This is a collaborative project with Karen Keifer-Boyd and her graduate students in the School of Art at Texas Tech University. I have been working with Karen on a "concept" house that attempts to redefine house and home on a social, cultural, physical, and individual level, utilizing my interpretation of feminist ideas and her persistence to broaden them. The house is a "work in progress" and will continue to develop as the project develops. For a more complete description of the project one should go to Cyber-Feminist House site. Here Karen has described the theoretical intent of the house and linkages to everyone's process and product.
This web site is a journal of my design process. It is not meant to be final publication of my work. It is intended to open my notes and the design process to those who are curious or interested. It is not intended to be an academic or final publication of the work that is yet to come. I apologize if I have used terms or ideas inappropriately, and would appreciate comments and insights into the thoughts and words I am sharing with you. Please excuse my ignorance and please feel free to send me your comments and criticisms.
The link to Concept Images and Sketches , include my original concept statement for the house, works of Georgia O'Keeffe that inspired my initial formal ideas about the house, and "paper napkin" concept sketches.
On the Parti Diagrams page you will find my geometrical partis and the developmental plans for the house. I used scaled adjacent, overlapping and interlocking elliptical geometry to create the initial form and organization to the design.
The parti diagrams were then developed into three dimensional Schematic Design. The three-dimensional model of the schematic designs was done utilizing 3D Studio VIZ a software derivative of 3D Studio Max developed by AutoDesk and Discreet software companies. The development of the actual house has not gone any further than these crude three-dimensional models. I stopped working on the house design a month ago and in order to assist Karen's student's in getting their room installations into the 3D Studio model . All of the organic articulation that I initially intended will be developed later. Karen and I both see this as an ongoing project.
The art installations for the bedrooms were developed by the graduate students around the subject matter of Karen Keifer-Boyd's graduate course ART 5366. I participated in some of initial critiques with Karen and her students, helped the students develop their concepts and explained the technology (panoramas) that we would be using to present their ideas. Since the students did not have the technical skills to develop their rooms in 3D Studio, they provided me with digital images and in some cases 3d models of elements for their art installation. I modeled, texture mapped, rendered, stitched the images, and created the panorama web pages for each of the rooms. Collaborating with the students and sometimes interpreting the intent of their sketches and ideas was a lot of fun.
You can reach the Student's Rooms directly through this link. I would encourage you to go the Cyber-Feminist House site. It is a much richer experience. This short cut is like skipping the first chapter of a novel. You may finally understand the story from the other chapters, but you loose the initial setup. But for those that wish to just see the "pretty pictures" use this link to get to the panoramas.
I hope you enjoy our endeavors and check back Karen and I have plans for more and better stuff in the near future.
Glenn Hill, Director of Environmental Visualization
12-5-2001