This week we were asked to design a door handle, to activate the entrance threshold of our site. It should in someway reflect our own design intervention with colour and material. Or the detail could be an addition to the heritage building or a contemporary insertion.

I started off by drawing 10 sketches of my ideas of the door handle detail:

When sketching my ideas I wanted to explore different ways to approach the door handle design. I mainly focused on Contemporary design. When I think of a good door handle, I think simple and solid with good grip.
In the top drawings I thought more classic (using more simple colours) but tried to include my intervention – focusing on repetition and pattern. Though classic Contemporary door handles are not very significant to my intervention and artist model, my own preference of door handles has always been to go for the simple look.
The drawings below represent my intervention better: I wanted to focus more on movement and colour. The results turned out rather wacky and busy looking, though still holding a solid structure.

Below are some pictures I researched that inspired some of my sketches:

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To move forward with developing three iterations of door handle designs, I will need to have a better understanding of my design.

When choosing to develop a door handle detail out of the sketches, I decided on two designs. The large rectangular door handle for the grand doors and the squiggle-looking door handle for the other doors. I mainly liked the contemporary feel that both designs had in common, showed in different ways.

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In terms of materials, I applied bronze to the smaller handles and my grand door handles are made from polished aluminium. Mainly because I wanted to continue the use of reflective materials and surfaces through the doors of the interior.