This design is located in a central area of Perkins Road beneath the I-10 overpass. The approach is inspired by the fact that people are afraid of the dark, noisy area under the interstate. This intervention attempts to understand how we perceive the space under the interstate and how our perception of that space can be changed through the design.

There are two main areas of thought in the study of perception. The first is Gestalt Theory, which maintains the belief that people perceive things in groups, and the second is Gibsonian Theory, which maintains the belief that people perceive things through surface qualities. With these concepts in mind, a “skin” has been added to the underside of the interstate that serves several different purposes. First, it gives people a visual cue as to the new groupings of interstate columns. The new groups will break up space and create specific groups of columns instead of the existing, endless rows. The skin is actually a field of lights that hang from soundproof material that form the grouping with lights hanging lower along the edges of the path (creating threshold) and building upward into the spaces to create a field of level or flat lights. The field of level lights also creates the feeling of being in a room. The lights are lightweight and hang from a metal wire so that they move freely and make the wind visible to those entering or experiencing the site. At night, when the lights are on, brighter columns of light mark the path thresholds and wind movement is still visible.

In order to project this idea to the ground, a hexagonal pattern is used to regroup columns, locate the lights that create threshold and the lights that create atmosphere. This pattern also creates the path that connects the site from Parrain’s all the way to Duvic’s. Programmatically, moving from Parrain’s to Duvic’s, the path follows a series of topographical forms that descend from a 2-foot platform to an area 6 inches below ground, which is for picnicking. Immediately adjacent to the picnic area is a series of market spaces. In front of George’s, a tunable gel capable of reflecting the temperature through color change is applied to the interstate’s columns. In addition to highlighting this phenomenon, the columns also create a luminous atmosphere due to the LED lights located behind the gel. Altogether, the new groupings change the experience and perception of the area underneath the interstate into the place to be, instead of the place to avoid.

Final Plans:

Sections:

Diagrams:

Existing Program:

Proposed Program:

Existing Circulation:

Proposed Circulation:

Loocation of lights:

Sound Diagram:

Final Models:

Skin with lights:

Example of Light Fixture

(includes sound proofing material to prevent wind chime situation.)

Gel on column showing Temperature Conditions:

Final Model of Site:

Poster:

explaining gel and how it works

Currently for my final project I am looking at forms on the ceiling that group the interstate in a different way and show people where these changes occur. The forms are believed to lights so as to create the same effect at night.

Since I have no way of hanging from the ceiling or getting up to the ceiling to mockup this idea, I had my friend and classmate Katie Tabor stand in the photo as a scale figure. Since I know Katie’s height I can guestimate how big these forms are on the ceiling and how far down they should come from the ceiling.

In addition to the forms on the ceiling I am also currently researching a tunable gel that Professors from MIT created. The Gel can be tuned to respond to several different stimuli like temperature, humidity, pressure, salinity, and others. I would wantthe gel in this instance to be tuned to temperature to tell people about the temperature qualities. Another reason for adding the gel is to create another change in perception.

Site unchanged:

Site with Sound Proof Material and Mockup of Lights:

In addition to the ceiling form I also did a mockup for a parking area I was considering over by George’s.

Before:

After:

Each classmate chose analagous or monochrome colors from kuler.adobe.com and used them in their plans as their color scheme. Additionally, we all were able to pick the scale for the plans and section and if the scale was small, we could choose which part of the site we wanted to focus on. I chose to focus on a larger scale and a section infront of Green Jacket Sports, Troy’s Barber Shop, and the side of Bolton Pharmacy.

Plans: using autocad and photoshop

While down there our studio and representation teacher, Brad Cantrell, was kind enough to show the class how to use the cutter, what settings to put it on, and other information to make a good clean model with the laseer cutter. Thanks Brad!

FINAL PROJECT:

Our final project revolves around our response to a certain area of Perkins Road.

Map:

Our response to this area is to include: parking, circulation, market space, festival space, planting, and change over time into consideration. Additionally we will use technology to enhance our experience of the site and make the technology as interactive as possible. Here is a link to the Final Project Statement.

Initial Project Work:

My initial response to the statement was to start brand new analysis on the site to be more specific to this part of Perkins Road. While we have been working on the Perkins Road Overpass Area the entire semester. It is always good to continue to analyze a site. So I made diagrams that show existing conditions on site and I also began a new phenomological study of tthe interstate.

Diagrams: also include proposed

Phenomological Study of I-10:

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the interstate is?!??!?!?:

- grimm, dark, dangerous, cumbersome, annoying, used for parking…..

The list goes on and on…

My initial analysis and thought was to find a way to change these thoughts and make the interstate positive or at least easier to be around. The way that I did this was to study how we perceive the interstate. To do this I studied perception itself to understand how humans perceive things. I came up with two categories of how we do this:

The first approach is Gibsonian or Bottom-Up Theory. This theory is based on the belief that sensory and perception is analyzed in one direction. Visual and other senses take in information and the brain processes the information. Gibson found that our perception of surfaces is more important than depth perception.

There are three important aspects of Gibson’s Theory. These include: optic flow patterns, invariants, and affordances.

The second approach to perception is Gestalt or Top-Down Theory: Gestalt Theory suggests that humans use form forming capabilities to understand our environment. The overall belief is that we form our experiences in an regular, ordered, symmetrical, and simple manner. Therefore Gestalt theory explains these experiences by breaking them into groups that we use to classify and understand our experiences. These groups include: the law of closure, the law of similarity, the law of proximity, the law of symmetry, the law of continuity, and the law of common fate.

Based off of these two theories, I came up with the idea that there could be some sort of installation to help with our perception of the interstate. The way to do this is to group the columns and to give people a visual aid and guide as to what is where when beneath I-10. This installation would be the basis of my interactive of approach to the design.

1. Perspective without details:

2. Perspective with Details:

Photo I used for the perspective:

The perspective I created using CAD:

Completely by accident this perspective ended up being used in another project I have going on at this time. The other project is a hypothetical installation based on technological case studies that were done by the class. The research was used to inform the class so that we could all have a basis for coming up with this hypothetical installment. The case studies can be seen in the following blog.

From the case studies I came up with the idea of using infrared technology to read temperature, input the information into an arduino, which would then process the information and output to shape memory alloys and fiber optics. The temperature reading would be taken from a person’s body. Based on the reading, the arduino would tell the shape memory alloys to bend to open a path and the fiber optic cables would turn to a color based on the temperature reading. The installation is essentially a big mood ring. I wanted people to be able to experience their own moods so that they could understood the mood and energy that they are giving off.

The following posters are from the final pinup that we had on Wednesday March 11th, 2009.

Poster 1: Case Studies and Explanation of chosen technologies

Poster 2: Hypothesis (Environment Reacts) and Circulation Diagrams

Poster 3: Program and Process Diagrams

Poster 4: Perspectives showing no install, install not turned on, install bending/turned on, and install with color.

The sixth visit to the site had me taking as many pictures as possible to fill in missing pictures that I needed in order to properly create a photosynth. A photosynth is a document that is created by a microsoft program called Seadragon. The program takes photographs that the user inputs into the program and it connects all of the pictures together based on textures found in the photographs. It essentially creates a 3d model using the pictures. For those interested, this link, http://livelabs.com/photosynth/history/, will provide more in depth information on how the program works and its background. The program website is: photosynth.net (no www).

The following link is to a photosynth of the building that holds Ivar’s, Bolton Pharmacy, Troy’s Barber Shop, and Green Jacket Sports. The building is located on the corner of Perkins Road and Ferndale, right next to the interstate, and is a hotspot throughout the week. Most of the volume is based around Bolton Pharmacy and then Ivar’s. The barber shop has its fare share also.

The link:

http://photosynth.net/embed.aspx?cid=9d023856-ae61-4d8f-b12e-2f8f8f4023f2

Case Studies:

In studio we are currently studying techonologies under the categories of senses, process, and transform / output. Each of the class members were given one technology under each category and we studied and created 17×11 posters to pin up. At the pin up we explained and discussed each technology and used the information to start the thinking about a new installation.

The sense that I chose to research was electromagnetism.

Poster:

The process that I chose was the Arduino.

Poster:

The transform / output that I chose was chemical reaction.

Poster: