Brief

This project was in collaboration with the University of Newcastle Infrastructure and Facilities Services and the Engineering Faculty. It had two components: designing the layout of a new student friendly makerspace in an unused room and designing a suitable work table for the space.

Strategies & Solutions

I began with the work table as this would influence the interior design of the space. However, I realised the need to consider how certain designs would work in the space, so I drew small simplified sketches of the room and work tables. Each table has a piece of MDF clipped to the supportive plywood, acting as a sacrificial board that can easily and cheaply be replaced if damaged. Wheels mean they can easily be moved. The main challenges were ensuring that all building regulations were met in the long, thin room and providing enough storage and seating. Multiple 2-drawer filing cabinets were made available. I decided to reuse those, placed around the far end of the room as storage. Stools were also made available and were used as seating. Additionally, each work table needed to be able to connect to a power supply for the use of various power tools and equipment. To solve this, I have power points that hang from the ceiling over each work table. The red colour of the room was also a requirement as this section of the University is called Red Square and all the buildings in this section are painted red. I then used SolidWorks to model both the work table and the makerspace.

Technical Skills

• Adobe Photoshop: image editing

• SolidWorks: model design

• PhotoView 360: model renders

• Microsoft PowerPoint: presentation