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!