Work in progress.....

My current brief with Holiday Inn to redesign a conceptual lobby space and check-in experience. An audience and problem must be targeted and a clear solution produced and presented digitally. This is a competition brief with D&AD with the prestigious yellow pencil award.

Audience - The individual, a business traveler

Problem - spending an hour in the space I recorded that the vast majority of people entering the space were business orientated and many were foreign travelers on business trips, the first problem that I noticed was that as soon as somebody enters the space everybody else (either in the seating area or restaurant) could see the person entering. This created an awkward and judgmental atmosphere, thus nearly on every occasion the customer felt inclined to go straight to his/her room and work alone.

Solution - My solution is to create a new branch to the company called 'HOP' - this targets the travel side of the audience offering solutions such as being able to buy tickets, plan journeys and have information on various travel links and local interests.

The customer will also be offered an office atmosphere, but somewhere they can work alone with all of the services required. They will often have spent a day in the office and a similar environment will be the last thing they want to see, this space will be fun and quirky... a kind of reward for working out of office hours.

The initial concept for the Lobby, because there are 1200 lobbys

of all shapes and sizes I will be designing each idea separately,

a sort of installation that can be slotted into the specifications of each 

building. Firstly the individual booths allowing people the freedom to 

work without going to their rooms, at this stage the shape is undecided, 

maybe a droplet or cocoon? You will 'board' them from bridges based around

the way you board a plane. The floor will be dropped to make space for

cloud installation (inspired by the ceiling of the EBAY office, next pic).

   

Looking at the plane itself and how different parts function allowed me to experiment

with the form/shape. The final outcome of this was having the rotary blades from within

an engine twisted in the same way as the center of the blade is decorated. This twisting effect

forms around the spherical booth.

A refinement of the previous idea, the blades created voids that took away the privacy aspect

of the space, one of these voids will create an abstracted doorway whereas the others will be

filled with a patchwork of rubber and leather. This idea came across from what bussinessmen/women

carry, such as wallets and breefcases. The rubber will be from the shoes as in any travel scenario

walking is still required... this will make each space bespoke (individual) and give a relate-able scent.

Iceland

Icelands electricity is carried by 'Land Of The Giants" 

I actually wouldn't mind having these in my back yard!

Zira Island

Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG, Copenhagen :

  What we propose for Zira Zero Island is an architectural landscape based on the natural landscape of Azerbaijan. This new architecture not only recreates the iconic silhouettes of the seven peaks, but more importantly creates an autonomous ecosystem where the flow of air, water, heat and energy are channeled in almost natural ways. A mountain creates biotopes and eco-niches, it channels water and stores heat, it provides viewpoints and valleys, access and shelter. The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan are not only metaphors, but actual living models of the mountainous ecosystems of Azerbaijan.


  Each of the Seven Peaks house a residential development derived from the geometry of a famous mountain in Azerbaijan. Individually each mountain becomes a principle for mixing private and public functions. Together the mountains form an organic skyline merging with the natural topography of the island. A dense vibrant urban community connected to a series of private resort villages by a central public valley and surrounding beaches. A continuous public trekking path connects the mountains and invites visitors to scale the top of all seven peaks. In addition to the Seven Peaks the Master Plan also includes 300 private villas that take advantage of their setting with panoramic views out over the Caspian Sea.

What is really impressive about this scheme is not the aesthetics, or even the architectural design of these structures, it is the concept behind it all. Without a solid conceptual base for design ideas can go off at a tangent and veer away from the true intended spirit of the project. This project has mountains at its roots, everything from structure and form, to an ecosystem of renewables. A very well presented animation, the renders and flythroughs provide the wow-factor but the graphic simplicity of the informant sections shows complex ideas clearly. Please let this be built!

Liquipel Nano technology

Liquipel is a revolutionary technology that applies a nano-coating to electronics, making them Watersafe. inside and out. An invisible waterproof coating called Liquipel.

 

 An adaption of this technology sees vending style machines where you can place your device (ie. I-Phone) and have it returned completely waterproof without any aesthetic difference.

Sustainable Lighting

Sustainable Lighting idea used in shanty houses but could be 

easily adapted. A very useful concept as bills increase.

Final Boards for presentation/pitch

'Killer shot' visual

Using my 3dsmax model, printing, drawing, scanning and photoshopping several times, i've finally produced my 'killer shot' visual. Ceiling made from tent material with videos projected onto the back.  Hanging boxes with screens inside expressing each sport/event with and atmosphere to represent this. stylized foam steps to represent graphics and branding typical of the theme. A caving experience with head height, confined videos of caving. Mirrors that create an endless desert scenario. Graph display for free tickets to the event that got you the most scared/excited (measured by heart-rate wristbands) and finally stylised logos for each event that represent the brand.

Social interactive

Social stage - interact with a 3D environment using

tracking cameras.

Aperture Interactive Display

Designed by Berlin interactive artists Gunnar Green and Frederic Eyl

New ground floor visual

Ground floor visual -  the new 'interactive experience' retail environment for SHAFF (Sheffield Adventure Film Festival) The space will be based in the packhorse centre, Huddersfield.

Films from past events showing extreme sports and adventure will be projected onto hung tvs, a couple of the tvs will also show different films giving a contemporary montage and layered effect.

Glass boxes under the floor give people the chance to see the actual filming and expedition equipment used in the making of those films adding a sense of reality to this digital space.

MOTION still being the drive of the design is hinted at in the forms of the 'peep holes' and also the flowing colour that gradually sweeps behind the perforated screen on the ceiling.

Sketch scheme boards

Box Park Nike

http://thenextweb.com/uk/2012/03/09/the-worlds-first-nike-fuelstation-opens-in-london-designed-for-digitally-enabled-athletes/


Nike has opened the world’s first ever Nike+ FuelStation, launching at London’s Boxpark – a ‘temporary’ pop-up mall.
For the record, Boxpark strips and refits shipping containers to create “low cost, low risk, ‘box shops’”, and puts them together with a mix of international fashion and lifestyle brands, galleries and cafés. Its basic building blocks are movable, so they can – and will – literally ‘pop-up’ anywhere in the world.

 

There’s a motion-sensitive installation that lets visitors see a life-size, digitized reflection of themselves on an LCD wall. This reacts to movement, and the resulting digital art can be shared with your friends across your social networks.

You can design and customize your own (Nike) footwear.

An in-store treadmill which gives potential customers the chance to be fitted for the right shoe to suite their running style.

Rain Indoors, Yet You Never Get Wet

http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/en-uk/blog/random-internationals-installation-makes-it-rain-indoors-yet-you-never-get-wet

Rain falling inside a building is a great Dadaist image—incongruous, surreal, absurd, not the sort of thing you’d want to happen in your own living room of course, but fine in someone else’s. Or in an art gallery. Random International‘s latest installation at the Barbican’s Curve gallery in London is called Rain Room and it’s a room, a hundred square meters, full of rain.
But the great thing is, while it’s raining all around you, you don’t actually get wet, because as you step up onto the stage where the downpour’s happening, it stops, repelling away from your body as if you’re some kind of rain god. Then as you navigate the stage, the rain surrounds you without actually falling on you as you become enveloped in a protective cocoon, allowing you to wander around this bizarre stage without getting drenched.
This crazy trickery is brought about by 3D tracking cameras which track people walking about the stage, mapping their movements as they stroll about and responding to them appropriately.

Frontage sketches and ideas..

A quick b&w sketch of one of the 3 frontages for the 'Pack Horse' shopping center, Huddersfield. Ready to add designs, graphics, colours, materials, logos etc to. (Kingsgate side)

New street side.

conceptual sketches to represent the stages of shopping

Sketches from Wakefield

Thin-backlit marble

Youtube background designs for the song 'this city' by sticks & stones

Adding the ice sheet on the sea allowed for text to be added 

without looking 'lost' within the image, it also allows for more 

perspective which draws the eye in from the title to the image.

To emphasise the sunken buildings a slight orange/peach aura 

was added, this wouldn't usually make a big difference, but the 

rest of the image is mono-tonal allowing for this. 

some of the earlier designs appeared too bold in colour and 

almost apocalyptic, this takes the eye away from the sinking city

and ruins the composition. it also doesnt represent the feel of the song.

These are designs for song 'this city', showing the progression

of the image. Ive sketched out a few designs before moving

into photoshop, ranging from different compositions and themes.

The chosen design is of the city sinking into the sea, but other ideas

were of a flip-side/reflection of a skyline destroyed.