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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

Monday, February 12, 2007

Now is the time to participate!

Now that the holidays are well and truly behind us, and we’re stuck into our work again, it’s time to really get involved in extra-curricular activities. It’s only by sharing our knowledge, and learning from each other, that we can become great at what we do - and design is no exception. With our base of students around the globe, we have so much more to gain from interaction. Let’s make the most of this unique opportunity…

Fiona

CyberCenter Director

02:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Monday, January 15, 2007

Happy New Year!

Now is the time of new year's resolutions. We hope you're inspired for the year ahead, to forge onward in your studies, and participate in your IIDA campus center. The RISEN blog is open to all who are interested in interior design, with a particular focus on the sharing of global information.

We look forward to hearing from you...

Fiona

CyberCentre Director

23:25 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (13) | Email this

Monday, December 11, 2006

Happy Holidays!

After a summer hiatus, the traditional school year is well and truly underway again. Although we’re from a distance-learning school, with no formal term times, the renewed impetus for studying in the fall is shared by our students too. We hope you’ve been having a productive time, and are now looking forward to a break over the holiday season. We want to wish you a happy and peaceful time - wherever you are across the globe, and however you’re celebrating.

Seasons greetings,

Fiona

CyberCentre Director

 

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