DSDN 171 Blog 5 Locovisual

St Mary of the Angels is a Catholic Church located in the corner of Boulcott Street and Willis Street in Wellington central. It is a typical neo-Gothic style church. This is a historic place designed by British architect Frederick DE Jersey Clere in 1922. Around that time (in the early 19th century), Frederick de Jersey Clere was influenced by Gothic Revival style lead his best known design of his architecture design is St Mary of the Angels for Catholic church after he emigrated from UK to New Zealand.

The strong sense of vertical French Gothic style (Kernohan, 1994) church gave up the idiomatic wood structure and used concrete as the modern building material. The design adopts a reinforced concrete material the first reason is the 1874 St Mary of Angels Church was destroyed by fire because of wood structure in 1918. "St Mary of the Angels is believed to be the world's first neo-Gothic church built using reinforced concrete construction." (Enduring Concrete Award 2010:  St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street in Wellington, 2010) It is the reasons of the St Mary of the Angels Church to receive the Enduring Concrete Award for 2010. The appearances of the majestic St Mary of the Angels collect the main features of Gothic such as the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.

St Mary of the Angels is classified as the New Zealand Historic Places Trust gives a “Category I” status to places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value, historic place. (St Mary of the Angels, Wellington, 2012) Maintain such memorial significance as the Catholic Church itself is to its history of protection and development.

All photos are from the gallery of http://www.smoa.org.nz/

References:

Enduring Concrete Award 2010: St Mary of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street in Wellington. (2010). Retrieved Jun 1 2012 from http://www.smoa.org.nz/about/concrete-award.php

Kernohan, D. (1994). Wellington's old buildings. Wellington, Victoria University Press.

St Mary of the Angels, Wellington. (2012). Retrieved Jun 1 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary_of_the_Angels,_Wellington

DSDN 171 Blog 4: Curatorial

Twirling Dresses

Try designing the fluid form as “Twirling dresses”. It is made up ​​of eight semicircular of plastic paper and the thin wire on the back. Twirling Dresses seems extraordinarily elegant under the spotlight and become soft and uniform light because of translucent plastic paper. To make the four triangular shapes by thin wire on the back of with a strong contrast white plastic sheets to form in material, shape and color.

The underlying form of ‘Twirling Dresses’ is based on the Rococo shell, a beauty style of curve. Shell patterns in the Rococo style can best embody the feature of the curves as the “Sauce boat” of the first precedent image. Eight plastic papers of semi-circular in order to expanded into a fan and using a single black thread through which they can remain intact. When they all expanded that overlap part of some the beautiful gradient is one of the point view.

Only the curve is not enough. Strong straight wire make "Twirling Dresses" more contrast is the new idea to get through the second precedent. All the wire out from a point diverges into several triangles, but the overall look is still the fan. After combined such a shape of the wire and plastic shell shape that the point of similarity is a strong contrast. Keep simple, clean and strong.

Reference:

Precedent image 1: Sauce boat, 1745, Designed by Nicolas Sprimont, England, Museum no. M.41-1993

Precedent image 2: Ad-hoc Seat, (n.d.), Retrieved 10^th May 2012 from http://pichaus.com/3d-furniture-fluid-form-@341af6290c0166ca4b9ef57f47f2691f/

DSDN 171 Blog 3: Antique Hunter

This dining suite I found on Trademe could be categorized as part of Gothic Revival style. The owner described this dining suite was carved decorations in walnut European made ​​around early 1900s. According to my observation, the main features of the dining suite are indeed following the Gothic Revival style.

The Gothic style was initiated in 1122 in north of Paris and revival in 18th century in England. Compared to other vintage style Gothic style objects are both beautiful and functional. Gothic style mostly used for the building but also has a unique taste in indoor furnishings. Historically, Gothic indoor furnishings such as the Gothic church with a strong symbolic significance of the power and majesty that was not for ordinary people. After the 14th century, the Gothic patterns of architectural started used in furniture as embossment form. “Carving was the favorite process for decorating the surface of the furniture. Foliage was much favored as a decorative motif in Gothic ornamentation.” (Gothic Style Furniture, n.d.) Such an exquisite vine leaves and flowers embossment decorated this dining suite to make them look particularly tasteful.

The dining suite were completed in the early 1900s when the Gothic Revival period. Gothic Revival advocates abandoning the flashy design encouraging cheap, and reducing the varied principles of ornamental design. (A. W. N. Pugin, 1843) The rules make my antique seem more approachable and not just for religious or aristocrats. After 100 years of changes, the appearance of the dining suite simple and staid and can still be treated as ordinary furniture to use, which also echoes the Gothic's True Principles of nature as the model for the ornament appropriate ornament for the object and use.

Its existence and revival demonstrated that people strongly hope the arts into the life. “Fashionable Victorian town-dwellers were bored by the monotonous classical terraces/rows of plain Georgian houses, by now encrusted in soot and grime. They wanted color and animation.”(Gothic / Gothic Revival in Buffalo, NY, n.d.)

References:

Gothic Style Furniture. (n.d.) Retrieved [April 26 2012] from http://www.efi-costarica.com/gothic-style-furniture.html

A. W. N. Pugin, (1843), An apology for the revival of Christian architecture in England, London: Oxford, St. Barnabas P.

Gothic / Gothic Revival in Buffalo, NY. (n.d.) Retrieved [April 26 2012] from http://www.buffaloah.com/a/archsty/gothic/index.html

DSDN 171 Blog 2: Research Statement and Annotated Bibliography

My research field is on Gothic Revival in England on 19 century.

Bibliography of 5 different source types:

Book with single author:

Brooks, C. (1999). The gothic revival. London : Phaidon, 1999.

I found this book in school library that is an excellent introduction to the Gothic Revival. Author had descriped a comprehensive from the Gothic revival began to rise in 17th century to theme park architecture of the late twentieth century. For me, this book provides a very complete Gothic Revival background so that I can better understand.

Journal article:

Novak, S. (2011) Gothic: A Shape-Shifting Word. Calliope, 22(2), 30-35

I am pretty enjoyed reading this article because it is structured very well and gives some new ideas of explanation of Gothic Revival. This really helps me to inspire my inspiration instead of letting me hovering in the old ideas.

  

Edited book:

Drakakis, J. (Ed) and Townshend, D. (Ed). (2008). Gothic Shakespeares. New York : Routledge

The book focuses on introduction to the gothic writings of Shakespeare. Even this book did not relate to the areas of England Gothic Revival, but it makes sense as the original Gothic literature. When the word sense like nocturnal world, ghost, crime and death through the whole book that was let me felt not so abstract to imagine Gothic.

Website:

Victorian England: Gothic Revival (Neo-Gothic). (n.d.) Retrieved [March 30, 2012] from http://www.buffaloah.com/a/archsty/gothic/index.html#Br

Introduce of the origin of Victorian Gothic Revival concisely. Introduction of a representative figure of promoting the Gothic Revival and the influential theorist and designer A.W.N Pugin (1812-52). It will be useful in my article when I want to give some examples to support my point of view.

Image:

Bodoklecksel. Reims Cathedral (2006). own foto. Retrieved [March 30, 2012] from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reims_Kathedrale.jpg

Reims Cathedral showing the main feature of Gothic Architecture. Its features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and churches of Europe.

DSDN 171 Blog 1 - Design Persona

I was born and grew up in China and received a good traditional education. Four years ago, I had a one-way flight from China to New Zealand and before the flight I just pass my eighteenth birthday. Initially around made me feel strange and uneasy but I rapid growth to a strong-minded and pragmatic girl without parents accompanied. What I can do was only moving forward and not takes one step back. To the life I've played many roles like dishwasher, a service of yummy cha restaurant and supermarket cashier. Shortly before I was a full time web administrator. Most of roles are not related to the design, but experience has let me saw the depths of life, society and the different shapes of the world. This will also be my source of inspiration for my future design.

The photo showing right is a very interesting creatively advertising of McDonald street lamp in Vancouver. And easy to see the shape of it is pouring the coffee into a take-away cup used by a pot. I think this is an excellent example of to find inspiration from the life and burst innovation in design process.

To be a designer has been my dream for very long time. I am pretty sure the reason I enrolled into the School of Design that is I really love design, but I cannot tell very clearly the reason of why I love design. There is no doubt when I design something I would be in my own state, would be really ego. I would forget time, the surroundings and my poor stomach has been cooing hungry. I still very enjoy the process like this. Before enrolled into Victoria University, I was studying computer graphic design in Natcoll Design Technology. During that year I felt very plenitude and truly learned some of how to use the software like Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Flash. I hope these skills can help me for my future study.