Starchitects – Get Off of the Bandwagon

By Cray Shellenbarger

As students we are encouraged to research and study precedents. We are often told that there is no such thing as a new idea, just reinterpretation of old ones. We study these designers in hope of learning from their experiences and ideas. Where do we draw the line between learning from and copying? More importantly, where do we draw the line between researching and worshiping?


All too often many students look at Wright and Gehry’s projects as the way to design. It is argued that Gehry’s buildings waste structural resources, do not adapt to their local climates or cultures and so on. The point being, we cannot look at someone that has established a certain reputation and assume they make no mistakes. As students, we should look at these “great” designs as well as bad designs. In his teachings, Paul Virilio would have students design a bad building that still worked. After critiquing them, he would then have them design a “good” building.

This is a valuable lesson because, in my opinion, there is more to learn from a failed design than from a well designed building. These well designed buildings follow what we are taught in design studios. The ones that fail teach us what not to do. It would be a waste of time to try and teach what not to do in design studios, so it’s important to review these failures in order to prevent the same mistakes.

Most importantly, we all have to get past the infallibility of the starchitects of our time and those of the past. Regardless of your opinion of these famous architects, we have to review their designs as nothing more than what they are…..precedents. Thinking of them anymore than this becomes idolatry, which is the opposite of what we need in the profession right now.

Images from BlueVerticalStudio.com

Creative Block

By Rhonda Daugherty


Space has limitless possibilities, and the art of capturing the internal bliss that seamlessly fades in and out, is a challenge. Architects are artists that focus on holistic aspect of design, and architecture students are trainee’s that fumble the ball while conceptualizing. The difference between knowing and wanting to know, is experience, and unfortunately trainees are struggling to find his or her niche that will set them apart from the masses. On the other hand, sometimes when you are digging deep to become a superb fictitious designer, you often run right into the creative brick wall. That’s when you have to ask yourself, “Do I start over, or do I commit to this project that I have unknowingly married?”


Next you must ask yourself two questions before you let any short term project marriage go on:

1. Can I create spaces that will speak volumes and convey my concept visually?

2. Do you see this structure as an actually three dimensional design?

If you answer no to either one of the pervious questions, I am afraid it is time to get a divorce.


Inspiration has limitless possibilities and one should always make it a point to put his or her best foot forward and move pass lingering ideas that will only absorb your time. Take a walk, pain, cry, live, etc…Those are the only ways you can shred the old ball in chain!

Paducah, KY

By Micah Jacobson

In studio, we just started a project in Paducah, KY. For part of our trip, we have made three trips to the city, to meet with planners, historic preservationists, contractors and even a tug boat pilot trainer. They have been interesting trips. Paducah is a nice, small and diverse town. The downtown area has been going through some restoration and revitalizations. They have plans to undergo a huge river front project that will change the majority of their river access in the town, eliminating the opportunity for the locals to “drag the gut.” This is what they call the drive down to the river and drive with two of their wheels in the water. I tried it and it was pretty fun.


Another fun thing to do in Paducah is to drive over the Brookport Bridge. It's a hug steel truss bridge leading to Paducah that crosses the Ohio River. The fun, and scary, thing about this bridge is that there is no concrete deck. The deck is a metal grating that you can see strait through. My wife almost had a stroke going over this bridge. The grates also shift's your car from side to side on the already very narrow bridge.

Another cool thing in Paducah to see is the tug boat training center. They have simulators with 270 degree screen so you can drive tug buts and do training simulations. It was fun being a captain for a few minutes. This center is one of only six in the world, and its in Paducah, who would of thought.

Overall, it was a fun an interesting experience. I would recommend the hour and a half drive for anyone looking for something fun to do. They have a great downtown with some fun shops and good restaurants.

References:
http://thistledewtoo.blogspot.com/
http://www.city-data.com/forum/kentucky/233322-rural-ky-photo-sticky-3.html

Systems Furniture

By Jessica Grafton

Working with comercial furniture, you really see, in action, how important it is to take function into account when designing spaces. Whether your designing a private office or a copy room, the function should always play the key role in space planning. I’ve had the opportunity, working this past year, to space plan for various types of office and shool settings, and have found that in many of these, versatility is crucial.


Recently I posted a blog about this topic and some of the singular pieces that can help to achieve this in the workplace. Now I’d like to build on this topic by introducing one of the furniture systems that I think clearly utilizes this concept. Its a product that allows for multi-functional workspace, organization, and flexibility.


This system is called Traxx, by Kimball Office, and it’s a horizontal wall mounting system that allows for surfaces, cabinetry, tackboards, slat wall, and even monitor arms to be hung from it. The best part is that once you’ve “Traxx’d” a space you can easily reconfigure the pieces leaving the wall mounts in place. Also, Kimball has designed this product to be compatible with their panel systems, so that stations can become more private and adaptable.


Traxx was great for our clients who were constantly moving people and departments every 2-3 years. Using this system allows the client to do this without having to buy completely new furniture. Pieces can be mixed and matched throughout an entire building if need be, and still seem seamless instead of the hodge-podge that can sometimes ensue when reconfiguring furniture.

All photos from www.kimballoffice.com

Conceptions of Diyu

By Kang-Hsin Fan

According to ideas from Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese folk religion, Diyu is a purgatory that serves to punish and renew spirits in preparation for reincarnation into their next life.

Eighteen Levels of Hell:

The concept of the eighteen hells started in the Tang Dynasty. The Buddhist text Wen Diyu Jing mentioned 134 worlds of hell, but was simplified to eighteen levels for convenience. The following is a list of common punishments and tortures in the eighteen levels of hell.


Process:

1. First you need to go into the Hell's door.

2. Next the deceased people will be judged by the King in the Hell in order to determine which levels they need to go through, as well as which levels they will be given exemptions.

3. This is the punishment, in the different levels, in the Hell as we see in the picture. This process is the way they deep fry the deceased people. On the left hand side, you will see how they try to crunch the deceased people.

4. For those who like to tell lies before they passed away, this is the punishment for them; pulling out their tongue.

5. For those who are jealous and bad-hearted in the sense of treating their family friends, this is the level where their eyes and heart will be taken out.

6. The next picture shows the punishment for those who did a crime or something terrible before they died.

7. This is the tool which is used to crunch soya bean into liquid. This now crunches the human head into liquid blood.

8. This is the outcome after the crunch.

9. This is the tenth level in the hell in which the judge will determine the deceased people. They are either reborn as a human in their next life or they become an animal.

10. This is the Ah Ma. It’s very well-known in the Hell. Her duty is to just give the deceased people one bowl of soup to the deceased people and then they will completely forget their past life.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyu
http://kathy87.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-post.html

Fall Lectures

By Vince Burdi

Lectures are an important part of anyone's education. Discussions pertaining, but not limited to architectural related projects are a great resource for design. Any chance you get to sit in on a lecture take it. Lectures may not seem important early on in your education, but as time will pass they will seem all the more relevant to your career. By going to lectures you are broadening your horizons leading to better design proposals that consider more topics and problems. Discussion allows you to see things in a different perspective, which will ultimately affects your design like it or not.

Washington University offers an incredible public lecture series. On October 11, 2010 Tom Leader came to Wash U for a lecture and he discussed his work in landscape architecture. It was great experience I would recommend anyone interested in architectural related fields to look him up. Tom Leader discussed different forms of mapping styles that he had conducted all through the 90s. The mapping technique gave him insight on how a particular piece of land had changed over a certain time period. The landscapes Tom Leader designs are an "evolving creature" which over time change and propose new opportunities. I have taken some of the elements from Tom's lecture into consideration of my own project this fall. By developing a landscape and considering what it was I then can determine what the new landscape should become. Tom Leader has many projects listed at: http://www.tomleader.com/.

Wash U Lecture series at: http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/news/4671

Wiped

By Jessica Grafton

I ran out of energy completely this week and so am diverting from the furniture technologies blog that I had promised. My brain is pretty much mush at this point, and so I decided to write about the importance of sleep and how much I miss it. I know we’ve all been there.

Obviously budgeting your time is a huge factor in getting an appropriate amount of sleep as an architecture student. Sometimes though, if you’re a perfectionist, like me, it’s hard to say enough is enough and I’m done. I’m finally realizing that school is a preparation, and even if we think we can do it all, these projects are meant to be time restrictive. It’s about spreading yourself thin awhile still being able to tell the story or choose the content that gives the most information.

It’s generally not possible to do everything in a project perfectly, and that is a hard lesson to learn for someone like me, who might possibly be a little OCD, lol. I drive myself crazy and stay up all hours of the night trying to get everything just right, and wow is it wearing me down. I look at those of you who can just sit down, accomplish a task, and just move on to the next stress-free thing in awe.

So as of now, I’m changing my routing and I’m going to try to do all the things they say you need to do to stay healthy and energized to cut down my stress level. The goal is to: exercise regularly, eat healthy, get 8 hrs of sleep at night, and learn to not fret over every little detail. I’m really hoping I can pull it off…I think I can, I think I can…….I’ll let you know how it goes.