Introduction to Design Thinking 2
Ex-Saldaña Studio
Agustín Torchia
Project 1
Use, Dimension and Scale
This project introduces the notion of use as the sociocultural way activities are carried out, and the relationship between objects, spaces and people. Dimension and scale are explored by observing, recording and comparing two situations of the same activity: resting. One in the shared space of the FADU siestario and another in the intimacy of the bed.
A concept map that organizes the notions of the project and relates them to the act of designing. Subject, society, environment, context, object and use connect to each other, and from that web emerge need, value, scale and ergonomics as the points where design intervenes.
Enactment and recording of the activity at 1:1 scale. Starting from a reference photograph of students resting in the FADU siestario, the sofa, the bodies and the objects around them were drawn on scenography paper at the real dimensions of the situation.
Drawing at real scale means measuring the body against the furniture and understanding how much space each posture takes.
The two situations of use of the resting activity, gathered in a single sheet read from top to bottom. At the top, resting in intimacy: in bed the body relates to materials, objects stay within arm's reach and Hall's intimate distance defines the measures of everything around the bed.
Below, resting in society: the FADU siestario takes up Hall's proxemics and organizes the space around the different forms of interaction. Sofas, poufs and collaborative work tables project behaviors and resolve different distances between people.
Project 2
Space and Memory
A design process that starts from audiovisual language and arrives at a spatial proposal. The first stage experiments with modules and links based on a spatial concept, the fragment. The second designs a temporary exhibition, “Memory and Urban Identities”, in the central courtyard of FADU, with a 6 by 6 meter space and a path to view 20 photographs.
Stage 1, previous experiments. A spatial concept was chosen, the fragment, and translated into self-supporting structures built from cardboard modules. The modules are triangular pieces joined by interlocking, and they produce different shapes depending on how they are combined.
To check the joints, modules were built at real size. Tests with the modules and their joints defined the logic of the system: which angles they allow, how high they reach and how they hold each other up.
The sheet “A fragmented heart” gathers the stage 1 report. It explains the module, its scale, the base and the ways of linking, and shows how the concept of the fragment becomes a space you walk through.
Stage 2, site survey. An analysis of the central courtyard on the ground floor of FADU: spatial features, main flows, barriers and circulation nodes, equipment and patterns of use, and accessibility.
This study supports where to place the exhibition and how it relates to its surroundings.
Scale model of the proposal, which reorganizes the module system as an exhibition space. Flat, tilted and interlocked pieces form a path and hold the photographs along the way.
Graphic and descriptive report of the proposal. It supports the module, the joints and the construction logic, the siting strategy, the organization of spaces and the path, and the possible structural configurations.
Project 3
Form, Function and Meaning
Design of an object to carry personal items in urban settings and to go to college, up to the prototype stage. The work explores the relationship between form, function and meaning, ergonomics, haptic scale and the material resolution of the object. It includes an individual research stage and a collaborative development stage.
Analysis sheet from the individual stage. It starts from an everyday problem of FADU students, carrying an A3 folder on public transport along with pencil cases, notebooks, phone, wallet and keys, and studies it through comfort, ergonomics, identity and the safety of what is carried.
Building process. The first tests explored a weave of interlaced strips, which gives a sturdy and flexible surface without sewing a fabric. Then the final material was worked on the workshop table, cutting and composing the strips by color.
The finished object is a bag for carrying personal items, woven from strips of printed material with photos of our university, which together form a new texture, and closed with simple fittings. The adjustable black straps solve how it is carried and are fixed with rivets and reinforcement strips.
The detail shows the joint between the parts and the fittings that hold the straps, where function and materiality are solved in the same place.
Video record of the project. It shows the object designed to carry personal items and its design path, with form, function and meaning as its axes.
Integrative Essay
The Foundations of the Design World
Final essay that goes through the term and organizes it into three areas: use and scale, space and siting, and the design of a carrying object. It reflects on how inhabited space depends on social practices, and on the step from idea to materialization, together with ICP1 as a base study of the design disciplines at FADU.