Sense of Place : Design Process

Seeing a growing number of people wanting to exercise in groups at my local parks and lakes, convinced me to create a facility to aid them in doing so. From this I decided upon designing a stretching station. Looking at existing stretching stations, there was a lack of attractiveness, to encourage and engage users in partaking in physical exercise and stretching. So, I went out and thought of a design that would express joy and encourage people to exercise and stretch, and also expressing exercising in groups and community.

Here are my preliminary sketches that I developed :

 

I was happy about the sizes and proportions, that helped accessibility across a wide range of users. Having three different figures allows for many different stretching exercises and positions.

For a long time I considered having moving parts, like having the arms move. Although I couldn't find a good enough reason to justify this. Furthermore, it may bring in some injury implications, as well as potential breakages and higher maintenance and cost. Therefore I decided to completely weld the units to increase its durability, making it really strong and long lasting.

Here are some early Sketchup renderings I did with many vibrant colours, to express playfulness and joy :

I played around with the vibrant colours for a while, but thought it was too childish. Having it potentially childish looking may make people think that these are children equipment. Therefore children may be attracted to them, and end up using them, instead of the adults.

Trying to think of different colours, I decided the main colour would be the base stainless steel. The stainless steel gives a timeless aesthetic. The stainless steel also has :
- High corrosion resistance
- 100% recyclable
- High and low temperature resistance
- Durable, low maintenance
- Can be cut, formed, welded etc. with ease.

Using the base stainless steel, also allows to not utilise paint. Paint can peel and scratch overtime, introducing maintenance costs, and reducing lifespan of the equipment.

I then chose yellow as the accent colour. Yellow expresses happiness and is a prominent colour in the exercise and fitness industry. I utilised this on the head and body, which are to be the areas least touched, and therefore the paint is less likely to peel and scratch, in comparison to the arms and legs.

Here are some render models of the new colour concept :

 Different configurations were also experimented as well. Having the three figures in a circular or triangular shape, further personified the experience of stretching and exercising in a group. 

I then placed my renders into the locations I had chosen, which are parks and lakes in general, where exercise has grown. Here are my renders :

Initially I used V-ray in Sketchup for my rendering. However, I then switched to Keyshot 4, which allowed me to much more easily input my 3d models within the photos I had taken. The figures ended up being 2500mm and under; tall. This was to make the figures prominent at the scenes, whilst also being accessible for a wide range of users.