Major Development (draft 1) pt 2, Meeting area

Here is the meeting space for the two clients. Being practical minded people, the space is designed with efficiency in mind. It is plain and open but still needs railings. The decor will strive to have elements of East meeting the West.

Major Development (draft 1) pt 1, Jobs' Space

Just walking into the office...

All these sets of stairs to choose from...
View from the top. Where Jobs' desk will be.
The Summoner in Diablo II can be found here. I thought about this when building the elevated platform that is Jobs' office. Occulus. Room that can be used for meetings or presentations...

I've found that the hardest part of developing spaces is to have spaces to develop in the first place, and that it was a LOT of work (like... 3 days straight) to turn blocks built around the bridge into various levels that can we walked around in.

So anyways, here is my Steve Jobs space. It has a very high ceiling and only one storey (one and a half, really) high to show Jobs' rise to power as an almost solo effort (internal struggles etc, he was at one stage fired from his own company) and the fact that his company became successful by appealing to the individual consumer (iProduct).

As his clients seek him, they are greeted by a long, seemingly very structured hallway, but forced to pick between a variety of paths to get to him, and finally they are to reach him at his office at the end of the hall (hollowed bride). The variety of pathways, as well as a single general purpose room that can serve as either a conferance room or an exhibition/presentation room, represent Apple product's ability to perform multiple paths.

Jobs' office is a small platform high up off the ground, reached by helixed stairs wide enough only for one person. His power is further emphasized by a bright white light that illuminates the IT idol at the end of the hall. Visually, it is reminiscant of The Summoner's hideout in Diablo II, with two thin stairs leading to a floaing platform. Continuing with this theme, as some kind of wizard of the industry, I felt it appropriate that Mr Jobs had an occulus to look upon...

Table Complete! (with chairs)

Clash of the Titans.

Mechanism on the underside illustrating the not-so-obvious
dependence that the IT industry may have on the cardboard industry.

Although from the surface Jobs' side of the table is on top of Zhang's as well as seemingly consuming it, Zhang's in fact is supporting it, and is unexpectedly 'higher' than Jobs' side. The bottom of the legs attatching to the base of Zhang's chair also shows that the chair and table are not made to move, representing the strong cardboard/paper company's stability.

What the two clients will see when they sit down for lunch...

Well what can I say about the table that hasn't been noted in the previous posting of the plans/ in the above captions except, 'Sweet! I'm done! ...now to work on the actual space.... :/ '.

I guess also noteworthy here is that the Jobs table is supposed to represent a seeming expansion, with his company exploding away from the traditional, shown by the expansion in width. I also noticed after I drew the plans for it that the curve resembled the "bite" in Apple's logo... a bit of company pride for Mr Jobs perhaps...


Edit: I've since softened the edges on the Jobs end of the table a bit to make it a bit more... Apple-like... no major changes.

Table sketches/ideas

Here are more of my ideas for the table. The concept is one of dependance, domination and facades. Both tables carry visual themes of their respective users which have been explained in earlier posts.

The connection is the area of interest. From the surface, it is apparant that the Jobs side of the table (innovation, new technology-based industry) is engulfing Zhang's side (more traditional industry, the article describes how she attributes her success to possession of latest technology) of the table. However, whilst the Jobs side seemingly dominates the Zhang side, we can in fact see that her side of the table wraps around again, to show a dependance from Jobs on paper and cardboard products in order to sell his, as shipping and packaging of all products inevitably will rely on Zhang's products to succeed.

Furthermore, whilst Jobs' side of the table seemingly holds the higher ground, much of the support for his table is supported by the other side's stability. Also, the end at which Zhang sits is actually raised higher because of the tiers, symbolic of the fact that her company will be relied on for a long time yet...

Dragons' Head

Shown here is my Zhang Yin chair. The idea behind it was that it was a very straightforward, geometric form, just as her business is a practical and traditional necessity. The tier motif has been carried out here, symbolic of heirarchy and progress. The 'frame' around the outside of hte chair is a reference to her company's products, and the distinction that it gives her (as it isolates/notes her significance).

As with the thrones in my research, the chair is quite tall and widened, to give a sense of authority; however, as dependant equals with Jobs, both chairs are of the same back height and seat height.

The iThrone is here.

The iThrone is complete. Visually it is inspired by the older (but more distinctive) version of the iMac screens. (Yes, i know it looks like a toilet + urinal as well.)

As mentioned in previous posts, I gave the chair more height to resemble some kind of throne; metaphoric of a kind of empirical power that he (and Zhang) holds. At the same time, as a Silicon Valley heavyweight, I incorporated a Macbook screen into his chair since I imagined that he would want one handy at all times.

On reflection, I'm thankful that sticking to the plan made for a more unique chair (eat that, Egg Chair O_o) whilst experimentation still meant that there was some degree of development from paper to sketchup.

Doh! KNEW I had seen that before...

After NOT following the plan in my moleskine and doing a lot of smoothening and playing around until the only resemblance was the base of the chair, I realized that I hadn't designed a unique chair specially for Mr Jobs, but instead a very accurate replica of the "egg chair"s seen in the movie Men In Black, inspired by Thor Larsen's Olivier Chair (the red one seen above).

Aw well... good experimental fun...


On that note too, the base of the chair will probably be changed anyway... I'm thinking to resemble the base of the iMac monitors...