, dark and no signages. 

Solution to Problem:

• Add more colours:
• One of the ways is to add more colours as some colour can reflect lights. 
• This corridor to the clubhouse needs to add more lighter colours so the light can bounce around and brighten up the corridor space. 
• The use of soft lighting can also be used with the natural lighting to brighten up the corridor since it is not really possible to change the overall architecture of the building so soft lighting could be used instead. 
• At night, LED lighting tucked away in the ceiling can really brighten it up and also make it feel much more welcoming for residences. 
• Also, adding more decorations such as wall paintings could help too. 

RESIDENTIAL FLOOR LEVEL

The corridors for each floor in the resident building is one of the most important place to make resident feel safe, easy to find the apartment directions and to do this, one of the main concerns is to have bright lights in the corridor. However, the corridors here do not have bright lights as some of the lights are broken and perhaps not enough lights or not that bright of light used. Especially on the highest floor of the building, the corridor is dark when it is at night and this is a problem because it can be dangerous.

Solution to Problem:

• Add more colours: 
• Most of the walls and ceiling in the corridor has a very duel white paint that has been ruined by water and not been painted over again. 
• One of the ways to fix the light problem is to have a brighter neutral colour on the walls and ceiling as the light can reflect, making the corridor brighter naturally.

• Change type of light:
• Another way to fix the problem of lack of light for both corridor for each floor is to change the type of light used. 
• LED luminaries should be used instead because it is easy to install and reduces the overall energy consumption. It also has a long service life that keeps maintenance costs low. 
• The types of LED luminaries could be used are recessed luminaries  or diffused lighting could also be used as it minimises glare. 

The type of light used in all the corridors and in the parking area right now is open fluorescent luminaries. However, this should be changed to LED lights instead as there are more advantages of using that instead of fluorescent. 

• Fluorescent lights (disadvantages): 
• Contains mercury -the amount of mercury in a fluorescent lamp is about 4 milligrams; this is an incredibly small amount and this is converted into mercury vapour when the lamp is turned on and is important for the lamp’s ability to make light. 
• Since it is small amount of mercury in it, it will finish quite fast which is why the lamp will not be able to emit that much of a light and is why these are broken quite fast. 
• It also has a higher initial cost and aren’t as efficient as LED. 
• Also, it has lumen depreciation where the colour varies and fades; at different stages of the lamp’s life, different light levels will be produced which will result in dark corners in different areas of the space. This is why the corridor some parts are darker than others, inconsistent because of the type of light. Life rating is an average of only 20,000 hours. 

• LED lights (advantages):
• It is energy saving and can save up to 45 to 65 percent in energy cost if changed to LED from fluorescent. 
• It has a much longer life than fluorescent with 50,000 hours.  
• It also contains no mercury which makes it more environmentally- friendly choice and this os important as this is a residential building. 
• The LED lamp also does not burn as fast to fluorescent which is why it will require very low maintenance and less broken lights in the corridors. 

 

Project 2: Portable casing- Triple Threat

For the second project, we had to design and make a prototype of a portable casing for our artist. This portable casing is designed to be for Haris Rashid only. First, we had to research and find and list the inventories (tools, media) that Haris Rashid would need to have in a portable casing. Haris Rashid uses a range of materials such as acrylic, watercolour, therefore I had to take account of the different media he uses. 

The second task I had to do was research on different existing portable casing and also find the mechanisms that I would like to include in my casing design. Printing and researching existing products really helped me and inspired me on the design and mechanism for the casing I was going to design. 

The third task we had to do is actually designing. These involved a lot of different design ideas and sketches. For our design also, we had to make sure it relates to our keywords. I explored many different mechanisms in my casing to relate to my keyword of experimental. Another keyword I used in the design is vibrant and exotic. Exotic I showed it by the frames of the clear windows on my casing design. Vibrant I used were for bright and a variety of colours in my design. 

Lastly, we had to make a prototype of our portable casing design using any materials we wanted. I enjoyed making the prototype because it involved hands-on cutting work. Also, I had fun trying to figure out how to do the different mechanisms and making sure my prototype actually works and shows these mechanisms. With the prototype, we also had to make an infographic board that shows our portable casing design, the inventories, and the different mechanisms being shown and explained steps by step. The infographic board is where I really explained the mechanisms and also how the casing looks like in colour since my prototype was all white. 

This is my infographic board. I named my portable casing 'Triple Threat' because there were 3 parts in my casing that can be detachable into 3 parts and attach again to be one whole casing. 

This is my prototype I made of my portable casing. I had to use any materials I can find to show my mechanisms and how the portable casing works. 

Project 1: Get to know the artist

The artist that I got to do for this ongoing project is Haris Rashid. The first project we had to do is make an inforgraphic board based on information about our artist. I collected and also asked Haris Rashid himself information about his background, his prominent works, philosophies and vision in art work. 

Artists’s Background:

- Born: 1992 in Kedah, Malaysia

- Diploma in Illustration, The One Academy, Malaysia

art has been in his life since young (mostly high school days)

today: full time aritst

- founder and leader of a young artist collective studio known as Studio Mekar.

Philosophies and visions in art work:

 -similarities between human and animal, asking what qualities do we share, how are we different, and what can we as humans learn from the flora and fauna around us,

-uses animals and nature as metaphors or symbols to show how their traits can reflect our own behaviors, to show what they can teach us about ourselves.

-journey of discovering the connections between us and the rest of the world, I am simply inspired, composing the elements of what I see around me into paintings that are acts of self-expression.

-Beauty in the beast : he hopes to ignite the desire in us to view conservation of nature, particularly wildlife, with more seriousness.

Inspiration: nature, human condition and spirituality 

Prominent work:

characters and style adapted:

wild animals his focus -for for his concern in animals, whose numbers in t`he wind are fast dwindling, as well as his fascinations 

current artworks -animals exhibiting human characteristics, , a notion that has fueled a number of pieces in the last several months -wonder whether there is more humanity to be found in his animal subjects than in mankind itself.

main creative outlet is paintings but likes to experiment on different mediums like pottery street art 

Solo exhibitions:

(2nd) HUMANIMAL : Haris explores the world where human and animal merge, and invites us to reflect on the similarities between humans and nature, forcing us to question which world shows more humanity

Beauty in the beast :  series of wild ferocious species are given new identities, shedding the general preconceived notion of a beast. highlights pure beauty he sees in the wild subjects of his works. Where most people see primarily danger, he sees an innate beauty within the ferocious, which he considers the essence of nature.

Material used:

various media: oil, colour pencils, acrylic, watercolour and pigments

surfaces, wood and pressured textured paper being two surface he works most

Visual language: 

often experiment with various media 

Finds inspiration: through nature and patterns

Through all this research I collected about my artist, I then had to design and make an infographic board that had all the information about him in it. I enjoyed learning about the artist and getting to know the artist in depth. We also had to pull out several keywords that reflected on our artist's work to make us understand more of his work and philosophies. 

I enjoyed making the infographic board because I could design the board how I wanted and to show his work. I also designed the board based on Haris Rashid's work themes. Most of his work evolve around animals, nature, humans, patterns,  therefore for my board, I tried to show this by having tree branches, flowers and leaves to show nature. Also, since he uses geometric patterns while mixing with nature patterns in most of his work, I also tried to show this by having half of my board filled with nature themed patterns and the bottom half of my board with geometric patterns and shapes. 

In my infographic board, I included his inspirations, key words, his prominent works, solo exhibitions, materials and media he uses, background of himself and his philosophies of work. 

Lighting Problems in Building

One of the main problems that I found in the Suriamas Condominium is lighting. Lighting is one of the main features that needs to be considered in a a building as it helps the residents to be comfortable and know their way in the building. With problems in lighting, it could be very difficult for residents to find their way. Most of the artificial lights used are fluorescent lights but some of these lights are broken. There is a lack of general lighting in main areas of the building such as parking lot and corridors.

During the day, there is a lack of natural light in the corridor of going into the clubhouse and also the parking lot. It is too dark and could be dangerous for residents to go through because there is no light. There is also a lack of artificial light in corridors of each floor, in the parking lot, the outside, small restaurant area and in the clubhouse. It is much darker at night and more dangerous for the residents to be walking around in these particular areas. 

In the parking lot, there is not much natural light and at night, when artificial lights are on, some of the lights are broken which still makes it dark. The natural light that comes through to make it more brighter in the parking lot comes from these rectangle openings from the walls. However these openings are too small and when there is no sunlight, there will be no light coming in during the day. 

         


At night, the corridor of each floor has artificial lights but again, some of the lights are broken. When these lights are broken, the only source of light will be coming from each of the apartments itself but when these lights are turned off, the corridors are pitch black. The walkway to the clubhouse during the day is pitch black, no natural light coming in at all neither is there any artificial lights turned on during the day to solve this problem. 

                    

Residents may find it very hard to find their way at night and could be dangerous. It also could attract pests such as spiders, ants, rats, and cockroaches. Some residents could also feel scared going to different parts of the building because there is no light. This is a major problem that needs to be fixed as we need to make residents of the building feel safe and comfortable, not be afraid. 

After walking around the building and seeing how lighting is such a big and main problem, I am going to find ways to fix it. Since I also live in this building, I would not want to feel scared and not feel comfortable living here. There are ways in fixing this problem such as adding more artificial lights, more openings in the walls so more sunlight comes through, redesigning the lights and taking consideration of each luminance for each area such as corridors, changing the types of lights used and making sure no lights are broken.