Prism Pendants
are a rescaling of a creative thought; one based on architecture and
modern teaching forms. While working for HMC Architects, a growing firm
in Southern California, I participated in a competition for the Los
Angeles Unified School District called “Re-Imagine the Portable Classroom: FLEX, Flexible Learning Environments.”
While working on that competition, our design team decided that we
were going to go above and beyond what was asked and re-imagine the
classroom model from your standard rectangular box. Over time, we
researched many teaching methods and honed in on one in particular
called the Socratic method.
In this method of teaching, a form of inquiry and debate between
individuals with opposing viewpoints creates a climate for question and
answer sessions that stimulate critical thinking. We decided to base our
new modular classroom designs off this principle.
For center-focused learning like in the Socratic method, a hexagonal
shaped classroom became the obvious choice. With six sides this modular
design could create endless possibilities for maximum functionality and
flexibility. During the ensuing schematic design, we all began doodling
with geometric patterns based on the hexagon shape to break down the
modular system. Each hexagon can be formed by a series of smaller
hexagons which further deconstruct into multiple triangulated patterns.From this exploration came an idea, the Prism Pendants jewelry series.
Jewelry is a creative expression you can wear and I always wanted to
try to make my own. I began, once again, to scale down my focus to a
small pendant that invoked a sense of natural curiosity and hopefully
conversation for those who wear them.
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