Post 7 – Utilitarian Aesthetic Plans and Alternatives

As mentioned in last week’s post, my primary project aesthetic is utilitarian: things designed with practicality first and foremost, with its visual appeal a byproduct. This will entail geometric shapes, a handful of color palettes, and must offer utility in some form. Two alternative aesthetics that would be in stark contrast to utilitarian would be organic or minimalist.

While I don’t have a concrete idea of what I truly want to focus on for the final project, I’ve decided — for the purposes of this post and may change in the future — on specialized containers. More specifically, the containerized housing unit (CHU) is used to quickly establish temporary housing even in the most remote areas. The idea came from the UNSC Barracks structure from Halo Wars 2.

Given the scope of the project as it currently stands, I will entirely rely on creating a digital rendition using Blender. For the required dynamic aspect, I’ll animate the container to change to some degree. Of course, I’m open to suggestions about what else I could do to fulfill this criteria.

CHU Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerized_housing_unit

While I initially wanted to mimic the design as seen above, I wanted to play around with the idea of a hexagonal-shaped container as it isn’t something commonly seen. Figured it was something that could be seen in the foreseeable future or in a video game. Below is a rough sketch of an idea I have for the container.

 

The idea of incorporating an unfurling one side of the container and converting it into a roof came from the game, as the Barracks have one side pop out and expand when deployed. This would provide utility in additional internal space without requiring more units. Adding solar panels and antennae would further invoke the utilitarian feeling seen in military infrastructures.

In organic architecture, structures have an abundance of curved shapes and asymmetry. These characteristics were translated into the structure below.

The organic take on the container is definitely in sharp contrast to the utilitarian take. The incorporation of a green wall in the form of the shaded area, the balcony over the clearing, and curved edges definitely help it stand out.

Likewise, I’ve done something similar for minimalism, as seen below.

The most prevalent characteristics of minimalism seen in the reference image are a seldom number of decorations and selection of colors.

While the reference image above lacks the angled roof, I included it in the sketch to break up the monotonous shape but still retain the minimalist appeal.

References

[1] https://polygonsatwork.com/projects/nOZbo

 

[3] https://amazingarchitecture.com/organic-house/amazing-organic-house-in-moscow-designed-by-niko-architect

 

[5] https://www.designboom.com/architecture/patrick-bradley-architects-shipping-container-office-thornton-modular-02-01-2015/