Anything left in the room over the break will be thrown away. Any tool, past drawing, model, or backpack will be tossed into the trash. We need to clear and clean the studio over the spring break. If you need to leave something in the studio put it in a locker and secure it with a lock.
There will be a marked section location in the hall way for you to turn in your projects. You will turn in your cubic wire model, fiat wire model, section drawings, and your two foam models. Projects not left in the appropriate location will get a zero.
Format for turning in your projects will be as follows : Each of your models should be submitted with a piece of drafting tape affixed on its bottom that clearly displays your name and your section number. No boxes, no bags just place them together, side by side. Your section drawing set should be held together with two small binder clips and then rolled. When you roll your drawings make sure to physically roll to the binder clips, do not start the roll with the binder clips. The roll of drawings should be fully protected by a tube, a piece of paper, or a plastic sleeve. Your name and section number should be clearly displayed on the outside of the roll. This roll will be placed with your models.
If you are turning the projects in tomorrow and not Friday at 8am, then you can just place it at the top of the lockers in the hallway.
12 March 2008
08 March 2008
Reminder
It should be foamy in the studio :
Your order of operations for this assignment should be similar to the list below:
cut, glue, dry, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, spackle, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, ect, ect. Remember to use two different kinds of sand paper, a medium grit, and a fine grit. The fine grit sand paper will make your model incredibly smooth.
You will have a variety of geometric situations in your foam models. The interstitial model will have some 90 degree angles, your fiat model may as well. A fine grit sanding block will aid you in this dilemma.
Remember, both your fiat model and your interstitial model are due on Thursday.
Here is a more specific operation list:
Glue with tacky glue.
Sand with a medium grit then followed by a fine grit sandpaper.
Spackle any major surface impurities and allow to dry. Then sand your result. You may need to repeat this two or three times.
Now you are ready to paint. You paint layers should be light, do not lather on the white, it will take longer to dry. Allow the layer to dry then sand with a fine grit sandpaper. Then paint again.
You will need to repeat this last step up to ten times.
The result: a beautiful white model as smooth as silk.
Your order of operations for this assignment should be similar to the list below:
cut, glue, dry, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, sand, spackle, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, paint, dry, sand, ect, ect. Remember to use two different kinds of sand paper, a medium grit, and a fine grit. The fine grit sand paper will make your model incredibly smooth.
You will have a variety of geometric situations in your foam models. The interstitial model will have some 90 degree angles, your fiat model may as well. A fine grit sanding block will aid you in this dilemma.
Remember, both your fiat model and your interstitial model are due on Thursday.
Here is a more specific operation list:
Glue with tacky glue.
Sand with a medium grit then followed by a fine grit sandpaper.
Spackle any major surface impurities and allow to dry. Then sand your result. You may need to repeat this two or three times.
Now you are ready to paint. You paint layers should be light, do not lather on the white, it will take longer to dry. Allow the layer to dry then sand with a fine grit sandpaper. Then paint again.
You will need to repeat this last step up to ten times.
The result: a beautiful white model as smooth as silk.
27 February 2008
Emily Andersen's Freeway Drawings
Emily is an architect in Manhattan. These drawings are formal and flow analysis from the first part of her design project for architecture integrated into freeway construction. Before she studied architecture she studied studio art and fashion.
Either way, these drawings demonstrate the kinds of connection, craft, and geometricization of a form that we're asking you to construct. They are the geometries of bona fide ribbons of concrete, not fiat blobs of where you occupy the room. The way that the drawing is systematized through graphics of arcs and circles, tangents and radii.
Either way, these drawings demonstrate the kinds of connection, craft, and geometricization of a form that we're asking you to construct. They are the geometries of bona fide ribbons of concrete, not fiat blobs of where you occupy the room. The way that the drawing is systematized through graphics of arcs and circles, tangents and radii.
Report on Test #1
The test was worth 12 of 100 semester points. With the 25 points for the first third of the studio you've now got 37 of your semester's points. By the time you return from Spring Break we'll have another 25 points graded for you over this current studio work.
Drop day is coming up. It is March 12th. We will notify you if we currently have concerns about your passing the class.
The average grade for Test #1 is very high. Many of you did quite well. There are a few people who got less than half the questions right. It seems as though either you did really well or you did quite bad with just a handful doing poorly.
The bonus was a drawing showing a Component set and Colorado is a state made up of only fiat boundaries.
I just told you some of the answers. We said there'd be no make-up test. If you did not make it to the test then the second test will count for 25 points of your grade. We'll just double the points you earn on that test. The second test will still be cheat sheet based but will include some readings, will still be all multiple choice, but not so easy- I'd expect.
Thanks for being so cooperative in taking the test and, for the most part, doing so well.
Drop day is coming up. It is March 12th. We will notify you if we currently have concerns about your passing the class.
The average grade for Test #1 is very high. Many of you did quite well. There are a few people who got less than half the questions right. It seems as though either you did really well or you did quite bad with just a handful doing poorly.
The bonus was a drawing showing a Component set and Colorado is a state made up of only fiat boundaries.
I just told you some of the answers. We said there'd be no make-up test. If you did not make it to the test then the second test will count for 25 points of your grade. We'll just double the points you earn on that test. The second test will still be cheat sheet based but will include some readings, will still be all multiple choice, but not so easy- I'd expect.
Thanks for being so cooperative in taking the test and, for the most part, doing so well.
24 February 2008
You Will Be Confused
(But It's Normal, and Useful)
Written by Professor Donald Kunze of Penn State University
This course and its pedagogical method produce a commonly reported experience: confusion. Because most general education instructors, as most K-12 teachers, have sought to avoid this response because it produces parent complaints, the experience is, for many people, new. Your past teachers avoided problems, but they deprived you of a particularly productive and enjoyable experience. In exchange for tranquillity, they avoided mentioning anything in the classroom that did not endorse your current idea of reality. And, since for most people this has gone on since kindergarten, general world views don't get much revised from their first inception in childhood. Think about that.
It is hard to determine exactly when teachers became afraid of confusing their students—probably about the same time they decided that many English words were unnecessary and grammar was too obscure to teach, that calculators and computers eliminated the need to learn math, and that no one needed to know what they could look up. But, clearly, this momentous change of policy brought many ancillary changes.
Chief among these was the view that if you don't know something already it is unfair for anyone to ask you to learn it. This is the "endorsement" theory of education, which, briefly stated, has it that the function of teaching is to congratulate students for what they have been brilliant enough to learn themselves, inherit, or already figure out on their own. It includes almost every opinion, every misconception, every mistruth in the belief that there are no truths, everything is relative. The endorsement theory wants to be fair, nice, and happy. It is forgiving of idiocy and congratulates it for being creative. It banishes ignorance by promoting it to the level of a justifiable philosophical position. In contrast, instruction that confuses not only sends out the opposite message, it reverses the whole social paradigm that views formal education as a confirmation and certification process.
There are a limited set of responses within this system of self-congratulation. If one is not confirmed and certified, the question is "why not me?" The answer can only relate to the general unfairness of the system at large, its prejudice, its tendency to favor the middle, the norm. Any confirmation system is very likely to be unfair, but most public institutions strive to be as inclusive as possible, linking certification and confirmation to democratic ideals.
The issue is only indirectly about equality, accessibility, and democracy. Education should be available to all, put in terms that all can use if they need, and ordered so that "glass ceilings" are eliminated. Basically, any willing student should be able to go as far as he or she can go as long as effort is applied.
But, this ideal, when made the basis of educational method, does not work. Accessibility and means are two different things. Therefore, when accessibility is translated into the means of inducing educational experience, the first casualty is the experience of confusion.
This is unfortunate, because most all who have looked at the learning process have recognized that real learning involves a period where ignorance generates a general atmosphere of disorientation. Whether this period is unpleasant or not is a matter of attitude. Athletes training for better performance put up with pain, exertion, and exhaustion because it's necessary in the process of acquiring skills, stamina, and strength. Musicians put up with "plateaus" during which extra practice seems to yield no progress. They know that such long periods of no progress or even decline are required before the next period of rapid improvement.
In more spiritual enterprises, such as Zen meditation or philosophical study, the experience of confusion has been institutionalized. In Zen Buddhism, the student concentrates on "koans" that are puzzles the mind cannot solve. In philosophy, an analagous process forms around "aporia" (puzzles), "anomalies," and "paradox." Questions in philosophy are not the kind that have answers that philosophers are just to stupid to answer. They are issues that are invisible to us because of our human constitution, our mental and cultural nature. We can make "progress" in the face of these questions not by "answering" them, but by finding new ways to ask them. When philosophers contemplate such questions, confusion is not an indication that something is wrong but a clue that one is really thinking.
Some philosophers have regarded confusion with such respect that they have made it the center of their idea of truth. Plato cultivated confusion in the dialogs by having Socrates demolish various points of view that, on the surface, seemed reasonable. Nicholas of Cusa developed the idea of "learned ignorance." Giambattista Vico emphasized that rational thought could only go so far, that it was necessary for the thinker first to expect to know completely only what human beings had created and, then, only by considering how all humans shared a common nature capable of creating infinite diversity.
Confusion in the thought process is not to be confused with unpleasant states induced by other means. One can be frustrated by unreasonable expectations. One can be dominated by illusions. One can experience personal problems, schedule overloads, emotional crises. These can all create confusion, but they are not educational. Educational confusion is created in the process of the search for the true. Educational confusion is sometimes momentary, sometimes permanent. It prevents forward motion, but it opens up turns and twists that were formerly invisible.
The popular humorist of the 30's and 40's, Will Rogers, once said that it's not what we don't know that hurts us as much as what we do know that ain't so. Just so with confusion. When we are confident that we know something, we are happy until that confidence is overturned. Then we are confused, but we are on the road to repairing misconception. Every important educational experience involves at least some bit of this process.
The problem with confusion is that students have grown so used to avoiding it, that they immediately project the problem onto some external cause. Their confusion is someone's "fault," someone not themselves. This is to avoid the embarrassment of being confused. Embarrassment is guilt associated with the social use of non-confusion as a substitute for inclusion. If you aren't confused, you are accepted by the group, included, confirmed, certified. If you are confused, you're being thrown out.
Just the reverse is the case in studio. Being confused is one indication that you are a part of the group. Everyone is confused, everyone, that is, if things are going well. Confusion, like pain during athletic training, is an indication that you're getting stronger.
This is not to say that other, non-educational and potentially destructive forms of confusion don't occur. They do, and careful attention has to be given to make sure students aren't just suffering from personal forms of confusion. But, since the main ideas of the course call for the Good Confusion of real learning, the first sign of improvement is confusion.
What To Do When Confused
Because confusion has been nearly eliminated from public education, its productive use has fallen into decay. We don't know what to do except express alarm at our discomfort. Educational confusion calls for definite steps.
THE FIRST STEP. Confusion is uncomfortable, and the point is that our minds are telling us to look for some resolution. Only one thing will provide the kind of intellectual pleasure that is the antidote to educational confusion, and that is "the true," which is somewhat different from "truth." "The true" is a realization that is experienced personally in ways that are self-confirming. It is more of a guide to interpretation of experience than the facts of experience, an adjustment of attitude. The move towards "the true" has to do with wit, insight, and making connections.
THE SECOND STEP. Confusion can be cured only by taking an active role in one's own learning. Nothing that someone else gives you can be trusted entirely. It has to be tested in the laboratory of one's own experience. When a learner decides to be responsible for his/her own actions and plans, when an open attitude is adopted, when the possibility of past error and false presuppositions has been admitted, the "pupil" becomes a "student," as the Romans used to say. You're responsible for your own progress. You teach yourself, for the most part (the ideal of "autodidaction").
THE THIRD STEP. Being responsible for your own learning doesn't mean that you isolate yourself and listen to no one else. Self-learning inevitably involves collaboration and sympathy. Once you find out that no one can tell you what is right, you realize that all truths are shared. Other points of view are always informative. Everyone has something to teach. Confusion is overcome when one gains the confidence to teach one's self by periodically abandoning all certainties, all previous points of view. That can't be done completely, of course, but the key is to develop the arts of sympathy that allow one to see the world from many different points of view. The arts excel in teaching sympathy, of course, and part of their function is to enable us to escape our personal prisons of individuality. The Third Step involves "lying," in the sense that we must take on different roles, personae, and assumptions temporarily to see what the world looks like under those limits and conditions—in other words, "make believe," the willing suspension of disbelief. All suppositions are fictional in some sense, because suppositions are limits on what is essentially unlimited. When we "lie" under philosophical conditions, we don't commit an ethical transgression, we develop the art of seeing ourselves as others see us and of standing in others' shoes.
In Other Words . . .
Look forward to, and cultivate proper forms of, confusion. Learn to distinguish between personal and educational unpleasant states. Regard learning as both active and collaborative. And, above all, stop blaming others for your confusion. Confusion should not be used to endorse, confirm, authenticate, or include. Object to the gross simplification of schooling to make everyone "feel good about themselves." The only way we really feel good about ourselves is if we are capable of learning on our own, sympathizing with others, and enduring confusion in order to grow intellectually.
Written by Professor Donald Kunze of Penn State University
This course and its pedagogical method produce a commonly reported experience: confusion. Because most general education instructors, as most K-12 teachers, have sought to avoid this response because it produces parent complaints, the experience is, for many people, new. Your past teachers avoided problems, but they deprived you of a particularly productive and enjoyable experience. In exchange for tranquillity, they avoided mentioning anything in the classroom that did not endorse your current idea of reality. And, since for most people this has gone on since kindergarten, general world views don't get much revised from their first inception in childhood. Think about that.
It is hard to determine exactly when teachers became afraid of confusing their students—probably about the same time they decided that many English words were unnecessary and grammar was too obscure to teach, that calculators and computers eliminated the need to learn math, and that no one needed to know what they could look up. But, clearly, this momentous change of policy brought many ancillary changes.
Chief among these was the view that if you don't know something already it is unfair for anyone to ask you to learn it. This is the "endorsement" theory of education, which, briefly stated, has it that the function of teaching is to congratulate students for what they have been brilliant enough to learn themselves, inherit, or already figure out on their own. It includes almost every opinion, every misconception, every mistruth in the belief that there are no truths, everything is relative. The endorsement theory wants to be fair, nice, and happy. It is forgiving of idiocy and congratulates it for being creative. It banishes ignorance by promoting it to the level of a justifiable philosophical position. In contrast, instruction that confuses not only sends out the opposite message, it reverses the whole social paradigm that views formal education as a confirmation and certification process.
There are a limited set of responses within this system of self-congratulation. If one is not confirmed and certified, the question is "why not me?" The answer can only relate to the general unfairness of the system at large, its prejudice, its tendency to favor the middle, the norm. Any confirmation system is very likely to be unfair, but most public institutions strive to be as inclusive as possible, linking certification and confirmation to democratic ideals.
The issue is only indirectly about equality, accessibility, and democracy. Education should be available to all, put in terms that all can use if they need, and ordered so that "glass ceilings" are eliminated. Basically, any willing student should be able to go as far as he or she can go as long as effort is applied.
But, this ideal, when made the basis of educational method, does not work. Accessibility and means are two different things. Therefore, when accessibility is translated into the means of inducing educational experience, the first casualty is the experience of confusion.
This is unfortunate, because most all who have looked at the learning process have recognized that real learning involves a period where ignorance generates a general atmosphere of disorientation. Whether this period is unpleasant or not is a matter of attitude. Athletes training for better performance put up with pain, exertion, and exhaustion because it's necessary in the process of acquiring skills, stamina, and strength. Musicians put up with "plateaus" during which extra practice seems to yield no progress. They know that such long periods of no progress or even decline are required before the next period of rapid improvement.
In more spiritual enterprises, such as Zen meditation or philosophical study, the experience of confusion has been institutionalized. In Zen Buddhism, the student concentrates on "koans" that are puzzles the mind cannot solve. In philosophy, an analagous process forms around "aporia" (puzzles), "anomalies," and "paradox." Questions in philosophy are not the kind that have answers that philosophers are just to stupid to answer. They are issues that are invisible to us because of our human constitution, our mental and cultural nature. We can make "progress" in the face of these questions not by "answering" them, but by finding new ways to ask them. When philosophers contemplate such questions, confusion is not an indication that something is wrong but a clue that one is really thinking.
Some philosophers have regarded confusion with such respect that they have made it the center of their idea of truth. Plato cultivated confusion in the dialogs by having Socrates demolish various points of view that, on the surface, seemed reasonable. Nicholas of Cusa developed the idea of "learned ignorance." Giambattista Vico emphasized that rational thought could only go so far, that it was necessary for the thinker first to expect to know completely only what human beings had created and, then, only by considering how all humans shared a common nature capable of creating infinite diversity.
Confusion in the thought process is not to be confused with unpleasant states induced by other means. One can be frustrated by unreasonable expectations. One can be dominated by illusions. One can experience personal problems, schedule overloads, emotional crises. These can all create confusion, but they are not educational. Educational confusion is created in the process of the search for the true. Educational confusion is sometimes momentary, sometimes permanent. It prevents forward motion, but it opens up turns and twists that were formerly invisible.
The popular humorist of the 30's and 40's, Will Rogers, once said that it's not what we don't know that hurts us as much as what we do know that ain't so. Just so with confusion. When we are confident that we know something, we are happy until that confidence is overturned. Then we are confused, but we are on the road to repairing misconception. Every important educational experience involves at least some bit of this process.
The problem with confusion is that students have grown so used to avoiding it, that they immediately project the problem onto some external cause. Their confusion is someone's "fault," someone not themselves. This is to avoid the embarrassment of being confused. Embarrassment is guilt associated with the social use of non-confusion as a substitute for inclusion. If you aren't confused, you are accepted by the group, included, confirmed, certified. If you are confused, you're being thrown out.
Just the reverse is the case in studio. Being confused is one indication that you are a part of the group. Everyone is confused, everyone, that is, if things are going well. Confusion, like pain during athletic training, is an indication that you're getting stronger.
This is not to say that other, non-educational and potentially destructive forms of confusion don't occur. They do, and careful attention has to be given to make sure students aren't just suffering from personal forms of confusion. But, since the main ideas of the course call for the Good Confusion of real learning, the first sign of improvement is confusion.
What To Do When Confused
Because confusion has been nearly eliminated from public education, its productive use has fallen into decay. We don't know what to do except express alarm at our discomfort. Educational confusion calls for definite steps.
THE FIRST STEP. Confusion is uncomfortable, and the point is that our minds are telling us to look for some resolution. Only one thing will provide the kind of intellectual pleasure that is the antidote to educational confusion, and that is "the true," which is somewhat different from "truth." "The true" is a realization that is experienced personally in ways that are self-confirming. It is more of a guide to interpretation of experience than the facts of experience, an adjustment of attitude. The move towards "the true" has to do with wit, insight, and making connections.
THE SECOND STEP. Confusion can be cured only by taking an active role in one's own learning. Nothing that someone else gives you can be trusted entirely. It has to be tested in the laboratory of one's own experience. When a learner decides to be responsible for his/her own actions and plans, when an open attitude is adopted, when the possibility of past error and false presuppositions has been admitted, the "pupil" becomes a "student," as the Romans used to say. You're responsible for your own progress. You teach yourself, for the most part (the ideal of "autodidaction").
THE THIRD STEP. Being responsible for your own learning doesn't mean that you isolate yourself and listen to no one else. Self-learning inevitably involves collaboration and sympathy. Once you find out that no one can tell you what is right, you realize that all truths are shared. Other points of view are always informative. Everyone has something to teach. Confusion is overcome when one gains the confidence to teach one's self by periodically abandoning all certainties, all previous points of view. That can't be done completely, of course, but the key is to develop the arts of sympathy that allow one to see the world from many different points of view. The arts excel in teaching sympathy, of course, and part of their function is to enable us to escape our personal prisons of individuality. The Third Step involves "lying," in the sense that we must take on different roles, personae, and assumptions temporarily to see what the world looks like under those limits and conditions—in other words, "make believe," the willing suspension of disbelief. All suppositions are fictional in some sense, because suppositions are limits on what is essentially unlimited. When we "lie" under philosophical conditions, we don't commit an ethical transgression, we develop the art of seeing ourselves as others see us and of standing in others' shoes.
In Other Words . . .
Look forward to, and cultivate proper forms of, confusion. Learn to distinguish between personal and educational unpleasant states. Regard learning as both active and collaborative. And, above all, stop blaming others for your confusion. Confusion should not be used to endorse, confirm, authenticate, or include. Object to the gross simplification of schooling to make everyone "feel good about themselves." The only way we really feel good about ourselves is if we are capable of learning on our own, sympathizing with others, and enduring confusion in order to grow intellectually.
21 February 2008
20 February 2008
Thursday Game Plan
Remember that your new prime section is due tomorrow at the beginning of class. You MUST bring work materials to class tomorrow. You should have several sheets of 18x24 vellum, a drafting/mechanical pencil or lead holder with 6h lead, a t-square, a triangle/adjustable triangle, drafting tape, a drafting eraser, an eraser shield, and a compass. We must work! You must draw well!
See you tomorrow.
See you tomorrow.
18 February 2008
Quote of the Week
The painter starts with the real world and works toward abstraction...But architecture takes two lines. The architect starts with the abstract world, and due to the nature of her work, works toward the real world. The significant architect is one who, when finished with a work, is as close to the original abstraction as she could possibly be...and that is also what distinguishes architects from builders.
17 February 2008
Due on Tuesday
Combine the individual cube models into one model.Combine the individual blob models into one model.
There are several examples of the wire combine models in the left column of this blog along with the two images posted above. We suggest you look here for examples of how others have joined these individual models together.
There are several examples of the wire combine models in the left column of this blog along with the two images posted above. We suggest you look here for examples of how others have joined these individual models together.
Bring the combined cube model and the combined blob (fiat) model to class on Tuesday completed and ready to photograph.
And yes soldering is allowed.
And yes soldering is allowed.
14 February 2008
Happy St-Valentine's Day
Today will be a work and review day to continue on with the models. We need to take some pictures and start combining them together.
I hope you all understand that the work is starting to get more intellectual and content rich in these next assignments.
I think you do because ALL the questions you all are bringing up about the relationship between the forms and objects of your room and the movement that occurs in it are right on. Time, especially as a part of movement, is as important a subject in today's architecture as "timelessness" was in the architecture of 100 years ago. We build things in time as much as we do with bricks and mortar.
In his book Matter and Memory, Henri Bergson presents a radical understanding of what movement is and what relationships can be drawn between movement and matter. Bergson was very much affected by the collapsed movement in the time-motion photographies of E.J. Marey and Edward Muybridge. He also was impacted by a contemporary who was writing about the relationship between space and time, Albert Einstein. For Bergson there are two ways to measure or quantify movement:
1. in the relative terms of a geometer (things measured according to something beyond the action).
2. in the real terms of a physicist (things measured according to conditions internal to the event or action).
Imagine how these guys relate space and movement.
I hope you all understand that the work is starting to get more intellectual and content rich in these next assignments.
I think you do because ALL the questions you all are bringing up about the relationship between the forms and objects of your room and the movement that occurs in it are right on. Time, especially as a part of movement, is as important a subject in today's architecture as "timelessness" was in the architecture of 100 years ago. We build things in time as much as we do with bricks and mortar.
In his book Matter and Memory, Henri Bergson presents a radical understanding of what movement is and what relationships can be drawn between movement and matter. Bergson was very much affected by the collapsed movement in the time-motion photographies of E.J. Marey and Edward Muybridge. He also was impacted by a contemporary who was writing about the relationship between space and time, Albert Einstein. For Bergson there are two ways to measure or quantify movement:
1. in the relative terms of a geometer (things measured according to something beyond the action).
2. in the real terms of a physicist (things measured according to conditions internal to the event or action).
Imagine how these guys relate space and movement.
Notes on Grades
Today we'll give back your first grades. There are not many A, D, and F level grades but there are as many Bs as Cs. Please keep some perspective on this grade. Notice the point totals you have been assigned. You are a great class to teach and Marti, the TAs and I are all really focused on teaching you because you are kindly and respectfully responding.
There were about 208 of you who submitted work for a grade.
There are only about 30 of those who have a failing grade (15% of the class).
There are about 30 of you who have an A, A-, and B+ grade (15% of the class).
The average grade is between a C+ and a B-.
About 40 people who started with us did not submit for a grade and have quit the course.
Notes for students who made an F or D:
Almost all the failing grades have a missing assignment(s), excessive absences, late work, and / or consistently bad craft on all the exercises.If your grade is a D or an F you should either re-think the way you are completing the assignments or you should drop the course. Something you are doing is not letting you show us that you know the course content through your work.
Maybe this is not the time for you to be taking a time consuming performance based course? You have to have time to do things in this class to learn the content. Maybe you have something else you'd rather be studying? This subject and method is not for everyone.
Notes if you have a C-, C, C+, B-, or B level grade:
You almost certainly fall into one of two groups:
1) People with consistent C level grades who have done everything almost good enough and nothing particularly well in the exercises. Your work is average usually because you've not adjusted to making the work a form of inquiry and exploration of the subject matter, you're not focusing on the work and craft of the exercise, and are not "making the work your own"- taking authorship for your efforts. Typically, you have respectable discipline but are not risk takers.
2) People with a range of grades on their assessment sheets, some with flashes of brilliance and promise, an A / B or two here or there tempered by late submissions and / or other assignments that you did badly on. You usually lack discipline and are risk takers. You sometimes pour yourself into the work but run hot and cold.
You have to ask yourselves:
How can I take this to the next level? What does each box on the assessment sheet mean in literal terms? How are my projects NOT like the ones displayed in the hallway? Some of you may not be engaged by the subject matter and are looking forward to seeing if the next course engages you further. Some of you may have other priorities in life right now and you can only afford this much effort. We respect that priority but we aren't going to ignore the lack of evidence of learning in your work.
Notes if you have a B+, A-, or A level grade:
You've worked diligently so far and have shown a high level of craft and conveyance on multiple exercises. To continue at this level you'll have to be self-critical and ask yourselves what skills, habits, and approaches to the material got my work recognized in this first five weeks? You'll need to build on them to continue. What is it that we're seeing in your work? You have to learn that by looking at what other students who are doing well are doing and compare then to your own efforts.
You've done very well in the first assignment.
What did you do that got your work recognized for being good?
I wasn't that smart in first year but I did know that all that time and attention paid off in ability and knowledge. Keep up the great work!
Issues with Grading:
A question about our assessment has to be specific. You cannot say, "I don't understand the grade I got." We won't answer that charge. You haven't assessed the work yourself so you haven't tried to understand it.
Here's how you can assess your own work:
#1) Compare your work to the work exhibited in the hallway as excellent. How is it different? How is it the same?
#2) Write down how you think you did. We'll post the grading sheet template. Fill out your own version for each category. What grade do you think you deserved?
#3) Sit down during office hours with any TA, your assessment, and our assessment. How is it different? What are the categorical differences in the way we're talking about it?
#4) If you still have an issue with your grade then you will write out your concern in terms of how you understand the system we've used to grade you and how we've deviated from that system. Once you've written that out you can submit it to me via email for review and comment.
We've graded about 1,248 items and made 208 grade summaries. Certainly, we might have a few mistakes in all that work but we've been very diligent and have used a number of checks and balances in the assessment process.
There were about 208 of you who submitted work for a grade.
There are only about 30 of those who have a failing grade (15% of the class).
There are about 30 of you who have an A, A-, and B+ grade (15% of the class).
The average grade is between a C+ and a B-.
About 40 people who started with us did not submit for a grade and have quit the course.
Notes for students who made an F or D:
Almost all the failing grades have a missing assignment(s), excessive absences, late work, and / or consistently bad craft on all the exercises.If your grade is a D or an F you should either re-think the way you are completing the assignments or you should drop the course. Something you are doing is not letting you show us that you know the course content through your work.
Maybe this is not the time for you to be taking a time consuming performance based course? You have to have time to do things in this class to learn the content. Maybe you have something else you'd rather be studying? This subject and method is not for everyone.
Notes if you have a C-, C, C+, B-, or B level grade:
You almost certainly fall into one of two groups:
1) People with consistent C level grades who have done everything almost good enough and nothing particularly well in the exercises. Your work is average usually because you've not adjusted to making the work a form of inquiry and exploration of the subject matter, you're not focusing on the work and craft of the exercise, and are not "making the work your own"- taking authorship for your efforts. Typically, you have respectable discipline but are not risk takers.
2) People with a range of grades on their assessment sheets, some with flashes of brilliance and promise, an A / B or two here or there tempered by late submissions and / or other assignments that you did badly on. You usually lack discipline and are risk takers. You sometimes pour yourself into the work but run hot and cold.
You have to ask yourselves:
How can I take this to the next level? What does each box on the assessment sheet mean in literal terms? How are my projects NOT like the ones displayed in the hallway? Some of you may not be engaged by the subject matter and are looking forward to seeing if the next course engages you further. Some of you may have other priorities in life right now and you can only afford this much effort. We respect that priority but we aren't going to ignore the lack of evidence of learning in your work.
Notes if you have a B+, A-, or A level grade:
You've worked diligently so far and have shown a high level of craft and conveyance on multiple exercises. To continue at this level you'll have to be self-critical and ask yourselves what skills, habits, and approaches to the material got my work recognized in this first five weeks? You'll need to build on them to continue. What is it that we're seeing in your work? You have to learn that by looking at what other students who are doing well are doing and compare then to your own efforts.
You've done very well in the first assignment.
What did you do that got your work recognized for being good?
I wasn't that smart in first year but I did know that all that time and attention paid off in ability and knowledge. Keep up the great work!
Issues with Grading:
A question about our assessment has to be specific. You cannot say, "I don't understand the grade I got." We won't answer that charge. You haven't assessed the work yourself so you haven't tried to understand it.
Here's how you can assess your own work:
#1) Compare your work to the work exhibited in the hallway as excellent. How is it different? How is it the same?
#2) Write down how you think you did. We'll post the grading sheet template. Fill out your own version for each category. What grade do you think you deserved?
#3) Sit down during office hours with any TA, your assessment, and our assessment. How is it different? What are the categorical differences in the way we're talking about it?
#4) If you still have an issue with your grade then you will write out your concern in terms of how you understand the system we've used to grade you and how we've deviated from that system. Once you've written that out you can submit it to me via email for review and comment.
We've graded about 1,248 items and made 208 grade summaries. Certainly, we might have a few mistakes in all that work but we've been very diligent and have used a number of checks and balances in the assessment process.
10 February 2008
Photo of the Week: Alphabet Sky
One of the great things about design and architecture is that it is historically a path for both intellectual, creative, and financial mobility in our society. You can start in architecture school at a community college and; if you've got acumen, intellect, and curiosity; can be enticed to finish at whatever school you want to go to. This is a good place to study architecture but you should be good enough to succeed anywhere in architectural school. I started at UT-Arlington and finished my education at Columbia. I like to move.
It is part of the lore of these programs that we send some of our very best students to the very best schools for their final professional years or for post-professional work. Some of us see this as a way of validating and promoting our college. In addition to the great students who study here for an M.Arch. there are students who have graduated in the last three years who are in Princeton's graduate program (2 of them), Rice's graduate program (3 of them), UPenn (2 there), Yale, Clemson, Columbia, Pratt, California College of Arts and Crafts, and UCLA.
There are 23 students from the college that I know of this year who are applying to other schools to continue their studies after either a B.Sc. degree or a professional M.Arch. They are applying to the best programs in the country- Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, Cranbrook, Yale, Rice, UMich, UMinn, Clemson, Princeton, SCI-Arc, MIT, Cornell, Penn, and RISD.
This picture is part of a project by an architecture student at Yale. She took pictures of the sky through buildings to make the alphabet. It should be a font.
I only tell you all about these people because it is exciting to see some of you really excel in your work and I want to encourage you by pointing out what you all ae earning in this degree program. You're studying for a professional program. If trends hold, in three years about 60 of you will graduate with a B.Sc.Arch. (pre-professional) degree. In four or five years 40 of you will graduate from our college with a professional master's degree. In three or four years 3 to 10 of you will be studying at Ivy League schools. Any of those accomplishments are exceptional and few people work hard enough or study enough to be literate in architecture culture, to understand the discipline of architecture, and to be a licensed professional in our society. A focused, articulate, architect / designer is a status, responsibility, and a privilege that can't only be measured in pay scale. It does take work. You've really got to like this sort of study or this will be an unbearable haul to get a degree in something you do not enjoy actively doing. It is an honor to get to watch your careers, no matter where you all go, unfold. You'll be a memory here before you know it even if you stay as long as you can.
John, if you're out there, and I hear you are, give us a comment on this post's subject matter or just tell us about what's going on in New Jersey.
It is part of the lore of these programs that we send some of our very best students to the very best schools for their final professional years or for post-professional work. Some of us see this as a way of validating and promoting our college. In addition to the great students who study here for an M.Arch. there are students who have graduated in the last three years who are in Princeton's graduate program (2 of them), Rice's graduate program (3 of them), UPenn (2 there), Yale, Clemson, Columbia, Pratt, California College of Arts and Crafts, and UCLA.
There are 23 students from the college that I know of this year who are applying to other schools to continue their studies after either a B.Sc. degree or a professional M.Arch. They are applying to the best programs in the country- Harvard, Berkeley, UCLA, Cranbrook, Yale, Rice, UMich, UMinn, Clemson, Princeton, SCI-Arc, MIT, Cornell, Penn, and RISD.
This picture is part of a project by an architecture student at Yale. She took pictures of the sky through buildings to make the alphabet. It should be a font.I only tell you all about these people because it is exciting to see some of you really excel in your work and I want to encourage you by pointing out what you all ae earning in this degree program. You're studying for a professional program. If trends hold, in three years about 60 of you will graduate with a B.Sc.Arch. (pre-professional) degree. In four or five years 40 of you will graduate from our college with a professional master's degree. In three or four years 3 to 10 of you will be studying at Ivy League schools. Any of those accomplishments are exceptional and few people work hard enough or study enough to be literate in architecture culture, to understand the discipline of architecture, and to be a licensed professional in our society. A focused, articulate, architect / designer is a status, responsibility, and a privilege that can't only be measured in pay scale. It does take work. You've really got to like this sort of study or this will be an unbearable haul to get a degree in something you do not enjoy actively doing. It is an honor to get to watch your careers, no matter where you all go, unfold. You'll be a memory here before you know it even if you stay as long as you can.
John, if you're out there, and I hear you are, give us a comment on this post's subject matter or just tell us about what's going on in New Jersey.
08 February 2008
Attention
I M P O R T A N T I N F O R M A T I O N
The wire models should be completed at a 1" = 1'-0" scale, not at 1/2" = 1'-0"!!!
A G A I N W I R E M O D E L S A T 1 " = 0 ' S C A L E
The wire models should be completed at a 1" = 1'-0" scale, not at 1/2" = 1'-0"!!!
A G A I N W I R E M O D E L S A T 1 " = 0 ' S C A L E
05 February 2008
03 February 2008
Building of the week (18 years ago)
HOTEL and CONVENTION CENTRE in AGADIR by REM KOOLHAASAgadir, Morocco, 1990 (Competition)
Rem Koolhaas was born in 1944. After having lived in Indonesia between 1952 and 1956, he settled in Amsterdam as a journalist for the Haagse Post and as a film screenplay writer, before leaving for London to study architecture at the Architectural Association School. Two theoretical projects come from this period: The Berlin wall as architecture(1970) and Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture(1972).
A scholarship obtained in 1972 allowed him to stay in the United States, where, fascinated by New York, he started to analyze the impact of metropolitan culture on architecture and published Delirious New York, a retroactive manifesto for Manhattan.
At this stage, Rem Koolhaas wanted to progress from theory to practical application and decided to return to Europe. In London in 1975, he created, with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture(OMA), whose objectives were the definition of new types of relations —theoretical as well as practical— between architecture and the contemporary cultural situation.
Modeling Events
If you are using foam and you want to try a model without pins you may choose to purely subtract from the foam to represent your ideas and concepts. You are diagramming information on these models. You are also welcome to sculpt both sides of the foam if you find a use for this technique. Craft is important in these models so if you are sculpting the foam use the correct tools and sand to finish. Important craft issues ::
Sand off any black markings that may be on the face of your foam before you commence your work.
Sand foam with a fine grit to finish (models should be smooth).
If stacking the foam because you have smaller than 2 in foam, use Aileen’s tacky glue (gold bottle) and spread evenly between the two layers, apply pressure (stacking books on top), and wait for it to dry. Follow by sanding the layers smooth.
When using paper you may choose to stack two pieces of paper together, but never use glue.
If you are having troubles finding pins, try any craft store, varsity, target, kmart, rendr ect....they are there somewhere. If you are still having troubles get some piano wire with a diameter from .020” to .032” and cut it to your desired length. You will need wire cutters, this wire is tough and rigid.
Bring models on Tuesday so we can discuss any issues you are having. It is a work day, so you are required to bring work. You will not be allowed to just simply sit at your desk, there is always something to work on. In the following years you will have one studio per semester and you will be required to work for four solid hours. We are asking for two so get to work. Bring questions and concerns and we will all see you on Tuesday. This is the last day to ask any questions before we begin grading on Thursday.
Remember your official due date for all of this material is Thursday February 7. This day will be a pin up day so be prepared to have all your assignments collected, fixed, and ready to pin up.
Things to pin up on Thursday ::
Photo Mosaic
One Extensive List
One Duration List
Four Extensive Chart/Graphs
Four Duration Chart/Graphs
Four Profile Knives
Three Profile Sections of your room each on its own 24 by 24 sheet of Vellum
One Isometric drawing of your three sections projected at 45/45 on own 24 by 24 sheet of Vellum
15 Chronophotography Prints (use a consistent format no smaller than 3 by 5, do not crop images)
Three Event Models
Make sure to have plenty of binder clips and pins for hanging your work.
29 January 2008
Building of the Week
The Polish Pavilion for the 2010 World's Fair in China. The design was selected in an open design competition from over 300 entries.
27 January 2008
Chronophotography
Bring your camera to class on Tuesday. You need to be able to manipulate your shutter speed on your camera. If you do not have a camera, you should find a partner as soon as possible that is willing to share. You will need a partner to do this assignment.The chronophotography assignment follows the projection drawings of your room. It will be due on Tuesday February 5. This should give you ample time to either check out one of the few cameras they have upstairs (the SLRs from Denny or the commercial grade digital cameras from Johnny) and or to develop your images if you decide to use a 35mm film camera. Remember if you develop your film get Matte prints not glossy! There are 200 of you, so be kind and return the cameras as soon as you are finished.
You should perform at least 15 events in your room for this assignment. It will take a couple of tries to get to know the technology. You will need to experiment with the effects of chronophotography. Do not rush this, we are giving you this time to have fun and create something beautiful. There are many ways to do this. But you are the creator. You can flash the room with a single on and off switch during the shot, use single light records (single LED lights on both hands are an example of this technique), or you could use draped lighting (white christmas lights are an example of the drape effect).
You will find more details in the assignment located in the left column of this blog.
24 January 2008
Step by Step Process for Projecting
22 January 2008
ERASED DEKOONING
In lecture tonight we'll talk about Robert Rauschenburg's Erased DeKooning. Rauschenburg is a Texan, of course. DeKooning was a Dutch master of abstract expressionist painting. In 1959 Rauschenburg was a young punk in NYC. Rauschenburg asked the master DeKooning for a drawing. Rauschenburg took the drawing home, erased the whole drawing, and retitled the piece Erased DeKooning.
21 January 2008
More Manifests
You need to reprint your spreadsheets for tomorrow as well. There should be two manifests, one for the extents of things and one for the duration and then two sets of four graphs one set documenting the extents of your room and the other set notating the events that occur in your room and or the frequency of use of the objects that occupy your room. These spreadsheets are physical documents used to understand how you live in your room and how your things affect that space.
Drafting Supplies
I have rearranged the materials list to the left so that everything you need for tomorrow is above the X-Acto knife. If you don't have some of the secondary things then we'll be able to make do. I keep my drafting gear in an old tackle box.
Quote of the Week
From the late 1960s until very recently...architecture has been very "process" driven. That is to say...architectural form is the outcome, or registration, of a series of design procedures. These procedures are in control of the architect, carried out by graphic means, and have their own internal logic. That logic in turn is seen to be embedded in the architectural object as meaning and formal organization.
Stan Allen, "Trace Elements" in Tracing Eisenman
e.g. - Eisenman Architects
e.g. - Morphosis
Stan Allen, "Trace Elements" in Tracing Eisenman
e.g. - Eisenman Architects
e.g. - Morphosis
19 January 2008
Drafting Tuesday
Don't forget to bring your drafting gear on Tuesday. We'll do an in class drafting assignment.
Bring at least one 24 by 24 sheet of vellum.
Bring at least one 24 by 24 sheet of vellum.
Chronophotography
To the right you'll find an image bank of chronophotographs taken by students in their dorm rooms.
Below is an image I made myself in my apartment in Manhattan. What you see is the whole kitchen. The action being recorded is getting a glass out of the cabinet, reaching into the fridge, and pouring juice into the glass. It was done with slide film .
To the left is also an assignment you'll start in one week doing chronophotography documenting the events that occur in your room. Please start reviewing what you'll need, checking if your camera will do these sorts of photos and where you'll get one if yours doesn't.
One of the first conceptual decisions you should make is whether you'll record trajectories of individual lights or if you'll find the "clouds of occupied space" otherwise shown with rope lights and light strings. How can you make the data gathered transition? Can you interpolate and translate the recordings?
We'll draw sections through these results, we'll make wire frame models of each of these, we'll make combinations of these things, and we'll model the aggregate in foam.
Below is an image I made myself in my apartment in Manhattan. What you see is the whole kitchen. The action being recorded is getting a glass out of the cabinet, reaching into the fridge, and pouring juice into the glass. It was done with slide film .
To the left is also an assignment you'll start in one week doing chronophotography documenting the events that occur in your room. Please start reviewing what you'll need, checking if your camera will do these sorts of photos and where you'll get one if yours doesn't.One of the first conceptual decisions you should make is whether you'll record trajectories of individual lights or if you'll find the "clouds of occupied space" otherwise shown with rope lights and light strings. How can you make the data gathered transition? Can you interpolate and translate the recordings?
We'll draw sections through these results, we'll make wire frame models of each of these, we'll make combinations of these things, and we'll model the aggregate in foam.
17 January 2008
Art With Excel
I did not mention it but the first reading is available to the left (RDG#1). It is two very short excerpts from a book about mereotopology. (6 pages total)
Here's an interesting visual artist that uses MS Excel spreadsheet application technology to generate her art work. Click on her name to visit her site.
Here's an interesting visual artist that uses MS Excel spreadsheet application technology to generate her art work. Click on her name to visit her site.
16 January 2008
Ex.#2 Charting Things
You make two excel spreadsheets.
Print them each to fill an 11 by 17 sheet of paper.
________________
That's the most important part above. Spend most of your time there and less on this next part. You'll use these charts above a WHOLE lot in this project.
Then, using charting and graphing tools in excel, make four graphics of the findings in each of your spreadsheets (% breakdown of colors, etc.) Print each of these 8 graphics individually on an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. (make sure that all graphics are oriented on the sheet the same way)
The TWO printouts of the spread sheets PLUS FOUR graphics of your chart of object things PLUS FOUR graphics of your chart of event things EQUALS 10 IMAGES.
You can include images of your room contents in the spreadsheet, if you wish but that is not a requirement, just a suggestion of one way of accomplishing this exercise.
- One has all the things that are objects in your room listed, categorized and measured in extensive and material ways. (Color, volume, location, relationship to other things, etc.)
- One has all the things that happen in your room listed, categorized and measured in durational, and situational ways. (frequency, duration, intensity, area, relationship to other things, etc.)
Print them each to fill an 11 by 17 sheet of paper.
________________
That's the most important part above. Spend most of your time there and less on this next part. You'll use these charts above a WHOLE lot in this project.
Then, using charting and graphing tools in excel, make four graphics of the findings in each of your spreadsheets (% breakdown of colors, etc.) Print each of these 8 graphics individually on an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. (make sure that all graphics are oriented on the sheet the same way)
The TWO printouts of the spread sheets PLUS FOUR graphics of your chart of object things PLUS FOUR graphics of your chart of event things EQUALS 10 IMAGES.
You can include images of your room contents in the spreadsheet, if you wish but that is not a requirement, just a suggestion of one way of accomplishing this exercise.
15 January 2008
cad class
Students signed up for the cad mini course will be released from those courses to attend our lecture this evening.
From: Snowden, Christopher
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:11 AM
To: Key, Brian; Perkins, Patricia
Subject: RE: AutoCAD
If they are only going to miss an hour on Tuesday I can work around this. I will be giving them a small assignment to do outside of class. Please make sure they know that they must be there at the beginning of every class. I will be allowing them to miss ONLY the 6:00pm to 7:00pm hour on Tuesday. They must be in attendance at all other times.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Chris Snowden
Research Associate/Instructor
Texas Tech University
College of Architecture
806.742.3136
christopher.snowden@ttu.edu
From: Snowden, Christopher
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 11:11 AM
To: Key, Brian; Perkins, Patricia
Subject: RE: AutoCAD
If they are only going to miss an hour on Tuesday I can work around this. I will be giving them a small assignment to do outside of class. Please make sure they know that they must be there at the beginning of every class. I will be allowing them to miss ONLY the 6:00pm to 7:00pm hour on Tuesday. They must be in attendance at all other times.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Chris Snowden
Research Associate/Instructor
Texas Tech University
College of Architecture
806.742.3136
christopher.snowden@ttu.edu
10 January 2008
Assignment for Day #1
a) Read the Bounding Space Introduction (linked to the left).
b) Complete the Photomosaic Exercise (ex.#1- linked to the left) and have it ready for presentation at the beginning of class on Tuesday, January 15th. Have aluminum straight pins and binder clips ready to pin the document up.
c) Review the Course Syllabus (linked to the left) and the course website (you're on it) before the lecture on the night of Tuesday, January 15th.
b) Complete the Photomosaic Exercise (ex.#1- linked to the left) and have it ready for presentation at the beginning of class on Tuesday, January 15th. Have aluminum straight pins and binder clips ready to pin the document up.
c) Review the Course Syllabus (linked to the left) and the course website (you're on it) before the lecture on the night of Tuesday, January 15th.
07 January 2008
David Hockney & Photomosaic Photography
I may seem to be passionately concerned with the 'hows' of representation, how you actually represent rather than 'what' or 'why'. But to me this is inevitable. The 'how' has a great effect on what we see. To say that 'what we see' is more important than 'how we see it' is to think that 'how' has been settled and fixed. When you realize this is not the case, you realize that 'how' often affects 'what' we see.
Perspective is a law of optics... The Chinese did not have a system like it. Indeed, it is said they rejected the idea of the vanishing point in the eleventh century, because it meant the viewer was not there, indeed, had no movement, therefore was not alive.
People tend to forget that play is serious
It is difficult to say why I decided I wanted to be an artist. Obviously, I had some facility, more than other people, but sometimes facility comes because one is more interested in looking at things, examining them, more interested in the visual world than other people are.
Once my hand has drawn something my eye has observed, I know it by heart, and I can draw it again without a model.
But, I would always be thinking of how pictures are constructed and colour, how to use it, I mean you're using it for constructing, makes you think about it, the place did as well.
Most artists work all the time, they do actually, especially good artists, they work all the time, what else is there to do? I mean you do. Perspective is a law of optics... The Chinese did not have a system like it. Indeed, it is said they rejected the idea of the vanishing point in the eleventh century, because it meant the viewer was not there, indeed, had no movement, therefore was not alive.
People tend to forget that play is serious
It is difficult to say why I decided I wanted to be an artist. Obviously, I had some facility, more than other people, but sometimes facility comes because one is more interested in looking at things, examining them, more interested in the visual world than other people are.
Once my hand has drawn something my eye has observed, I know it by heart, and I can draw it again without a model.
But, I would always be thinking of how pictures are constructed and colour, how to use it, I mean you're using it for constructing, makes you think about it, the place did as well.
David Hockney
23 December 2007
Materials Information
To the left is a list of tools and consumables we know that we'll be using this semester. It is recommended that you buy the tools before the first day of class. We're working with a new store in town, RENDr, which is at the corner of Canton and 26th Street (in the same strip shopping center as J&B Coffee) to get you all these supplies in a timely manner. Crissy Griswold, the owner of RENDr will be watching this class website from time to time. It would be a great help to both Crissy and us if you would inform us if you think that the majority of the class already has one of these tools and we will not need to order it. You can do so in a comment on this post.
If you click on the material listings to the right you'll find we've linked a picture of the element for familiarity. Again, if you have a question about an item, make it a comment to this post, don't email us just yet.
The tools for the course, if you buy sturdy professional quality tools, will last you for your whole career in architecture. We still regularly use tools we bought in high school. There's a huge difference between student and professional quality and there's going to be a difference in the way the tool operates, just as with musical instruments or sporting goods. Many of you know what you get when you buy a guitar at ToysR'Us. The same is true here. RENDr stocks professional quality gear, will have competitive prices, and will be very convenient for you.
It is recommended that you buy the consumables only as you need them. The studios will be crowded and you will not have your own desk. You'll share desks. RENDr will have the paper materials as we need them. Home Depot and other building supplies will have things like paint, polystyrene, sandpaper, and spackling whenever we need them. Part of the course is simply sourcing all the tools and consumables you'll need as the semester progresses.
Questions made as comments to this post will be answered promptly.
If you click on the material listings to the right you'll find we've linked a picture of the element for familiarity. Again, if you have a question about an item, make it a comment to this post, don't email us just yet.
The tools for the course, if you buy sturdy professional quality tools, will last you for your whole career in architecture. We still regularly use tools we bought in high school. There's a huge difference between student and professional quality and there's going to be a difference in the way the tool operates, just as with musical instruments or sporting goods. Many of you know what you get when you buy a guitar at ToysR'Us. The same is true here. RENDr stocks professional quality gear, will have competitive prices, and will be very convenient for you.
It is recommended that you buy the consumables only as you need them. The studios will be crowded and you will not have your own desk. You'll share desks. RENDr will have the paper materials as we need them. Home Depot and other building supplies will have things like paint, polystyrene, sandpaper, and spackling whenever we need them. Part of the course is simply sourcing all the tools and consumables you'll need as the semester progresses.
Questions made as comments to this post will be answered promptly.
22 December 2007
Bios on the Instructors
Marti was born in Omaha, Nebraska and spent her childhood in Bennington, Nebraska, which is a farming town just beyond the reach of Omaha. She lettered in track and volleyball and was her high school class salutatorian. After high school she studied architecture at the University of Nebraska where she was an honors student, was the editor of In.Form, a peer-reviewed architectural journal, and was an exchange student student at the University of Hannover, Germany. After completing her her architecture studies for a B.Sc. in Architectural Design she studied printmaking and filmmaking at NU. She worked professionally for Keith Dubas Architects in Lincoln before coming to Texas Tech to teach for the last two years in second year studio, third year studio, the Montréal summer studios, and now in the first year studio. In the coming Fall Marti will be working in some advanced studies in architecture.
Brian was born in Warren, Ohio and moved at an early age to Texas. He lived as a boy in Killeen, Austin, Montréal, Quebec, and Garland. He graduated from North Garland High School. He played soccer, was a national bible quiz champion, and two time state drafting champion. Before going to university he worked as a civl engineering draftsman (he drew the parking islands at TownEast Mall in Mesquite), a high rise curtain-wall shop drawing draftsman, was a metal building designer (he designed the horrid Custom Cleaners building at Forest and Greenville in Dallas), and was self-employed as a residential designer doing houses in Dallas, Allen, McKinney, Garland, and Sachse. He attended Dallas County Community Colleges, the University of Texas at Arlington (B.Sc.Arch.), Carleton University (B.Arch.), and Columbia University (M.Sc.Design). While at Carleton University he spent a semester at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He's worked professionally for Cooper Robertson + Partners in New York City, Humphries Poli in Denver, and Hildinger Associates in Dallas. He's taught at the Universities of Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Dublin Institute of Technology (IRL), and now TTU. He teaches foundation design, urban design, and site design courses. He designs and researches on "-grounds", as in campgrounds, fairgrounds, and other land based architectures.
Brian was born in Warren, Ohio and moved at an early age to Texas. He lived as a boy in Killeen, Austin, Montréal, Quebec, and Garland. He graduated from North Garland High School. He played soccer, was a national bible quiz champion, and two time state drafting champion. Before going to university he worked as a civl engineering draftsman (he drew the parking islands at TownEast Mall in Mesquite), a high rise curtain-wall shop drawing draftsman, was a metal building designer (he designed the horrid Custom Cleaners building at Forest and Greenville in Dallas), and was self-employed as a residential designer doing houses in Dallas, Allen, McKinney, Garland, and Sachse. He attended Dallas County Community Colleges, the University of Texas at Arlington (B.Sc.Arch.), Carleton University (B.Arch.), and Columbia University (M.Sc.Design). While at Carleton University he spent a semester at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He's worked professionally for Cooper Robertson + Partners in New York City, Humphries Poli in Denver, and Hildinger Associates in Dallas. He's taught at the Universities of Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Dublin Institute of Technology (IRL), and now TTU. He teaches foundation design, urban design, and site design courses. He designs and researches on "-grounds", as in campgrounds, fairgrounds, and other land based architectures.
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