Back in Studio World

It's easy to forget, but alongside thesis there is still studio.  Our programme this term is for a yacht club, sailing school and race sailing research lab down by Crissy Fields in the Marina District.

Here are some photo's of a generative cast plaster model I did.  My partner, Jeremy Bamberger, and I are working with the Venturi Effect to maximise exposure to the wind through funneling apertures.  The idea is to bring the phenomological elements associated with sailing into the building.

An Ideogram charting my projected progress for thesis

I have put together an ideogram for my own sanity and clarity on how to deal with the work load for thesis.  It was actually quite helpful for clearing up my own ideas and what is important to the idea.

Term starts with a BANG with the CCA all-school warm-up charrette

We all arrived at the Architecture Department Convocation on Wednesday to be presented with an all school charrette competition.  We were split into teams of 5 or 6 with grads, undergrads and interiors students all mixed up.  The brief was to propose a new direction for the newly purchased property behind the current CCA campus.  My team was made up of Colby Rosenwald, John Fulton and Mark Campos.  Kind of a dream team compared to the others.

Manifesting the Project Based Learning Environment

Thesis Design Experiment #4


For my final design experiment I created a matrix of formal possibilities that might engender potential for PBL.  Open enclosure and implicit and explicit spaces of various sizes combine with a simple formal tectonic to create project spaces for different sized groups.

Project Based Learning

Thesis Experiment # 3


Myself and the KIDmob team went back up to Indian Valley Academy in early September for a second round of hands-on Project Based design teaching. Seeing as my thesis research is very much leaning towards this kind of power redistribution it seems only fitting to include this visit as one of my four experiments.

The 7th graders all clubbed together and after a few practical exercises collaboratively diagramed the circulation routes, and connectivity of the arrangement of the furniture.

Control through porosity and permitted transparency

Thesis Design Experiment #2


Concentric layers of plastic punctuated in a grid by perforations and translucencies allow the viewer only intermittent access to the privileged interior.  A clear top-down hierarchy excludes and prevents physical and visual access to the inner most layers. 

 

Project Based Learning

Thesis Positioning Statement #6

Note - This paper is linked to the ‘Control through Interaction’ positioning statement, because it describes a scenario that re-evaluates an accepted power hierarchy and places the user of the space in a directly collaborative relationship with the space itself.

Back to basics teaching methods can be described as a top down subordination of the student where the broader social and cultural norms are impressed upon the pupil.  This traditional method is seen as a generational impartment of the moral and behavioural expectations that adults see as a requirement for participation in broader society.  It requires the student to obediently and meekly yield to the information given by the teacher – questioning the information, or even the authority of the teacher is not an option.[1]