Category: PERFORM

EVALUATION:

My Final Major project for University has been extremely fun, but also very stressful. As a designer and creative person, I have loved the freedom this project has given me, and I believe that it has helped me develop my skills and designs which will inevitably help me become a successful interior designer.

All the projects I have undertaken at University have all had a strong concept behind them. This has allowed me to create a space that encompasses every aspect and detail of the performance. Aida is an opera which I loved as a child and my knowledge and love for this concept has enabled me to thoroughly enjoy the development of the design, and ensured that I was fully aware of the performance and what was required to make it come alive.
Although I have enjoyed this project, it has also had its downsides, and some of these were unexpected. As an interior design student, you need a good laptop to complete the course to a high standard as visuals are required to showcase your designs, concepts, and schemes. Alongside this, the current global crisis has caused a lot of problems for everyone, particularly students as our education has moved online which made it even more important to have access to the internet and a laptop. Unfortunately, my laptop decided to break during the most crucial development stage. This was incredibly unexpected and caused me to behind by one week for the development of the project. Although this was inconvenient, It has not stopped me from completing this project to the best of my ability and has shown me that even when bad things happen; you can always finish.

During this project, I believe I have fully engaged, attended, and committed to the brief and have taken the feedback given to me by my tutors positively and used them to develop my designs to a better standard and quality. The concept of ‘AIDA’ involves a large understanding of colour, texture and tone within spaces. Using colour within a space can help show emotions within different acts without having to remind the audience that this act is about ‘jealousy’ or ‘revenge’. (e.g., the textures and tones of the colour green symbolise jealous behaviour) My ability to understand the concept of ‘object, space and experience’, has been incredibly prevalent during this project. This is because I have had to focus hard on incorporating the main ideas and objects within a usual ‘AIDA’ set design and portray it in a modern setting.

Finally, this project has pushed me out of my comfort zone and encouraged me to challenge myself, which I believe is an important quality to have as a designer. The visuals I have created have been produced, to a high standard, and, I can see through my technical drawings that my artistic ability and creativity has developed over this year. Therefore, I believe that I have exceeded my potential and become a better interior designer.

COMMUNICATION REVIEW AND DEVELOPMENT:

Coronavirus has prevented a lot of things from happening and as a designer at University it has been incredibly hard, especially with the developmental process of my project. However, I decided to make the most of producing visuals of my project in the most fun way possible which personally was done through the means of collage. In previous years I have used software’s such as V-ray which is available on the Uni computers however, using Enscape and Photoshop to produce collaged based visuals was incredibly fun. My time at Cardiff Met has enabled me to become more confident using photoshop and I am happy with the results I obtain for my visuals.

‘AIDA’ is an opera which incorporates bold, bright, rich, and vibrant colours, textures, and tones to its set design and often can look very overwhelming in a positive and fun way. As an interior designer I used these overwhelming colours to my advantage and produced a space which I believe captures AIDA and its concept. I produced a mixture of night and daytime visuals to allow viewers to gain a better understanding of how the space will look at both matinée and evening shows.

During my Communication reviews I was advised to ensure that I collaged in the surrounding environment to make the space more realistic. The feedback I obtained during this tutorial has enabled me to focus more on adding more detail to my final visuals which has helped them to become to an even better quality than what they were before. Although I managed to complete this part of the feedback I struggled initially as I found it hard to make the surrounding environment look real. To overcome this struggle, I decided to research into how to make the background collage look real on photoshop which was incredibly helpful and enabled me to develop my visuals further, making them a higher quality and standard.

During this stage of the project, I started to develop my final presentation which would show my design development from initial design ideas to final finished visuals. Completing these presentations shows me how my design has developed overtime and allows me to also pick out mistakes or things which need to be changed before my final submission.

This project has really enabled me to push myself out of my comfort zone and take risks with my project, and I believe that this has helped me develop as a designer.

SCHEME DEVELOPMENT:

Once I was certain with my chosen concept, I started to develop my designs further, but before I was able to start SketchUp development, I went to visit the host site which provided me with the additional knowledge. This helped me to understand the space available and the spacial movement and connections which can take place within it. Like I mentioned in my previous blog post I was unable to visit the site multiple times due to Covid-19 and the restrictions which were put in place.

One thing which surprised me from visiting the space was that the shipping containers were a lot smaller than I had initially anticipated. However, the host site space was relatively large which provided me with the opportunity to use a selection of shipping containers arranged in a variety of different ways.

My first instinct was to arrange the containers in a circular or semi-circle formation which would imitate the design of an amphitheatre which would perfectly portray the performance within the space. However, one disadvantage was that because the containers were rectangular in shape my ability to create a circular formation on the site with the audience still having the ability to see the performance was limited. From this I decided to create a modern twist on the shape of the performance space, incorporating containers stacked on top of each other to create different stages and producing a triangular layout which would link to the pyramid structures used within the ‘AIDA’ opera. Although the formation did not form the circular shape required for the amphitheatre, I decided to incorporate this in a different way with arched structures carved out of the left-over container material. By doing this I am encouraging shadows in the shape of arches to be displayed all around the site, giving the illusion of an amphitheatre structure.

The process of researching my chosen performance and my ability to use its qualities to produce high standard designs has helped me develop as a designer. It also reassures me that I can be thrown into the deep end with a concept but still produce high quality visuals and design schemes for my clients. During the development process of this project, I have really enjoyed experimenting with the shipping containers within Sketchup as they can be placed in a variety of different positions which is incredibly exciting. Alongside this, I have developed my design quality and confidence within Sketchup which will inevitably help me in the future when I am given commissions to do for future clients. If I was to do this section of the design process again I would try to use software’s such as revit rather than sketchup to understand the way it works.

CONCEPT:

This year’s major project was called “Perform”.

As a designer, the idea of creating a space which is used for performing arts is very exciting, this is because it provides lots of opportunities with the tones, textures, architectural formations, and installations which can be used within the space. We were given 3 different host buildings: The Boneyard, St Pauls church (Cardiff) and Stiwido Seligman. Initially, I was drawn to the church as the interior architecture had large arched formations which accentuated the stone textures used for the space; making it seem widely open and grand. However, after researching into all three host buildings I was incredibly excited about the Boneyards flexibility, sustainability, and creativity.

BONE YARD:

The performance I dedicated to this space came from a personal experience from when I was little. As a kid I went to see the Opera; Aida in the beautiful Aerona di verona. It was spectacular; my young mind was blown away by the bright, bold, and rich colours which accentuated and embraced the amphitheatre environment. I decided to use the flexibility and creativity of the shipping containers to create a modern amphitheatre which would act as a performance space for Aida. This concept has enabled me to develop as an interior designer as it has allowed me to explore further into amphitheatre design, forms, and textures as well as it’s interaction with the ancient Egyptian opera. Personally, I have always leaned towards the interior architecture side to this course, focusing on my ability to use the surrounding space and its architectural formations and blending them into the interior design of the environment. In this case I am incredibly interested in using the arched formations which are carved into the amphitheatre exterior as part of the main focal point within my final designs for this major project.

‘AIDA’ MOOD BOARD

This ‘PERFORM’ space must include a performance and bar space as well as a display space to showcase artefacts, designs etc. To continue with my ‘AIDA’ themed space, I intend to research further into the set design used within the performances and incorporate features, colours, textures, and tones into my own designs. Although the Boneyard provides me with great opportunities, their rectangular shape, materialistic properties, and hard exterior will mean I need to take into consideration the potential limitations/ problems I may face during this project. For example, the shipping containers are exposed to many insecticides and, therefore, their interior will need to be changed- thus meaning the original colour will have to be discarded.

The process of exploring the host site and developing a concept for my design was incredibly fun and exciting, however, if I was to do it again, I would investigate and survey the host site in more depth as this would have provided me with extended knowledge about the site. This would have provided me with more detailed opportunities and restrictions and analysis of the space. Due to Covid -19 it was hard to access the space and therefore, prevented me from doing this.