Dreaming. Designing. Growing.

This kitchen design for the St. Elmo two bedroom apartment demonstrates a culmination of many skills I have acquired throughout my education. Starting off with a previous project of developing a concept of what a  “Home” is and creating a model to demonstrate that statement, I further developed that idea into a kitchen.

The elements that were included in my final presentation board for my kitchen design consisted of two floor plans, one in ½” scale of the kitchen to living area, 1/8” scale of the whole 2^nd floor of the apartment building, my concept statement, parti sketch, two ½” wall elevations, four one point perspective and one two point perspective drawings, one ¼” section, and a materials mock up board.

Throughout all these elements, I have learned that the process of designing a space is very detailed, takes a significant amount of planning, and most importantly time.

Throughout this project, I practiced my use of line weights, marker rendering and freehand drafting;hit-go-hit, professional dot, professional gap, and crossed corners.

Presentation board.

In the top left corner is a scaled floor plan of the apartment, showing the features in the kitchen and living area. A few key highlights included within my plan are two counter pantries, a dishwasher, double basin sink, Lazy Susan counter, stove, and french door refrigerator with a lower freezer. I placed these components in a U-Shaped kitchen in order to accommodate ADA codes in regards to  allowing a five foot turn radius from wheelchair accessibility. To keep the work space uninterrupted, the larger appliances and cabinets are located at the ends of the counter and the lower appliances in the middle with adequate counter space for daily tasks. The upper cabinets are 18 inches from the counter tops, and 12 inches from the wall, allowing plenty of work space underneath. Another feature included are the lights underneath the cabinets for added lighting in the work area.
Moving into the living area, due to the limited space in apartments, I added a storage closet, built in desk, and a built in booth with wheelchair accessibility. Keeping in mind specifications requested in the client interview, no microwave was added, and an open floor plan was keep in place. This plan works and relates to my concept statement because as the people living here grow older, they can adjust the space to their needs and easily navigated through the apartment.

This concept statement is demonstrating how my ideas of a home relates into my kitchen design. This ties in with a previous 3D concept model I developed from a poem and song inspiration.

Elevations of the East and North walls.

The view of the East wall on the left shows the relationship of the kitchen to the built in booth dining area. From this image the color scheme of complementary green and red are shown between the two areas. On this wall in the kitchen, there is a Lazy Susan cabinet on the far left, counter space, double basin sink, dishwasher, and built in pantry to the right. Viewing the North elevation, starting from the left, the 24 inch deep pantry/counter and 30 inch refrigerator are viewable from the West wall, and on the North wall, there is some counter space, the stove, pull out drawers, more counter space, and the 24 inches of the pantry on the right.

Perspective drawings

The top left and bottom three drawings are in one point perspectives showing the views as if you were walking into the space. The top left shows the relationship looking into the living area from the kitchen. In the two point perspective in the top right, off of the left of the kitchen is a built in study nook and storage closet. Also with these drawings I practiced my rendering skills by adding color.

This section view demonstrates a cut through of the interior, soffit, and exterior wall. There is a 6 inch interior wall, 8 inch soffit, and 9 inch exterior wall.

3D model of my kitchen design.

A 3 dimensional display of the kitchen, dining area, and a layout of the floor plan is shown. With the 10 foot ceiling height, the space appears larger than it is, and utilizing an open floor plan with a U- Shaped kitchen, this space is able to adapt to universal design in time.

Materials

With a goal in mind to use as much sustainable material as possible, I wanted the kitchen to feel light, clean, and green. For the cabinets, I chose maple from Knoll, with stainless steel handles. The counter tops are an off white material called ESurf, from the line ESeries from Formica. This product is made from 15% recycled content. Another sustainable product I used is cork for flooring. A business located in New Zealand called Cork Concepts. For the back splash, I chose the style of 1x1 inch tiles called Fiji Mosaic from DalTile. Undecided on all colors of paint, I want to use a light beige and white in the kitchen. All appliances are Samsung with a stainless steel finish.