conceptual thinking: abstraction of a scallop

concept: "an abstract idea. a general notion. an idea or mental picture of a group or class of objects formed by combining all their aspects. produced as an experimental model to test the viability of new design features."

a concept for a dining room [arts and crafts] ...

The function of a dining room is to create a central location where everyone in the home can come together to dine. It also stands as a location to house a collection of sorts. Its typically where family heirlooms and other antiques are housed. It is the heart of the home and creates an attachment where different aspects of the home come together.

When searching for a concept, I ran across several Scallop Shells. Scallop seashells encompass a fan-like shape where several vertical lines all meet at one point at the base of the shell. There are several suggested horizontal lines from color that ground the verticals and create a popular theme of forms in the arts and crafts movement. Because all these lines meet at one point, it effectively portrays the function of a dining room.

Abstracting the idea of this shell starts to suggest more of an actual concept for the dining space. It begins to speak about the centrality of something that is radiating outward. The base of the shell is where all the parts meet together, just like all the parts of a family and collection meet. The parts then radiate outward to meet the edges where Gestalt's theory of design suggests that it continues into infinity. There are suggestions of horizontal lines that intersect the verticals and "ground" the lines so that there is a distinct and bold structure. These are all aspects that relate heavily to the arts and crafts movement as well as the function of a dining room within a bungalow house. Centrality that radiates outward...