Ava Blackwell Portfolio by Ava Blackwell

i n t r o d u c t i o n

My name is Ava Blackwell and I am a recent interior design graduate at Virginia Tech’s school of Architecture, Arts and Design.

I have been captivated with interior design for as long as I can remember. I have the innovative ability to collaborate in ways to create unique sustainable spaces. Virginia Tech has fortunately provided me with excessive experience with different project types that contribute to my potential.

In this portfolio, you will find projects that represent work of my best ability and ample progression as I pursue new possibilities and skills.

Steelcase Coworking Office | Dallas, TX

Fourth Year | 8 Weeks | Individual

Revit, Enscape, Photoshop

NEXT is an architectural design office space sponsored by Steelcase. It is intended to provide full productivity for its users and allow employees to effectively enhance their designs through the offices’ atmosphere.

NEXT provides an uplifting energetic experience, while also presenting a unique wildcard space for the users to take full advantage of.

The site is located in downtown Dallas and lies within the middle of the three way junction of the Trinity River. Dallas is an extremely progressive city that is always progressively reshaping and transforming to acieve its “ideal form.”

The junction of the Trinity River creates a significant oppportunity within the design concept. It serves as a natural hub within the city where transportation services, marketplaces and more services are collectively placed.

Design Intent

Comfort and accommodations to cater to the fact that most creative, innovative thoughts occur when falling asleep because you are totally relaxed and comfortable

Avoiding workplace constraints in order to avoid the answer to the questions: “Does it feel like work?”

Breaking down traditional borders that are common between employees and departments by implementing “neighborhoods” all throughout in order to enhance collaboration and encourage experiential spaces to get creative juices flowing.

Next office atmosphere becomes progressive with an intention to create a social reform in workplace environment.

Concept Statement

Next’s office design is driven through the junction between solid and void and how its focal point becomes a transition zone. The intersection is carefully considered, creating a certain balance, and serves not just as a physical meeting point, but a conceptual one. The solid components form a structured foundation, serving as the anchor: defining boundaries and providing a sense of circulation. The voids symbolize openness, transparency, and the potential for interaction. They are intentionally left open to create a symbiotic relationship between the built and natural enviornment and to serve as dynamic elements, allowing flexibility. These areas offer opportunities for a visual connection with the surroundings.

Yellow is an extremely energized color that encourages different services to the human brain. It radiates positivity and lifts confidence levels that enables you to do your most productive work. It stimulates optimism, encourages focus and direction, and promotes innovation. Imagine how a sunny day makes you feel. Yellow will be used in meeting zones, collaborating zones and client presentation zones to enhance the sense of confidence and productivity.

Orange has an interesting effect because it pulls effects from red and yellow, which allow it to yield the same boost in activity and endurance as red, while having the mood-boosting ability of yellow. It is vibrant, but not overwhelming, and it offers a positive pickme-up quality that inspires energy and endurance. Orange is perfect for creative spaces where it may evoke feelings of enthusiasm, activity, and perseverance, which may help employees become efficient and inspired.

Blue may be the “healthiest color.” It lowers heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration. It becomes beneficial for environments where brainstorming and detail-oriented work are processed. It calms and sooths, promotes communication, improves efficiency and focus, and brings a sense of zen into the space. It can evoke dependability or trust, so using it in areas where executive atmospheres reside to enhance reliance and confidence among employees.

Each working space is color blocked in order to sustain intended purposes. Workstations are marked with orange, private and executive spaces are marked with blue, and huddle and collaboration zones are marked with yellow. All of these color choices are intentional and will provide the user with full productivity based on the task taking place in that area.

All workstation spaces are fabricated with orange to boost the users productivity. This rich color is used in a non-overbearing way to allow the user to remain driven and focused opposed to becoming overwhelmed and anxious.

Along with the health of the environment, it is important to relay the same standards on human well-being. The primary focus of WELL standards is to prioritize and improve the health, well-being, and comfort of building occupants. This includes considerations for air quality, water quality, and mental well-being.

When the river is laid over the existing floor plan, the junction creates a space within the building that is grounded as a collaboration hub. The more energetic programs are found in this zone, including the cafe, huddle spaces, material library, innovation lab and the classroom.

Along the thirty foot ceiling is a river-like cove lighting strategy to allow for ambient lighting all throughout the space, but also provide a design element that relates to the trinity river concept. It runs from the east to west side of the building with the central section representing the pathway of the river itself that then leads you to the junction zone where all of the collaboration is occuring below. The structure is covered in Carnegie acoustic wall covering to absorb sound from the busy work station areas and collaboration areas underneath.

The wild card space is intended for comfortability and relaxation. It is studied and proven that humans most creative thoughts occur when you are about to fall asleep because you are the most comfortable and relaxed. That is the whole intention of this space.

Before entering the wildcard space, there is a designated pinup space to utlitize for informal presentations or simply for personal use. This is great for conceptual pinup work.

The material library is placed within the hub. It is intended to be a loud work zone, while also a storage space so designers can layout material boards and collaborate.

FLEX

c o l l a b o r a t i o n b r a n c h

Flex Academic Library Branch | Phoenix, AZ Third Year | 8 Weeks | Individual Revit, Enscape

Flex Collaboration is an academic based library located at Arizona State University. The future of libraries is constantly adapting, so Flex is fully accommodated to reshape. It is designed to allow for influence, change, and experimentation to accentuate productivity for its users and surrounding community. The space is a seamless blend between work, living, and collaboration space intermixed with an adaptive context. The project holds substantial requirements that increase capacity by prioritizing favored workspaces.

The site is located within ASU’s Downtown Tempe Campus. The location provides various types of people that have different majors, jobs and day to day lifestyles and includes an abundance of surrounding communities. This allows the library to thrive according to its conceptual circumstances.

Numerous, involved communities are neighbored to the collaboration branch site. Tempe is where groups of individuals come together to better the local environment naturally and humanely. It is filled with people who are dreamers and doers who are leading the thrilling rise of downtown Tempe.

The project requirements are seen labeled below. All staff spaces are behind closed doors with their own private entrance. Resource environments are arranged together along structural walls to allow for open circulation throughout the center.

The floor plan relies on an openconcept configuration in order to design a logical track system throughout the ceiling plane.

Libraries are constantly changing and always rely on that change. The design concept revolves around the ideation of adaptation and how the space can become as interchangeable as possible.

Cafe

Quiet Reading Book Stacks

Printing, Tech Services and Makerspace

The library has encompassed the name FLEX due to the movement and flexibility the space provides. Fluctuation of different communities, presentations, lectures, and exceeding resources develop the library’s functionality as a collaboration hotspot.

The mezzanine level includes individual study space, an overlooked view workspace, comfortable work areas and lounge space. Numerous seating options are available for users to feel comfortable while working or relaxing.

The center collaboration space is entirely flexible and rearrangable, allowing for multi-purpose use. Lectures, presentations, community events and other public occasions can be organized and accommodated for.

As years progress and lifestyles transform, libraries are used more conventionally rather than traditionally. Research suggests that majoritiy of library users are studying independently. It is important to prioritize individual work zones to maximize library capacity and efficiency.

Although future libraries are transforming and adapting with technological advancements, book stacks are always going to be neccessary to the library design. Especially for an academic library, it is vital to have accessible resources and knowledge for students, professors, and the general community.

DRIFT COWORKING

Drift Coworking Office | Roanoke, VA Third Year | 8 Weeks | Individual Revit, Enscape, Photoshop

Drift Coworking is a highly multifunctional, collaborative work and office building. It withholds several different environments to allow for full functionality between a variety of users. Many requirements were met throughout this interior with a limited amount of space, while providing additional areas to escape the typical office customs. Diligent considerations and design decisions were implemented to allow for the enhancement of innovation, focus and drive. This space is elaborated to empower minds to work together with completely different ending goals.

315 Albemarle Ave SE is an old warehouse located in Roanoke, Virginia. There is a new edition at the West end of the building, where the downstairs entrance and vertical circulation systems to the second floor are located.

The site is surrounded by one running and one out of service railroald, the Roanoke river and numerous suburban neighborhoods. There are several routes leading to and from the property to allow for walking, biking and other transportation methods.

The exterior, interior structure of the building is mainly brick, with additional roofscapestructural beams. These beams remain exposed in my design to accentuate the previous construction and history of the building.

Level one consists of reception and lobby areas, an administration office, two small conference rooms, two of four private phone booths, and additional lounge space. Materials and colors remain neutral to facilitate a sophisticated and consistent environment. Hints of orange are seen on accessories to create a delicate and notable symmetry with the corresponding upstairs domain.

Level two consists of a tech start-up collaboration for Etsy, eight private solo entrepreneur offices, twenty hot desks, one large and medium conference room, printing resources, mail services, two private phone booths, restrooms, lounge space, and kitchen space.

FLOOR PLAN | LEVE ONE

FLOOR PLAN | LEVEL TWO NTS

This coworking office space is burning lines between workplace and habitat by creating a meaningful space to transition creativity into opportunity. Implemented systems of components that can be separated and recombined produces a sense of flexibility and variety. Boundaries are implied through hierarchy and materiality. Modular flotation becomes the driving concept of the design.

Downstairs community space and Administrative Office

Reception and Lobby

Hot Desks

Etsy Private Offices

The office space is entitled “DRIFT” based on design conceptualities that are implemented throughout the space. Floating modularity is described as the design concept and is fabricated through materials, furniture and structural decisions. Drift becomes the flow and movement of people and elements within the design that allow for calm yet unique circulation and collaboration.

Just above the contracted area downstairs, there are twenty rentable hot desks for anyone to use for an extended period of time. These desks are height adjustable to enable numerous work environments with limited space, along with additional storage lockers at the end of each row. There is also a designated lounge/work space for these associates so they don’t get intermixed with the tech startup and entrepreneurs. There are also the two additional phone booths, printers and mailboxes.

The design concept is initially derived from the company Etsy; A global marketplace for buying and selling items that scews from traditional corporate customs in favor of a more free-wheeling approach. It is their mission to keep close human connections at the heart of commerce.

In the tech start-up, different levels of hierarchy, such as changes in the floorscape, to enable implied and physical boundaries to provide needed aspects of privacy and contradiction with the solo entrepreneur offices. Facilitating a sense of drift and flow throughout the coworking space. Orange is researched to promote a strong sense of pure creativity, motivation and focus. Applying hints of this tone to a neutral based material palet accentuates the Etsy mission.

These three axonometrics capture the continuous flow within the tech startup community space. There are specific modular units (USM Furniture) that are purposed to showcase Etsy products.

This space is meant to be entirely flexible. Represented is the change in the area over time. The center island and sunk-in lounge become the two heavy groundings that administer specific boundaries and hierarchy.

Modularity is defined as elements made to fit together according to a common pattern, allowing for reuse in multiple arrangements to initiate a deemed sense of variety, formality and organization.

PROJECT BASED LEARNING

NEW CLASSROOM BUILDING

Case Study Reinvisioned | Virginia Tech

Third Year | 2 Weeks | Group

Revit, Enscape, Photoshop

Team Project with Maggie Williams, Kevin Warmke

This was a group competition assigned and sponsored by Steelcase, in which we conduct research on a given classroom and flex space in a pre-existing building on Virginia Tech’s campus, in order to re-envision the areas’ capabilities and productivity. Improvements were researched and fabricated through new design implications and preexisting alterations. The classroom and flex spaces are co-inspired through each of their uses and necessities.

New Classroom Building 1455 Perry Street Blacksburg VA, 24061

New Classroom Building at Virginia Tech was designed flexibly to be a state-of-the-art facility that would provide a modern and comfortable learning environment for students and professors.

The first floor classroom with adjoining flex space offers a group collaboration and lecture environment with an immediate break zone for users in between classes.

The building has three floors and 73,400 square feet of space. The classrooms are equipped with the latest technology, including smart boards, high-speed internet and video conferencing systems.

Original Design

The flex space serves as a destination for students in the downtime in between classes. Offering a special setting for study purposes only, the original space does not accommodate different uses.

Research included photographing people in different postures that were not benefiting their productivity, comfort, or mentality. based on the furniture that was provided. These postures were taken into careful consideration when revisioning the design. Specific accommodations were made to original steelcase products and revised to suit the needs of the users.

The classroom is made up of immobile circular tables and the Essay Chair by National on wheels. The professor is situated in the center of the room, which can create functionality issues when in session. The original space does not provide a substantial amount of collaboration or flexibility. The furniture does not allow for layout adjustments for different learning and teaching preferences.

Seen here are the screens throughout the classroom that are utilized by different seating positions. Users seated in the back of the class still have close-up access to lecture material.

After interviewing a multitude of students and professors, comfort and flexibility seemed to be the number one priority. Based on this response, certain implications were considered to be reconceptualized throughout the design. Some other information was concluded after continuing observations. Steelcase furniture pieces were reimagined, based on reasearch, to create an enhanced productive environment.

The reinvisioned Viccarbe Aleta serves as a task chair accustomed to a learning environment. Design of the backrest offers space for a backpack to hang and armrests for comfort and full 360 degree rotation.

The reinvisioned Viccarbe Brix serves as a task lounge seating option. Focusing on human ergonomics and applying a 20-30 degree angle to the seat puts the user in a slightly reclined position for a more relaxed, focused setting. The work surfaces and electrical power outlet make it convenient for simple task work.

The completely custom Wedge Table specified for classroom settings allows for multiple reconfigurations that accommodate various settings.

Viccarbe Aleta

Steelcase Groupwork Table

Viccarbe Brix

Envisioning spaces where users can break away to quickly and mindfully regenerate in the short time between classes. Comfortable and focused areas that foster a relaxed yet productive work place.

The flex space acts as an intermission or interlude, where users can sit and regenerate in between classes, while also maintaining focus. Ergonomic quality and specific zoning allows for an accentuated user experience.

The classroom consists of fully mobile tables and chairs that can be rearranged for different learning and/ or teaching experiences. Custom built tables can offer both group and lecture style seating options.

Individual task spaces are seen along the curved walls able to accommodate users’ needs. Height adjustable tables with a corresponding whiteboard provides task oriented space for user preference

Group task work space arrangements are located on the other side of the whiteboard wall. This back setting offers a partially enclosed environment considering noise levels traveling into individual zones. Revisioned Design

Screens hung throughout the classroom are utilized even with different seating arrangements. Continuous placement to technology all around the classroom allows for visual access to the shown material, regardless of where seated. When implemented into lecture style seating, the formation of desks shows the possible template of seating better suited for guest speakers or presentations, offering both instructors and students an option for how they learn or teach best.