Precedent Analysis Conclusions

Circulation was interesting through out the different precedents but I felt fond of the example where you walked into the space and there were two aisles of showroom spaces and then around the exterior the employee offices were located. This also touches on the zoning that I felt worked but as far as circulation it kept the people in the center and gave them a couple of aisles to go down and interact with. The public and private spaces were clearly defined, so this made the zoning effective and the circulation productive.

I think that a good point was brought up in class about the site context of the Apple store in SoHo. I understand the Apple has a brand that they have to keep but I feel that the site context is very important and that this should influence the design of the building and its interior. If a site is historic the design should incorporate certain aspects that make the building unique in the first place. I feel this ties into the interior finishes aspect because if the site is a historic brick building then maybe the original brick structure should not be covered up with a wall of gypsum board. I am not sure if any of the precedents took this into consideration.

I feel that the HVAC systems in most of the precedent studies were exposed with the exception of a few. I think people think that this a trend right now. There are certain situations where the HVAC makes sense to leave exposed and other situations where it is better if they are covered up. I think a lot of the precedents that left them exposed did attempt to distract attention away from them by painting them black or in the case of the showroom I researched they painted them the same color as the walls. They also used large lighting fixtures, and a high quantity, to create a “new ceiling” so that HVAC was not as noticeable. I feel that these approaches to leaving them exposed were the best because they were not distracting yet they were still being celebrated.

Lighting was an important part in the designs of the precedents because I feel that uniform ambient lighting was not what they were going for. I think they decided to mainly use accent lighting because it focuses on the items they are selling and makes them more desirable to the customers.

The only reoccurring concept that I could determine from the precedent analysis is that the designs strove for the selling aspect of their products and whatever it would take to enhance this was done.

The most unique feature to me was the showroom that Robert and Jon researched where each space had a different color light that was being thrown onto the furniture. It was very bright and can’t typically being used in any other showroom but it is a unique idea that could be toned down and applied in a simpler manner.