E-mail to professor

EMAIL TO PROFESSOR :

Dear David, 

As part of our project we were told to email our professors about our current project. We were given a modern house in Spain and in small groups had to think of a neurological disorder, and eventually we will alter the house to the needs of the clients disorder. The disorder we chose is 'Down's Syndrome'.  The first part of our project we were asked to design a micro-architecture for one person who has down's syndrome or for someone to feel like they do. 

As people with Down's Syndrome are very affectionate, caring and loving people, we created a hammock design/installation whereby you literally hug a tree. Tree hugging has many health benefits such as releasing endorphin's, increasing concentration and being close to nature. They also need support and our design literally supports the person. It is a metaphor of their life; scary thought being above ground and trusting the hammock is similar to their everyday struggle with learning skills however once they trust the hammock they feel calm and relaxed, almost like when they learn something new. 

Attached are some images of our final work. 

Hope you like the design.

Riya Chawla, Lara Nixel, Nerea Vera Fernandez 

RESPONSE:

Dear Riya and Sophie,

Thank you for your separate emails.

This looks like interesting and relevant work. As students of Interior Architecture it is important that you consider matters such as scale, furniture, human need, materiality, texture, proxemics and so on – both of your projects appear to have explored these things. I’d also say your projects appear both serious and slightly off-beat – certainly the “hug a tree” project can be seen as both amusing and serious. Certainly, considering a brief which asks you to respond to a particular illness or neuro/psychological condition is interesting and stimulating, and it appears you’ve both produced work as a direct response to the conditions set out for you. Each piece of micro-architecture (or what I tend to call “architectural furniture”) has unique properties.

I hope you had fun with this project, while learning much. Thanks for sharing it with me. Do send more examples of work, as they emerge. Kind regards, David