Noma Noma Noma Noma.....I love!

Just spotted this and had to share! My personal project at GSA took me on a journey of the philosophy  "from nature to plate" with the idea that we should source food locally and make the most of what nature provides us with. Noma, the award winning restaurant, which was claimed to be the best in the world, had the same sort of philosophy and influenced me a lot. So when their new food lab cropped up I just loved it!

The pink neon glow that beams onto the plants is just fantastic and gives that science/ experimental feel to the lab.

Instead of posting my portfolio on my blog, I have created a seperate website which has my full portfolio on it. It can be found at http://emmarintoul.moonfruit.com

I also thought I should post some of the pictures from out degree show in June.

Its been a while.....

Well nearly a year on and I've finally got round to posting a new blog entry...I've been lazy I know! I don't think you actually realise how little free time you have during your final year at Uni (that's my excuse anyway :) )
   I've just finished my Honours Degree in Interior Design at The Glasgow School of Art where I achieved a Second Class Upper (2.1) so I am now on the job hunt journey! I've also just completed my new website where I can showcase my portfolio and hopefully gather some interest.
   This whole new journey is incredibly exciting and I really can't wait until I get THAT job that I've always dreamed of doing! I also don't think its really sunk in yet that I've actually finished uni and I won't be spending anymore time in the mac, standing infront of classmates doing crits and spending endless amounta of time in the studio! I'll miss it :(
   In the next couple of days I'll post some pictures from my folio and also some Photographs from the degree show!

The Hotel Project thats finally ended.....I hope!!

Thought I would upload the final images that I used in my presentation for the quality advisor from Visit Scotland, tutors etc!

The project towards the end of term, really began to drag on and I think we were all really glad to finish it! I really wanted to create images that went against vectorworks evil ways and create something that tried to echo a comfortable environment, which hopefully I have achieved. This is probably why the project felt like it would never end, we had good ideas, its just really hard to replicate this from your imagination to computer.

Here's the background info bit on what I wanted my hotel to achieve:

Rural 5 star hotel. Located at Loch Fyne, Inverarary

I wanted to create a hotel that was aimed at couples and families, that could be used as a retreat. Somewhere that you could use as a base point for the morning/afternoon and go off and explore the local area and could return home and just relax and be pampered. By providing a spa in the hotel, it not only has the function of going there to relax at the end of a tiring day but is also incredibly useful for those horrible rainy Scottish days when you just don't want to venture out.
   I didn't want to go down the cliched routes of tartan and more tartan, so I decided to look at the colours and textures of the Scottish landscape. I particularly liked the work of the Italian designer Paola Lenti who creates rugs, sofas, cushions etc from knitted and woven fabrics that are really hardwearing and robust. I thought this was quite an unusual way of for me to replicate the harsh textures of our landscape.
   I've balanced these textures in the bedroom with fluffy lambwool covererd chairs, soft woven fabrics for the sofas, stained walnut flooring, tulip wood and limestone. In the suite I have designed a sliding wall which slides into a structure that acts as storage on the bedroom side and a hole in the wall fireplace/wall for television on the living/dining side. i didn't want each room to be completely seperated off from the others permanently and thought the idea of having the areas divided only when you wanted them to be, to be more effective,  therefore allowing the space to feel more spacious.
   In the spa I've opted for moss greens in the hair salon and darker browns and pinks for the relaxing area. i wanted to create a really luxurious space so I've detailed it with a highly decorative light in the salon that creates a twinkly effect against the large mirrors. I've also separated each space using voile's so the space feels less confined, it also makes the space more sumptuous. In the relaxing areas I've detailed for there to be a groove where tea lights can be placed, adding to the relaxing ambiance.

Hotel Project

Yay our first proper project!! Designing a 5 star rural hotel is the task and hand, and its beginning to scare me now at the scale of the project and how little time we have to complete it. Visiting the site was a good experience, though like a lot of people felt, its going to be hard to get away from whats already there and completely redesign it. I've started some research and I'm beginning to look at the floor plan. Currently, the bedroom sizes are whats causing trouble, as I'm not sure how big they should be. Spoke to a tutor on Friday and she suggested drawing it out to a bigger scale, which will apparently help and also design a general layout for each bedroom (pod) from where I can develop my idea.

Detailing- Example, with photos, sketches and explanations

REPLAY Ingram Street, Glasgow. Decorative Clothes Railing

The unique clothing rails in Replay are simple, yet incredibly effective in design. The basis of the rail is formed around two metal poles, which are suspended from the ceiling. Each pole has holes drilled through it, at regular intervals, from which a long piece of rope is knotted and threaded in a serpentine shape, therefore holding the two poles rigid and secure. Between each bit of threaded rope is where the clothes hanger sits. This in itself is an effective way of stopping the hangers sliding off the end pole and also stops the clothes from getting crushed, as the hangers aren’t bunched up together.
   The fixing attaching the poles to the ceiling is a thin plate of metal screwed to the ceiling. This has a thicker spherical part that has a “loop” drilled through it where a clip ( the type often used by rock climbers) loops through. From this a piece of chain threaded through the pole come up and attaches onto the clip, holding the pole in place. There are about four of these fixing holding the entire pole up.

Replay, Ingram Street, Glasgow. Decorative Coloured Rope Clothes Rail

The two poles are held together by coloured lengths of rope that are threaded through cups hooks, which are facing inwards on each of the poles. The cups hooks are screwed though the metal pole and held in place with a small washer to stop it slipping and also a nut screwed onto the end of the hook. Roughly every second hook has rope threaded through it, starting from the bottom where its knotted and going to the top, to the bottom and so on, in a random manner, and finally knotting at the end. This process is continued until the railing is completely covered in criss-cross ropes. The poles are fixed to the ceiling in the same way as the other railing system.

Kurt Geiger Shop Front Shoe Shelving

The shelving system in Kurt Geiger is mesmerising and creates a sensation that is almost like an optical illusion. In fact, we believe that this detailed relatively simply. The vertical slats of the structure are all made out of mirror. Two pieces of mirror are glued together so each side is mirrored. The shelves are made out of rectangles of bevelled glass, that are glued on each side and slotted in between the vertical slats. This is very cleanly done and no glue can be seen, which was often the case in other examples that we saw where a similar method was used. At the corners the mirrored edges are flush to one another and again it is really clean and smooth.