Marian Mahler's Curtain

Marian Mahler’s swinging mobile curtain is a prime example of fascinating deco art from the 1950’s. David Whitehead Ltd. manufactured this contemporary screen-printed cotton fabric, in three different colors, and it is approximately 50’ wide. The deco art movement was based purely on decoration, as seen in Mahler’s curtain, and not on political or philosophical roots. The curtain also exemplifies a style of elegance and functionality that celebrates the Machine Age through the use of man-made materials. Mahler’s uses of repetition with the swinging mobiles are symmetrical which relate back to the designs of Asian and Middle Eastern influences. Mainly movements before the 1950’s, such as Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism and Art Nouveau, influenced designers such as Mahler, Eileen Gray and Jules Leleu. After spreading from the states to as far as Brazil and the UK deco art slowly came to an end after reaching mass production when it began to be derived as flashy and presenting a false image of luxury.

The Mahler curtain is similar to Alexander Calder’s actual mobile that was designed in 1972, mainly because of the contrasting colors and illusions to suspension. Calder’s mobile was the first ever made out of steel wire and aluminum. The mobile also has features of symmetry and repetition because of its wires and shapes.
The Mahler curtain is dissimilar to the Wurtemburgishe Metalwarren Fabrik punch bowl. The punch bowl was made in Germany in 1900 and consists of a silvered metal framework and green glass liner. Also, the punch bowl is smaller in size and has many intricate details. Although the curtain does have designs printed on it, it is not ornate but very straightforward and modern.

Sources:
http://www.theoldexchange.fsnet.co.uk/fabrics.htm
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/objectid/O69688

"We Got U Covered!"

Guerilla Marketing:
The dramatization of political and social issues, typically performed outdoors, e.g. in the street or a park, as a means of protest or propaganda. Guerilla: a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces Marketing: the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.

Product:

TATTOO When you see that a person has a tattoo, the first thing you want to do is read it, then always ask "What's that about? What's that mean?" We all know at this point the the words BUS|SHELTER|BUS are very puzzling together, so what better way to spread the word through a mystery and an explanation to go with it? *This was a mistake that turned out favorable in the end: YES! I did accidentally carve the stamp backwards, but I think that it works very well with the mystery of the situation.

People:

To advertise our Community By Design studio our group created these t-shirts for people to wear on and off campus. The front our shits say BUS/SHELTER/BUS UNCG:IARC and on the back it says "We Got U Covered!" We hope that the shirts will make people ask questions and want more information on what we do here in IARC! At first the shirts on people were going to be something like a movement or protest-esque kind of thing. Think: about 20 people wearing all white laying on the grass all day, kind of thing, or the orange "orphan" shirts that students at UNCG wore last year.

Place:

We would market our Community By Design studio mainly on College Ave and other sidewalks throughout campus & off campus. We would include our website and current information on our projects.

Http:
This banner communicates to internet users. The scale and colors catch your eye and the words are confusing enough to make you wonder. Clicking the banner will take you to the "communitybydesign" blog! AND this banner is spreadable by copying the html code into your own webpage!

Codes To Live By part I

Grid Shading Exercise

Depicting Things

Week 1:
Une Chaise (Chair)
Graphite/Crayon de Plomb 5B (Graphite Pencil)
















Week 2:
Une Chaise Lounge (Lounge Chair)
Aquarelle (Water Color)
















Week 3:
Une Table de Salle a Diner (Dining Table)
Encre (Ink)

Codes To Live By

What was your experience with the various requirements to support human activities and needs?

While researching through the Federal Reserve and Interior Graphic Standards documents our group found it very interesting how much thought went into meeting the needs of humans. There were specific codes on things like railings, protruding objects, chairs heights and turning spaces for wheelchairs. I think it is very important to break apart spaces into codes and standards not only for safety reasons but also for accessibility purposes. The most important thing we learned while researching the codes, ergonomics and proxemics of our group’s bus shelter and shelter buses were that these codes are in place for everyone not just the average human. For instance just the other day I was walking down the sidewalk when suddenly there was a two-inch drop to the connecting sidewalks and I lost my balance and almost fell. I believe this was because the designer for the pathways did not follow the specific code for making surface heights distinguishable by color or texture. The Interior Graphic Standards book had diagrams showing people of all ages in different positions and also included height requirements for the max and min handicap persons reach.






What would you recommend to designers about changes necessary to better accommodate varying abilities?

We would recommend to designers that before you begin to design your space try to think about all types of people that would be experiencing or using your space. Take every part of your design into consideration and look up codes for things from height requirements to safety precautions. Also, make your design versatile so it is easy to alter to accommodate human activities.

How do codes help in design?
Codes help us to design for the community that we live in today. They provide us the standards of humans and their activities while allowing us to break the limit on how far we can go to help others.



How do you anticipate codes will change your work as a designer?
The codes that we have learned over the past two days have already helped us tremendously because they have forced us to look at specific flaws throughout our group’s designs. Later on we hope to learn more about different codes, as they will continue to change and impact the way we view design.

Shelter Bus: Hurricane Mobile Relief Group 9

For our Shelter:Bus charette we chose to create two different types of buses. One included a cafe with lounge area and entertainment downstairs with tables in an open comfortable sitting area upstairs. The other bus model included a sleeping area with bathrooms. Below are pictures of our process with sketches and our final models.

Here are a few of our ideas for our final two bus models. We had 10 major needs that we felt should be accommodated....

1. water
2. food
3. clothing
4. first aid
5. sleeping arrangements
6. entertainment
7. daycare
8. recreation
9. showers
10. internet access

We combined in our two buses alot of the ten physical needs that we addressed in our list. Our extended bus is our sleeping quarters bus that includes clean clothing and showers to freshen up. there are beds included and various tvs for entertainment.

Our double decker bus is primarily used as a cafeteria. we included a cafe with tables and chairs along with pantries of food and a endless supply of water.

We wanted our buses to a comfort zone, a place where you could relax and clean up after a natural disaster a place that could implement the feeling of being home.

Both sketch ups used a by design by Kieran at the Google 3d warehouse in sketch up.

We also pulled common images from our drawings and with the use of photo shop to implement ideas about the contents of our buses.

Bus Interviews

Ok… so our first interview was with a college student, her name is Nicole Taylor. She had on her Burger King uniform heading to work she complained a little about the bus being late and I asked her if it usually ran late and she said “No not ever.” She told us her mom insisted that she stay on campus for two years before moving to an apartment near campus. Lauren explained to her about her town house and the prices. She told us that she rode the bus to save money to help with school and it was just easier transportation for her while being in school. Just as the bus arrived we concluded our conversation by telling her about iarc and our plans to hopefully build a bus shelter here at Tate St. where she was waiting. We asked her if we could possibly take her picture she smiled and said sure before she boarded the bus.

Lauren and I then headed towards the bus stop to get some more details from the people about GTA. We honestly walked around for maybe 15 minutes trying to find the right person to ask and quite frankly this was a quiet Saturday morning. So we decided to sit inside the depot and low and behold as we where watching news about Ike on CNN a lady walked in and sat down beside us. She was an African American woman who looked to be in her thirties. We decided to strike up a conversation with her, she immediately took to us and we talked for a good half hour waiting on the bus. We asked her if she road the bus frequently she said “Everyday, if not I’m walkin’.” We laughed together and she asked us if we where students we said yes and preceded to tell her about our project and our hopes of helping the riders out with a few more shelters. I asked her if a lot of bus stops had shelters she said “ no, very few have shelters you just mostly have to stand, and even if you walk to some shade just a few feet away and your not directly by that sign they will leave you.” I was astonished, I had know idea they where so strict. She began to tell us a little bit about her life, she had always been riding the bus she said when she was little her family traveled a lot, her dad was in the military. She told us she was ready to leave NC “somewhere else,” she said, “new people new scenery.” We where also shocked to find out that you have to wait an hour for the bus on weekends, we couldn’t imagine what it must be like to plan your whole schedule around the buses. Before we left we asked her for her picture she said “no, no pictures I’m not the photo genic type” so we said that’s ok and asked her for her name and she said “Lolitta Mills”. Since we don’t have a picture I’ll do my best to describe her, she had on a flowing floral patterned white and red blouse with crimson red gaucho pants you know the big flowing business pants and white heels. Her hair was pulled back in small rows of braids that formed a pony tail in the back, she carried two bags which where clear that seemed to be like a purse carrying everything a woman might need.


We made a lot of observations while we waited as well…. There was one man who came in exhausted and hot from the humid air outside just to find out that he just missed his bus and would have to wait another hour before it would return. A lot of bus riders are just like you and me one man walked in sat on the bench and pulled out his laptop. Stereotypes get attached to a lot of things and we begin to judge when really it’s just people like you and me trying to save money with just as much class as someone driving an expensive SUV, actually their smarter they don’t have to pay for gas. Seriously though, you gain respect for something you didn’t understand, that now with a little research, you do.

Sustainability Postcard