Treehouse- final tree

This is the tree that I finally decided on using. It is actually a Locust tree in my backyard that I love because it is huge and strong and is beautiful in every season, but unfortunately spring is just beginning right now so the pictures don't show it at its finest.

Treehouse- models

These are some screenshots of the 3-D models I created in Google SketchUp, which is a great program I found out about that really helped a lot and is fun and pretty easy to use.

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Treehouse- Sketches

These are several rounds of sketches I did for the project. They get more and more detailed as I move along and realize where I'm going with the concept.

TREE HOUSE PROJECT

For this assignment we will be imagining and designing a treehouse concept for a specific persona. We get to choose any persona that we want and go from there to basically design the ideal treehouse and environment for that individual. 

My persona can be anywhere from a college student, looking for a place to relax away from campus or while returning home, to any adult just looking for a place to escape and relax for a few hours to think, sleep, and breathe. 

For my treehouse concept I'm thinking of going with a combination of natural as well as contemporary elements. Wood is definitely going to be a key material, as well as glass because it will really help to embody the idea of openness and being one with your surroundings. 

My location would be either somewhere that gives the feeling of being remote, like a redwood forest, while being easily found and used. 

Wayfinding- Twitter

Halie set up a Twitter account for our character study, Karen, and created posts as if she were trying to find her way through the Burge Union, and the difficulties that arise while doing so.
Feel free to follow her experiences by clicking here.

Wayfinding

This is a map of the Burge Union that could help in navigating it.
http://www.union.ku.edu/forms/burgedirectory.pdf

Wayfinding

A few days ago in class when we presented our original experiment which was attempting to find free things on campus, we found out that the subject was way too broad and that there would be too many variables involved, which is why we narrowed it down to the more specific experience of simply trying to find the Career Center within the Burge Union.

This is the scenario that we set up:
A: activity   E: environment   I: individual   O: object(obstacles or resources the individual may come across) U: designer

I: sophmore student, Karen, living at Jayhawk Towers and has never been to the Burge Union before
A: trying to find the career center in order to research internships
E: Burge Union
O: people in the Burge Union, stairs, doorways, signage