Re-designing the Bathroom - Iteration 9

 Beginning to think about the different spaces within the bathroom in terms of amount of time spent within it relating to it's size. Still has the progression from most used to least used for me personally, but I have started to re-size the bathroom to be the smallest space, and the sink to be the largest - since it is where I spend most of my bathroom time. The shower space is a mid-size between the shower and sink.

 (above x 1 and below x 3) Elevations. Sink (aqua), shower (green) and bath (pink).

 Perspective view of Iteration 9, the differences in size between the spaces of the bathroom are evident.

Plan view of Iteration 9, with the entrance into the bathroom closest to the viewer. Once again, the sizes of the bathroom make evident the amount of time spent in each space.

Re-designing the bathroom_Iteration 2

 Beginning to create the progressive bathroom based on the Bathroom Diary and duration spent within the bathroom. Shows how design would have to penetrate existing structure.

 Plan view of new intervention - progression from sink to shower to bath - only diagrammatic at present.

Perspective view of proposed design in diagram form.

Ideas I have had which will follow on from this:

Duration dictates size of sink, bath, shower etc. Bath smallest, sink largest.

Create a ribbon.

WQould like it to be a progression - walk through the sink to the shower and further to the bath etc. 

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.

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[1] Dornbracht, A. (2005). People, Ritual, Architecture. In D. Hebel & J. Stollmann (Eds.), Bathroom Unplugged: Architecture and Intimacy (pp. 21- 25). Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser.

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.

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.

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.

Thinking about my previous work (BDes)

My first question is are we allowed to include previous work from another year? And secondly how much of it?

Here is what I am thinking of including. It will obviously need tweaking/edited.

My Body. My Home.

            This journey started for me last year upon studying the last year of my Bachelor of Spatial Design at Massey University, when I began to investigate my relationship to my home, located on Wellington’s popular Cuba Street. My initial interest was sparked through time-lapse, but I found static objects too boring when the effect and affect produced was a result of an external force to what I was actually looking at – such as the sun, or Wellington’s infamous winds. I decided to film the affects of time-lapse on myself, initially sitting on the front steps of The Old Dominion Museum under the scorching sun with a tri-pod in front of my face. I focused the camera in on my facial expressions – which I later found to be known as ‘display affect’ – and filmed myself scowling, twitching and sweating under the sun’s rays. ‘Display affect’ is the sign of emotion expressed subconsciously through posture, vocalization and facial expressions.

            I decided then to set off to my home on Cuba Street; BODYLAPSE (2010)[1] maps my body’s response to my home, and in turn, the rhythm of that space through my body. I filmed myself sitting in my lounge as one of four sun shadows passed over my body, through plastic ceiling apertures; the only source of natural light into this room. The subconscious relationship between body and home was visible through nose twitches, excessive blinking and other subtle gestures. This was the beginning of my investigation into the relationship between my body and where I live, how the body affects my home and in turn how my home affects my body.

            From filming my body in my home I progressed to use my body a drawing tool, drawing the physical relationship between my body and it’s environment in Sensorial Space (2010). I covered an unfamiliar room’s floor and walls in white bed sheets and clear tarpaulin and placed a large bottle of paint into the centre of the room. I dressed in a black singlet top and skin-tight leggings and excluded myself from visual and auditory senses – wearing a blindfold and earmuffs. Using my body, I felt my way around the space. For 30 minutes, this unused cupboard was transformed and the relationship between my body and architecture became heightened. Where the paint on the body collided with the architecture, the body and architecture become ‘one’ for a moment.

            My final, and probably most successful, investigation into the relationship between the body and architecture was The Bed Sheet (2010). In a state of complete passiveness I went to bed covered from head to toe in a thick layer of fake tan and make-up. As I lay dreaming on my white bed sheet my body was drawing the relationship my body and my bed. In the morning when I woke, I looked in the mirror; the face staring back at me looked nothing like the night before; paler, blackened sunken eyes and smears of red around my jaw. The bed sheet was no longer white but covered in pasty pale brown markings. One pillowcase was bright white against the dirty sheet; the other was covered in red blemishes, black smudges and pale brown imperfections.

            These investigations were all very helpful in demonstrating the relationship between my body and my home. The Bed Sheet was the most useful for informing my design development however, as it visually demonstrated the space my body occupies while I’m asleep, in comparison the bed I sleep on. The rounded blob of brown fake tan on the white bed sheet indicates that my body doesn’t occupy a Single, Queen or Double –sized rectangular shape, but a Me-sized shape.

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[1] Smith, L. (2010). BODYLAPSE. Retrieved March 13, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zm4BZQrwS0Y

Reflection // Process