Spatial design 1 ISD60104
E-Portfolio of Interactive Spatial Design
INTRODUCE
Hello everyone, this is my E-Portfolio of Interactive Spatial Design. This is the first time for me to learn space design, and I am looking forward to improving my understanding of space and design skills during this learning process. So in this blog, I will share my 14 weeks of learning, my reflections, and my work.
Catalog
- Week 1-Design Futures Unveiling Creativity in Tomorrows World
- Week 2- Introduction to Spatial Design
- Week 3- Form Perceptual Laws of Visual Organization
- Week 4-Decoding Spatial Perception
- Week 5 to 6-Meet the client + Design processes
- Week 7-Form、Space、Opening、Circulation
- Week 8-10: Project 2
- Week 11-14: Draw plans and make 3D models
- Project 1-3
- Reflection
Week 1- Design Future Unveiling Creativity in Tomorrows World
Learn：
In the first class, the teacher not only introduced the course content but also facilitated a thorough introduction among all classmates. For me, it was the first time in a classroom setting that I had such a comprehensive understanding of and acquaintance with all my peers. Through this interactive session, I also came to understand my initial intention to study design (eager to explore new fields in design), making the whole class very engaging.
During the subsequent course introduction, the teacher used questioning to illustrate that design is indispensable in our daily lives. Many of the things we use daily are created and designed by different designers, enabling us to live conveniently and enjoy life.
In the classroom, the teacher talked about how design shapes the future, from innovative design to enhancing experiences to solving problems. The explanation of this viewpoint, which I personally found very helpful and deeply impressive, was discussed. Additionally, the teacher shared some relevant information about interactive spaces, which further highlighted the integration of immersive experiences and the blending of virtual and real worlds, tightening the relationship between people and spaces.
Reflection:
In the first class, I had two reflections. Firstly, in terms of communication; during the first half of the course, we introduced ourselves, got to know each other, and shared our motivations for studying this major. Through this process of communication, I reflected on how design is a tool for conveying ideas and communication. Not only do we need to express ourselves well verbally, but our designed products also need to convey our ideas and help users.
Secondly, the teacher mentioned that "design shapes the future." At that moment, I realized that each of us contributes to the future, regardless of profession or status. Our current lives are rooted in design, and design is rooted in our lives. This made me pay more attention to observing and experiencing the large and small things in my life for the first time, showing me the meticulousness and innovation of many designers.
Week 2-Introduction to Spatial Design
Learn：
In the second class, the teacher provided a detailed explanation of spatial design, with a focus on the flow of people indoors and outdoors, as well as the design and creation of public and private spaces. In the second session, the teacher discussed "Key Skills for Spatial Designers," which greatly helped me. It was the first time I saw the entire process of design from start to finish and the details it entails. It also showed me that even for small objects, designers need to consider aspects such as their shape, color, materials, usability, and creativity, which was quite eye-opening for me. Furthermore, this class gave me a three-dimensional understanding of points, lines, and surfaces, as opposed to just learning from textbooks with diagrams. The teacher not only imparted theoretical knowledge but also encouraged us to explore points, lines, and surfaces in real-life settings on campus, which left a deeper impression on me.
Reflection:
Through the learning of the second class, what struck me the most was the discussion on the "Key Skills for Spatial Designers." It was my first time delving into the design process in such detail. It led me to reflect deeply on how design is intricately woven into the lives of users. As designers, we step into users' lives to genuinely enhance their experiences, optimize spatial utilization, and elevate their quality of life within their means. This class gave me a profound understanding of the significance of designers, not just in creating iconic landmarks, but in empathizing with users' lives. Furthermore, it made me reflect on the importance of practical application in understanding points, lines, and surfaces. Simply grasping theoretical knowledge from textbooks isn't sufficient; it's the application in real-life situations that truly solidifies learning.
Practice :
Take pictures of points, lines, and surfaces appearing in Taylor University (three of each)
Assignment:
Choose an interior designer or architect that interests you and introduce them and one of their work.
While working on this assignment, I followed the teacher's instructions to first understand the background of the designer and then explore the people or events that influenced their design style. During my research, I discovered that designers are influenced by their mentors during their learning process, and they also integrate and accept the styles of other designers in their practice and work. In this process, they synthesize their own ideas and the knowledge they have acquired to develop their own style, as seen with Mario Cucinella. He absorbed and integrated the knowledge imparted by his mentors and his work experience to establish his unique design style in the design industry.
Furthermore, his architectural creations, particularly the Ideal City, stood out to me the most when I browsed through his portfolio for the first time. Its distinctive Italian design style, reminiscent of the exterior of the Roman Colosseum, along with the futuristic urban concept it conveys, deeply attracted me. Therefore, I delved deeper into understanding this building, studying its architectural structure, materials used, and spatial design from various aspects. Through this exploration, I found that this building truly reflects the designer's style and embodies the central idea of the 2025 Osaka Expo.
Week 3-Form Perceptual Laws of Visual Organization
Learn：
In the third week's class, the teacher introduced Gestalt Theory, which was my first exposure to this theory. Through the teacher's explanation, I became acquainted with the characteristics of architecture such as figure and ground, proximity, closure, continuity, similarity, and radial.
- figure and ground： Contrast of background and object colors
- proximity： People tend to group similar elements together to form a unified whole.
- closure： People tend to fill in missing parts in shapes that are not fully closed
- continuity： Extending or connecting similar elements or lines together will make the whole look very smooth
- radial： The elements are distributed radially around a central point or axis
(figure and ground)
(closure）
.jpeg)
（radial）
Reflection:
Throughout the learning process, it has helped me to observe the lines, shapes, and visual effects of buildings more meticulously, a habit I didn't have before. Additionally, after studying Gestalt Theory, it enhanced my understanding of visual perception. Previously, my understanding of vision was limited to concepts like 3D, 4D, and 2D. However, studying Gestalt Theory has broadened my knowledge of how visual information is conveyed and perceived.
Week 4-Decoding Spatial Perception
Picking up where we left off last week, this time we're looking at other visual expressions.
- contrast： The contrast of size and color will give a great sense of contrast.
- Scale: What makes me feel personally is more the contrast between the scale of things.
- Repetition: A repeating pattern or pattern.
- Rhythm: Patterns with rhythm and regularity.
- Radiation: A pattern that radiates from one point to all sides.
- Gradation: Gradually change from small to large, forming a level.
- Balance: Balanced visual effects.
- Hierarchy: Arrange the patterns in order of importance.
（Exercise）
Week 5-Meet the client + Design processes
In this class, we met a client from a design company, marking my first formal face-to-face discussion with a client as a design student. During this lesson, we learned that the client wanted to design a museum with five areas: a product display area, a fabric display area, a production display area, an education and publicity area, and an activities and feedback area. The teacher also reminded us to pay attention to the client's requirements, ensuring that our work contains all the requested elements while incorporating some new, implementable ideas. Ultimately, we need to build a museum using 3D modeling to present our designs to the client.
Faced with the client's requirements, I initially felt at a loss, as this was my first experience in such a scenario. Although I have many ideas, I am unsure how to express and implement them. However, I believe this will be a valuable learning experience, as I will encounter many clients with different requirements in the future. Confident expression, logical design, and innovative concepts are all developed through practice.
（notes⬆）
In the subsequent classes, the lecturer shared information about the design process. This part of the information seamlessly connected with the client’s requirements and ideas shared earlier. It provided me, who initially felt at a loss, with a clear step-by-step process in my mind. As outlined in the PowerPoint presentation, once we have a clear goal from the client, we need to understand their ideas and requirements. Next, we must know the client's budget, then determine the materials to be used, the building structure, and the scope. We should also create a timeline to complete the design step by step within a reasonable timeframe.
During the lecture, the lecturer shared a phrase: "We should design with the user at the center, not based on the styles we personally prefer." This phrase was a great reminder for me, and it encouraged me to constantly focus on the user's ideas while developing my own.
Week 6：
This week, we continued the previous assignment where we shared about an architect and their building. We created and shared another PowerPoint presentation about a museum we like. In this assignment, we mainly introduced the internal space allocation, design, selected materials, and conveyed concepts of the museum.
During the research process, I saw how the designer wanted visitors to experience the museum’s entire journey. Although I haven’t visited this museum in person, it felt as if I were there. This taught me the importance of having a clear and understandable route map in the museum I will design. Therefore, I included this user journey in my presentation. Another important lesson I learned was that, although this museum showcases different types of shoes, it excellently conveys its central theme of sustainability. The integration of these two aspects is remarkable. Additionally, the museum is built on the foundation of an old museum, preserving the original construction materials while incorporating new ones. This effectively conveys the continuity of the culture the museum aims to present.
（PPT presented）
In the sixth week, we also studied "User Experience Research." In this part, the lecturer effectively taught us how to conduct user research. This involves understanding what problem you want to solve through user research, what goals you aim to achieve, whether the current actions are effective, and whether they align with the client's preferences. I believe that user research is incredibly helpful for us novice designers as it allows us to understand what we need to do to meet the users' preferences.
A practical example is that, after creating a user survey and having a certain number of people fill it out, we can identify which activities and places are most popular among users. By analyzing the survey results and identifying the most favored locations, activities, and architectural styles, we can significantly increase visitor rates.
（Above is data from a part of Google form）
Week 7：Form、Space、Opening、Circulation
Special design: form+volume
- form: give the building its shape,
- volume: space.
negative element: ground (surround of the building)
Horizontal elements defining space
- Base plane: An artificial plane on a horizontal plane.
- Elevated base pane: An elevated artificial plane on a horizontal plane.
- Depressed base plane： An artificial plane that depresses downward.
- Overhead plane: The horizontal level at the top determines the size of the building
Vertical elements defining space
Here to learn vertical liner elements、single vertical plane、L-shape plane、 parallel plane、 U-shaped plane,、four planes: closures. These different shapes of walls can help designers to build different Spaces that can be combined.
Opening
- opening within plane
- opening at corners
- opening between plane
Circulation
This part includes entrance, different types of entrances can bring different expressions to the building.Path:
- configuration of the path-Designers can choose different layout effects of the route linear, laser, etc.
- path-space relationship-path by, path through, terminates
Designers can choose one open and two open layouts according to their needs
Scale and proportion, traveling experience, and articulation, these points need to be determined according to the layout of the space and the way the designer wants the visitors to experience it. But make sure the instructions are clear and easy to understand and find.
(Flow map)
Week 8 - Week 10:
During this time, we made user surveys (50 people), moodboard, and user flow for the museum we designed.
Google form
.jpg)
User survey
user survey is to increase people's favorite devices, regions and design styles according to the data of people filled in google form (like type, expect style, want to see display type, etc.).
Moodboard
It mainly shows the style that each area of the museum wants to design.
User flow
In the part of user flow, the distribution and general direction of each area of the museum are displayed.
week 11-14
From Week 11 to Week 14, the structure and spatial distribution of the interior of the museum is designed using blender based on plans drawn in environment design.
This process actually helped me learn how to draw a plan and estimate the distribution of space. It was a process of change for me. Did you learn how to paint plants, Windows, etc.
(plan⬆)
（3D-modeling in spacial io）
Putting my own 3D-modeling into spacial io was a very new experience for me. By constantly adjusting the size of the building to let the small people through and browse their own building is very good. Secondly, the movement of the little people and the interaction between the objects in the building also required me to constantly adjust the stairs and cabinets in blender.
(These images are renderings in blender)
Project 1-3
Project-1A:
Choose an interior designer or architect that interests you and introduce them and one of their work.
While working on this assignment, I followed the teacher's instructions to first understand the background of the designer and then explore the people or events that influenced their design style. During my research, I discovered that designers are influenced by their mentors during their learning process, and they also integrate and accept the styles of other designers in their practice and work. In this process, they synthesize their own ideas and the knowledge they have acquired to develop their own style, as seen with Mario Cucinella. He absorbed and integrated the knowledge imparted by his mentors and his work experience to establish his unique design style in the design industry.
Furthermore, his architectural creations, particularly the Ideal City, stood out to me the most when I browsed through his portfolio for the first time. Its distinctive Italian design style, reminiscent of the exterior of the Roman Colosseum, along with the futuristic urban concept it conveys, deeply attracted me. Therefore, I delved deeper into understanding this building, studying its architectural structure, materials used, and spatial design from various aspects. Through this exploration, I found that this building truly reflects the designer's style and embodies the central idea of the 2025 Osaka Expo.
Project-1B
Project B involves identifying the architecture we are interested in and learning about the internal structure, design style, material use, transmission concept, and interaction mode of the museum while researching it. For my presentation, I chose the Museum of Shoes as my research subject.
Understanding the museum's internal structure, floor plan, and visitor pathways helps me gain a clearer picture of how the museum's internal space should be distributed and how to convey a sense of progressive layers to visitors. This is a great help in creating an effective visitor flow.
Additionally, the way this museum interacts with visitors provides a valuable reference, offering inspiration for designing the digital textile museum.
Project-2
The ppt production of project 2 is mainly to prepare for the digital museum we will present in the end. It mainly includes 1.Purpose and scope
2. Target Audience
3.Problem Statement
4.Survey questionnaire
5.Flow chat
6. Moodboard
7. 3D-Conceptual model and sketches
The production process of this PPT helps us learn step by step how to go from requirements to actual architecture/design. It is a process for beginners to get familiar with the process, because we still have a lot of immature or ill-considered places on many steps or ideas. Therefore, such step-by-step production is very good to help us have a fixed way of thinking, and we can know how to make it when we do design later.
Project 3
Project 3 is the final overall presentation of the textile Digital Museum that we have produced. This presentation includes our presentations from project 2 to the 3D model and spacial io. This allows the client to understand our ideas from start to finish, as well as to see the interior of the museum and explore the various areas.
Reflection
I’m thrilled to have successfully completed the Space Design 1 course. As a beginner with no prior knowledge or experience in design, I’ve found that space design seems to combine elements of architecture, interior design, and interaction design.
The entire learning process has been quite challenging, especially when it comes to interior space distribution and architectural modeling. There were many moments when I felt completely lost, but I’m very grateful for the help from my instructor. Their guidance in correcting my mistakes and improving the logic of my designs was invaluable.
I’m looking forward to making more progress in the next semester, enhancing my understanding of space and my hand-drawing skills, and creating even better work.
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