My Drafting Session with Cerberus

I'm actually a point where I can post in a decent fashion! Since I didn't want to overload the last entry with this photo, here are the drawings for the drafting assignment completed for Monday. Cerberus was a great model; he held his positions perfectly.

Cerberus, Keeper of the Gate

Another update on our Exquisite Object project: We asked to creatively describe our objects in terms of their function (both literally and figuratively), the architectural characteristics, a quote relevant to our object, an imaginary user, and to rename our object, thus breaking us away from the temporal qualities of said object. This is what I came up with:

CERBERUS, KEEPER OF THE GATE

“The laughter of a dinner party in the next room, the quiet of solitude, the growling of a beast brooding below”

PROPERTIES:

·         Opaque

·         Metallic

·         Reflective

·         Plastic

·         Solid

·         Smooth contour

·         Curved

·         Bilaterally Symmetrical

·         Linearly and Radially Shaped

FUNCTION:

            Literally, the corkscrew bottle opener opens a bottle by puncturing the cork and removing it from the opening through the upward twisting motion of the corkscrew and the downward radial motion of the wings.

            The corkscrew is, in many ways, a gatekeeper.  It oversees the threshold between our world and the effervescent world beyond the cork.  When we have been granted access, the corkscrew springs into action.  Round and round it turns the key in the lock; the door is pulled away, revealing to us a world of reverie and frivolity.  The world greets us with a symphony that tantalizes our senses; tendrils of fog emerge and shroud us; a faint hiss tempts us to step beyond that threshold.  What we actually experience, however, is a world of deception. What exists there is an ephemeral and superficial happiness, one seen stifling the air of upper class dinner parties.  This world is also one of escape, to which people run, never to fully return.  They eventually blur the threshold so much that it becomes unrecognizable.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTERISITCS:

·         Inward shifting of volumes (jutting)

·         Sliding of planes

·         Mass of gears conceals and reveals itself throughout corkscrew’s motion

·         Twisted corkscrew serves as a projection from the main form

·         Gross displacement

·         Stationary form of the object frames a void in which the twisted form rests

·         Central rotation about an axis

USER:

            A high profile bachelor who refuses to admit that he truly does have a drinking problem; he claims to indulge every so often, only having one drink. However, one drink turns to three and three to five. He’s a hapless fool, dwelling too often in the realm beyond the neck of the bottle.

Axonometrics

Hello all! We are in the midst of our exquisite object project in design studio and digital media. We currently are working on layouts for our final drawings, which will be prepared for next Monday. We did, however, complete axonometric drawings for an assignment today. My object, a corkscrew bottle-opener, was quite the challenge. More updates as the drawings unfold...

Happy New Year!

The title says it all, so I don't have to repeat myself. Unfortunately, I just checked the date; it's been almost a month again *sigh*. Then again, it WAS winter break and everything. Anyways, I'm pressing the reset button one this little project one more time.... *click*


*Loading screen*


Okay, I'm back. Now, classes have finally begun again here at Tulane and you know what that means: brand new studio class! This semester, our architecture courses blend seamlessly into our studio curriculum. We'll be learning about construction methods and materials in Technological Systems I, and digital media in, well, Digital Media. The knowledge acquired in these two classes will play a role in design studio, which this semester consists of a semester-long project. We begin with an exquisite object. Now, this object isn't some fancy or expensive object; it's a mechanical object that catches our attention. The object has dynamics, energy, and moving components. First, we are taking our objects and depicting two- and three-dimensionally, through graphical and digital presentation. As the semester progresses, we will ultimately create a building from this object. But for now, it's all about recording the tool itself. I'm excited to get back to work! Hoo-ah!

Utopias and Dystopias, Pt. 1

Lately, my mind's been dwelling upon the idea of utopias and dystopias. I'm quite fascinated with their juxtaposition; on one side, there is a society of advancement, of achievement; on the other, a society that is the victim of its inherent flaws and those of its inhabitants.  When searching for general information, I get info such as this (citation needed; heh heh). However, I get quite frustrated when the only definition you can find is simply "a perfect community or society".  Many of these so-called "utopias" were created in response to movements of their time (i.e. communities created during the Second Great Awakening). 

As a result, I've been cooking up my own definition. In our inherently flawed world, such a society cannot exist. Therefore, we must remove ourselves as theoretical inhabitants of a utopia.  Consider ourselves as Observers of the ideal society.  We, the Observers, can see the various examples of "utopian perfection": technological achievement, social, economic, and political equality, liberty, and cultural knowledge.  There must exist, however, an entity through which the Observers examine these perfections; this entity is the Metropolis. Think not of the Metropolis as a city, but as a being; it lives, breathes, and self-sustains. The Metropolis is also an ecological utopia- that is, the metropolis establishes a direct communication with its environment; that, or through its self-sustainability, it creates its own natural environment.  Therefore, the environment informs the metropolis and vice versa.

Well, that's what's been bouncing around in my head for the entire weekend. This is only a small part of my musings and of what I wish to achieve with this idea. This archinerd's got more thinking to do.

Playing with SketchUp

Architectonic Experimentation: 1st Iteration (Left), Simplified Concept (Right)

Now that classes are over for the holidays, I've finally got some spare time.  In addition to my relaxing, I've been doing a little experimenting with Google SketchUp. I've used it before, so I'm really experimenting with some ideas that I came up with following the final project. I originally started this concept with two L-shapes (sketches coming later) that evolve into the rest of the architectonic composition. Those two L-shapes are seen, in my mind, quite vividly in section, but camouflaged in other areas by the folding planes and lines. This "Architekton" -esque approach to design is something we've been working with all semester at Tulane. This manipulation of forms allows us to creating interesting designs without thinking of it as a building.  Seems counterintuitive, no? Don't worry, it's not. Stayed tuned for updates on this experiment. I promise I won't wait a month to update this time!

Relaxation and Revelations

Wow, I just realized how much time I've spent away from the blog. I'm seriously ashamed that this was placed so far on the back burner with all of my other projects and such. Well, time for a SERIOUS update..


I finished my studio project, "Site as Dwelling_Dwelling as Site", just after the Thanksgiving holidays, complete with 1/8 scale site drawings, sections, and diagrams.  I also constructed an 1/8 scale house detail and a 1/16 site model.  Here are a few things brought up in the final critique:


1. The critics liked my idea of approaching the site and dwelling as a musical piece (pertinent to my client, Philip Glass)


2.  My "folding earth" concept was well received (I really should have updated this earlier to fill you all in on this). This concept described how the earth plane on which my house sits folds itself, becoming the rear dwelling wall, and ultimately constituting the roof of my design.  Therefore, when seen from different angles, it makes a sort of cocoon.


3.  The critics, however, felt that my design, from the musical standpoint, stagnated once the "musical piece" reached the dwelling. The playfulness seen throughout the site seems to disappear once one enters the dwelling.  They also felt that the folding earth concept was not conveyed strongly enough through my final models. One critic stated that I had an unconventional idea (a good thing, I guess?), but, as a first year, was only capable of conveying it through conventional methods (i.e. standard plan, section, etc.) which in turn weakened the idea as a whole.


That just about covers the critique. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to upload any pictures for a good while, since I left my USB cord in my room (*sigh*)...


I also want to take a moment to express my apologies to those who may have (thanks, 4 followers) been consistently following my blog.  After starting the final studio stuff, studying for finals, much of my free time was taken away.  I also believe that I've been approaching this whole blog thing from a slightly incorrect angle.  This foray into blogging was originally meant to chart my intellectual growth, artistic included, as I went through the toils of architecture shcool.  However, I feel that I've always done either one or two things: 1. Inundate you with pictures or 2. Inundate you with words. So, I really want to spend this holiday break trying to figure out how I can find a happy medium between these two. Starting now, ArchiNerd's going to go into a bit of an experimental phase, per se.  I'm going to try to find a way to keep you folks interested while not overwhelming myself to a point that this project becomes a burden. I feel that this is meant to supplement my studio education with a little self-education....As if design studio isn't already about self-education. Happy Holidays, everyone!