Little White Schoolhouse

The Little White Schoolhouse is located in Valley, WA. The Valley community wanted to turn this Schoolhouse into a historical museum. To bring a sense of togetherness within the two communities and the historical essence of the Valley, as well as attracting tourist attention, Tamara Upton,  Emily Van Dyke and I came up with the theme, "Uniting the past and future." In order to bring different generations together, we focused on making the space rustic and modern.

 

I researched a case study on the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library Inc. in Lexington, MA. This research was intended to help me understand more about what a heritage museum is all about.

 



 

Here are the final posters of The Little White Schoolhouse design.

(Posters by: Nkojoua)

 

 

Here are the perspectives I designed through SketchUp, Kerkythea, & Photoshop.  



 

Reception area

Industries Exhibit

 

Memories of Valley in motion & Family History

Lower Level Entrance

Mock Up of a kitchen in 1900's

Room for recording and listening to stories

 

This project was a great learning experience. My classmates and I had the opportunity to visit Valley, WA to meet the Valley community. We had a discussion about what they valued and wanted for the Schoolhouse. What I've learned from this real life experience was seeing how much the Little White Schoolhouse means to them regardless of the small size of their town.

I feel that our design was successful because we kept the historical essence and structure of the building. We added a some walls and lighting fixtures to give it a more modern look and feel, at the same time focusing on the history.

Designing for Disaster Relief: Tajikistan

The objective of this project was to choose a location and a natural disaster that took place in that area. My partner, Megan Pharmer and I chose one of the poorer countries in Central Asia called Tajikistan. The climate changes easily from hot to cold so avalanches are most likely to occur and destroy homes.

The solution to provide temporary homes was Super Adobe homes designed by Architect Nadar Khalili. This home is cheap and affordable because the only materials needed are barbed wire and sand bags; the sand bags would be filled with local land.

"To heal what nature has done is nature itself." - Nkojoua & Megan

This video was also submitted for the Designing for Disaster Relief Competition.

Depot Concept Model

The inspiration of the concept model was a flagpole holder. Movement, asymmetry, space and contrast of straight and curved lines guided the process. There was no emphasis in the inspiration piece so no focal point was added in the concept model as well. The flat metal and museum board were bent and curved to create contrast and form.

Inspiration Piece: Flag Holder



The metal and the white museum board were used to contrast each other. Both of the materials are bright and creates a nice and clean look.

Concept Model

Textile Reflection

The idea generator of this textile design was a flag holder. The form givers were: movement, space, form and contrast of straight and curved lines.

Idea Generator: Flag Holder

Below are the different modules that I came up. Each one shows the elements and principles that I took from the inspiration piece.

I chose the one with different sizes of squares because it had most of all the elements and principles: movement, asymmetry, space and unity.

 
The final textile is 36'x36' and each module is 1'x1'. By making the modules smaller, the textile looks a lot cleaner.

This textile design was a great experience for me. I learned how to design my own fabric and how to get it printed.

Client Brief

This is a poster of my client brief. It talks about the philosophy of the artist, Tom Degroot, and how his strategy of art is applied into the space that I will be designing. The luminous, silkiness and richness of his paintings will enhance the space that I will be designing through the lighting and color choices that I will make.