This past Friday, we had a presentation on each group’s
research, including student surveys, precedent studies, or research on the
social and behavioral aspects of Gatewood Studio Arts Building. It was interesting to see the results
of the student surveys. For
instance, the IARc library was very underused. After a class discussion on this, it seemed to be a common
thought that when you walk into the library, you feel somewhat intimidated, or
like it is somewhere that you should not be. Most people, if they used the library at all, used it for
studying or sleeping or drawing instead of what it is supposed to be used for. Another underutilized space was the
student lounge on the second floor.
Last year, this space was redesigned thanks to a collaboration of
Interior Architecture and Art majors.
It is interesting that even after it was completely revamped to make
more interesting and appealing, still no one uses the space. On the other hand, it was clear to see
that there is an obvious shift in the first half and the second half of the
program. The survey showed that
the majority of first and second years use their studio spaces most and that
the third and fourth years use the computer lab more often. I believe this is a direct correlation
to the shift in our projects [using more computer software and having one or
two projects a semester instead of one every 2 weeks] and the amount of
commuter students there are from second year to third year. When you live off campus, you can
keep most of your stuff at home because you have more room than in a dormitory.
Other
than research, there were a lot of precedent images of spaces, furniture,
electrical delivery, walls, etc.
It was very cool to see what everyone enjoyed and wanted in our studio
space, and even what the studio space could transform into. Across the board, there were a lot of
solutions for our very obvious acoustics problem such as acoustic wall panels
in different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures to stimulate creativity while
muffling the outside and unnecessary sounds. Also, there were many interesting uses of lighting to
replace our boring and inconsistent lighting that we have now. The lighting images used diffusers and
a variety of shapes to cast good, bright light to the surrounding space.
Overall,
I think this exercise was a real positive thing. I learned a lot about the different solutions out there that
we could use to enhance our studio space and make it more usable and inspiring
to the students here at UNCG. It
was also inspiring to me to see what the other students think about what works
and what does not work in Gatewood and that for the most part, our class agrees
on what needs fixing in our space.
Hopefully, we as a third year class, can turn the studio into something
that constantly inspires and rejuvenates the design coming out of the Interior
Architecture department.
