Studio 2, Diver's point

Okay... Finally found time to blog about the studio 2 final project I did which is the diver's/divers' point. What is a divers' point? Well, first off, it is a place where people who want to go diving, or scuba diving go to register and then the dive master will bring you to the site for the diving session. And also some dive centers also provides diving lessons for those who are interested. Very straight forward right? If not *click* and Wikipedia will give you the definition. Oh, how we love Wiki. HAHA. To understand this assignment. I think you will have to look for one of my post on September. Not one, a few and it highlighted the Pulau Redang trip. Well, Redang is the site where we were to built out diving center. And when we got back, it was time to hit the drawing boards. From the trip in September, till the 1st of December (Crit day), we toiled on our designs, developement, concepts, ideas, model, presentation board then to the portfolio. Very long process. I guess most of you won't understand the feeling unless you were in our shoes. Well, first off, I had to choose my inspiration.

And out of all the creatures in the sea, the seashell inspired me the most. Seashell = Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim museum = some other famous shell inspired creature. I know I know. But I was approaching the shell differently than all the other designers. Instead of following the all so famous external, my concept came from the internal of the shell. See the Orange part of the shell in the picture above. Yap, that is my insipation.



After choosing our inspiration, comes the requirement for us to do a series of paintings to show the concepts we might be using in our design or maybe all that will become our concept. Requirement, 12 A5 paintings of our creatures. And this was no easy task for someone who haven't been to art class since standard 3. HAHA..

So after this, the designing stage began. Sorry, I shall not put my initial design sketches inside. Not because I am "shellfish", but its because I am lazy to edit the sketches. It is very messy. So after changing my design 3 times, I finally came up with my final model and this model took me at least 2 days to complete. My aim, to make it as neat as possible and as sleek and chic.

My concept was all about the experience in the diving center. For me, I felt that people always collect shells for its exterior beauty. So I decided to imagine being inside the shell. I was trying to imagine what was the experience one will feel if he stood inside the shell with the top being cut off. How the light will be reflected by the pearl skin coat of the internal of a shell and how it reflects the color of the inside. From this, I wanted to bring into the center, the experience of diving in the great blue sea. The experience of being on the depth looking up to the water surface and how the the surface is bright and as you look down, how dark it gets. That was my first objective.


And I am glad I maage to do so as you can see here. This was what meade me so happy. But drawing the plans for these slanted walls is no easy task.


Besides the light, another experience of the sea is the other senses which are smell, sound and feel of the sea. That is why, my design is very open. This allows the natural sea breeze enter the structure giving out all the senses I wanted. Besides that, the owner will be saving alot on electricity.


What the lectures were afraid is that for a shell, one might get too literal. I am just glad that mine didn't turn out to look like one. Maybe dynamism helped to take the literal feel of the shell. I don't know. But one lesson learnt after this assignment is that I have to get out of my comfort zone. I need to stop designing everything which resembles and airport. I have no idea why, but there are many who refer my design as an airport design because of the length of design. Argh, I need to get out of my norm. So, lets see what I can do for the next studio next year.


Well, no regrets for this studio. Though I had this one comment that the structure still looks abit fat. Haihhh.... Don't laugh. I mean it. HAHA. Joking. Well, yea, I admit, it does look a little bulky. Bahhh.. What else can I do. What done is done right? Well, if you have any ideas or comments, don't hesitate to comment in my comment box ya. Really appreciate it. Well, its the holidays. Christmas is near. Can't wait.

Till the next post.
Happy reading.