MELIA ELLIS

FiFth Year thesis DesignArt NouveAu tAble

The first semester of my thesis I focused my research on how history directly affected the art and design of the Low Countries.

The second semester we were to build a furniture piece to represent our research. I originally intended to design and build a desk, but I discovered my concept lended itself better to the design of an occasional table.

The design was centered around using Art Nouveau principles to design a piece using technology the Art Nouveau designers would have chosen to use were they alive today.

Photo courtesy 360 architecture

Our studio was recruited by 360 Architecture of Kansas City to redesign the interior of the Kansas State Olathe Campus Food and Health Sciences building. We were to incorporate more technology, green design, make the space more student friendly, and make the building inviting to the community.

Working in groups of 4, we designed a space comprising comfortable modern design, edible greenery, local art, interactive media, and accessible outdoor space.

Kansas state Olathe innOvatiOn Campus COmpetitiOn

Best incorporation of technology award

educAtioN remodel

Cafeteria features edible herb displays, art by neighborhood

artists, sweet pea canopy, and an

organic local menu

Second floor terrace functions as an

outdoor classroom with benches and

projector, as well as bistro seating for

leisure

Hall from lobby to classrooms pays homage to the Kansas

Prairie through an interactive digital

wheat wall

QuintessenCeFiFth YeAr FurNiture desigN

After discovering the Hepplewhite era window seat, I chose to design a modern version using only the elements that are more essential to the original design. The final piece is composed of bent birch plywood, cherry red automotive paint, and aluminum bar.

3D arChiteCture stuDiOoFFice/retAil desigN

3D Architecture Studio is a ficticious firm located in the River Market District of Kansas City, Missouri. The firm is comprised of 4 principals, 40 designers in various fields, accounting, and IT. The building was to contain studios and offices for all departments, formal and informal conference rooms, breakout areas, a kitchen, a library, and a retail display for art created by employees.

In order to use as much of the small site as possible, the entire site was going to be used as built space. This created a very simple box of steel structure to work within. The design is inspired by the rotation of the structural grid of the building Atrium skywalks allow for easy communication between departments as well as visual stimulation of what could have otherwise been a very rectilinear space.

Parti- Rotation of Structural Grid

phOtOgraphY exhibit

Art is meant to make a person think, question, and reevaluate. Art is not always beautiful or meant to be hung in a home. Art doesn't always have to be created by a skilled genius in order to achieve these primitive objectives, so long as the beholder finds changed even a fiber of their being after walking away.

I realize that many of these photos aren't particularly artistic.When I captured these images I was not hoping to create beautiful pieces of wall art, rather I was documenting a place, an event, and a part of history I believe cannot go unremembered.

These pieces are a chronicle of my experience visiting the concentration camp of Dachau and the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. In each location I found myself experiencing a confusing barrage of emotions varying between outrage, heartache, astonishment, and defeat. Even though memorials have been erected and decades have passed I feel that this is a battle we as the human race have been fighting from the beginning of time and we are still battling today.

first place and honoraBle Mention