Alright, well those are some examples of his work... take it as you will, but these for me drive the same emotions as the Utrecht Library proposal by 3xn that I posted a couple weeks ago.
- c
Saturday, September 18, 2010
my dreams: materially
So I was flipping through a magazine in the arch lib yesterday as I was waiting for my hw to print out and came upon some architecture that makes me want to stop everything I'm doing and work for this guy. His name is Yousef al-Mehdari and I would pay a million dollars just to have a dinner with him. I think most people would find his work overwhelming and exhuberant, but I think it's amazing, it's so complex I can't be offeded, but only in awe. I think that if my dreams were to express themselves in an architecture... it would manifest itself like these... so detailed, complex and confusing... deeply terrifying and altogether an entrancing experience.
some things
Haven't blogged in a while, but today's a slow morning. It's already three weeks into school... last week my my first of no sleep and I kind of forsee a lot more of these weeks to come. Of course part of my no-sleep was due to my studio from last semester setting up our project in EMPAC. Oatman named it "Blindfield" one of those clever word mashes he comes up with... I just kind of think it's silly.
I have to say before it got underway I was really nervous. I wasn't sure how mine and Katie's layout was going to work and I was kind of freaking out. I knew that if our layout was horrible in real-life we'd be getting ragged on for a long, long time... especially seeing as when I proposed the 'field' condition yet again at the end of the studio all I heard was about people talking behind my back about how bad an idea it was. Well, I must say after me, Jenni, Justin, and Elliot raised those first three panels in the back right corner, I was proud of pushing my idea so far (maybe when people disrespect me/ don't follow me it's they who don't know what they're talking about...). I know that Elliot and James will brag day in and day out about how much work they did - how they were the only people ever doing work in that studio - but they didn't see me and Katie every day and night up in Studio when they were working down in the shop - I really hate the self-righteousness of the people I have classes with.
In our critique there was a sweet old man from architecture+ in downtown Troy who I totally respect and am now interested in working for. He had great commentary for the entire project, and especially liked my layout ideas... he really discussed the effects of it in the ways I had intended - the reasons I had pushed so hard for a field condition... it's all about finding yourself, just like Francisco's music.... when you lose yourself and finally return - that's when you know the most who you really are. Well, enough of my self-righteousness... I felt like I had to get it across the work that I did for this project if not vocally, at least here on the blog. I hate not getting credit for all the things I do - even though it seems to happen on almost every project... people here are just so power hungry.
Ah, these things I always forget about architecture school. I always default to believing in the goodness and fun that I have with everyone here and then it's always the people that I'm closest to who disappoint me the most. I feel alienated already about the things I like: old architecture, reading/modernity class, etc. I feel like an outsider when I enjoy these things by the reactions of my friends.... which sucks a lot. This, as well as there being compeition in the hanging-up/ taking-down of 'Blindfield' makes me want to get away from all of this. I don't care who is wrapping up panels faster or better I don't even understand why it has to be brought into conversation... it just makes me feel worthless being told I'm inferior doing stupid things like that... I guess people really don't understand how little confidence I have in myself.
There are so many things I should be writing now, but for some reason it's like dragging a plow trying to get these words out. I could talk about how great my uncle's wedding was, how me and Eric are hanging by a string, how I get homesick every weekend and every time I see my parents... but for some reason I'm already shutting myself out being here at rpi. Whereas the words would flow like liquid gold this summer, it's like searching out for the tiniest diamond now... nothing's coming to me. So I guess this would be a good place to end things for now.... before I go onto to rambling more about things that don't matter or that I'll regret writing later. I just hope things get better soon... I want to feel like I belong here.
- c
I have to say before it got underway I was really nervous. I wasn't sure how mine and Katie's layout was going to work and I was kind of freaking out. I knew that if our layout was horrible in real-life we'd be getting ragged on for a long, long time... especially seeing as when I proposed the 'field' condition yet again at the end of the studio all I heard was about people talking behind my back about how bad an idea it was. Well, I must say after me, Jenni, Justin, and Elliot raised those first three panels in the back right corner, I was proud of pushing my idea so far (maybe when people disrespect me/ don't follow me it's they who don't know what they're talking about...). I know that Elliot and James will brag day in and day out about how much work they did - how they were the only people ever doing work in that studio - but they didn't see me and Katie every day and night up in Studio when they were working down in the shop - I really hate the self-righteousness of the people I have classes with.
In our critique there was a sweet old man from architecture+ in downtown Troy who I totally respect and am now interested in working for. He had great commentary for the entire project, and especially liked my layout ideas... he really discussed the effects of it in the ways I had intended - the reasons I had pushed so hard for a field condition... it's all about finding yourself, just like Francisco's music.... when you lose yourself and finally return - that's when you know the most who you really are. Well, enough of my self-righteousness... I felt like I had to get it across the work that I did for this project if not vocally, at least here on the blog. I hate not getting credit for all the things I do - even though it seems to happen on almost every project... people here are just so power hungry.
Ah, these things I always forget about architecture school. I always default to believing in the goodness and fun that I have with everyone here and then it's always the people that I'm closest to who disappoint me the most. I feel alienated already about the things I like: old architecture, reading/modernity class, etc. I feel like an outsider when I enjoy these things by the reactions of my friends.... which sucks a lot. This, as well as there being compeition in the hanging-up/ taking-down of 'Blindfield' makes me want to get away from all of this. I don't care who is wrapping up panels faster or better I don't even understand why it has to be brought into conversation... it just makes me feel worthless being told I'm inferior doing stupid things like that... I guess people really don't understand how little confidence I have in myself.
There are so many things I should be writing now, but for some reason it's like dragging a plow trying to get these words out. I could talk about how great my uncle's wedding was, how me and Eric are hanging by a string, how I get homesick every weekend and every time I see my parents... but for some reason I'm already shutting myself out being here at rpi. Whereas the words would flow like liquid gold this summer, it's like searching out for the tiniest diamond now... nothing's coming to me. So I guess this would be a good place to end things for now.... before I go onto to rambling more about things that don't matter or that I'll regret writing later. I just hope things get better soon... I want to feel like I belong here.
- c
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
projects i like... a lot
Of course I couldn't find anything inspirational allllll summer long that I wanted to use as a DD project, and then right after we go through the selection process, I find a million and a half other AMAZING projects that I would die to be working on right now. Thought I'd share these before I forget about them, they are all really captivating and I would love to go and see them - if they ever get built.
1. Zaha, Hague Competition (2010?)
I almost died when I saw Steve and Kyle post this as one of their choices for the DD project, I would go through almost anything to see this building, and I even wanted sooo bad for someone to be able to dd this project, but it's too big to tackle in one semester.
3. BIG Architects, the Ted Building
This one reminds me of one of the passageways we walked up through on one of the hills of Rome (yea Blanchard would kill me right now, and my inner 'wanting-to-be-a-historic-pres person' is kiling me, too, but it's one in the morning and there are a million other things on my mind, that I should be doing...) whatever. I like this project pretty much for this one view they show in a render. (and for the fact that the building has a name... Ted.... awesome name for a building)
This view reminds me of when we walked up through a passageway in Blanchard's class, I remember we walked through a stairwell with a man playing the guitar and arrived at a church with a huge epitatph carved by Michelangelo, with Moses sitting in the middle. I just can't remember what hill it was, or what church... I think on the walk there Blanchard was asking us if we knew what hills we were on... I definitely didn't.
Okay, well these are the three projects that have recently caught my eye and soul... I guess more the first two were important, especially the second one, but the other two have their perks that make them interesting as well. For now though, I should really be getting some sleep, especially if I want the Netherlands to be hearing something coherent tomorrow.
- c
1. Zaha, Hague Competition (2010?)
I almost died when I saw Steve and Kyle post this as one of their choices for the DD project, I would go through almost anything to see this building, and I even wanted sooo bad for someone to be able to dd this project, but it's too big to tackle in one semester.
2. 3Xn, Uterecht Library
This project really calls to me, I think I begin to see some of my inner-workings when I think about the real reasons why I like this thing... and as stupid as the reasons are to write down or for other people to read, you just have to understand that there are some things that pull at your heart that I would laugh at or not understand, and so there are also things that really get to me that are stupid and useless.... but sometimes this strange things we are attracted to give us a vision of our core. So what I keep thinking about when I see this project is the veil from tim burton's corpse bride movie and every time I see this building it makes me sad to think about that story, and just about all of the implications of a veil... what it means for so many people, it's varations and the sadness that I associate with veils now. I guess it's those crazy sorts of associations that do me in for being able to express myself without feeling like an idiot, but there's something insde of me that makes that movie so overwhelmingly sad that I love it, and the same goes for this sad, veiled building that is so magnificant at the same time.
3. BIG Architects, the Ted Building
This one reminds me of one of the passageways we walked up through on one of the hills of Rome (yea Blanchard would kill me right now, and my inner 'wanting-to-be-a-historic-pres person' is kiling me, too, but it's one in the morning and there are a million other things on my mind, that I should be doing...) whatever. I like this project pretty much for this one view they show in a render. (and for the fact that the building has a name... Ted.... awesome name for a building)
This view reminds me of when we walked up through a passageway in Blanchard's class, I remember we walked through a stairwell with a man playing the guitar and arrived at a church with a huge epitatph carved by Michelangelo, with Moses sitting in the middle. I just can't remember what hill it was, or what church... I think on the walk there Blanchard was asking us if we knew what hills we were on... I definitely didn't.
Okay, well these are the three projects that have recently caught my eye and soul... I guess more the first two were important, especially the second one, but the other two have their perks that make them interesting as well. For now though, I should really be getting some sleep, especially if I want the Netherlands to be hearing something coherent tomorrow.
- c
monday night blues
So it's Monday night, after the first weekend of school... a weekend I should have enjoyed every minute of - to the fullest... three days we got here! But of course I look back and I don't know where it's gone. I know I spent all of today being an unproductive goofball and that seems to be the mark of the semester so far... I feel super lazy sitting next to James as he hacking away at our Microstation model. Even sitting here now, I know Marissa is in the kitchen editing her eighty diagrams to a perfection that noone will notice but her (that's saying that they are perfect diagrams, but she's going to work on them until they reach some sublime state of greatness). And here I am in my room writing on my bloooog... haha what a nerd.
What really sucks, too, is that I have my Modernity book sitting right next to me... and I WANT to read it, but for some odd reason I'm not. I think I'm believing Modernity is going to be the 'god' of all the BTA classes and I want to treat this book as the Bible. My notes have been so meticulous, I've even been trying really hard to write them neatly, orderly, and so that I can actually reference them for studying and after the class... gosh, today I even spent my entire morning dedicated to making a label for my notebook! (okay, so that was partly just a remedial hungover task for me to accomplish to start off the day...) I think this whole 'school thing' hasn't hit me yet, but come tomorrow - it will. I already have five chapters due tomorrow at 6p for ProP that I haven't started... as well as finishing diagrams, working in Microstation, writing a new paragraph for our project statement, there's also Structures II at noon, Marissa wants to go to Arlene's (and I need to get some things, too), anddd three more thirty-page Modernity readings that I haven't even started yet.... and that's not even beginning to think about Wednesday where there will be class at 8a and our first DD 'charette' experience.. yipee!
I also think that because I'm dreading DD so much, I'm not ready to dive into it yet. I am already wayyy over-honorifying Modernity, I'm scared to death of DD, and still not sure what to think of Structures or ProP. I also have a relationship that is currently in the decaying phase, and so that's probably out of some loneliness that I chose to sit down and write now. Not to mention a great deal of homesickness already... and I'm only over in Troy. Just talking to my sister today on facebook chat was making me sad and long for mom dad and whisper. Just to sleep in my own bed and only worry about seeing them everyday and being around the house. I don't know what's gotten into me this summer, that only after a week of being in Troy I'm longing to go back home. I can even talk myself into not caring if Eric's here or not, but I still just want to be back where I was all summer long. Maybe something about home this summer made me feel worth something... I didn't have a job, but my parents and I got along much, much better than we have in years and my mom's newfound approval of me really made me feel like I belonged there. (I kind of doubt that that's how DD is going to make me feel)
I'm super scared of working with James now, too. I like that he's a good talker, and knows what he wants, but I feel like an idiot making suggestions to his thoughtful, master plan. I just feel like my ideas aren't pushing the project anywhere, but then I feel lazy and useless when I have no work to add to the project... he's literally been carrying the team since the start of this thing.
Ahh, I just want more than anything to go home. I'm soooo scared about the rest of the time I have yet to serve here at rpi...
- c
p.s. forgot to write the plan for tomorrow morning, it's: call the Netherlands at 6a (if I actually get up), then go back to sleep, leave for hockey at 7:45a... andd then all of the other school nonesense that has to be fit into the day....
What really sucks, too, is that I have my Modernity book sitting right next to me... and I WANT to read it, but for some odd reason I'm not. I think I'm believing Modernity is going to be the 'god' of all the BTA classes and I want to treat this book as the Bible. My notes have been so meticulous, I've even been trying really hard to write them neatly, orderly, and so that I can actually reference them for studying and after the class... gosh, today I even spent my entire morning dedicated to making a label for my notebook! (okay, so that was partly just a remedial hungover task for me to accomplish to start off the day...) I think this whole 'school thing' hasn't hit me yet, but come tomorrow - it will. I already have five chapters due tomorrow at 6p for ProP that I haven't started... as well as finishing diagrams, working in Microstation, writing a new paragraph for our project statement, there's also Structures II at noon, Marissa wants to go to Arlene's (and I need to get some things, too), anddd three more thirty-page Modernity readings that I haven't even started yet.... and that's not even beginning to think about Wednesday where there will be class at 8a and our first DD 'charette' experience.. yipee!
I also think that because I'm dreading DD so much, I'm not ready to dive into it yet. I am already wayyy over-honorifying Modernity, I'm scared to death of DD, and still not sure what to think of Structures or ProP. I also have a relationship that is currently in the decaying phase, and so that's probably out of some loneliness that I chose to sit down and write now. Not to mention a great deal of homesickness already... and I'm only over in Troy. Just talking to my sister today on facebook chat was making me sad and long for mom dad and whisper. Just to sleep in my own bed and only worry about seeing them everyday and being around the house. I don't know what's gotten into me this summer, that only after a week of being in Troy I'm longing to go back home. I can even talk myself into not caring if Eric's here or not, but I still just want to be back where I was all summer long. Maybe something about home this summer made me feel worth something... I didn't have a job, but my parents and I got along much, much better than we have in years and my mom's newfound approval of me really made me feel like I belonged there. (I kind of doubt that that's how DD is going to make me feel)
I'm super scared of working with James now, too. I like that he's a good talker, and knows what he wants, but I feel like an idiot making suggestions to his thoughtful, master plan. I just feel like my ideas aren't pushing the project anywhere, but then I feel lazy and useless when I have no work to add to the project... he's literally been carrying the team since the start of this thing.
Ahh, I just want more than anything to go home. I'm soooo scared about the rest of the time I have yet to serve here at rpi...
- c
p.s. forgot to write the plan for tomorrow morning, it's: call the Netherlands at 6a (if I actually get up), then go back to sleep, leave for hockey at 7:45a... andd then all of the other school nonesense that has to be fit into the day....
Sunday, September 5, 2010
week one
It's well into September and this is only the first post since school began, a week ago. I have to say the first couple of nights before it all got underway were nerve-wracking. There was so little time to choose and project, and everything I saw was so displeasing. There was nothing that inspired me. I chose a project that didn't quite fit the criteria, but was super interesting and I think if it had been the right scale it would have made for an awesome project. James and I therefore ended up going with his choice - which, so far, has been a good choice. Both of our crits last week went pretty well, and our desk crit was positive too. I think with James being the 'talker' of this partnership I might be in good hands... we just have to improve upon our graphic sensibilities a little bit more.
I can't wait to get underway with the facade of our building I think that might really be the highlight of this semester for me. I can have my opinion and whatnot of the planning and form of the project, but after a while this all becomes a wishy-washy mess to me, where I can really be of help is when it comes to putting systems together... wall systems, floor systems any part of the construction will be a good focus for me.
So far, moving into the Yellow House has been really good. It almost feels like home being in an apartment I've been so familiar with since second year. And while I'm still adjusting to actually being a member of this household, I feel more integrated here than I have in previous apartments. (it doesn't hurt living in the biggest room either.... bigger than my room at home)
I've almost maintained my summer spending habits of getting coffee every day with either Marissa or Eric and while this keeps me awake, it's eating away at my wallet. I don't think I can really comprehend yet the amount of money this semester is going to cost me... especially after hearing last years' studio spending $1,000 per student of printing costs. Not to mention, they asked us all to buy monitors on the very first day of school - those things cost $200+ new! (what are they thinking?!) Ahhh, but enough about the money...
Already this semester is becoming a big distraction... as always the goings-on in Troy are like a huge light-show that you can't turn away from.
- c
I can't wait to get underway with the facade of our building I think that might really be the highlight of this semester for me. I can have my opinion and whatnot of the planning and form of the project, but after a while this all becomes a wishy-washy mess to me, where I can really be of help is when it comes to putting systems together... wall systems, floor systems any part of the construction will be a good focus for me.
So far, moving into the Yellow House has been really good. It almost feels like home being in an apartment I've been so familiar with since second year. And while I'm still adjusting to actually being a member of this household, I feel more integrated here than I have in previous apartments. (it doesn't hurt living in the biggest room either.... bigger than my room at home)
I've almost maintained my summer spending habits of getting coffee every day with either Marissa or Eric and while this keeps me awake, it's eating away at my wallet. I don't think I can really comprehend yet the amount of money this semester is going to cost me... especially after hearing last years' studio spending $1,000 per student of printing costs. Not to mention, they asked us all to buy monitors on the very first day of school - those things cost $200+ new! (what are they thinking?!) Ahhh, but enough about the money...
Already this semester is becoming a big distraction... as always the goings-on in Troy are like a huge light-show that you can't turn away from.
- c
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