My concept for the Hatchery has taken me in a direction that I am SO ok with. In the previous entry, I was conceptualizing about how Greensboro is like a forest and Elm street is a small clearing within that forest that needs a little tender love and care. After sitting at my desk and sketching out different ideas, the word "Greenhouse" popped into my head. Greenhouse. It makes so much sense. It is a place where plants are grown from nothing, into thriving and flourishing organisms. This is my concept. In fact, I've even decided to change the name of the store to "The Greenhouse" instead of "The Hatchery." (The name is even perfect for it location. Think about it. It's in the city of Greensboro. Down the street from the green bean and Natty Greene's. It fits like a little happy puzzle piece.
Above is a perspective of the view of the Greenhouse from the front door. This is just the retail area. I'm wanting to utilize the second floor also, and have it be a loft area to look down into the first floor space. The tall thin structures are going to be made of acrylic, or another durable material. They are placed at random intervals in the center of the space, around the central cashwrap. They are each a different height, no more that 20' and no less than 10'. After each year, students will take big acrylic colorful beads and slide them onto the tall structures, creating a time piece within space. As time goes by, the space gets visually more and more dense with these beads that are placed on the many vertical structures. Also, the surrounding materials are all going to be white and reflective. As time goes on, the color from the light bouncing onto these surfaces from colorful beads will grow and change.
This floor plan is not to scale. I was just playing around with the spacing of the different rooms. I realize now that this is going to have to be completely reworked because the actual space is a LOT more narrow than I have drawn it. My idea for the entire space was that as someone moves back, the glass walls dividing up the rooms would become more and more dense until they get to the performance/ exhibition area, which is completely opaque. I was thinking about using 3form glass, although I'm still searching for material options.
Here are a few different logos that I thought of replacing the Hatchery's egg logo with. Personally, I like the top right one. I think it speaks best to the concept.
This is the cashwrap, for the moment. In the front of it, there is a recess that has cords strung vertically all along it. There are beads strung neatly on it, giving it the same sort of feel as the huge structures around it. It is a minuscule version of them. I'm going to try to have lots of verticalities happening throughout the entire store in different scales. Verticality helps speak to the greenhouse concept.
These panels are going to be hung from the ceiling of the second floor and pointed at the vertical structures. They are abstractions of tree limbs, and also serve as luminaires for the space. They have a strip of LED lights on the top of them, shooting the light up to the ceiling, which would reflect it softly back down to rest of space.
The upper image is of the retail area, below the hangover from the second floor. This wall is where paintings from students are to be hung, as well as merchandise that is to be sold. There are vertical reveals at varying heights all along the wall. There are little latches within these reveals that shelves can be attached to for merchandise. Hooks can also be attached to them for artwork. This allows for great flexibility, so the retail space can morph a little, depending on the stuff they have to sell. Also, there is a track system on the floor and ceiling that vertical panels can be placed into. These panels will prevent the playful colors that are emmited from the large structures from interfering with the displayed artwork. (There are track lights on the ceiling that can point towards art, making it easier to see the piece as it was originally intended by the artist.)
After researching greenhouses a little, I noticed that glass, light, and metal play an enormous role in pretty much every greenhouse. I'm still deciding what I want to do in the space, but so far, I think I'm going in the right direction. The more I design for it, the more excited I get about it.
