Assignment 1: A room of one's own: - Spatial Design@Massey

Massey University College of Creative Arts
2 March 2009
Sven Mehzoud
Stephanie Schicker
Mike Caldwell, Rain Drop
Paper title:
Spatial Design Studio I
Paper Number: 224.251
Assignment 1:
A room of one’s own:
collecting space – personal space
Hand-in Date: Tuesday 31 March 5:00pm
Introduction:
Most everyday life situations incorporate ritualized elements.
Our waking-up rituals, mealtime rituals, greeting rituals,
parting rituals, and so on moderate most of our ongoing
social life. Understanding these rituals can help us more
successfully perform these basic human interactions.
Richard Schechner
In ‘Performance Studies: An Introduction’
This assignment introduces you to the concept of ‘ritual’ as a
way to understand inhabitation and its relationship to our lived in
environment. One can begin to distinguish different kinds of
rituals; while all rituals share a repetitive character, they can be
distinguished by the public or private spaces in which they occur.
There are also formalized rituals, a powhiri, the ceremony of
encounter for instance, and informal equivalents of welcomes,
amongst friends or at work perhaps. Most of the time we aren’t
consciously aware of the rituals we take part in, they are more
like recurring behaviours, resulting in ‘agreements of coexistence’.
For some, rituals also occur on a most intimate level,
at home, in one’s private life.
Mike Cadwell, Rain drop - Roof
PERSONAL SPACE
The starting point of this project is an introspective look at one of
your personal everyday life situation. You will be allocated one
of the following activities that will serve as the basis for a design
of ‘a room of your own’: sleeping; cleansing; reading; eating.

Project One_ 224.251 cont.
RITUAL
You will explore the concept of ritual as a way to understand
private inhabitation, and its relationship to space. Observe the
way the activity/situation structures how we use and interact with
space and consider the objects we use and are surrounded by
daily and how they might help signify and structure the ritualized
experience.
THE SENSES
The following readings ‘a natural history of the senses’,
‘questions of perception’ and ‘the eye of the skin’ serve as a way
into the collecting of spatial fragments, and the subsequent
designing of your personal space. Choose elements of the
reading and translate them into spatial qualities such as form,
light, materiality and sound through the making of models and
drawings.
SCRIPT [integrated into visual narrative]
Draw out a 200 word text [max] about the design that you are
producing using your research, models and drawings, to
support the visual narrative that is to communicate the
ritualized experience of the designed space.
Eno / Mills, Third Uncle
Project Requirements:
Individually design a personal space – by applying research,
model making, drawing / Photoshop, other. Communicate your
design through a visual narrative and a final model. The hand in
has to include:
1. Visual presentation of research into personal space and
ritual explorations
2. Developmental work [models, drawings] and workbook in
order to understand and assess the depth and breadth of
your engagement, research, concept and design
development and its iterative and reflective processes.
3. Text, incorporated into visual narrative or model
This project is run conjointly with 224.261 and 224.271:
4. Final visual narrative [261]
5. Final model [271]

Project One_ 224.251 cont.
Assessment:
The project will be assessed to the extent that it:
- displays a thorough and creative working process,
including the analysis and translation of spatial qualities
into 2D and 3D media
- demonstrate an ability to creatively develop a concept as a
response to a spatial design brief
- demonstrates appropriate levels of technical competency
of writing, drawing and making, related to spatial design
practice
- exhibits a good level of design resolution by translating a
concept into a final design proposal
Learning Outcomes:
The student should be able to:
- apply basic research and documentation methods for the
investigation of existing spaces and activities
- be familiar with basic spatial design processes for the
development of a concept and design
- develop creative responses to communicate spatial ideas
- present a spatial investigation and design proposal in a
variety of media, and to well resolved and considered
degree
Procedure and Timetable:
week 1
Mon 23 February
9:00 Intro to Spatial Design Programme and Vertical
Project
Wed 25 February
3:30 Vertical Project Banquet Welcome
week 2
Mon 2 March
9:00 Introduction Assignment 1
Allocation of activities and research into personal
ritual – prepare presentation for week 3
Wed 4 March
9:00 Modeling exercise; bring materials and tools
noon Self directed / office hours
Independent: develop second model and bring to
class for Monday Week 3 – 224.261
week 3
Mon 9 March
9:00 Visual presentation of personal ritual research
possibly consisting of series of photographs,
drawings, text – group discussion
Wed 11 March
9:00 Drawing exercise – plans and sections
noon Self directed / office hours
Independent: develop your concept and design
for Monday tutorial session in preparation for
Interim Presentation [Models, drawings, material
studies, precedent examples
week 4
Mon 16 March
9:00 Concept Development / designing of space

Project One_ 224.251 cont.
Wed 18 March
9:00 Interim Presentation
Independent: Develop design, visual narrative
and final model
week 5
Mon 23 March
9:00 1 on 1 tutorials, designing of space continued
Wed 25 March
9:00 Model making for final design in 10B12 and
workshop
noon Self directed / office hours
Independent: Finalise design, visual narrative
and model
week 6
Mon 30 March
9:00 1 on 1 Tutorial, finalise presentation
Tue 31 March
5:00 Hand in Assignment 1 [pin up]
Wed 1 April
9:00 Presentations Assignment 1
[-3:00pm]
week 7
Mon 6 April
9:00 Introduction Assignment 2
References:
Ackerman, D. (1995). A natural History of the Senses.
New York: Vintage Books. [reading]
Bell, C. (1992). Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York,
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Blauvelt, A. (2003). Strangely familiar: design and
everyday life. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center.
Bloomer, K.C. & Moore, C. (1977). Body, memory,
architecture. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
Brooker, G. and Stone, S. (2004). Re-readings. London:
Riba Enterprises.
Cadwell, M. (1996). Small Buildings: Pamphlet
Architecture No17. New York: Princeton Arch. Press
Ching, F.D.K. (1979/96). Architecture: Form, Space and
Order. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Ching, F.D.K. (1987). Interior Design illustrated New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Cline, A. (1997). A Hut of one's own: Life outside the
Circle of Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Eno, B. (1986). More dark than Shark / Eno & Mills.
London: Faber and Faber.
Friedman, J.B. (1980). Creation in Space: a course in the
fundamentals of architecture. Dubuque: Kendall/ Hunt.

Project One_ 224.251 cont.
Harris S. & Berke, D. (1997). Architecture of the everyday.
New York: Princeton Arch. Press.
Hejduk, J. etal (Eds) (1988). Education of an Architect.
New York: Rizzoli.
Holl, S. et al. (2006). Questions of Perception:
Phenomenology of Architecture. San Francisco, CA:
William Stout. [reading]
Holl, S. (2000) Parallax. Basel: Birkhäuser.
Holl, S. (2002). Idea and Phenomenon. Baden: Lars
Müller.
Lidwell, W., Holden, K., Butler, J. (2003) Universal
Principles of Design. Gloucester, Mass.: Rockport.
Lyndon, D. and Moore, C. (1994). Chambers for a
Memory place. Cambr. Mass.: MIT Press.
Malnar, J.M. and Vodvarka, F. (1992). The interior
Dimension: theoretical approach to enclosed space.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Malnar, J.M. and Vodvarka, F. (2004). Sensory Design.
Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
[recommended reading]
McGrath, B. and Gardner, J. (2007). Cinemetrics:
Architectural Drawing today. London: Wiley.
Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The eyes of the skin: Architectur
of the senses. Chichester: Wiley-Academy. [reading]
Porter, T. (2004). Archispeak: an illustrated Guide to
architectural Design Terms. New York: Spon Press.
Schechner, R. (2002). Performance Studies: an
Introduction. London: Routledge.
Woolf, V. (1981). A Room of one's own. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Zumthor, P. (1998). Thinking architecture. Basel:
Birkhauser.
Contact:
Sven Mehzoud (Y2 coordinator), Office: 10B15, 04 801 57 99 extn 6668,s.a.mehzoud@massey.ac.nz