Gilly and I were really excited about the results from actually moving furniture in studio. We tried a couple of layouts, making sure that we were solving the immediate issues with the bicycle racks and relocating the crit space.

The main obstacles we ran into were giving everyone enough space around their  desk to sit and work comfortably and creating a flow so people can walk and move about easily. I think with the amount of space we have and the size of the desks, this is going to be a challenge no matter what.

The aspect of the new layout that everyone liked the most was actually something that we did not really change. Gilly and I opened up the whiteboard wall between the two studios, and the atmosphere completely changed. Everyone was so excited about the increase of light and the openness. I think that everyone was feeling a little too cramped and turning the two studios into one open space has made everyone feel more at ease. We really don’t have a lot of space for the amount of people in C and E. It doesn’t help that our desks are so big either. A lot of space is also lost from having the white board wall in the middle. I hope the new layout will give everyone a bit more space.

In class we heard some new opinions about how the layout felt with crit happening:

• Some desks lost a lot of privacy being close too close to the middle of the room or because of their orientation
• Some were too close to the wall and had trouble seeing the projection
• Bikes were much easier to get in and out

Moving the critique to the middle of the room highlighted the fact that a lot of people are not paying attention during crits. I really want to create an in class environment where people have to pay attention when a critique is going on.

Some suggestions going forward:

• Get rid of some dividers and make a “desk sharing” area
• Pick new seats after seeing the new layout
• Angling the desks
• Use the velcro for quick, tangible prototyping

We also need to think about our sustainability narratives and to enrich those. That will be our biggest challenge since we don’t have a lot of access to the technology. However we will focus on starting to increase awareness and starting conversation.