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!