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WELCOME

We would like to welcome everyone with an interest in interior design to RISEN. All Rhodec students, and IIDA student and professional members, are particularly encouraged to participate. Enjoy!

JOIN US

This is a public web log and all posts and pages may be read by anyone.

However, we have set up a members-only Forum, for Rhodec IIDA students,called the RISEN CyberCentre.
To join us, simply go to the Forum, sign up and your registration will be processed by the Administrator.

See you there!

Chapter News

Check out the IIDA Sustainable Design Student Competition 2007 - deadline April 2 2007. Prizes include a travel scholarship to USGBC's GreenBuild Conference 2007, cash awards, and consideration for publication in metropolis magazine.

Chapter News Archive

Links

Great Products

For the launch of RISEN, we thought a feature on a new CAD product would fit the bill! Martina MacGreevy from Belgium contributed the following:
I use TurboCAD Professional/Floorplan V10.5 but find that its CAD symbols’ library is pretty poor and I’ve just about imported every free symbol and mesh available on the web. As I’ve only managed to create a simple 3D table in TurboCAD to date, I decided that additional libraries were urgently required. With a budget of EUR 50, and with plenty of 3DS and mesh libraries to choose from, I found it difficult to decide on the best option, so I bought another CAD program. Read on to understand my logic!
The software in question comes from the creators of Chief Architect, and is called Better Homes and Gardens Interior Designer. It retails on Amazon for GBP26.99 (EUR 40) and has a library of 5,000 items.Its main disadvantage is that it is not compatible with the industry standard (3DS, DWG, DXF), so items and objects cannot be exported to or interchanged with AutoCAD, TurboCAD, etc. Materials and finishes, however, may be imported and applied to items.

Interior Designer is not a professional package, but it does enable the user to quickly and simply draw plans and 3D interiors for the residential market.I created my first interior space within a day of using it. Its rendering (Final View with Shadows) is almost non-existent, but the image can be enhanced greatly by using photo manipulation software.In just half an hour, I created a basic interior in Interior Design and rendered it in PhotoShop Elements. Click here to see it.

I think you’ll agree that for under EUR 50, it’s well worth the investment.

Photo Albums

Book of the Month

The Surface Texture Book from Thames & Hudson is a great little book and one that you will carry with you on every project.

The handy A5-size spiral bound book provides colour swatches of over 800 textures and surfaces, and briefly describes the aesthetics of each main category.The swatches are small (up to 9 on a page), but big enough to see the texture and to compare one surface with another.They are great for scanning into CAD drawings or for using as a guide for sketching various textures.

12 surfaces are covered in separate chapters – Carpets & Rugs, Paints, Paper, Textiles, Leather, Wood, Stone, Clay, Glass, Metal, Durables, and Site Surfaces – and each chapter is further divided into subcategories. The chapter on Wood, for example, has subcategories on softwoods, hardwoods, blocks & parquet, antique & reclaimed, decorative finishes, and processed boards. Each swatch references a supplier and a full list of international suppliers is found at the back of the book.

Finally, the author (Cat Martin, a successful architect), provides some practical advice for each surface category, which covers tips on installation and maintenance.The book is available from Thames & Hudson directly, or through Amazon. Prices vary from around 11.00 - 17.00 GBP (17 - 25 EUR).

Contributed by Martina MacGreevy

January Book of the Month - Portfolio Design.

Books

« 2006-01 | HomePage | 2006-04 »

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

San Francisco

The year so far has been busy for Rhodec IIDA students. First there was the 2006 IIDA Student Mentoring Week, which once again proved extremely useful and interesting for participants. Then there was our much anticipated Rhodec Meet in San Francisco. Those of us lucky enough to go had the opportunity to check out the great design in the city (see last month’s San Francisco Design Guide), and meet up with school staff and students in person. - At the Tonga Room of the prestigious Fairmont Hotel on the Friday night, and then at the Rhodec Party on the Saturday. This was the culmination of the weekend trip, and was hosted at the Bambuddha Lounge of the famous Phoenix Hotel. With its hip Asian-American styling, this was the perfect place to contemplate our future careers as interior designers. For those who were unable to attend, this month we bring you a few photos, so you too can share a little in the experience. 

Enjoy!

Fiona

CyberCentre Director

Click thumbnails to enlarge

Interior, Fairmont Hotel 
The interior of the Fairmont Hotel                 

The Fairmont Hotel 
The Fairmont Hotel                          

The Rhodec Party at the Bambuddha Lounge 
The Rhodec Party at the Bambuddha Lounge     

The Tonga Room  
The Tonga Room        

Michael and Susi from Rhodec  
Michael and Susi from Rhodec       

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Informative Links

Electronic Newsletters – spam or seriously good read?

Our virtual world abounds with newsletters sent daily, weekly, monthly, hourly!  It’s enough to make you want to switch off and finally run for those hills.  But wait, before you go, check out these newsletters that are, in my view, truly deserving of your time:

Design Council – a fantastic UK based organisation that promotes the vital role of design in today’s economy.  Their monthly newsletter will keep you fully up-to-date on issues facing the UK design world.

Dexigner – a monthly feast of designer communication. It covers all design genres and will keep you fully up to date on what’s happening out there.  

Electronic House – a great newsletter if you’re into the latest home technology. It issues bi-monthly and covers security and entertainment technology, and features the latest gizmos and geeky homes.


Metropolis – one of my favourites.  It comes out monthly and offers an electronic taste of its monthly magazine of the same name, so it’s a great substitute if Metropolis is not available in your area.

Martina MacGreevy

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