Reimagining an underutilized area of campus: Between the Visual Arts Center and the Darrel K. Royal stadium, there is a grass lawn with an old coffee stand falling into disrepair. This design brief prompted students to propose a new business to be located on the lawn area outside of the VAC. Because the area is a hub for fine arts at UT, I wanted to create something that would cater to the needs of fine art students and bolster appreciation for the UT creative community at large.

Research included physical visits to the location, digital web searches, and in-person interviews.

• I researched campus maps to observe the buildings (and likely users) in the area, which reaffirmed that my target demographic was fine arts students.
• I interviewed fine arts students to gauge art-oriented needs and interests, and looked to my own experiences as an artist.
• I conducted visual research on existing architectural/structural industrial design boards to establish a direction for my own presentation board
• I conducted visual research on art supplies, organic architecture, and artist alley setups to establish a form and aesthetic for my structure.

These are the current issues Fine Arts students at UT face, especially considering their relationship with the physical campus:

• Co-op store (art supplies) is too far.
• Arts buildings are isolated from the rest of campus.
• There is a lack of student arts involvement university-wide.
• Arts students would like to collaborate on a campus installation piece.
• Many creatives at UT have side hobbies crafting items that can be sold.

I drew from these community views in order to design a building and business concept that could revitalize the arts-heavy area in East Campus.

PAPERSCAPE was created to reimagine the lawn space outside the Visual Arts Center at UT. It is an interactive, sculptural building where the UT creative community can showcase and sell their work.

Its exterior resembles a blank white roll of paper. I chose this form because it is reminiscent of art supplies, it has a customizable surface for a mural, and it is an eye-catching landmark and social space.

Its interior contains an art gallery and market. Students are able to purchase art supplies, as well as sell their own handmade creative work. It showcases local talent and supports student entrepreneurship.

How it works: local artists apply for a timeslot and physical space to display and sell their work (Eg. May-June, 3x5ft wall space). Ideally, this would be a larger-scale system, with several Paperscapes that have the same paper-scroll base but unique exterior mural and interior products at each location that reflect the artists of that community.

I created physical and digital sketches, and also built physical paper prototypes to better visualize the complex form.

I moved into Rhino to 3D model my building, but encountered an issue with visualization: The original structure was difficult to imagine and draw in perspective due to the complex changes along all three axes. My concept sketches could not be replicated in 3D space exactly as I imagined them at each angle, and I was unsatisfied with how the structure no longer resembled a paper roll at certain angles. I also disliked how the glass framework appeared when actually modeled in 3D space.

Instead, I duplicated the form and created a double-scroll form, allowing it to be recognizable as a paper roll from multiple angles.

My next issue was that the curved walls of my structure made it space-inefficient when arranging rectilinear furniture like tables and shelves. I had originally planned for the interior to be mostly blank to increase customizability using movable modular furniture, but I realized it was not worth it given the project’s strict size parameters and focus on aesthetics.

I realized that if I created a ledge, splitting the floor into two levels, I would be able to utilize the extra space formed by the curved wall that protruded out. I built display cabinets into the structure to make use of the vertical ledge block and added stairs. I received positive feedback from classmates and modeled it in Rhino to confirm it was a feasible solution.

I imported my finished model to Twinmotion to add people, materials, and lighting for a realistic rendering. Then, I created a posterboard in Illustrator with my finished renders and orthographic linework.