Experimenting with structures and materials
Mood board
Given template
Given the template and inspired by pictures of various features of a cottage, I created an experimental building containing various types of extensions on the sides of the house. I used scraps of paper to create a door overhang and a bay window, to change a bit overall structure of a rectangle build. I added a little garden patch with vegetables on the back of the house as cottages tend to have lots of plants around them. Right above it, I attached a pergola with climbing plants to make the building livelier. With the use of a white gel pen, colour pens and markers I added some textures such as brick walls, metal panels on the roof, climbing plants on the wall and rose bushes in front of the house. I also drew some flat house features such as windows and doors.
Given the choice of making any piece of architecture, I picked a cottage as it is one of my favourite kinds of buildings. I love the homey atmosphere the cottage gives off and all the green plants surrounding it. It also gives a lot of possible choices when it comes to constructions, as some of the older cottages usually get upgraded or extended with time. I created a mood board featuring different structures I may include in my builds, such as chimneys, bay windows, wall extensions, a pergola, plant patches and pots.
Cottage
The building overall looked nice but a bit small and flat in some places. I could make some elements like windows out of cardboard or foam board as it wound to give it the effect of a wooden frame around the windows. Rose bushes are something that could be changed to a more 3D shape. Another thing that could be improved is to use green wool to create small pompons to imitate a bush. In the future I will also make the construction bigger by joining a few of the rectangular shapes from the template to experiment more with the shapes and create some detached houses perhaps.
Beach houses
Mood board
For my next idea, I wanted to use some watercolours, which are great for pastel colours, so I thought about making colourful beach houses. First, I coloured the templated with watercolours. After that, the paper seemed to be a bit wavy, so I put some heavy books over it for a night. The next day paper got back to being straight, so I began to draw lines to create wooden panels. I used the same templates but changed the roof to be smaller.
Instead of drawing the windows directly onto the buildings, I drew on a separate piece of paper to stick them onto the surface. It helped me to make the windows and doors stand out from the flat surface of the house.
After putting houses together, I thought it was not something I would like to make for my final piece. It is because these houses look bland and the colours are too pale and uneven. I also realized that most of my classmates created living houses. It leads to a lack of public spaces where characters in a story could sit and talk, or do some activities.
I thought it would be nice to have a coffee shop where people could meet up and enjoy a cup of coffee. I also had plenty of ideas for the interior and exterior of this building.
Coffee Shop
I started putting some of my ideas on the paper. I sketched out the shape of the building and marked the places where I would like the decorations and furniture to be. I also created a mood board of things and buildings that inspired me. I wanted to create a warm, welcoming environment. At first, I started adding things like plants, some seats and tables. I kept adding up things like bright windows that let a lot of bright light into the coffee and make the interior more spacious and comforting. I also added some signs to show what this place should be.
Front
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Side
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I decided to make a 3D design of a coffee shop in a game called The Sims 4. I chose this game over any other programs as it gives me a range of ready decorations and furniture. It could also help to add architectural structures that can add some interesting elements to the whole construction. A good example is a white border on the top and the 1st floor of the building. I purposely made it thick to make it more visible as an important part of architectural decoration. I used white to make it stand out and contrast with dark brown colours.
I made 14x12 square and placed 2-floor construction on it. Inspired by the previous sketch and mood board, I picked shades of brown and similar colours for the exterior of the building. Unfortunately, the lighting in the game changed the colours applied to the building depending on the time of the day in the game. The only thing I can do about it is to pick colours based on the mood board when creating the final physical piece. While some shapes and colours will be changed in my final piece, this 3D model will be a great inspiration and a visual plan of all the floors and exterior.
Back
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I used the knowledge from my previous experience with this game. By using game cheats to move the furniture outside of the grid and join some of the elements together by layering them onto each other to create something new that fits into what I imagined my coffee shop to be.
An example of it is the coffee shop sign on the side of the building. I used a round-shaped wall decoration and layered a neon sign in a shape of a cup of coffee by using game cheat codes to recreate my idea. I also joined together two different pots of plants to create a particular shape of a small potted tree next to the door.
Outside 1st Floor
I used the same method of layering objects onto each other with the windows as I wanted to create slim, vertical glass panels with a wooden stick and plastic folder. It looks great in the game but recreating these with wooden sticks may leave the spaces in between each window too tight. I want a lot of light inside of the building, so I will probably make them slightly wider.
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Inside 1st Floor
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The exterior looked great but not realistic enough. To fix that, I started to decorate the interior with some wooden tables and chairs that I will be able to recreate with some wooden sticks. I also added some wall decorations, such as pictures of the food and shelves with cups. I should take advantage of the windows being seen through compared to my previous buildings and fill this additional space with more details to make it feel real. It would be a great idea to capture these interior details in a background of a story I will create. It will help me to create backgrounds from various angles around the coffee shop.
I tried to keep the interior simple and not too crowded as it could cloud the idea of what this place is. I didn't want anyone to mistake this place for a restaurant, so I kept the number of tables limited. To give enough space for people to walk into this coffee shop and be able to order at the counter, I placed two tables on each side of the room. I also placed two of them outside, so you don't need to necessarily look inside of the building to tell that it is a coffee shop.
Inspired by the fact that some apartments are allocated directly above shops and restaurants, I decided to create a little living space on the second floor of the building. I added some furniture like a couch, chair and drawers that I could easily make of coloured paper and wood. I kept the green plants around to make the place more lively. I also picked contrasting colours for the wall, floor and couches to make this place stand out.
Because other buildings will surround the coffee shop, I added a bin container on the very back of the coffee shop to fill the space instead of placing any seats or decorations there.
Inside 2nd Floor
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Although I am pretty satisfied with this design, I would change some things in my final project. For example, I will keep the roundness of the sign on the side of the building, but I will change the design and colour to fit into the colour palette. I will also make windows a bit wider.
Artist Research
Hallie-Miniature Land
While looking for ways to craft furniture for tiny house models, I came across a YouTube channel called Miniature Land, owned by Hallie. She is very passionate about her hobby and shares the whole process of making all sorts of things, from making walls of the artboard to sewing fabric together to create a realistic sofa on her channel.
Some of her techniques that caught my attention that I think are worth trying as they made the house look instantly better is the way she decorates walls with ready wallpaper and puts together potted plants.
Printing or creating a texture on paper and sticking it onto an artboard like wallpaper looks much tidier than drawing or painting directly onto the building. I could use some coloured paper for the wallpaper inside my building and draw a brick texture on it for the exterior.
She uses PVP glue to join together plant decorations by dipping the pieces in glue and sticking them into the pot. Although she uses ready pieces made of plastic, clay or other materials, I could use a paper straw and green wool as a replacement to create a potted plants.
Final Coffee Shop
I wanted my final building to be made of stronger material, to be able to hold everything together and pervert paper walls from bending. To do that, I used an artboard as a base to create a 12x14 cm box. Next, following the techniques of Hallie, I used coloured paper as wallpaper for the interior and the exterior of the building.
To make two walls on the ground floor see-through, I used a plastic folder and wooden sticks to make it able to hold the 1st floor.
Once the walls were ready, I started adding furniture made of sticks and paper. I also used green thread to make the coffee shop look more lively and friendly.
In the ends, I added white borders around the 1st floor and the roof to cover up the line where two pieces were joined together. It was also an interesting decoration to this piece of architecture.
The final touches were the windows and the coffee shop sign. I used thick white paper and a plastic folder which I carefully measured and cut out with a scalpel to create arch windows. I made the sign of foam board and drew a little coffee cup with fine liners to match the colour palette. The addition of some round shapes and curves added some variety in shapes to the box-shaped building.
The final product turned out better than I thought. The coloured paper and tiny coffee shop sign made it look very realistic. The only things that look off are the bushes and trees outside the building. It looks very tacky and worse quality than the rest of the coffee shop.
It could look better if I structured them differently for example made better pots for the trees, or used different media like clay to improve the shape and form of the decorations.
