Solo Projects and Teamwork
Week 3 and I am already quite immersed in this placement — The dental/ derma clinic project was kept on hold and it was time for my first solo project with this firm. This time something I wasn’t quite familiar with. The project was to design a data center office as well as a separate VIP reception and boardroom.
I had to start making the general arrangement of the two spaces in terms where the furniture, the walls, etc. I was given certain requirements by the client that they wanted in the space.
These were my guidelines which helped me create the general arrangement.
While doing this my boss helped me understand other requirements like fire exits, reception desk placement, etc. After this arrangement was approved by her I moved on to making presentations which include, the inspiration, color palette, materials used, and furniture selection. The clients wanted a lot of techy items/features used in the data center so I did a bit of research and decided to include these.
I am still yet to revise this presentation in terms of the materials but so far I’m quite happy with the outcome considering I did most of it on my own.
In between this project, I and the other intern were told to keep our current project on pause and design the general arrangement of an outdoor terrace BBQ area for a hotel. I did the presentation and she made the CAD while we brainstormed the best way to go about the design. It was a very small project but a fun one. The hotel’s theme revolved around the ocean. We decided to draw inspiration and colors from a desert beach which were very neutral.
We sectioned off the area into 4 different spaces — a VIP/party seating area, A family seating area, a barbecue station, 2 person tables. Since the seats were near the edge of the terrace we decided to put plant dividers just so it would be safer. The Qatar sun can be quite harsh so I thought of having a custom-made retractable shade on the top that could be activated with a push of a button. The alternate option was a parasol.
Overall I quite enjoyed this project and it helped me clear my mind a bit from my solo project so I could come back to it and tweak it. It was also nice to get to work closely with the other intern as well as get to know her a bit better.
We have another fun solo project coming up next week and I truly couldn't be more excited to begin designing it and see what I can come up with. Wish me luck!