Iteration 4.1 looks at the form of the bathroom through analysis and reflection of the bathroom diary, translation of movements within the diary into shape and form and transformation of form into spatial gesture.
Showing posts with label Room. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Room. Show all posts
20110926
Re-designing the bathroom_Iteration 4.1
20110920
"first we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us"
Architecture and Order; Approaches to Social Order.
Ch: Ordering the World: Perceptions of Architecture, Space and Time.
Michael Parker Pearson & Colin Richards.
P. 8 - routine.
P. 2 - 3 - Winston Churchill - "first we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us."
Francis Bacon "Houses are built to live in and not to look on".
Requested Amos Rapport's House Form and Culture.
Books that arrived today in the post:
Purity & Danger - Mary Douglas
Design Your Life - Ellen & Julia Lupton
in praise of shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki
Bathroom Unplugged - Hebel & Stollmann (again)
Architecture - The Subject is Matter - Jonathan Hill
Occupying Architecture: Between the architect and the user - Jonathan Hill
Ch: Ordering the World: Perceptions of Architecture, Space and Time.
Michael Parker Pearson & Colin Richards.
P. 8 - routine.
P. 2 - 3 - Winston Churchill - "first we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us."
Francis Bacon "Houses are built to live in and not to look on".
Requested Amos Rapport's House Form and Culture.
Books that arrived today in the post:
Purity & Danger - Mary Douglas
Design Your Life - Ellen & Julia Lupton
in praise of shadows - Junichiro Tanizaki
Bathroom Unplugged - Hebel & Stollmann (again)
Architecture - The Subject is Matter - Jonathan Hill
Occupying Architecture: Between the architect and the user - Jonathan Hill
20110918
Re-designing the bathroom_Iteration 2.2 & 2.3
Iteration 2.2
The bath has become a small vessel at the end of the progression through the bathroom. Now, because of the size of the sink, the shower and the bath are both on the outside of the existing structure.
A view from the outside of the existing bathroom, showing shower and bath on the outside of the existing structure.
Plan view showing size of sink, shower and bath.
Progression from largest segment of time (sink) to smallest (bath).
And again, from the outside of existing structure.
Iteration 2.3
Reducing the width of the sink so the progression from sink to bath is possible without leaving the red surface area.
A view from the outside of the existing structure - as you can see the outside remains unchanged.
The width of the sink has been reduced in half.
Overall view of the bathroom from the outside - what was private is now public having penetrated the existing structure.
20110917
More writing...Site Analysis.
Site_My Bathroom, Rolleston, Canterbury
Site analysis.
My bathroom at my parent’s house in Rolleston is a 1750 mm by 3500 mm room in their 2009 Stonewood Eco home. We selected our house from a variety of pre-drawn generic house plans at a Stonewood showroom in Rolleston and had them altered slightly by one of the architects at Stonewood.
Image 2, Stonewood. (2009). Site Plan. Rolleston, Canterbury; New Zealand. Photocopy (NTS).
The alterations we made to the bathroom were only slight; we asked to have a sliding door between the bathroom and my sister’s bedroom. The door means that she has the freedom to walk between bathroom and bedroom during the touchy teenage years (she is not even a teenager yet). We selected out bathroom ‘products’ from one of the recommended bathroom product stores, upgraded the shower head and tubing, chose the colour of the faucets – chrome or matte, and voila, the bathroom.
The bathroom was to be ‘Spanish White’ courtesy of Resene and painted over the AquaLine Jib, required in wet-areas of the home. The floor was to have grey marbled 500 x 500 tiles that enclosed the bathtub and it’s surrounding wet-areas. The bathtub, sink and shower cubicle (products) were a pristine white with chrome faucets, taps and drains (sub-products). There was to be a large mirror about the sink with chrome and matte glass light fittings above it. The doors – swing and sliding – were to be ‘V-groove’ and painted the same ‘Spanish White’ and span from floor to ceiling and to be possible one of my favourite features of the house. Behind the swing door, mounted on the Spanish White wall, is the heated towel rail – chrome with 4 rails to hang our towels. On the ceiling sits the heat lamp, and on either side of the heat lamp sat a standard light, all enclosed in an oval fixture. All in all the bathroom was plain and simple, nothing fancy, affordable and gave us a place to perform our bathroom rituals, routines and daily actions. In December of 2009 – just before Christmas – we moved into our shiny new Stonewood home[xx1] .
MORE PHOTOS HERE INC DESCRIPTION OF B/R THROUGH PICTURES.
Analysis of My Bathroom
Modelling My Bathroom
Image 3. Lorna Smith. (2011). Modelling my Bathroom. Rolleston, Canterbury; New Zealand. Sketchup[xx2] .
In order to understand my bathroom more, I modelled it digitally using Google Sketchup[xx3] – a brilliant tool for quickly sketch-modelling 3D. Modelling the existing bathroom space quickly helped me understand the space I was dealing with – drawing the concrete slab, Damp Proof Membrane (DPM), studs, dwangs, lintels and jib create an impenetrable shell (with the exception of doorways and windows) for design to occur within.
Image 4. Lorna Smith. (2011). Modelling my Bathroom. Rolleston, Canterbury; New Zealand. Sketchup.
The final Sketchup model of the bathroom allows the reader to visualize the room in which I bathe, shower, wash, clean and admire myself. It demonstrates the bathroom’s rigid structure and layout of the products the room contains. Using this initial model, my next intention was to re-configure the products within the bathroom. It is my belief that the layout, or arrangement of bathroom products, is a result of the room provided to be labelled ‘the bathroom’. I believe the bathroom is not designed for convenience of the use of a product, nor for the logic of the rituals a person performs within the walls of the bathroom – I believe it has this layout simply because the products do not fit into the bathroom any other way.
PEREC is relevant here. “The interest of such an undertaking [as living in an airport for X amount of time] would lie above all in its exoticism: a displacement, more apparent than real, of our habits and rhythms, and a minor problem of adaptation”[1]. We will always adapt to the space or room provided for us. Perec suggests that it is not in fact where we live and perform our daily actions that matter – as humans we will adapt to the environment we inhabit. This to me also speaks to the idea of reconfiguring the bathroom – no matter where products are situated within the confines of the bathroom, we will adapt to that configuration. In short, we will shower wherever the shower is.
The arrangement of the shower, bath, sink, mirror and towel rail within my bathroom is not logical. I set out to see if my bathroom products could be re-arranged another way which was logical, and if my bathroom layout is they way it is due to the simple fact that the products do not fit into the allocated space any other way. Taking Perec’s idea of adaptation into consideration, I decided to visually reconfigure my bathroom. I printed out two plans of my bathroom at scale 1:20, one with the products overlayed red, and another white. I cut out the white products and started to move them around the plan of the space that is my bathroom (below).
Image 5. Lorna Smith. (2011). Reconfiguring the Bathroom. Rolleston, Canterbury; New Zealand. Paper cut out.
[xx2]I desire more context- sun direction. Or rather, you decide how much context it includes such as the view to the neighbours or the sea or the mountains, the distance to the laundry room, toilet etc.
[xx3]OK, you do not need to tell us this but what I do want to know is what you learned from modelling it, how that differs or parallels the actual, and how modelling it in cad allows you to explore it further.
More writing...Intro cont.
BATHROOM TO LORNA
Eczema is just a layer of this project, it demonstrates a level of individuality that is shared by a limited amount of people around the world. This could be compared to, for example, being a single mother looking after a 3 year old whilst wanting to have a shower, or similarly, having a visual impairment and longing to be independent in the bathroom. All examples are unique. Design could be personally driven and accommodate such layers of individuality through the cross-over between spatial design and product design through the designer.
This is a very personal history of my Eczema that explains why the mentality of the bathroom as a chore has emerged for me. I intend to cut down so that it doesn't become the main parameters of the project, it is only a layer. I do not want to design bathrooms for persons who have Eczema.
To me, the bathroom is a room that I dread entering, however once I am inside and “doing something” I begin to enjoy myself. I grew up in Scotland, in a small village 25 miles from the nearest town. From birth to 6 months, my mum and dad noticed that I was constantly covered in a red, blotchy rash from head to toe and at age 6months I was diagnosed with Atopic Eczema. Throughout my 24 year life so far, I have undergone countless treatments for Eczema – most of which involve treatments that occur within the bathroom, or after having a bath. These treatments included:
- Chinese Herbal Medicine (bath additives)
- Dry-Wraps (bandaging done in bathroom)
- Moisturizing and Cream Application (done in bathroom)
- Bath Emollients (added to baths)
- Wet-Wraps (wet bandaging required to be done in bathroom)
- Oat baths (bath additive and used similar to soap)
- Potassium Permanganate baths (bath additive)
- Ichthammol and Zinc bandages (coated bandaging done in bathroom)
- Ichthammol and Zinc skin application (applied as a cream in bathroom)
- LIST CONT.
The bathroom became a room where I would be treated for my Eczema, almost like a hospital, where a simple bath or shower meant a strict routine to maintain my skin. Entering the bathroom was the beginning of a long tedious ritual to keep my Eczema under control. Gradually as I got older, I grew out of my food allergies and today I am only allergic to eggs, nuts and animal fur, which will induce an Eczema flare-up. However, the bathroom became a chore, and this mentality has stuck with me for as long as I can remember.
My Eczema makes the bathroom an experience unique to me, and instead of hiding it, how can I incorporate it into my re-design of the bathroom.
SUMMARY OF THESIS? Through practice-led research for deisgn, I intend to investigate personal aspects of the bathroom for myself, and translate these into a bathroom design that is a result of the practice-led research conducted and discussed throughout my Thesis. The ultimate goal is to create an individual bathroom; a bathroom designed for myself, and that accommodates my own individual routines, rituals, actions and movements within the bathroom, aspects which are not visible in current bathroom design, specifically my current home in Rolleston.
Highlighted through design investigations, a Bathroom Diary and analysis and reflection of these. (incomplete sentence)
How can I make the bathroom a more enjoyable experience?
How can I re-enthuse myself about entering the bathroom through design?
More writing...Intro.
Just adding extracts I have written recently regarding my project. They are not a finished item but I think it is valuable to upload writing as I write it to the blog. Aim: To keep track of progress and use it as a means of communicating what I have done, how it is developing, similar and re-occurring thoughts and processes which clarify my project in my own mind.
Sketch Essay 2
(CH 1) Intro
"...If we want to find ourselves, we must enjoy ourselves. In an individually personalized environment. In our own personal bathroom. A bathroom that, in its entirety, is a kind of interface for our physical and spiritual needs and which also reflects them.”[1] (Dornbracht, 2005, P.21)
Discuss what the bathroom is to me, and the intentions of the project. Yes
ABOUT THE THESIS TOPIC
My Master of Design Thesis seeks to investigate the bathroom, how it is used as a space and if there is the potential for a method for design that accommodates a singular persons/MY daily rituals, routines and actions within the bathroom. [Using myself as the tool for investigating ].
It is my belief that the methods for design demonstrated throughout this Thesis could be applied to any room within the domestic home, and used to inform the design of a better home, tailor-made to it’s inhabitants’ rituals, routines and movements. This belief for me was realised last year (2010) whilst completing my Bachelor of Design, majoring in Spatial Design. I investigated my bodies relationship to my home on Wellington’s busy Cuba Street, and created a series of works that highlighted the visual connection between inhabitant and habitat, me and my home.
SHOW VISUALLY WITH CAPTIONS. ^
IMAGES OF RED ROOM
Description relevant to project for both
IMAGES OF BEDSHEET
The bathroom is very much a ritual based room – it is a room built for purpose and one enters it with specific intents – such as washing, showering and bathing. Current bathroom designs seem to be defined by the multiples of singular products they contain, and not by the rituals that happen within, so what about the bathroom as a whole? Through my practice-led research, I intend to re-design the domestic bathroom based on the movements I make whilst performing rituals that happen within the space.
Gap - the gap between the role of the spatial designer and the product designer. Design is the interface between space and products?
Observation of my body’s movements, the keeping of a bathroom diary (both filmic and written), generation of movement diagrams and organization of body parts, products and actions from the diary, I have generated a series of tables that inform me of the actions, body parts and products that are most used – most interacted with, and most recorded – which will aide me in the generation of a tailor-made bathroom design unique to my own rituals, routines and actions – as fitting as a tailor-made suit.
[1] Dornbracht, A. (2005). People, Ritual, Architecture. In D. Hebel & J. Stollmann (Eds.), Bathroom Unplugged: Architecture and Intimacy (pp. 21- 25). Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser.
20110914
Starting to write about the Bathroom Diary...
The diary as a tool for research is very beneficial - from this I have drawn up tables, graphs, diagrams, lists and re-designed my existing bathroom room, all through reflecting upon diary entries.
Lastly, I used the bath. Once in the entire time I kept my initial Bathroom diary did I have a bath. This was time-consuming in terms of having to perform the same actions as a shower, but having to run the bath before hand and constantly check on it. Other than the once I bathed in it, and the daily prop it has become for ease of moisturizing my legs, it was seldom used or acknowledged.
Diary
Pedgley - diary
- Written
- Visual
- Blog
In order to further clarify to myself what actions, rituals, and routines I perform on a daily/weekly/monthly basis I decided to keep a Bathroom Diary. This diary became my companion, occupying my thoughts whilst I was in the bathroom and becoming my place to reflect upon my actions later whilst writing my recollections into it.
The diary is a valuable tool for recording my daily actions in the Bathroom. I used it to be as specific and personal to myself as possible. My own affliction with Eczema alters my routines and rituals dramatically, as the bathroom has become more of a chore than a place to relax for me. I tend to scratch my skin when it is exposed and after bathing become dry and irritated rapidly so I apply my moisturizers, creams and steroids as soon as possible. Personal routines, rituals and actions are important in the design of my bathroom, as the bathroom is one of the few places I feel comfortable exposing myself.
The bathroom is already a very personal room in the domestic house. It contains multiples of personal belongings and has seen the most intimate of encounters. The touch of soap and body lotion covering skin from head to toe, the rubbing of bubbles and lather through one’s hair and the collection of persons hair and skin, all in the name of hygiene. The bathroom keeps hidden what the rest of the rooms in the domestic house do not want to show, nor do its occupants want guests to see – a hair covered hairbrush, deodorant for rubbing onto the underneath of one’s arms, female sanitary products, cotton-wool buds for cleaning out my ears…CONTINUE.
I found that I spend most of my time in the bathroom admiring myself, checking myself out in the mirror above the sink, or checking myself for imperfections on the surface – dry skin, stray hairs on my eyebrows and nose, or checking for toothpaste around the edges of my mouth.
The time spend in front of the mirror was enhanced by my daily routine of brushing my teeth, having to stand directly in front of the mirror whilst brushing my teeth. Performing a monotonous task such as this whilst in front of the mirror, I found it very difficult not to look at myself. Occasionally I found myself drifting off into thought – often thinking about the Bathroom Diary but more often than not I have no idea what I was daydreaming about. I would brush my teeth, pick up my toothbrush, apply toothpaste, switch on and off the taps, brush my teeth up, down, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, slow and fast, spit out into the sink basin and rinse my toothbrush – finally placing it down on the sink in front of me, directly under the mirror. As caution I would check the corners of my mouth and lips for white toothpaste to avoid future embarrassment or another visit to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
The shower was the next item I spent most of my duration in the bathroom for. Preparation, undressing, checking myself out in the mirror (again!), putting on my shower cap, stepping into the shower, washing myself, applying soap, washing my hair with shampoo, conditioning my hair, washing myself again, shaving my legs and underarms, washing myself again, squeegee-ing the shower cubicle, opening the door and stepping out, drying myself, moisturizing myself, getting dressed and finally, leaving the bathroom.
Thinking about Dornbracht - Balance Modules...
Once more this chapter/sub-chapter needs to be more detailed and refined. A lot of grammar and words to be changed/altered.
BALANCE MODULES
"The Dornbracht BALANCE MODULES also make the individual, with his or her habits and rituals, the focal point. They expand the purely functional and technical aspects of the bathroom to include the dimension of human rituals, actions and habits. This is not principally a matter of formal considerations. The modules are rather a new interface between the user and his rituals." TAKEN FROM BALANCE MODULES SECTION OF DORNBRACHT WEBSITE - CITE
This demonstrates that Dornbracht has similar principals to me in regards to bathroom design. Dornbracht seek to make visible the habits or rituals one performs in the bathroom setting - I also seek to do this. However, Dornbracht are still more product focused which is where we are different. I intend to design a room that makes visible the individual rituals and routines of a specific user - the method for which could be applied to any user theoretically - but make a whole room, not a product.
RAINSKY, one of Dornbrachts products (or non-products), is described as "the first product to dissolve the boundary between fittings and architecture". It's other fittings not being visible on the walls of the bathroom; they are embedded onto the ceiling and highly technological. I'm not sure how I feel about this, although I need to think about this in terms of my own design.
Thinking about Dornbracht - Symetrics...
This chapter/sub-chapter needs to be a more in-depth analysis of the Symetrics products. Lots of re-wording to be established but it's a start.
SYMETRICS
"Symetrics opens up new perspectives in bathroom planning. It focuses not on the individual series or fitting, but on the room as a whole. By clearly separating the spouts and the controls, the entire appearance of the bathroom is redefined by the arrangement of the modules. This provides diverse application options for each area of the bathroom." TAKEN FROM SYMETRICS ON DORNBRACHT WEBSITE - CITE
I find this quote quite contradicting to the chapter in Bathroom Uplugged written by Andreas Dornbracht himself. Although the chapter, "People, Ritual, Arhcitecture" focused on the Statements series, I would presume the same ethics and thought to go into the rest of Dornmbracht's bathroom designs.
Thinking about Dornbracht - Statements...
Dornbracht is a German company specializing in 'ritual based architecture'. They are one of my most valuable precedents and so I have a few examples of their work to discuss in my Thesis. Potentially more...
STATEMENTS
Dornbracht is a company in Germany. In Hebel & Stollmann's Bathroom Unplugged: Architecture and Intimacy, Andreas Dornbracht discussed the Dornbracht brand, particulary their "Statements" Culture Project series, which aims to create pieces of "art to represent the "cleaning rituals" theme."
"We have finally reached a point where our collected findings are again able to influence the design of standard shapes. And for once, the product is not the only focus of attention." Dornbracht, 2005, P. 21
"What does a space look like that makes room for our rituals, regardless of whether conscious or unconscious, important or irrelevant, large or small?" Dornbracht, 2005, P. 21
The Statements series reflect what the bathroom is/means to the artists, designers etc chosen. Dornbracht states that,
"...If we want to find ourselves, we must enjoy ourselves. In an individually personalized environment. In our own personal bathroom. A bathroom that, in its entirety, is a kind of interface for our physical and spiritual needs and which also reflects them." PAGE NUMBER - SEE ARCHITECTURE UNPLUGGED
This emphasizes, through the Statements series at least, an shift from product-driven to design to user-central design - a "role" described by Dornbract a s "changing from that of "bathroom user" to "bathroom occupier"" - the bathroom has become more than a place to perform certain rituals, but a room to occupy through ritual.
"The discovery here is that it is not just a matter of rendering taste or style, but in particular it is the event, the experience that is paramount." Dornbracht, 2005, P. 23
Event vs. Experience - event being the ritual one has to perform, or one does perform. The experience being what the occupier feels whilst performing the rituals. For me, the design should be more event based - what one does - as opposed to how one feels whilst doing. The experience should be a consequence of event, and if the design is for the event it should subsequently be a better, more enjoyable experience.
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