Wayfinding Presentation: Concept 1

Concept 1

We spent a whole day constructing this model for one of our ideas to develop the student union area for the new building, we each came up with wacky concepts and elements we would love to see in a new updated student union, incorporating different elements meant to suit all kinds of people, catering to how people relax differently.

The top floor you see is a rooftop bar with a 360 glass bar, fishpond and fire pit. Below you take the spiral staircase into the other garden area which we developed after viewing the current student union garden which is desolate, forgotten. Many people said they didn't know it existed or just assumed it was out of bounds. Having explored it we found it to be the opposite of relaxing, defeating the point of having it right outside the welfare office, it should be a place for taking a breather, relaxing and welcoming. It's quite the opposite, there's random pieces of work such as the 'Death' metal cube which hasn't been moved as it's so heavy. No attention has been paid to make it a comforting garden area so we addressed this designing our own outdoor cinema area, where we had a looped calming jellyfish video playing, the soothing sounds and visuals of nature would be much more suited than rubbish and 'death' cubes..

The downstairs garden area also had deck chairs and a decorative patio, looking from underneath, the ceiling is a planetarium, incorporating more immersive technology. The main room inside the union next to this is the ultimate chill out room. Choose a song on the jukebox and relax in the hammock or bean bag whilst watching and interacting with the giant touch screen entertainment system. Watch the lava lamp glow or follow the patterns on the floor, read a book, relax.

We really enjoyed making this model as we'd all been keen to move away from software and get hands on. It enabled our imagination to run and we developed the most obscure ambitious project, but it worked. Each area is tailored to different needs. This will be perfect to present during our presentation as a physical representation of what it could look like, me and Lily will also be working on miniature samples of the areas way-finding system, I plan to create the textiles area by patch-working together some scraps of fabric and possibly photography or the new course cartoons.