An Ideal interior space (My thoughts)

A few days ago, a long-time friend of mine found me on LinkedIn and engaged me with an interesting question. It was based on what principle he could follow in order to achieve a great interior design. He was coming from the perspective of a furniture maker, and this was my response to him:

“My brother, I greet you. Thank you for your message. If I understand you clearly, I’ll say this; in delivering a successful interior space design; one has to consider the following:
SPACE PERCEPTION
SCALE
MATERIAL RELATIONSHIP
if you can marry these 3 factors, you can most likely deliver a wonderful piece of interior work.
Space perception deals with how one translates the space he/she finds herself. This can be in the form of lighting, colour or the general ambience of that space.  Now, you as the designer would have to put into consideration, how the elements you introduce into that space would affect the way people perceive the space. A great way to achieve this is to understand the function of that space; that helps you form a theme which guides you on how to treat that space. Seek colour management, level of natural lighting falling into that space, views and vistas.  These things affect the psychology of people using that space. So these sub-factors must be considered.
Secondly, scale plays a huge role in interior design executions. As the designer, before aesthetics, your primary role is to design; you have to solve a problem. You have to work with the space given. This could directly translate to your furniture making. You must learn how to make the right size to suit the right areas. This gives a proportion and balance which aids a successful interior design space.
Thirdly, material relationship; in this case you must know how to integrate the key elements of an interior space, which is: wall, ceiling and floor. The materials chosen to clad these elements must work in coherence with one another.  A simple trick I use is to assign same colours to these elements, but In different shades. You must most importantly understand the theme you are designing for, this would help with your material finishing choice for these elements.
Then, you, as someone who is interested in interior design and furniture making, you could indulge yourself more by first, having a sketch book. It’s vital, translate what you have in mind, to paper. That  should be the first step before looking into softwares.
Going into softwares, the easiest for you to make your forms would be sketchup. Personally I don’t use it, but I would recommend it for the sake of its ease of use. You could make up your modelled spaces and render them to virtual reality. This is the new world now, perceiving the space before creating the space. You can acquaint yourself with this software whenever you can.
All the above mentioned factors and solutions are my personal point of view on this matter. I hope this helps. Cheers bro”

He was quite fascinated with my opinion on interior design success and I hope you are as well. 

Workable Working Drawings; the appreciation of modern age 2D drawings using Revit

Architecture in Nigeria and the world at large has evolved from hand drafting, to the use of CAD software to aid the creation of drawings; making it easier and more accurate. Over the years, architectural drafting in Nigeria has evolved based on the advent of these CAD software. We (Architects) have been able to make better and more accurate graphical representation of our drawings, to suit the need of the client. One of the most popular 2D drawing software used in Nigeria is the AutoCAD software.

I used this software while i was in school (Ahmadu Bello University Zaria), where i did my BSc. Architecture.

With time i got to realize the potentials of another software (Auto desk Revit).

Revit is not just good with 3Ds (as popularly speculated), it is also used in accurately producing working drawings as well as design details.

The details shown above are products of the Revit software. This helps during the construction phase of the design, so that elements are properly placed to the specification of the architect. Although this can also be achieved with the use of AutoCAD, the ideology behind the Revit software is thus; all elements in Revit work as a chain-like entity. Adjustments made from one element, affects the other elements, as long as they belong to the same entity, whereas in AutoCAD, elements (as well as lines), have to be adjusted individually, in which if not done properly, compromises the accuracy of the drawing.

There are so many other reasons why the Auto desk Revit should be used fro producing our 2D working drawings, i can’t tell you all here, but with time these things will be revealed. The new Auto desk Revit comes with BIM (Building Information Model). This idea helps not just the architect, but all other key figures in the building industry, to work together in a chain-like format in a particular project; so that everyone can be carried along during the cause of the project. BIM helps to connect all members of the building industry, participating in a unique design, and creates a forum whereby files need not to be ‘converted and passed on’ to the engineers by the architect, but all professionals can work simultaneously on a project as it progresses.

In other words, there need not be bottle-neck processes of waiting for the architect to produce a final design before the Quantity surveyor, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers make their designs. All can be done using the same time, as long as the blue-print of the design has been produced.

This helps in reducing the time of producing the complete drawings for approval, as well as helps in producing more accurate drawings, which will need little or no adjustments during the cause of the project.

More on this note will be published on this blog in the near future.

 

 

More of my personal evolution in 3D designs

More often than not, i have struggled with color blending in my design presentations. I know for sure that i am not the only one who underwent such struggles while taking up REVIT or SKETCH UP classes. These are some of the designs i came up with which have helped shape me to the architectural designer i am today.

The pictures above is a proposed 6 bedroom family home, located in the outskirts of town. I basically had to play with soft landscaping around the immediate external environment.

These designs were done with the aid of Revit 2009. From the 2D presentation to the 3D, all was done using the Revit CAD software. The Revit software makes designs more efficient and faster to produce, compared to the AutoCAD we were taught in school.

From the conceptual stage to the final rendering for presentation and working drawings, all files were produced using the Revit software.

 

My 3D designs, appreciating the evolution of architectural practice

This was my first design portfolio which i created as a novice in the field of architecture.POWER POINT DESIGN PRESENTATION

I have also been involved in a couple of designs which have made up my personal portfolio; some of these designs are shown to you in JPEG format. 

I would indeed say, i didn’t really find it hard adapting to the 3 dimensional world, although the major challenge in our architectural schools in Nigeria is the limited use of CAD in our designs; in most cases, we are barred behind the ethics of using hand drafting.

Although there are advantages with the hand drafting culture in design schools, we should be quick to know that the world of architecture is moving into a different phase entirely, thus we must learn to follow the contemporary trends in design methods.

I have been mostly involved in residential designs, that explains to an extent, the high number of residential 3Ds found so far in the above previews.

You can always place a comment and share your ideas on better ways to move the Nigerian architectural schools forward.

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