Project 1, Beginning To (almost) End

STABILITY/INSTABILITY


First figure-ground concept



3-d concept model from b/w compositions



Construction diagram



First model plan



Concept diagram



Cardboard stock



Parts kit created from 36 9"x9" sheets, which becomes........



...a more fully developed concept model......



........then revised into a finish-quality chipboard model.



and recorded as a charcoal 3-d sketch.

Et tu, chipboard?

Project 1, final rally.
Chipboard is fickle; do it right or do it twice.

Vernacular building techniques

Fascinating, though somewhat dry article explaining the methods the Nubians used to build vaulted brick structures in 1300BC.

http://www.earth-auroville.com/index.php?nav=menu&pg=vault&id1=4

It's important to have principles.

When I was first learning about Jazz harmony, my high school music theory teacher assigned us each a chart to copy down by hand, note for note. Once you had a chart copied, you were to listen to the original recording and transcribe each solo, note for note. In this way, we learned how to bring together musical elements and improvise over them. Learning the principles of design is not too different. To understand the process that brings an idea into form, you need to look at each component carefully and draw what you see.

Vers Une architecture du carton ondulé

It's going to be a late night.

*click*

The frustration with drawing like a first grader for the last two months forced me to practice. Something just fell into place this morning during a freehand exercise.

By 3pm Thursday, got it?

I hope my notes can tell me what I rapidly dashed out on this piece of trace, because I need to turn it into a 1/4"=1' scale hard-line projection of my studio space by no later than Thursday at 3pm. This is supposed to be a seven day project; the instructor has a conflict so we have to turn it in early to make up the class day. Good thing I am industrious.
Better get drafting.

Week Two: Archi-nerd boogaloo

Spots. Dots. Spots. Dots. Strips and blips.
All week, I have been slicing up bits of black and white paper and arranging them to create figure-ground panels, which probably explains why my synapse turned to jelly around 6:30 last evening. It is an exercise that is not so much about the product, but the thoughtfulness with which you progress through to the end. Concisely stating the key concepts of your process is the underlying focus of the project.
Tedium exists elsewhere. For a theory class, we are hand-copying the building plans, sections, elevations, and details of this home by Wheeler Kearns Architects. Replicating the side elevation and section in careful freehand took two hours.
Also, architects have a tendency to paste "ality" or "arity" on the ends of adjectives to describe something in the most pretentious possible way.
Example: A shape that is round has circularity. The corrugation of cardboard is its materiality. If this creeps into my vernacular, slap me until I stop.
And if I hear someone say "for all intensive purposes" another 300 times this week, I might finally crack.

Some samples of the first studio project: Implicit/Explicit space, inside/outside.




Precisely mitering and gluing 3/8" basswood begins to chip away at your mental state after awhile.