S.H.E.D

In my first year got a brief to design a shed. The brief asked you to use the petite form of a basic garden shed, set within a fictional domestic garden in an everyday suburban setting. It asked you to take the basic form of a shed and transform it from an ordinary building into something maybe extra-ordinary. It also asks for you to look at the structure of the shed and to change it into dynamic new architectural structure..

The shed is for one person and possibly one guest. How are they going to move from the home to the detached shed within the garden? What the interior function could be?

This brief filled my head with mean different ideas on how I could change the functions of something so simple and everyday into a dynamic new architectural structure. In this day and age there is always something popping up in the news about peoples homes being broken into while people are asleep in their beds, there is also this continuing fear of a terrorist using dirty bombs to cause fear and terror in our country.

I wanted to carte a place of safety where you can escape when you feel in danger, for example if a robbery, kidnap or even if there was a terrorist attack where they used biological or nuclear weapons takes place you can escape from the thereat.

I looked at World War II bomb shelters in my local area of central Fife. Fifes coastal beaches were consider as a landing place for the Nazi Germany invasion fleets, because of this the Mod constructed 20 pill boxes in a line across central fife. This created a line of fire to stall the invasion fleet while back up troops arrived to defend our country. These bill boxes gave me iinspirations to carte a sunken safe house. This structure would protect the inhabitancies from threats while being in a comfortable living environment where inhabitants could survive for up to 2 weeks without leaving the Shed.

The Shed can become air tight in the case of a biological attack. If this was to occur air would be filtered thorough pumps into the shed. The bad air would be extracted to give the inhabitancies air they are able to breath. The shed has glass roof, to allow light in to make its more useable as an everyday space. The glass roof can be covered by a reinforced steal plate that would protect the inhabitants. This steal cover would slid across when the panic button is activated, also on the activation this would cause the access door to bolts shut to make the sheds interior inaccessible from the exterior. This would also make the air filter activate causing the clean air to circulating within the shed. There is also storage to cater for emergency goods such as a radio's, torches, battery's and food. The space also supports a bathroom, kitchen area and a living area with entertainment centre and sofa.

I produced these board to show my thought process and final designs.

I had a large interest in this project and found the research into the second world war stop lines very interesting. I feel I have designed a place that people can find security whether your life is in danger or you just need somewhere to feel safe.

Task 4 On Market Mavens and Consumer Self-Confidence: A Cross-Cultural Study

In On Market Mavens and Consumer Self Interest 2007, Chelminski And Coulter look at the effect of market mavens on Consumer self-confidence in the US market compared with South Korea.

The question raised in this passage are how market mavens effect The United States markets compared to South Korea’s, these two totally different cultures that both have consumers that shape the economics of these countries. These market mavens look at media and market information to influence them and how they pass information on to others.

The most important information in the article shows how market mavens help the market places by boosting consumer confidence and helping brands and products by spreading positive information about these brands. This could also turn the other way if a market maven does not like or receive a good product and they can spread the news about the product or service causing it to flunk.

The author uses secondary sources from the press,

“Demonstrate that market mavenism is positively related to consumer’s self-esteem, tendency to conform, need for uniqueness, and susceptibility to normative influence.” – Further, Goldsmith et al. p.71

“With a backdrop of increasing globalization of the marketplaces, this work offers an important contribution to the study of the market maven from the international and cross-cultural perspective” (e.g., Albaum & Peterson, 1984;C. Lee & Green,1991) p.71

These quotes show how the writers use the press to build up their knowledge about market mavens and how they open up the marketplaces.

The use of a questionnaire that was given to people in both the U.S.A and South Korean, the U.S. questionnaire included 165 females and 115 males but in South Korea the questionnaire was given to 269 females and 215 males.

The conclusions that the authors results indicate that cultural individualism is related to consumer self-confidences in both the U.S. and South Korea. The market mavens also boost market knowledge and spread the information about the changing markets.

“Given the nature of the data, the intercountry analyses, were not performed, because the unit of analysis in this approach is the country, not the individual. Such analysis requires that individuals sampled for the study are representative of the country, and it favors studies that include a large number of countries.” Craig & Douglas, 2000 p.76

Most important concepts are that they were trying to find out whether market mavens were a cross-cultural thing. Whether market maven existed in every cultural across the world, but due to only having samples from 2 countries it was felt that was not enough evidence.

The author assumes that South Korea and the U.S. is enough people to get a diverse out come, but it is unfortunately deemed unsuitable.

The line of reason that the author takes is that he has managed to show that consumer self-confidences is boosted by the market mavens across the different cultures.

By failing to take the authors finding seriously the implications are that in this international market place. If corporations do not aim at the market mavens they will struggle to find a target market.

The author’s main points of view within the article are looking at market mavens and how they respond to media and changes of information in the market place. It also looks at consumer self confidence and cultural individualism.

I feel that if more questionnaires had been done in more countries there would have had more information to base the results on. It would have found more of a diverse and internationally accurate conclusion whether market mavens boost cross-cultural consumer self-confidence.

Bibliography

Further, Goldsmith et al, On Market Mavens and Consumer Self Interest (2007), p.71, Psychology and Marketing 2007

Lee & Green, (1991), On Market Mavens and Consumer Self Interest (2007), p.71, Psychology and Marketing 2007

Craig & Douglas, (2000), On Market Mavens and Consumer Self Interest (2007), p.76, Psychology and Marketing 2007

Task 4 Networking Survival Guide

Networking Survival Guide (2003) explores the world of networking offering advice on the building connections for self-improvement. The author Diane Darling, shows examples of the benefits good networking can bring to people operating in business

In this book the author is trying to teach and educate the reader in the world of net working. By showing examples of how networking can benefit you in the business world. How it can create pathways to new opportunities of further knowledge and business deals that can lead to success. The book also touches on how people can perceive you and business through impressions.

“If you work for a company, remember that your behavior reflects on it as well as on you.” p.13

Also how experiences with brands, even friend’s experiences can influence your point of view over something.

If you’re already a net worker the book will help you successfully expand your networks. Its not all just about using the internet to network with people its also to do with face to face meeting people and being able to give and receive. We need to continue’ to learn and develop our skills, and as we live in an age where with a click of a button we can access the world via the Internet, we have the whole worlds knowledge at our finger tips and we should take advantage of it.

The author tells us that it is the most essential skill to take control of your own lives and its directions. Networking is you taking control of your professional career, and deciding how you want it to be directed. How you want to source work and build up your own personal reputation.

‘When you network, you are asking others to vouch for you. Your behavior reflects on them. If you are recommend you for a job and you do well, they look great! If the project is doesn’t come in on time or on budget its signals that maybe your standards are different from theirs and they wont consider one of your suggestions in the future.”p.12

This book is a training guide in how to network successfully. The writer has used experiences from her own life, and the work shops she hosts for companies. She wants people to know they are not on their own and there is a world you can access via networking to help you get on and to develop and to learn new skills and you can access it your self.

No man is an island, entire of itself: every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” – John Donne (1572-1631)p.4

The main assumptions that the author makes within this book, is that you only use networking as a business tool, when many people use networking as a social tool to meet people and to keep in contact with old friends. The age we live in and especially myself as a student I use social networking daily, well maybe even hourly. So why could they not tell you how to use that successfully?

If everyone in the world read this interesting and educational book we would live in a society where everyone networked not just in personal lives but in business also. This would maybe make business relationship better and you would find a much wider variety of knowledge and understanding of others and hopefully make the business world a much easier place to work.

If on the other hand this book was to be locked away and never to been seen again and the ideas that it promotes are lost with the book. The worlds business relationships will not widen and grow as affectively. People will find it harder to advance their knowledge out with there geographical location.

The author has a vision on helping people discovering new ways to connect to people through networking. The book is her tool to access more people than she already can via her workshops. This book means she can go global with her ideas of networking and how it can be done successfully.

I feel that more research into networking on a global scale would benefit peoples understanding on the importance of this skill. This would possibly help people want to develop their networking skills and further their careers and social networks.

Bibliography

Darling, Diane (2003) Networking Survival Guide (2003), p.12 – p.13, Ebrary, Inc.

Donne, John, (1572-1631) Networking Survival Guide (2003), p.4, Ebrary, Inc.