Hey, Eric here with 30 by 40 Design Workshop.
Last week's video was all about architectural building materials; how to go about choosing
them.
This week is the companion video to that with all of the resources.
Now I want to talk about three things today: first I want to talk about how I've been storing
materials here in the studio; what I've done in the past and what I'm doing now.
I want to show you how you can begin building your architectural sample library, and I also
want to share with you all of the print video and online resources I've compiled to help
you select materials.
So let's get into it.
Now, we're all limited by the amount of space we have available to store things and material
samples especially can take up a lot of room.
Now I've seen just about every type of storage rack used in offices where I've worked in
the past and I've tried a number of different things myself here in the studio: from metro
shelves to archival folios, wood, felt, cardboard boxes, IKEA bookcases.
Here's the problem with all of these: they all keep the materials out of reach and mostly
out of sight.
So they're great from an organizational standpoint but because they play such a large role in
my design process I wanted them to be a more integral part of the studio.
More accessible.
So, here's what I've come up with: it’s a bun pan cart with aluminum sheet pans.
Now, this was inspired by the restaurant industry and it's actually a favorite technique of
mine in design where I look to other disciplines to see what kinds of things they use regularly
and see if I can repurpose that in my own work.
Now, other places you might find inspiration poking around online are the automotive industry
or the fishing and marine industries.
There are farm supply catalogues, medical furniture supply catalogues, and of course
there's the woodworking supply houses.
Be sure to let me know in the comments if you have other favorites to share.
Now, here's what I like about this cart so far for storing materials.
It's intentionally limiting.
There's only ten slots and so it forces me to keep only the things that I'm most interested
in.
I try to edit ruthlessly and keep it populated with only the materials that I'm really into
or the ones that I'm researching right now.
Now, number two.
I like the archival, almost surgical feel of this kind of setup.
These trays kind of elevate the materials making them sort of these talismans of the
design process.
It's a little bit quirky I know but I really do like it for that reason.
Number three: easy access.
Now I touched on this briefly already but filing things away in a separate space out
of eyeshot or easy reach means I'm less likely to use them as talking points during a meeting
or as inspiration for design that I'm working on.
Number four: casters.
The casters allow me to roll the tray wherever I need it.
Number five: I can use these trays to store other implements too, things like my studio
essentials.
That way I can use it when I’m model-making…put everything on the tray up here roll it over
to the table where I can work and build the model.
Now number six: the trays these make great backgrounds for photography projects and honestly
the samples work well for photographic backgrounds too.
Number seven: there's an interactive element to displaying materials in this kind of format,
clients can participate in selecting items to touch and we can build palettes together
on-the-fly.
Having these samples available by your side at a meeting is a fantastic way to engage
your client and sell your ideas.
Now, granted for larger offices one of these carts may not be enough but they do make taller
ones.
For this space and for my own personal taste I like to have everything below eye level.
Now the cart itself is all aluminum construction and although it ships unassembled I was able
to put it together in probably under five minutes.
It comes with four polyester ball-bearing casters, two of which lock, and the capacity
they say is rated at like 485 pounds something like that.
They're 26-inches wide 20-inches deep and 38-inches tall.
Now, there's ten slots for pans but the top can also hold one, which I use to store and
build the current material palette I'm working on or my studio essentials as we talked about
earlier.
Now, a three-inch shelf spacing means you can't store large materials here but I think
that's good for all the reasons we just discussed, right?
Now I bought mine for $92 on Amazon and the companion aluminum baking sheets I purchased
are 18 by 26 inches and they're from Baker's mark I picked those up on “The Web Restaurant
Store.”
They’re heavy-duty, 19-gauge aluminum and they have a rolled over wire rim.
First I want you to consider what you want to include.
A good place to start is by using the CSI divisions the ones architects used to specify
materials.
See our specifications are kind of like an instruction manual that we hand to contractors
when they're getting ready to build the building.
And, these are broken down into sixteen broad categories things like concrete, masonry,
metals, wood and plastics, hardware, finishes.
And then, each one of those categories is further broken down into subcategories for
example under finishes a subheading might be ceramic tile.
Now, a comprehensive library will have a little bit from each division.
Depending on space limitations though, yours may be intentionally smaller and more focused.
Now, when sourcing, the first place to start is with the manufacturer of the materials
you're interested in.
Most will offer free samples to architects and designers.
You can query the search term “sample request and manufacturer's name”, simply fill out
their form and you should have samples within a few days.
If you can't find a sample request form just give them a call and ask for the architectural
sample department, tell them you're an architect or a designer and you're working on a project
and you'd like to have a sample.
It's good practice to have the project name at the ready as they're probably going to
ask you for it.
Now here's another tip: you should request the smallest sample possible to keep the footprint
as small as you can.
Also think about any fabricators in your area that utilize the materials you're interested
in: cabinetry shops, furniture makers, metal shops; these can all be great places to source
materials and actually meet with other professionals who likely know a lot more about the material
you're looking to work with than you do.
Window suppliers are another great resource, they offer these handy sample rings with wood
and color chips on them and sometimes really nice hardware chips.
Search online for: concrete, metal, hardware, paints, leather, fabric, tile, stone, glass.
Google is your friend here.
I've never had trouble getting a free sample from a manufacturer and only occasionally
have I had to pay shipping costs if the samples were unusually large or especially heavy.
I'll have other books linked up in the cards but I want to spend a little time on what
I would consider to be the bible on materials and that is this book which is called: Constructing
Architecture.
It's edited by Andrea Deplazes it's an absolute beast it weighs in at five-hundred and sixty
pages and it costs about $70US.
It's a steal for such a valuable reference manual, though.
Granted, the writing is a bit scholarly and sort of thick at times and the imagery is
only in black and white but the collection of essays alone is worth every penny.
The diagrams are just brilliant and it’s sensibly divided and it will feed your intellect
on every level.
I think if you buy one book on materials it should be this one.
Check out the cards and the description below for additional books that I like.
But, I think you should start here first you won't be disappointed I promise.
Okay now video resources.
The Netflix “Abstract” series.
I've talked about this before but if you haven't seen that Ilse Crawford episode yet - at least
from a material -I think it's a must watch.
I've also recorded a number of videos on this channel discussing materials and my personal
obsession with them and so I've linked those up in a playlist in the cards and in the description
as well.
One of my favorites and a good starting point for you is the Harvard GSD material collection
primer.
It's a beautiful free PDF guide; it'll get you thinking about materials a little bit
differently.
It's illustrated with images of materials in use and it's sort of a free-form listing
of the potential materials you may want to investigate further.
Also on the GSD site they maintain a list of links to other material sources.
Along the same vein, the University of Texas at Austin has an online database of their
nearly 28,000 samples and I think they might do well to watch this video to pare it down
a bit.
What do you think?
Now, I mention this because - academic institutions - if you live near a college or university
oftentimes will maintain a sample library.
So you can go there and investigate.
Now there's Transmaterial, which is run by Blaine Brownell.
It's a nicely curated collection of sort of cutting-edge materials nicely categorized
and Blaine has also published a couple of books of the same title too so if that site’s
layout and format interests you, you can find more information there.
“Material Connexion,” they host a materials database.
Now, this one is subscription-based model, but I mention it because if you are at a university
you may already have access through your academic institution.
So, check with them.
Then, one of my personal favorites, is located in Boston Massachusetts it's Stone Source.
Browse their beautiful image database and, if you're an architect, request samples for
your projects here.
Now, there's also Pinterest.
Pinterest is one of my absolute favorites.
Pinterest allows you to curate your ideas into boards.
I use those to further collate images and ideas on a per project basis and these could
be private or they can be collaborative they can be shared among teams or your client.
One of the best features about Pinterest is its visual search function you can actually
window in on the image.
So, let's say you find an image of a piece of steel.
Zoom into a corner of that steel, you want to find other images that are like that.
Pinterest will actually sort through their entire database and give you a best fit match
for those.
This can help you discover new architectural references, new material references, and just
sort of connect the dots in a way that just doing a regular Google image search doesn't.
So, this has been a lot about materials, a lot of resources here, a lot of things to
think out.
I would encourage you to start building a small sample library using just a couple of
things: a couple of wood samples, a couple of concrete samples, just to get the - sort
of - creative juices flowing.
You can then start building your material library from there and constantly edit and
pare down to only the essentials, keep it fresh, keep it interesting.
Now, if I've helped you at all with this video I hope you'll consider liking, sharing, and
commenting below.
Please let me know your favorite materials resources.
Doing this helps me build the channel and to know that I'm making the kinds of videos
that you're interested in watching.
Cheers!