One door closes, another opens!

Hi there,

I have some news!

I have completed second year of my course at Nottingham Trent Uni and have been offered a very exciting opportunity for my placement year with Benchmark Designs, based near oxford! It has all happened very quickly and I'm back home for a few weeks, then off to Ibiza for a holiday then I start my placement year. I am slightly nervous but all the same super excited to be apart of real live designs and projects for Benchmark Designs.

In return for this opportunity I've sadly had to say goodbye to my Internship at Exeid. All the staff have been very supportive of this change and were very sweet by surprisingly me with a card, some gifts and a rendition of 'for she's a jolly good fellow.' I learnt a lot from Interning for Exeid and very grateful for the opportunity I was given; I will keep my eye out for the councils decision of my planning permission application that I made and sent in on behalf of Exeid, so fingers crossed!

Check Benchmark Designs out on Instagram, Twitter & their website is coming live soon!

Take care,

Hannah :)

Portfolio preview and Intern update

Hi there,

I have been super busy with my Internship and Uni work. Just thought I'd write a little update; tomorrow I am submitting my first ever planning application. To anyone who doesn't work/study design/architecture/property would have left within reading that first sentence!

The planning application is regarding a change of use application for a previous car park and basement so fingers crossed the planners agree and approve. Feeling very proud that I've managed to achieve this along side my university studies.

I have two more weeks of university until a big hand in, which I will post on here of course, and then my second year at Nottingham Trent is over, finished, done! I have recently amended my portfolio as I wasn't happy with it previously and Im hoping I can upload some of the file here to show you all. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a little preview of some elements of my portfolio, what do you think?

Fingers crossed the planners are on my side and approve the application I've been apart of! I will be back in a few weeks to post my final project from second year.

Take care,

Hannah

Also just thought I'd say I ran 13 miles and tackled 150 obstacles as well as volunteering in the morning for The Rat Race, Dirty weekend at Burghley House last weekend! It was great fun and Im hoping next year to of the full 20 miles and raise some money for charity at the same time!

Here's a little of what I've been getting up to...

Hello there,

Apologies for my absence, I've been one very busy student lately, so I thought I'd blog about my recent University submission. This was a group project and the brief was to design a studio to a very tight specification from the client for an old warehouse within Nottingham's Lace market quarter.

We had two floors to survey, observe and design according to the specification and the clients need and very small budget. The client insisted on recycling as much as possible and keeping the budget to the minimum. Our theme was a flexible space utilising local waste to create unique furniture with built in storage, DDA compliant floors, private offices and phone space as well as social areas. We created an environment that would be suitable for individual drop in clients as well as long term rental businesses looking for a design office to aid their creativity and work.

Heres the work below; I'd appreciate any feedback about the presentation sheet or any elements about the scheme. As said previously this was a group project and a 4 week deadline from start to finish. Initially my group of 5 IAD (Interior Architecture students) peers worked along side 4 AT's (Architectural technologist students) for the first two weeks. We then separated to produce two individual A2 presentation sheets to communicate our design and ideas for the client.

Some of the visuals did not show up on my Mac's preview but hopefully the above image portrays our design and gives you an understanding of my groups approach to this project.

Many thanks for reading,

I'll be back soon,

Hannah

Restaurant Entrances

What makes YOU choose to go into a restaurant?

Hello there,

I'm in the process of making amendments to my design proposal for my Internship work; I started to wonder what makes a restaurant entrance appealing and how can I use precedents to aid my design. So I went for a 5 minute walk around the city centre of Nottingham and had a look at entrances to restuarants to gain some research.

If you decide to go out for dinner, and decide to walk into town open to interpretation as to which restaurant you choose; pushing aside personal preference of cuisine, first impressions are vital to pulling in customers. The entrance needs to appeal to potential customers and ideally needs to give a sneak peak of the atmosphere/ambience, the product being sold normally in the form of the menu, but also showing the space to pull those customers in.

Walking up Low Pavement, Prezzo's, an Italian chain is nestled in two buildings. This bring slight confusement to the blissfully unaware dinner, so luckily there are two entrances and plenty of single. The entrance's doors are wooden framed with plenty of glazing, allowing dinners to shave a look inside and make the decision if they want to venture in to dine. Other than the building facade on the left entrance and some bridge red chairs internally, nothing really catches your eye about the entrance and doesn't make a big fuss to gain customers attention.

Carluccios is the next restaurant along from Prezzo and its entrance gives a grand impression of again another Italian chain. The symmetry of the building really helps to pinpoint and draw the customers eye to the entrance of this restaurant. The Blue signage contrasts against the white and grey facade; 

'A' framed signs also aid the persuasion of a client to choosing this restaurant over others near by. The menu is also attached to the metal framing, which I will incorporate into my design.

 At the top of Low Pavement, sits Piccolino (yes, ANOTHER Italian!) snug next to La Tasca and near Nottingham Contemporary. This building was previously a warehouse, similarly as my current project; so this is a very relevant precedent.







The windows are glazed, with no Jambs or cills; this leaves a full view into what the restaurant offers as well as allowing those inside to people watch passers by.

The entrance features decorative railings; an element of security while somewhat showing off the superiority of this restaurant. Once passed through the railings, modern door fittings are in place, which I believe nicely contrast with the exterior. There are two sets of double doors to reduce draughts into the internal space; nobody welcomes a draught when enjoying a meal!


To conclude restaurant entrances come in all shapes and sizes; they all want the audience to personally choose that restaurant and want to venture inside. Choices of materials, colours and features are evidently crucial for an inviting entrance. I also feel that the designs need to fit into the context of the site. I will take forward my findings into my final designs.

What do you think about these entrances? Do you have a good/poor examples of restaurant entrances near you?

There is a large Ferris-Wheel intervening Market Square; which if I find the time I will go on. If you're in Nottingham and want to get a birds eye view of the rooftops of Nottingham, here if your answer. 

Thank you for reading,

Take care,

Hannah

First Presentation

Hello there,

Sorry for my absence on this blog, I've almost been drowning in a constant tsunami of work. Before Christmas my boss set me a deadline to present my design proposals, visuals and relevant design and access statement for my current project; converting a private car park into a restaurant/cafe.
Below are a model of the ground floor of the site, followed by two mood boards for future clients of the site.

I was quite nervous as this was my first presentation outside of University. However as soon as I went into the meeting room and started talking my nerves soon settled and my presentation went well. There were some issues with my proposal as some vital elements for restaurant design had been missed. These are currently being amended for a future date for my final presentation. On the plus side, my visuals and mood boards went down a treat (although I personally know my photoshop skills need improving!) I also presented a Design and Access Statement as a apart of the Planning Application process and my managers were both impressed with the layout and quality content of the report.

For the above visuals I used AutoCAD survey line drawings, to extrude in Google Sketchup. Then after applying basic materials I then exported the file to Kerkythea to render. Then take the file to Adobe Photoshop to edit. Do you have any comments for my work? 

My next presentation is 27th Feb and Im visiting Rome before then so onto of University work I am one busy girl! Thank you for reading.

See you Soon

Hannah

London Part Two

Hello there,

Following on from my last post about the Rigby and Peller Store in St. John's Wood, London, I then visited a store that was too in its final stages and waiting for stock and furniture. This is for a handbag designer called Kwanpen from Singapore. They craft luxurious goods of exoctic skins mostly from Crocodiles, but they also use Python, Ostrich and Monitor Lizard skins.

The site is Burlington Arcade which is in the heart of London and is famous for running from Piccadilly to Saville Row, as well as its many luxurious boutiques stores. The arcade was thriving with Christmas shoppers and I couldn't wait see the boutique. The grand height of Burlington arcade conveys the impression of luxury and wealth. Architectural details boast that it has a unique quality space, which is reflected in  the unique boutiques and products sold throughout the arcade. The red carpet that runs through the whole arcade aids the extravagant shopping experience.

 I reached the store and everything appeared quite secretive; there's no logos or product photos, nothing. This was probably unintentional method to tease the shoppers of a new store and to encourage them to visit again soon and ask questions about who/what is opening.

These three images are some of the details that caught my attention. The aid the sense of opulence to the store; I tend tot find its the little details in building thats overall make them great. (Above, left and right)

The boutique is 8.7m long and 2.4m wide; this is one tight space. There are 4 floors that include the 'shop floor', staff room,  storage and w/c facilities. There is  a sweeping staircase in the centre of the space causing a divide between the left and right hand side of the boutique.

Close up of hand made leather furniture.

Personally I'm not quite keen on the brown carpet and yellow/cream walls combined. However I do like the unique staircase as well as the spotlights that will highlight the products Kwanpen have to offer. From seeing some of that hand sticthed furniture this boutique will be screaming luxury goods at its customers and I would like to visit the store when its up and running to see the final product.

Views from the 3rd floor.

The smallest w/c I've ever seen!

Staff Office.

Staircase detail.

Beautiful sweeping staircase.

Looking up to the 2nd & 3rd floors from the arcade walkway.

Have you seen this store? What do you think? I would love to know.

Part three of my London trip will be coming shortly!

Today the CEO of Exeid gave me some very Important advice: smart goals.

Ive been working on a project at my internship but I wasn't set a deadline as they wanted to see how I would get along with eh tasks they set. Now my boss would like me to choose my own deadlines for upcoming tasks and this is when he taught me about creating smart goals.

So what is a smart goal?

Smart stands for:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time frame.

These are all components that are needed in order for me to achieve a goal!

                                  

                                          Thanks for reading,

                                                Hannah

P.s Wishing you a very merry Christmas!

London trip part 1

Hello there,

On the 10th December, last wednesday, I went to London to record the progress of some sites that Exeid are working on. I met two of Exeid's Project managers, Darren Stainer and Neal Smith. The sites were in St Johns Wood, Burlington Arcade and Knightsbridge (next door to Harrods!) The Clients are a lingerie designer for two of the sites and a handbag designer for the other.

My day didn't start out too smoothly as my train was delayed, however nearby intellectual conversations made the journey more interesting than normal. After a few minutes in an over crowded tube train and a short walk I reached my first site in St Johns Wood.

Rigby & Peller is a lingerie stylist thats offers luxurious under garments and fitting services in  9 boutiques across the UK, as well as online. They are also well known for fitting the Queen. The new boutique is located at 23 St Johns Wood High Street, London.

When I visited this site, it was very close to completion and final tweaks to electrics and fittings were being fulfilled. The store fittings and signage were all ready and waiting to be placed. The space appeared quite small due to all the furniture gathered in the central. Below are a few photographs of the site.

The store has cupboards (see above clip) which will store garments as well as shelves and tables to show customers products. Towards the back of the store this is large desk in the similar style as the furniture which will have a TV behind it. to the right of the sales desk will be a heritage wall and an area for sitting and having hot drinks. Carrying on through what I presume will be a luxurious curtain are four changing rooms including a larger VIP room. The staff area consists of a kitchen, store room, office and w/c facilities.

I would like the visit the store again when its up and running. No doubt its comforting, luxurious and glamorous and will succeed like its other boutiques.



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I've got to pop out to grab some lunch and have some other work to fulfil today. I will post about the other sites asap.

The only way is up!

Thanks for reading,

Hannah