DESIGN FOR PRACTICES

INTERSECTION-EXPOSITION

You can demonstrate your understanding of design and aesthetics in the process of interior design, but the interior design industry is ultimately a practice-based profession. So combining all my study and work experiences, I believe practical skills are just as necessary as my design skills. Design is a problem-solving process, and moving from reality to solution involves trade-offs and sacrifices. Our imagination is our strength when we are students. However, lacking practical skills is the biggest drawback of being a future designer. I have had a lot of design experience but minimal practical experience in my academic career. I have always encountered many constraints in bringing a project to life. When designing for homework, I may only need to consider some of these factors. However, when designing for reality, I must consider all the factors and details; ignoring them can lead to a less-thanperfect result. I have learned this after several elective courses and experiences with Exposition Design. It was an iterative, challenging, and good process.

Image : https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

Bargehouse

The exhibitions that have been held

Oxo Tower Wharf, Barge House St, London SE1 9PH Bargehouse is on the main cultural trail between London's Southbank Centre, hayward Gallery and Tate Modern.

The exterior of the building:

·White wall leather and red brick inside the wall are mixed and spliced

The interior of the building:

·White walls, pristine (the display space assigned to our school)

Image : https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

Image : https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

·Brick, exposed interior material

The exhibitions that have been held

The exhibitions that have been held

Image : xiaohongshu

Characteristics of the display

Bargehouse is on the main cultural Southbank Centre, hayward Gallery

Bargehouse is on the main cultural Southbank Centre, hayward Gallery hite wall leather and red brick inside the wall hite walls, pristine (the display space assigned hite wall leather and red brick inside the hite walls, pristine (the display space assigned ne side of the space is connected with UCA, the other side is white wall with window and concave and convex, and the two sides are white walls (suitable for hanging cloth or exhibits).

Rectangular space with a small projecting space, 3.2h, 30sqm.

Image : xiaohongshu t e walls, turquoise floors.

Characteristics of the

Rectangular space with a small projecting space, 3.2h, 30sqm.

O ne side of the space is connected with UCA, the other side is white wall with window and concave and convex, and the two sides are white walls (suitable for hanging cloth or exhibits).

The exhibition hall has two windows, and there is a building opposite the exhibition hall (within 10m), which may affect some natural light entering

Rectangular space with a small projecting space, 3.2h, 30sqm. ne side of the space is connected with UCA, the other side is white wall with window and concave and convex, and the two sides are white walls

·Whi t e walls, turquoise floors.

Natural light set time in London: 9.30pm, with natural light supporting the entire

The exhibition hall has two windows, and there is a building opposite the exhibition hall (within 10m), which may affect some natural light entering the interior.

The exhibition hall has two windows, and there is a building opposite the exhibition hall (within 10m), which may affect some natural light entering

·Sma l l number of spotlights (?) https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

·Su n set time in London: 9.30pm, with natural light supporting the entire show.

·Su n set time in London: 9.30pm, with natural light supporting the entire show.

Image : https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

Image : https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

Characteristics of the display space:

·Rectangular space with a small projecting space, 3.2h, 30sqm.

·One side of the space is connected with UCA, the other side is white wall with window and concave and convex, and the two sides are white walls (suitable for hanging cloth or exhibits).

·White walls, turquoise floors.

Natural light: https://www.coinstreet.org/space-and-venue-hire/bargehouse

·The exhibition hall has two windows, and there is a building opposite the exhibition hall (within 10m), which may affect some natural light entering the interior.

·Sunset time in London: 9.30pm, with natural light supporting the entire show.

·Small number of spotlights

Intermedia - BA (Hons)

Exhibition room: Ground Floor / 1st Floor

Distributed in several exhibition rooms

For example, the work "SIDE EYE" consists of various exhibition formats and elements in a separate room, conveying a design concept.

Viewing the same work from different perspectives will give different visual effects.

Observations and summary on Intermedia's exhibition model:

• It is distributed in different spaces, on different floors and is not confined to one exhibition hall.

• It is interactive and uses a variety of senses, auditory, visual and tactile, to give the viewer different sensations from different angles.

• Good use of the spatial environment to find the best display for the work and to create a diversity of visual culture.

• With less text (less guidance), different people will have different interpretations and thoughts when viewing the work.

• The exhibition format of this specialist project was found to be more attractive to visitors.

Interior Design - BA (Hons）

Exhibition room: E.24

Through the observations of the group members over a ten minute period:

• Within ten minutes, at least five people entered through a door and left the exhibition space directly without visiting the work.

• There were at least five people who did not look through the portfolio.

• There were no visitors to the exhibition space for at least three minutes.

Observations and summaries on the exhibition model of interior design:

• The exhibition format is rather homogeneous.

• It is not very interactive, with the main interaction being flipping through the portfolio.

• The exhibition has more text and is strongly guided, such as project introduction, concept introduction, functional partition, target users, etc. The main visual effect is pictures, with text as a support, and the portfolio as an extension of the content.

• The exhibition space is small and the flow is simple.

• This exhibition space is found to be less attractive through observation.

The many boxes that make up the surface can be used as a complete typography, making it more visually appealing and impactful, while interested visitors can open the corresponding boxes to learn more about the design process, details and analysis. This exploratory process stimulates the visitor's interest and maximises their understanding of our project, making it more interactive and memorable than conventional text-based typography.

The rendering can be used as a box cover to attract more attention

More information and the story behind the renderings are hidden in the box waiting to be discovered by visitors.

More information and the story behind the renderings are hidden in the box waiting to be discovered by visitors.

This project is a large cube made up of many small cubes, from which visitors can take small cubes as souvenirs. This makes the exhibit interactive with the visitor, and this interaction adds interest to the display and makes the visitor more impressed, while this interactivity turns the exhibit into a kinetic sculpture, with the visitor as the variable that affects the sculpture making the exhibit look different from moment to moment.

By studying this work we thought that perhaps we could print our project on some larger boxes and then hide these boxes within a larger square of smaller squares that visitors could remove and gradually reveal information about our project, as if our project had been dug up by the visitor. We wanted to increase the interactivity of the presentation in a similar way to impress people.

In the same way we can print information and QR codes about our project and the university on the cubes, so that visitors can learn more about our background and allow them to take away the cubes as souvenirs.

REFLECTION:

By visiting Edinburgh's graduation exhibition we found that those works or exhibition formats that were interactive easily attracted more visitors. Many visitors were also willing to spread the word about the work, which left a strong impression on them. However, the work of the interior architecture and landscape disciplines is less interactive, as these disciplines use typography and models as the main form of exhibition, which is boring for most visitors and therefore they rarely read our designs and therefore have a misunderstanding of them or do not know what we are doing. Through this graduation exhibition we have been reflecting on how we can make the exhibition more interesting for interior professionals? How can we bring out the strengths of the interior profession? How can we attract more people to learn more about our designs? At present, we believe that we can start from three aspects: firstly, to ensure excellent graphic effects and colour schemes, which are undoubtedly more attractive than words; secondly, to streamline the textual content and use the shortest language to express the core concepts; thirdly, how to increase interaction with visitors and add interest to prolong visitors' reading time of our designs.

Manifesto:

1.Changing

Interiors are always changing. Human, non-humans, time, etc. change interiors.

2.Different Lenses

The interior design of Edinburgh interrogating a site from different lenses.

3.Adaptability used for and at effect.

Interior design should respond to the surrounding.

Time is changing. Models are also changing. The actual model is hidden as an exhibit in a semi-enclosed 'space' made up of small components.

As the components are removed, the model is gradually revealed to the public. It is a symbol of the process of 'discovery'.

The inserts that are taken away (small) can be used table mats, fulfilling the need to recycle materials the same time achieving a great dissemination effect.

The whole model consists of a number of rectangular planes with recesses that are interconnected and occluded.

These rectangular planes can be modularised and made in three different sizes - large (560mm), medium (260mm) and small (100mm). The large and medium planes form the bulk of the model and are used to display students' work and teaching achievements, and can be broken down and reused as storage units at a later stage. The small plane will be labelled and used to interact with visitors to the exhibition, placed on the medium and large planes, and can be switched between them or taken away as a souvenir.

REFLECTION:

I think the strengths of this scheme are that it is extremely adaptable and interactive, adaptable to the conditions of the site and reflecting part of the academic character of Edinburgh's interior profession, and interactive in a way that will attract and impress visitors. However, there are still a number of problems with this version.

Firstly, I feel that the main form is irregular and does not reflect well the concept of different lenses that we have proposed.

The main body of the structure is gradually revealed as the small modules are continuously removed and taken away.

Secondly, the vignettes are too confusing and may affect the visitor's ability to read the content. Thirdly, the interactivity is not obvious, as one has to stand for a longer period of time to see the changes in form.

Finally, all the modules are square and lack variation, making them rather boring.

REFLECTION:

In this version we have redefined the way the modules are connected and their dimensions, which allows all modules to be connected from any angle, this structure is more stable and creates more variations in form, but it also makes its form more complex and irregular, although we have split and simplified it, its visual effect is still somewhat confusing, and to make it less confusing we have reduced the number of materials and colours. We have reduced the number of materials and colours, using only two materials, wood as a module for display and polycarbonate as a structural and decorative module, and the stacking of translucent materials to create a variation of reality and sparseness, thus reflecting the concept of different lenses. The biggest problem with this version is that we did not take into account realistic constraints such as budgetary constraints very well, and we have to admit that the production and material costs of this solution are high, and the connections are relatively complex and unclear.

This version lacks the most basic spatial logic, there is a lot of ineffective space in this structure (it is difficult for visitors to see what is on display) and the ECA is composed in a confusing and illogical way, so there are also a lot of repetitive planes.

In this version we have imagined the three letters as two planes and intersected these two planes, which will form a very solid X-shaped structure, on the basis of which we have misaligned some modules to enrich the visual variation.

In this version we have simulated the principle of a 3D card to form an ECA. The advantage of this format is that it is very solid in its folded form and uses the least amount of space, while being more suitable for rectangular spaces. However, I think that the disadvantage is that it does not reflect the flexible and versatile feeling of not being modular, the form is like a wall and is a bit boring in form. This is why the decoration of the small inserts is particularly important.

At this stage of the design process, we had to pay more attention to the realities of the work, in terms of budget, materials, site, stability, etc., thus abandoning many interesting but difficult to realise solutions. This made me more aware of the gap between imagination and reality. I think one of the hardest things about this experience is that we are constantly thinking about how we can make our imagination come to life within the limited conditions, which is one of the most essential skills for an interior designer.

During the design process we have transformed the concept, iterated on the scheme and considered the site and designed our structure according to the size and shape of the site. At this stage we needed to translate our design into reality and we needed to consider more realistic constraints such as materials, we started with three options of dense board, wood and cardboard. Taking into account the joining method, weight, production costs, transport costs and budget, we finally chose cardboard as the main material and started to experiment with it.

Firstly, the cardboard was very soft and flexible, which made it easy for the model to deform or even break at the lateral joints, but this was not a serious problem and could be corrected during the construction process.

Secondly, the cardboard is very fragile, so we cannot insert it repeatedly, the joints are easily damaged and we will have to replace it with a new board.

Thirdly, for budgetary reasons the minimum number of modules that could be taken away was limited and the actual number used was much less than we had planned for in the design, so the visual effect did not meet my expectations. However, after experimenting with the construction I think it would have been difficult to achieve the number of small modules we had designed for, even with a budget. This is because the cardboard is very soft and if we build the small modules very densely or very high for visual effect, it is likely that the balance of the main structure will be distorted.

Through this curation I have gained a deep appreciation of the difference between design and reality, and the same goes for interior design. It is almost inevitable that the practice will encounter many problems that were not anticipated during the design phase. This is partly a reflection of the need for practice in the interior design process, but also a reflection of my inexperience in this area, as I am not able to anticipate potential problems in design. This is one of the areas I need to continue to learn and work on in the future.