The Chakra

1. The Chakra Enhancing the balance of life through color

2. The Chakra Designer: Chelsea Vautrin Location: DuPont Circle, Washington D.C. IND 404 – Contract Design II Studio Sage College of Albany April 15, 2010

3. Contents • Concept Statement • Program • Research • Design Process • Sketches and Designs • Inspirations • Floor Plans • Final Presentations Boards

4. Concept Enhancing the balance of life through color

5. Program First Floor • Lobby -Reception (for 2) -Chakra symbol LED backlight metal screen -Buddha -Zen Garden -Circular glass tube elevator -Wrap around couch • Bar/Cafe -8 Half circle booths -7 pub tables -Backlight Bar -Seating for 12 -Outdoor Patio • Kitchen • Cook/prep area • Dishwashing station • Ovens • Sinks • Woodstove • Walk in cooler • Dry Storage • Kitchen Manager • Storage • Laundry Unit (2 Washers, 2 Dryers) • Storage of all products • Extra Linens • Cleaning Products • Carts • Office Storage

6. Employee Lounge • - Small sitting area • - Table with 4 chairs • - Lockers for personal storage • - Small kitchenette • Mechanical Room • Lighting controls • Security screens • Computers • Modems • President & Vice President Office • Executive Desk • Phone and fax • Monitors • Filing storage • Guest seating for two • Emergency Stairs • Service Elevator • - Not for public use

7. Second Floor • Red Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Red room guests only • Red color therapy sessions • Yoga in Red • Relaxation center

8. Third Floor • Orange Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Orange room guests only • Orange color therapy sessions • Yoga in Orange • Relaxation center

9. Fourth Floor • Yellow Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Yellow room guests only • Yellow color therapy sessions • Yoga in Yellow • Relaxation center

10. Fifth Floor • Green Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Green room guests only • Green color therapy sessions • Yoga in Green • Relaxation center

11. Sixth Floor • Blue Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Blue room guests only • Blue color therapy sessions • Yoga in Blue • Relaxation center

12. Seventh Floor • Violet Floor • Deluxe Suite • Deluxe master bathroom • King size bed • Living Area • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service availability • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Queen Suite • Queen size bed • Luxury bathroom • High Table Dining • Balcony • Room service available • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Normal Suite • 2 Double beds • Balcony • Luxury Bathroom • Digital Cable/Wireless Internet • Yoga Room • Violet room guests only • Violet color therapy sessions • Yoga in Violet • Relaxation center

13. Amenities • Complimentary Colored Robe to your room selection • Bath Spa package with your color • Room Service available in Deluxe and Queen Suites • Bar/Café’ located on hotel premises • Complimentary Digital Cable and Wireless Internet in all rooms

14. Research http://healing.about.com/cs/colortherapy/a/aa_colortherapy.htm Color therapy, also known as chromotherapy, is often facilitated in the healing rooms of alternative health practitioners. Color therapy is classified as a vibrational healing modality. Vibrational medicine incorporates the use of chi energies within living organisms such as plants, gemstones and crystals, water, sunlight, and sound. Color is simply a form of visible light, of electromagnetic energy. All the primary colors reflected in the rainbow carry their own unique healing properties. The sun alone is a wonderful healer! Just imagine what life would be like without sunshine. It has been proven that lack of sunlight contributes to depression for some people. A therapist trained in color therapy applies light and color in the form of tools, visualization, or verbal suggestion to balance energy in the areas of our bodies that are lacking vibrance, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental.

15. Color Therapy What is Color Therapy? Color therapy is an area of holistic healing which uses color in an attempt to affect our mood, emotions and possibly even our health. There are different ways to incorporate color therapy into your life. The color of the light entering your body is concentrated in one spectrum. The mood or emotions associated with that color are enhanced, which can cause a shift in that direction.

16. How Does Color Therapy Work? Light can affect our mood. Even though we don't see it, the light around us contains the full spectrum of colors. Each color has its own frequency and vibration. In some natural healing schools of thought, different colors are believed to relate to different parts of our body called Chakras. It is thought by some that our tissues and organs need the same energies as light. When disease or injury disturbs the vibration and energy of an organ or area of our body, applying the associated color frequency can restore the body to health. Color is thought to do the same thing. Each color's vibration is associated with different attributes and qualities. Light entering through our eyes may trigger the production of hormones which control the biochemical system of the body. It also can influence our emotions and well-being by supplying the frequency we need to keep our mind and body in balance. Color does not heal. Rather, it enables the body to heal itself.

17. Chakras Chakras are the sacred centers within that carry us on our journey toward greater awareness and aliveness. As the architecture of the soul, they provide an important map for our wholeness and transformation, both personally and globally. As an ancient spiritual system, they show the path to enlightenment and integration. The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk and signifies one of seven basic energy centers in the body that correspond to nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column, as well as states of consciousness, developmental stages of life, archetypal elements, body functions, colors, sounds, and much, much more. Together they form a profound formula for wholeness and a template for transformation.

18. Chakra Seven: Sahasrara Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge This is the crown chakra that relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is our connection to the greater world beyond, to a timeless, spaceless place of all-knowing. When developed, this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection, and bliss.

19. Chakra 7 Exercise There is no better exercise for chakra seven than meditation. But there are many forms of meditation. You can meditate while walking, focus on the breath, utter a mantra, imagine an image, or simply empty your mind completely and sit in emptiness. (That takes PRACTICE!). What is most important is to connect through the crown chakra to the limitless source, so that you are an open system, pulling that source into your crown and down through all your chakras. Opening the crown chakra is not just a matter of lifting our energy UP, but of moving it DOWN to manifestation as well. In this way the chakras become condensers of the cosmic energy of universal consciousness, condensing it into the seven levels of manifestation: thought, light, sound, air, fire, water, and earth.

20. Chakra Six: Ajna Light, Archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection This chakra is known as the brow chakra or third eye center. It is related to the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively. As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels. When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us “see the big picture.”

21. Chakra Six Exercise Chakra Six is light, higher mind, intuition, and imagination. A simple exercise to begin bringing light into your inner world is to “capture” light wherever you see it and bring it inside. Here’s how you do it: Next time you are watching a beautiful sunset, open your entire awareness to the experience of drinking in the light. Then close your eyes and visualize what you just saw in your inner third eye. Keep doing it until you can call up the image at will. You can do this any time you see a particularly beautiful color, the glare of light coming off a car windshield, the way light plays on the trees as the breeze blows, the light of a candle during your meditation. See if you can retain these images that you bring inside, calling them up at will days later. This will help develop your third eye capacity.

22. Chakra Five: Vishuddha Sound, Creative identity, oriented to self- Expression This is the chakra located in the throat and is thus related to communication and creativity. Here we experience the world symbolically through vibration, such as the vibration of sound representing language.

23. Chakra Five Exercise Chakra five works with sound and vibration. You can do a powerful chakra meditation using the seed sounds of the chakras given in the ancient texts, called bija mantras. Repeat the sounds over and over at a rhythm that feels pleasant to you, going slow if you want to calm your chakras and faster if you want to stimulate them. You can sing them all in one tone, or you can go up in pitch with each chakra. Experiment to see what is most effective for you. The Sound Goes As Follows: Chakra 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sound Lam Vam Ram Yam Ham Ksham Silence

24. Chakra Four: Anahata Air, Social identity, oriented to self- Acceptance This chakra is called the heart chakra and is the middle chakra in a system of seven. It is related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyche: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, have a deep sense of peace and centeredness.

25. Chakra Four Exercise The heart chakra relates to the element of air, so we work with the breath. This is an exercise designed to expand the heart in all directions. Sitting in a comfortable meditation posture with spine erect, close your eyes and tune into your heart. If you can, feel your heartbeat. First begin gently breathing in and out getting a slow steady rhythm. Then imagine that you are inhaling in the left side (receptive) and expanding your heart out to the left. Take a few breaths here, then imagine expanding your heart to the right side (expressive) and feel your heart space widening. Then breathe into the bottom of your heart, deepening your compassion, for self and others. After a few breaths here, imagine you are breathing into the top of your heart, lifting the heart to blossom into the shoulders. Finally inhale, pushing your heart energy forward, out in the world.

26. Chakra Three: Manipura Fire, Ego identity, oriented to self- Definition This chakra is known as the power chakra, located in the solar plexus. It rules our personal power, will, and autonomy, as well as our metabolism. When healthy, this chakra brings us energy, effectiveness, spontaneity, and non-dominating power.

27. Chakra Three Exercise Focus on developing core strength to increase your sense of personal power. In general, stomach crunches (modified sit-ups) are always a good bet for creating abdominal strength. But the best is working in plank pose. Start by lying on the floor, face down. Place your hands below your shoulders, arms straight. Lift the entire body off the ground, toes curled under, body and legs one straight line, parallel to the floor. Hold for at least one minute. For added challenge balance on your forearms, elbows directly underneath the shoulders. For even more challenge, alternately lift each leg of the floor and hold.

28. Chakra Two: Svadhisthana Water, Emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification The second chakra, located in the abdomen, lower back, and sexual organs, is related to the element water, and to emotions and sexuality. It connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation, and movement. Ideally this chakra brings us fluidity and grace, depth of feeling, sexual fulfillment, and the ability to accept change.

29. Chakra Two Exercise Chakra Two, located in the sacral area, is related to element of water, so its purpose is fluidity. Sit comfortably, legs crossed Indian style. Inhale, pushing the tip of your spine backward, opening the front of your sacrum, expanding and filling your lower belly. Imagine you are stretching your hips wide. Exhale, moving your sacrum in the opposite direction, pressing the navel back toward the spine. Repeat, building up speed as you go. Allow the fluidity of this pelvic movement to flow all the way up the spine.

30. Chakra One: Muladhara Earth, Physical identity, oriented to self- Preservation Located at the base of the spine, this chakra forms our foundation. It represents the element earth, and is therefore related to our survival instincts, and to our sense of grounding and connection to our bodies and the physical plane. Ideally this chakra brings us health, prosperity, security, and dynamic presence.

31. Chakra One Exercise Chakra one, located at the base of the spine, has to do with grounding and sending your energy downward into your roots and into the earth. Here’s a simple exercise you can practice to energize the legs and develop better grounding. Stand with your feet hip width apart, heels slightly wider than the toes. Press down and out with your feet, as if you were trying to push apart the floorboards with your feet. Inhale as you bed your knees; exhale as you push down into your feet, pushing through your legs. Repeat until your legs begin to vibrate. Once you learn this, you can practice it any time you find yourself standing – in line at the grocery store, pumping gas, cooking, or on the phone.

33. http://www.sacredcenters.com/chakras/chakra-exercises#chakra3http://www.sacredcenters.com/chakras/chakra-exercises#chakra3

34. Design Process

36. Sketches and Designs

38. Inspirations

46. The Chakra Floor Plans and Layout

47. First Floor Plan

48. Second – Seventh Floor Plans

49. The Chakra Final Boar Presentation