We were assigned a project called "Pathways, Edges, Boundaries," in which we were supposed to, as a group, create some sort of artifact to be placed in the islands located in the parking lot and on the buildings edge.
I was placed in the group named "Wayfinding." We quickly decided it was not a sufficient name, and since we were located between the "Desert" and the "Oasis," we would rename our island the "Mirage." We were different from the other groups because we had to work with an Emergency call pole in the middle of our space. This was a great challenge, and many of our ideas continuously failed due to trying to work the pole into our design.
Our original design consisted of 3 concrete forms on either side of the pole (see drawing above). They would have an angled side which mimicked the shape of the call box located on the pole. There would be circular cutouts on each artifact to deal with light.
Our idea changed a little when we decided to have 3 artifacts on the left side of the pole and 4 on the other side. We also added letters in each box that spelled out "Art" and "IARC" to honor those who study in our building.
All of this changed, however, when we were told that the artifacts we planned to make were unreasonable for our project. They would be too large and heavy, as well as potentially dangerous to anyone that needed to rush to the call box. Other things that changed our design once or twice more was when we got together as a class to decide on concepts and commonalities between each group's design.
Commonalities:
-Circles/Squares
-Waves/Texture
-Light/Shadow
-Ground Plane
-Vertical Columns
-Direction
Concepts:
-Interactive
-Progressive
-Gateway
We stuck with the three concepts listed above, and we all agreed that circles and squares were our strongest commonality and each group built on that even more. So, our design changed completely.
This is what we thought to be our final design. It consisted of 16 ( in sets of 4) squares around the pole in a square pattern and 3 circles in between each set of 4 (for a total of 12). There are 7 rectangles in the curve on each side of the island, with room to place a column on each end next semester. The measurements are circles: 8" diameter and 2" deep, Squares: 8x8" and 2" deep, and the rectangles are 9x16" and 2" deep. 
