An Interesting Interior

The elements and principles of design used in the right way can make a space go from mediocre to fantastic. Knowing how to utilize the elements to make the space function better and be more aesthetically pleasing is a big part of really good design.

This unique space comes from a hotel in Barcelona, Spain called the Mandarin Oriental. It is a very upscale and contemporary decorated hotel. This specific place is the hotel’s spa pool. The design principles that are most prevalent are movement, balance, and unity.  The strongest elements of design would be line, space, and shape. The elements of design help to emphasize the different principles, for example, the lines that go along the roof and the outline of the pool make the eye follow the lines to the back wall emphasizing the principle of movement. Unity in the space is very noticeable because of the repetition of the chairs and the equal spacing of the beams on the ceiling.  The simple rectangle of the room and the perfectly symmetrical pool balance the room and make it pleasing to the eye. Another thing that adds to the balance of the space is the contrast of the very dark colors used in the pool, roof, and columns with the mid tones of the green and the light values of the chairs, and light wood flooring.  Line and shape go hand in hand in this space by the repetition of the rectangular shapes and the lines of the ceiling beams, edges of the pool, and hardwood flooring.

This spa makes really great use of multiple elements and principles of design which makes it a much more interesting and inviting place.  The combination of movement, balance and unity in relationship with line, space, and shape make this design function very well, look amazing, and produces a want for the customers to be there right away. 

Unusual Materials

This interesting little house in the middle of a field is from New Mexico. The exciting thing about this house is that consists completely of recycled materials. This house was built in the 70′s, in a time of love and loving the earth so the components of this house are used tires filled with soil, recycled glass bottles and aluminum cans. The house functions very efficiently actually, the different material used function to absorb heat during the day and then spread into the house when the temperature drops.
          The charming little character of this house is interesting with the green roof and stairway in combination with the brown exterior walls give the house even more of an environmentally friendly aspect because it is almost camouflage within itself. This small little house is so interesting in the design aspect because it didn’t just use one recyclable material but is has many. Combining the rubber tires with soil makes up a fantastic insulator for the house and the recycled glass bottles and aluminum cans are great conductors of heat and cold so it can give some temperature variation. Since it is so environmentally friendly it seems that the choices of color for the house were chosen with the same theme of nature in mind. It looks like the brown was probably just from the soil used for construction but the green is certainly painted and helps move the eye around the base, along the roof, and up the curved stairs on the side of the house. Since the design is basically all around nature I’m glad they took advantage of the rooftop space to be able to enjoy the great outdoors.

I find this little house in a field to be very interesting in the design aspects and of course the choosing of the materials and shape of the house.

Design Expo

            Design Expo 2011 was a great combination of new designs, new products, and new ideas. There was just the right amount of variety between products and plenty of people to tell you all about them. One of my favorite vendors was Sabrina Fiebrich from Stone Solutions. Her kiosk caught my eye because it had a wide variety of brightly colored tile in blues, oranges, and reds. The tile designs were all so beautiful and ranged in material from porcelain to glass to recycled materials. The majority of the tile that I enjoyed most was all the bright mosaic tiles but they also have countertop and other flooring materials in just as wonderfully designed material. “Stone Solutions’” best work is done in limestone, ceramic, mosaics, slate, porcelain, and travertine. Another product line I loved was from “Coalesce” who brought part of their “Emu Advanced Collection”. This line is of indoor and outdoor tables and chairs which are mostly made of metal and using a wire form that has been bent or altered in some way or another. The piece that I greatly enjoyed was called “Emu Re-trouve” which was an aqua metal chair that had a semi-circle tall back and a simple circular pedestal base. This chair had just a simple circle pillow for a seat cushion and was surprisingly comfortable. Although it could be used for indoors it would be a fantastic outdoor chair especially since it comes in a wide range of fun and bright colors. The pedestal base used for the chair was also repeated in the base for the glass topped side table and the much larger glass toped dining table. The metal work for these pieces made them so much more aesthetically pleasing than most metal furniture I have seen.

            The design expo is always a learning experience to find out what the new ideas and trends are and this year was no exception. I saw, I absorbed, and I won $50 to chilis so it was great all around!

Fabric is all around us. It has six different applications such as: window treatments, wall coverings, flooring and fiber-based artwork, seating, window treatments, and panel application. The application that most people see on a day-to-day basis would most likely be seating.

            There are all sorts of fabric applications across the Tech Campus but to find one that might have the most use you would need to go to the Student Union Building. There are only a few variations in fabric choices that are used for booths, chairs, couches, benches, etc. Most of the fabrics are some sort of a polyester blend with a semi modern print in mainly low intensity colors. The other material used quite often is leather. Although the polyester blend may look nice it won’t stay looking like that for very long after thousands of students take their lunch break. Polyester is good at repelling stains but some things will stain no matter what. There were also a large number of chairs with both polyester and leather. Some had polyester seats with leather back and vice versa. Of the chairs that had a foot stool you could notice a major difference in the appearance of the fabrics. The polyester chairs had started to look brown, dirty, and grimy while the leather ones looked to be in fairly good condition with much less wear and tear.  The leather would have been more suitable all around mainly because it has a better durability and resistance to stains and the dirty look. Some of the polyester chairs showed signs of thinning and the fabric coming apart in high use areas such as the arm rests, footstools, and seat.

            All in all the polyester blend cover is not quite a suitable choice for very highly used seating but the leather on the other hand is a very acceptable choice based upon its durability and ability to stay looking clean for longer. 

All About Looks

            The field trip to “All About Looks” was very interesting and by far my favorite so far. The shop had a very wide range of fabrics that looked really great and new things I had never seen before.  One of my favorite things was the hide with newspaper. It looks so different and interesting which intrigued me. The newspaper was applied by laser and the hide that showed acted more as an accent to the paper. I also loved the cork pillow, it was thin cork that was soft and definitely didn’t feel at all like cork but it did look like it. We were shown a book on wall coverings that were all white with a gritty raised pattern on them that I found to be a very inventive idea. You would simply pick out the pattern you wanted and paint it whatever color you wanted. For a person that typically hates wallpaper I thought this was a great solution to a design problem. I also enjoyed learning about the new ideas in fabric such as being able to print practically anything on linen, the other uses of mohair, the advancements in the look of polyester, and many other new ideas.  The ladies had obvious experience and did wonderful custom work including betting, drapery, chair covers and much more. The custom upholstery was also quite interesting. We learned that the couches or chairs are recushioned and can be reframed to make a more secure and better quality couch or chair. All in all I thought it was a valuable experience and it is very likely that it will also be a very useful resource for the future. 

Field Trip #1 To The Texas Tech Biopolymer

and Fiber Research Institute

               The field trip the research center was very interesting and eye opening. You would never have thought that it took a million steps to get just a plain t-shirt! From the bale of cotton full of twigs and others trash, to a gauze-like cloth, then a simple fiber, and finally a masterpiece of fabric.

               The tour started with showing us what cotton was like in the raw form and how every bale is tested individually to find the fiber’s length and strength. After the information about the bale is recorded it begins the long process to becoming fabric. It starts with cleaning the cotton and trying to rid it of any debris or plant left in the cotton. At this point in time the cotton feels very coarse, nothing you would want to use.  Next, it heads to the “tuft-o-matic” to be pulled apart, further cleaning out the cotton. The cotton is then stretched out into a sheet like form and then condensed into a thick rope like form. Although the cotton is more pure it still hasn’t reached the “soft-feel” form. The rope is then put through a machine that can be used for mixing other fibers such as polyester and it comes out smooth and soft. Next it is spun tightly into a thick yarn form which is put onto a large spool.

 When the spool is full it is taken to be spun again to make it smaller, stronger and to remove the “fuzz”.  All of these spools are put into an assembly line type of machine that combines multiple spools and puts them onto a much larger spool that can be sold for commercial use.  The spools are then woven into the beautiful fabrics that we use today.

               From the bale to the buyer the process of cotton is much more complex than most people would assume. To see the process and to realize the amount of work that goes into something as seemingly simple as cotton is an eye opening experience and quite an educational experience to be appreciated.  That little plant is much more complex than it looks. 

Hide your LINENS young lady! The term “linens” derived traditionally as a name referring to light undergarments, shirts, and lingerie. Linen used to be the exclusive fabric choice for shirt collars and cuffs but nowadays it is used for a wide variety of things such as drapery, tablecloths, pants, and bedding.

 Linen comes from the flax plant it is very labor-intensive to manufacture. The flax fibers vary in length from about 25 to 150cm. These fibers can usually be spotted by their main identifier which is the “nodes”, they add to the texture and flexibility of the fabric. Some of the characteristics of linen are that it is a good conductor of heat, it’s lightweight fabric feels cool to the touch, highly absorbent, and 2-3 times stronger than cotton. Linen also has a long “staple” in comparison to the other natural fibers such as cotton. Due to it being a more expensive fiber it is produced in smaller quantities. This fabric has a natural high luster in colors ranging from ivory to brown and a texture that  can vary widely from stiff and rough to soft and smooth. Although linen is very absorbent, it also has the capability to loose water rapidly so it feels clean and dry quicker. Interestingly, Linen is one of the few fabrics that is actually stronger when it is wet.  Nevertheless linen does has it shortcomings. Linen has poor elasticity which causes it to not be able to spring back which in return makes it very wrinkle prone.

Linen has withstood the test of times from the Egyptian mummy wraps to the high paced fashion of today and of course the many uses in home furnishings. There aren’t many fibers that can actually gain strength from our sweat so kudos to linen. This natural fiber can be used for such a wide range of textile goods and that is why we love it.