This project is a sequel to the beginning stage of when we had to analyse and evaluate the space of Ravensbourne University, In my group we were given the cafe area of the ground floor. The next stage was every individual to create an idea such as a DJ Booth, Bar, an are to contemplate nature etc..... I chose to create a Convenient Store to sell art materials such as pencils pens, fabric, materials, wood etc... and in my design I was focusing into Diller Schofidio & Renfro and how they analyse positive and negative space (the space given being the positive and the space being occupied by people being the negative) and creates an effective way of designing an influential piece whilst keeping to the theory of positive and negative space.

Through the process of surveying the cafe area I had to create an idea of a functioning space that can be placed within the surveyed area such as a Dj Booth, Radio Station, Bar, a place to contemplate nature etc..... but I went with the idea of a convenient store within the university that would sell art supplies and materials such as pencils, papers, woods, plastics and much more, but I wanted to base it around the aspect of Diller Scofidio in how he uses positive and negative space and how he bases his aspect of space to create his designs and I wanted to base my convenient store on this theory. So through my 5 designs I chose the most simple yet effective design to base my convenient store because I felt that it can store a huge amount of supplies yet take the most less and reasonable space possible, but this design in itself still took a considerable amount of space so I developed the spacial design around it so its barely recognisable to the audiences space yet still convenient within its spacial right and purpose which is to sell art supplies within the university so I decided to make the length, width and height equally the same so that the space within the convenient store can be equally distributed within the service area and the storage room at the back. 

These sketches were my ideas and analysis of designing my convenient store which I based on the architects that I was inspired by which were Diller Schofidio and Renfro, but the concept that I was looking into wasn't the designs of there projects but more in the method and protocols they take into designing their buildings. I discovered that Schofidio analyse the space their given for a specific project and then vary the space with the publics space and that is what I see as negative space therefore the area their given is the positive space and then they mould out their building based on this principle and that is what primarily I've been using to design my convenient store. I feel I have done quite a lot of analysis through the Convenient's Store size, through the survey of what spaces in the cafe area gets used the less and the most and found out that the back corner gets used the least so it won't be any convenience to anyone and the fact of having a convenient store which is barely noticeable is also appealing to the design.

Through the first sketches, I portrayed the analysis of space which shows where the convenient store would go, but now with these sketches it shows the design process of making my design, through initial designing, to materials and ranges of thickness and analysing which would be more suitable for the convenient stores structure. I would say I really enjoyed this process because I could be as creative as I wanted with no limitations through my process and that is why I feel this is the most engaging stage of my process.

Now since I have an initial idea of the space around the exterior of the convenient store, I now have to consider the space from the interior. This stage itself was a difficult task because the space within had to have a balanced separation for the service area and the storage area, so the next stage had to be analysis through drawing so I went with an axonometric, isometric and one-point perspective drawing and through these stages of drawing I discovered that more space had to be given to the storage area because in itself the service area will be handled by one person and it would be more efficient to have more space in the storage area because more supplies being held means more supplies for the students and more convenient's for everyone altogether.

Even though my axonometric and isometric drawings gave me a moderate understanding of space within the convenient store, I still wanted a more detailed analysis of the space between the service area and the storage area, so I created some volumetric drawings (this is a drawing that depicts the volume of measurements of a unit of an area) which show the space between the service area and the storage area and in my opinion I feel that there is a good balance between both spaces, especially when my goal was to use a rationed amount of space and creating secondary spaces between the main space, so overall I am happy with the results that were produced through my volumetric drawings. 

Through the measurements, elevations, sections, plans, axonometric's, isometrics and volumetric's, I had enough data to create a 3D model in AutoCad. Since I was a novice using AutoCad for the first time I felt quite nervous using it, not knowing if my design would come out alright but I didn't use any high complex tools to create the design, just what I got taught so far at AutoCad tutorials, just simple shapes and extrusion. Since this was my first ever AutoCad design I was really proud at myself, and I feel that now through this 3D design everyone can understand my perception of how I wanted to create a balanced and reasonable space within a small amount of space.

Since now I have the structure aspect of the design completed I wanted to focus on the skin aspect of the design because just like Diller Scofidio & Renfro, there designs are based on the aspect of not just the environment it stands on but into the natural environment, lifestyle and the cultural diversity it stand on, so I wanted the skin design to link with ravnsbourne, so when I look at the building I see ravensbourne as a technology, highly diverse and inspirational place of study so the colour that sprung to mind was a metallic grey and from that trying out different shades to decide which would be the most suitable to linking with the building itself and seeing which colour combination works the best to link with ravensbourne metaphorically.

I had an idea about the tones of the skin colour, it hit me, why do I have to decide on just one skin tone when I could combine them all and since I want it to relate to the university and student cultural and technological background I thought that using the actual Ravensbourne exterior skin so that at relates to Ravensbourne clearly as possible, and as I see it. I started to use my elevations as a sort of canvas layout to see how the skin would look and I felt quite confident with the results and how it would look as a 3D model and how it relates to the environment itself plus with the structural formation of the convenient store as well.

The next stage was to create a detailed version of the skin that had the complex geometric pattern and the using the same tones of grey that I wanted to use as my initial idea, I felt that the most quickest and effective way of creating the geometric pattern itself, which was to trace the pattern myself. Not directly tracing the pattern on paper but to take a high resolution photo of the skin and then inserting it into illustrator because since illustrator has no pixel distortion I could trace over the photo by using the line tool and the design would have a clear outcome. In my opinion this was a long process but the outcome was better than expected. After the illustrator stage, I wanted to add colour to the pattern design so that it could include the grey tonal effect that I wanted in the beginning so by looking at the Ravensbourne skin photo's that I took I used the colour scheme from the photos and added it to the ilustrator design which I added into photoshop, which was the program that I used to add the tonal colours to. I also created a negative effect style print so that it could link with the structural theory of negative and positive space which I was looking at to create my convenient store and adding it onto the interior walling of the convenient store.

To see how the design would look as a 3D model I used photoshop to add the skin design to my volumetric drawings to see how it would look, and my design worked great, better than expected. Now I can clearly see how the interior and exterior space would look with the skins on so from the outside it represents the skin of Ravensbourne and the technological shades of grey which I wanted and the inside represent the theory of negative and positive space which I was looking into from Diller Schofidio & Renfro's style.

Through my Volumetrics, Axonometrics, Elevations, Plans and AutoCad Design including the Skin Design I created for the interior and exterior using Photoshop and Illustrator, I had enough data, analysis and designs to create a preliminary 3D model on sketch up and it looks great, now with the aspect and advantage of seeing my work and how it would look like is a great relief because it is just how I wanted it to be but better seeing how it worked out. Since the sketch up model was a success, the next stage would be to create the physical 3D model of my design.    

To make each area as precise as possible, I created each wall, door and window using illustrator because I had all measurements and I felt that I could use the laser cutter to precisely cut all the pieces for my model in an incredibly short amount of time and if anything went wrong with the models calculations it could easily be changed by inserting the new data into illustrator so this process was in my opinion the most efficient and the most safe to create my model with. 

These are the laser cuts with the skin design 

Finally I have created my model. the model itself is a 1:20 scale and now with it completed and standing I can actually understand the theory of positive and negative space, especially with the amount of rationed space its volume still gives a high balance of the storage space and the service space and now with this model completed the audience can see the space being used aesthetically, I felt that I have kept to mind the colour scheme I wanted before, and now with the Ravensbourne geometric pattern on a 3D form it looks much more graphical and appealing to come towards, especially with the negative space design for the interior to give a representaion of space within the service and storage area. I felt that I have kept true to what I wanted in the beginning and that now since it has come to fruition, it feels as a true triumph, even at times were i took risks and when they worked successfully  it gave me confidence to take more risks and to be more imaginative with my designs in the future so this has given me a new skill and level to work to and in future projects.