Sweet Cupcakes

Here I am at the end of my second quarter at Bellevue. The past three months have gone in a blink of an eye. In my last post I shared my bus shelter project. That was so simple compared to the long development process of turning a real life bus stop into a functioning cupcake shop. I started with the word "sweet" and came up with my idea of what that meant. The first thing that came to my mind was childhood summers. Blowing bubbles, ice cream swirls, and fizzy drinks. So I created my first model based on those ideas:

 

From this simple idea, I developed my idea into an actual spatial model. It had to keep the same "language" of the first model, but suggest an actual use, rather than just a sculpture piece. I decided to focus on the bubble shapes and add arches to suggest swirls (in combination with the shadows that would be cast). I think it turned out to be a little more space-agey than I would have liked, but knowing where the ideas came from, I'm happy with the idea:



From here, I was introduced to my project location. A bus stop outside of my school was to be turned into the cupcake shop. It was a simple building, but the challenge was to add our "language" without changing the original structure of the building. Below is a Google SketchUp model of the original building:

 

The only part of the bus stop that worked with my idea was the circular skylights. Other than that, the building was extremely geometric, and built of concrete, glass, and metal. Not exactly my definition of sweet. I went through far too many ideas to show here, but wound up with one I absolutely loved. I haven't scanned any of the sketches in, but I built my idea in SketchUp. It was extremely difficult to create bubbles and arches since the program isn't very good with them, but I did it anyway! A few requirements were a POS area, counter seating, table seating, a display case, ADA compliant bathroom, a storage space, and a sink/dishwasher area. So here's a few views:



So the next step was to develop these messy ideas into a nice drawing, with some spot rendering. Below are my final drawings, including a floor plan. They're kind of overwhelmed with dimensions, but I was still very happy with how they turned out:





 

And then the final presentation!:



Bellevue College!

I've been at Bellevue College for a while now and I'm finally starting to get a feel for the program here. There is a bit of a difference between my current ID program and WSU's. Quite a difference. I've mostly been covering stuff I've already learned at WSU, but I never did get to learn any computer modeling program before. Here at Bellevue I'm expected to know how to use Sketch Up already, so here is my first attempt at it:

The project was to find a local bus stop, and redesign it, addressing users issues (after interviewing them) and to stay within the given footprint. My idea was a serious of pods. Keep in mind, the project was meant to be 90% creative and maybe 10% actually functional.

Actual bus shelter. Location is directly in front of the Bellevue College Campus.

My design model. To the left is an elevator, and the colored railings are made of light. (An idea stolen from Star Wars Episode I).

Sketch Up front view of my model.

Sketch Up back view.

Sketch Up detail on a pod door.