Nnenne Freelon: Habitable wall

The main objective of this project was to design a habitable wall (not a room) for an assigned client. My client was Nnenna Freelon, a local and famous jazz singer who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. When researching I came to the conclusion that she is free-spirited woman who loves life and children. My final model flows in a free-form motion just like her personality.









The above six images are of the first iterations that I did for the project. The last of the six, the one directly above is the form that I chose to stick with and built off of. I really enjoyed the continuous curve that was formed.


At this point I tried adding some sense of wall thickness but also bring in the aspect of lighting at the same time. I tried adding a layer of translucent trash paper to see what this would look like.


Once we were told to create a 1'': 1'-0" model this was what was developed as a result. I decided to add one more curve creating a total of four defined spaces. I also tried to create one continuous curve which by the way was quite difficult.




With this quick sketch model I was trying to see how I could add height and possibly a second level with one continuous form.


With this sketch model I experimented creating different forms with the walls themselves. I thought maybe one end of the wall could start at a designated height and then descend down towards the ground as it curved around.


Quite a change in this model from the plain white model. We were directed to add color into this model. We were required to have three main colors and an accent color. My three main colors were a light creme brown, a dark chocolate brown, and white. My accent color was the bright orange red color. The light brown represents public areas of the habitable wall and the dark brown defines the private areas designated for Nnenna Freelon. The orange red color was placed on top of the wall to show and clearly define the form of the wall. This scheme speaks of Nnenna Freelon's personality because while researching her I realized that most of her album covers and her website contain neutral colors with pops of bright colors.







This was my final presentation board I put together for my final critique of the project. The picture above it is of the entire group's boards that I presented with. One step of the project was deciding the location of the habitable wall. We were told that it would located somewhere on the third floor of the Gatewood Studio Arts Building. I chose for my habitable wall to be cornered in the south-west corner of the second year studio. My project can be seen in the rendered perspectives on my presentation board.

I really enjoyed this project especially after I decided on an idea. I liked having a client to work for and design for.