More Concept

Here again is a follow on to the kitchen design. I tried to capture a greater sense of clutter as well as introducing a colour theme to it.

Kitchen Concept

Kitchen and Dining Concepts and Layout

With the resources gathered I was assigned the duty to create a layout for the kitchen and dining room. Here are some very basic initial sketches that I made.

Kitchen/Dining room layout

Kitchen

Dining

This was more directed towards the actual layout than to get the "feel". A room requires a certain for example, the kitchen would require a place for cooking, a place for cutting, a place for washing etc. Similarly for the dining room.

In my next sketches I hope to incorporate these with an idea of textures and lighting.

The Dining Room, Kitchen and everything in it!

Just to understand the feel of the oriental kitchen I felt it would be a good idea to mildly study oriental cuisines and more importantly the dishes they are served in. It may be difficult to find things such as every day cutlery from the exact century that was recovered from a Junk ship. The functionality of certain things will not change so drastically over time. Things like bowls, cups etc can probably best guessed by viewing currently used similar items and adapting the style of what currently is, to the style it may have been (using references from better preserved artifacts). However if in my research I do discover more information that gives me a better idea of specific items, I will be sure to amend my work. I do feel that as long as the audience is convinced of its authenticity, then there will be no problem. Its quite likely that less than one person in a crowd of people would notice the difference between a 14th century bowl and a 15th! This is just a mention on the limitations of ones research.  It is more important to me at this moment that the essence of an olden Chinese Kitchen is captured. Here are a few helpful photos. 

Tools/Pots/Facilities

Colours/Textures

Conclusions to Historical Context

Some of the basic conclusions made from historical research:
Time Period: 14/15th Century
Dynasty: Ming
Junk Ship Types: Fishing, Treasure and Battle boats

Given the time frame of this project our group opted to make a "Treasure Junk". These are the median of all three boats mentioned above in terms of size. Its function was solely to do trading of goods. From various references we eventually established that the boat would need to have:
A room for the captain
A Kitchen
A Dining Room
A sleeping quarters for the other workers
A storage room
A traditional tent-styled room in the very top of the boat. (Where the captain usually sits)
(and obviously sails, corridors and a deck along with the rest of the boat.)

Amongst these rooms, I was assigned to make concept work for the Kitchen and Dining rooms to form a general layout.

Here are some images I gathered to get a better understanding of an oriental/olden kitchen.

Has authentic feel

Very interesting Texture/Lighting

Another very nice example of what an olden oriental kitchen may have been like

Messy- but nice feel!

Historical Context: Zheng He

Once choosing a Chinese Junk Ship as our environment project we were all compelled to find out more about their history. When did they come about and why? What purpose did they serve? How long did they thrive for? These were the types of questions that would give a reason for our ship to be a certain way. We could then perhaps think of interesting ways of presenting our final piece. We could even think about having a small narrative running through our empty boat. The story could be then told by the objects in the boat.

Having researched many resources including the web, books and even a television documentary my group ascertained a great deal of information about the rise of the junk ship and thereby, the rise of the east during the late 1300's. The man behind it was Admiral Zheng He: a Muslim eunuch said to have been seven feet tall.

The story was so interesting that I must attempt to explain my own interpretation of it.

The young muslim boy was a normal child from a province in China in a time where the emperors' word was held as divine. By order of the emperor of the time, his village was torn apart by imperial soldiers and he himself was made a eunuch by force to then serve in the royal court. Yet it was this very cruel set of circumstances that led to his latter fortune. He became friends with the prince who was very fond of Zheng He. When the prince was crowned the emperor of China, he shared a vision with Zheng He to set sail and discover the rest of the world. The Chinese Armada had thousands of ships ready for trade, social interaction and even war. Zhang He was entrusted as the Admiral of this grand fleet.  The ships of Zheng He sailed through Asia to as far as the African continent.

The voyages of this massive fleet created the biggest social interaction in history and Zheng He grew popular and powerful as China's ambassador.

Meanwhile back in the royal courts of China a conflict grew between the open minded, experimental Eunuchs and the more traditional, conservative Confucian followers. The Confucian followers felt threatened by the Eunuchs and once Zheng He's friend and emperor passed away, the end had come to  Zheng He's exploration. His armada was disassembled and the Confucian way of life became dominant once again. So much so, that although Zhang He discovered places up to 8 decades before Colombus and Vasco da Gama, his name was erased from history by his own people.

Probably the most interesting of all was the impact this may have had on the world. At this stage, the world was heavily influenced by the east and some experts believe that if China continued trade then the east would have maintained this until today. Some people believe that the discontinuation of Chinas' trade was what led to the west having the greatest influence of today. This is all speculation, however this story encapsulates a mans legacy, his rise and fall, and how this one person may have changed the course of history with his vision to explore the world.

The Junk Ship Layout: A look inside

As much information that there was to find out about the famous junk ships- much of their essence was usually captured in the superficial architecture of its external structure. There are numerous photos and books to give an idea about the how it looks from the outside. However, given that our environment project required us to model its interior, we needed to find out more about its structure, its function and its historical context. This way we would be able to uncover more information about how the junk yard was inside.

Here are some schematic drawings of the Junk Ship.

Side-on View

Front and Side

Front and Side

Side and Top

More References

Here are further images used as references to myself and my group.