A Water Ritual
For this assignment, I created an island surrounded by cliffs and crashing waves. The fertile land is what leads into the water ritual of washing and rinsing one's hair with rice water. My idea was to combine an open-air bathhouse and rice mill that would work together as one. Water flowing from the river would power the water wheel and turn the mill in order to grind up rice that would then be used as hair masks/soaks. I envisioned the two would be connected via tunnel, through a hillside. This was my first attempt at curating something from an original idea.
To begin, I made a collage out of water swatches I had made. This lead into this collage, with the black signifying bodies of water, the brown being sand, and the green and blue representing lush land and forests.
Following the contour of the collage, I decided on the topography of the island. This was my first time making a topography map and it gave me more insight on the size of real cliffs and landmarks.
Final Orthographics
Site Plan
Floor Plan
Section A
Section B+C
Topography Model Close-Ups
Sketches + Drafts
An idea that I didn't get to execute in the end was carving out designs on the rim of the water wheel. The wheel was just tall enough that it casted a shadow into the rice mill building. I wanted the shadow's that could happen with the carved out designs on the wheel, help workers determine what time of day it was.
