TCU Interior Design Senior Show

My senior students have been working on their capstone project involving the redevelopment of the Baker Hotel in Mineral Well, Texas. Come see about a dozen great ideas for ways the hotel could be utilized and brought back from dormancy.

Why Interior Design Matters

http://youtu.be/2WRU4NUJSVc
Check out this video - Why Interior Design Matters!!

Universal Design

Our client's kitchen has been thoughtfully redesigned. You may notice that all of the lower cabinets boast drawers instead of cabinet doors. Imagine the difficulty you might encounter trying to reach to the back of the lower cabinet if you are bound to a wheel chair or scooter. Our design brings the back of the cabinet to the front by pulling out a drawer. A simple but very effective solution.

Below you can see an image taken prior to our design and renovations - a marvelous transformation of the space for our client! The existing island did not allow enough passage space in front to the sink and the door at the far end needed to be widened to accommodate the width of a wheel chair. The vent hood dominated the space and was visually unattractive! We streamlined the design for both function and aesthetics.

National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

NCBDS - I recently returned from an amazing design conference held at Penn State. The creativity and advanced technologies that were utilized in beginning design studios was incredible. Perhaps most reassuring were the discussions I had with fellow design educators about the importance of hand sketching - decidely a low-tech operation. Those I spoke with agreed that not only does the act of sketching engage the hand and mind, but we agreed on three important reasons to draw by hand from observation.
1. Understanding - by drawing something you must look carefully and come to understand a thing's components and even its meaning.
2. Thinking - drawing is a visual expression of thought, a way to more concretely test new ideas and their validity - I say its speaking with a pencil.
3. Persuading - in design, it is not only important to develop an idea and make it real, but you must be able to convince others about the quality and worth of your proposed space. You can use the various forms of representational drawings as the means to explain spatial concepts.