SGA Atlantis Decor

[ranosonar]

i really like the architecture and interior design on the stargate atlantis set, does anyone have any ideas as to how i could make or buy things like light fixtures, wall hangings, computor mods, ect that go along with lantean architecture?

[whichlilith]

Hi all! The same here: I just love the interior Atlantean design, which is both consistent and functionally simple. The post by ranosonar is pretty old, and there is no reply yet. If anybody is interested, I would be really grateful for a creative discussion.

I made some screenshots and just bought a little house (in fact an 600 years old tower) in the center of France. My plan is to use elements of the Atlantean design for the interior, such as lamps, wall decor and tables, all DIY. If someone feels that this is a good idea, has some suggestions or flash of creativity, it would be great to open a little discussion about it. In any case, once there is something to show, I will create a little website.

Cheers, and soon more!

Michelle

[Krisz]

Hi all! The same here: I just love the interior Atlantean design, which is both consistent and functionally simple. The post by ranosonar is pretty old, and there is no reply yet. If anybody is interested, I would be really grateful for a creative discussion.

I made some screenshots and just bought a little house (in fact an 600 years old tower) in the center of France. My plan is to use elements of the Atlantean design for the interior, such as lamps, wall decor and tables, all DIY. If someone feels that this is a good idea, has some suggestions or flash of creativity, it would be great to open a little discussion about it. In any case, once there is something to show, I will create a little website.

Cheers, and soon more!

Michelle

I'm fascinated about what the tower you've bought looks like, what an adventure it will be to renovate that?! I look forward to following the progress of your project.

I really love the stained glass windows and have thought often of putting an Atlantean design in a window like opening we have in the living room wall to the entrance hall. That space just cries out for this as in mid summer the sunlight shines through the window above the front door and it would be lovely. I took a few photos of the glass designs when I visited the set so at least I have an idea of their look close up. I'm not sure but it may be possible to buy stained glass window kits and create your own design. I just haven't gone further than just thinking about doing this though.

I've seen a couple of chairs used in SGA in Staples and it wouldn't surprise me if some of the light fixtures were bought from the hardware store up the road from the studios! The conference table is made up of plywood sections, (for ease of moving for set changes). With the great skills of the scenery and props dept it's amazing what everyday materials can be made to look so different and real.

[nakedwesley]

If you want a good look at the various light fixtures, windows, wall designs etc, check out the Propworx auctions on ebay. They've got some nice, close up photos.

I remember John Smith saying those weird geometric window decorations were cut out of styrofoam packing material.

[whichlilith]

Thanks a lot for your reply and interest, Krisz. As soon as things move forward, I will set up a website... maybe even before, to present some screenshots and close-ups of Atlantean design elements from the series.

The first room I am working on right now is the "computer room" (yeah, being a bit of a geek I need a dedicated geeky computer room... sorry for that ;-)). I am thinking about darkish red wallpaper, overlayed by some wooden panels cut in the form of the chair-room, painted in metallic/rusty style. That's the easiest part. Unfortunately, there is not much material in the shows (I just watched them recently season 1 to 5) concerning the ceiling. The best shots I found were in Season 5's "Seed" episode or so. But again, just a proper assembling of wooden beams should do the trick.

For the lamps, well, I don't think the SGA design team bought them straight from a store. I never saw even a similar concept implemented in a obtainable mainstream fashion. But DIY should be easy as well. I think about cutting appropriate forms out of wood, stacking them over each other, and using plexiglass for the light elements, just in the show. For the lightening up there are so far two ideas in my head: Either using an ordinary neon lamp (usually obtainable as is for just putting in the corner... usually they come in blue light) as core inside the stacked wooden forms, or (and this is more fancy), using LED strips readily available on the meter scale. The latter can surely be fixed (glued or whatever) on the sides of the plexiglass, thus transmitting the light through in the fashion shown in the show. I even thing that this is the way they did this. Now, the plexiglass comes in different colours, and so even the fancy white/yellow lamps are doable on the cheap side. Just a bit of cutting through wood and plexiglass.

For the desk in my "computer room"... well, here I need to deviate a bit from the show. I like the computer desks very much (not the conference desk though), but for a coherent interior I would love to have transparent glass. The reason is that I also plan to have a whiteboard-style board there, but made from glass, on which to write with a white glass marker, or, more fancy, on which to back-project and use either Wii or another solution for an improvised DIY touch-screen or interactive whiteboard. This goes a bit along with the Atlantean computer screens, which are glass or acryl hanging from the ceiling.

The biggest problem so far is the floor, which is solid stone plates with a horrible pattern, but I don't want to move them out. So, here I need to see. Anyway, so much for the works to be done in the following weeks. As I said, website with screenshots, design ideas and DIY implementations and the like will follow as soon as my server is installed and running (being in a remote area of France doesn't make this part easy).

Oh, and yes, I absolutely agree: Everyday material made to look so familiarly alien, that's one of the biggest plusses for SGA. I watched many Sci-Fi shows, but SGA is the first one which has a consistent and believable design behind it (the second in this category is BSG). It might actually work in reality... not so with StarTrek designs and the like.

And, finally, well, it might come as no surprise, but I officially renamed my tower now "Atlantis". More to come ;-)


Cheers, and soon more!

Michelle

[whichlilith]

If you want a good look at the various light fixtures, windows, wall designs etc, check out the Propworx auctions on ebay. They've got some nice, close up photos.

I remember John Smith saying those weird geometric window decorations were cut out of styrofoam packing material.

Thanks a lot for the link to Propworx! I see some BSG stuff there... which I am also very much interested in. So, thanks a lot!!!

For the windows, yes, that might be so. However, this would not work for a real world house. But with a bit of coloured plexiglass, some cutting skills and of course some screenshots the windows, especially the colourful ones in the gate-room (to the balcony outside) are doable on the cheap scale as well. By the way, does anybody have experience with plexiglass-shop (http://www.plexiglas-shop.com)? From what I gathered, they offer pretty cheap solutions for the core material, and it comes along in a variety which stunned me. So, if this is real and they do business with "normal" people, then only the sky is the limit.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your suggestions. More to come soon!

Cheers,

Michelle

[whichlilith]

Hey fellow Atlanteans,

by the way, this is a quick shot of the core I am working with, just to give you an idea. The tower is pretty Roman in design, so surely "ancient".



More to come!

Cheers,

Michelle

[escyos]

you need doors that slide sideways and hand swiping things to open them. plus you need light dimmers that you wave your hand over.

check out Joe Mallozzi's blog , especially the posts around two years ago and before, there are lots of pictures and design blueprints that can be used to create your designs.

or go to the mgm stargate site and see the production videos they have there, im pretty sure there is a set tour video on there.