Mid Semester Break Week 1 Reflection

Mid Sem Week 1 – Spaces or Places

Current Project Status: Te Whainga Phase (Digging deeper, researching, exploring tohu)

Date: 2nd September 2024

I will use the four F’s of reviewing (Greenway, n.d.) to help me look back on my experiences, what they imply and how the future may look. I hope that this will allow me to learn about myself as a designer and grow from each experience.

Facts

This week I researched what makes a space a place, and the role of third spaces within communities. From this research I continued my ideation of the place, and explored design considerations when working with public spaces. These included safety aspects and furnishings such as seating, signage, lighting and water features. These elements will all be important to consider in my project.

I refined my mood board (Figure 2) given my greater understanding of the space and context, and put together a typography set, graphic elements and colour scheme (Figure 3). I developed the brand identity of my project (Figure 4), and learnt how to create my own font.

[Figure 3: Stakeholder Characterisation, my Miro board]

[Figure 4: Waipapa Stream Brand Identity, my Miro board]

I began ideating what the layout of the space would look like, marking where the paths will go, seating, signage, water feature and plant life. I built off the seating and signage ideation I had done previously, however I am still refining so they are likely to change based on user testing.

Feelings:

I was excited to learn more about creating a place. I’m new to the practice so I felt a little big lost to begin with but after exploring what  successful urban spaces look like (Project for Public Spaces, 2019), and the key qualities of public space (accessibility, engagement with activities, comfort and sociability) I felt a lot more well equipped to continue my work. 

Findings:

I think the main reason I felt out of my comfort zone with placemaking is that it is something that i’m really interested in doing right, and the idea of not doing the process justice is really disheartening. My research was really valuable as I discovered the Great Places tool that I used to evaluate the space. It encouraged deeper observations about the space, which I found really useful for making future judgements about the area. 

[Figure 5: Great Place Wheel, my Miro board]

Future:

I will do user testing on the different iterations of the space layout to refine the concept. I will validate the flow by building the space virtually in 3D before creating it in real life. I will validate the types of native species that can go in the space and ensure they will thrive. I will look into the water feature considerations to ensure it is helping reduce floor risks rather than increasing them. 

I will rent the Placemaking Aotearoa Kit to go through placemaking tools with my classmates/community. This will allow me to finish the great place wheel by adding the engagement and analysis steps.

References:

Greenaway, R. (n.d.). The four F’s of active reviewing. Retrieved from https://reviewing.co.uk/articles/four-ways-to-review.htm

Project for Public Spaces. (2019). What makes a successful place? Project for Public Spaces. https://www.pps.org/article/grplacefeat