It looks like we will have some visitors, at least for a time.
You should start your presentation with your title and the three sentence statement. Then- with as little said as is possible and nothing said about anything but architectural ideas and the facts that make them apparent. You will be cut off if you say, "I wanted..." or any other first person reference while talking about the project. Reading the project statement is acceptable. Bringing the project to life through your presentation of it is imperative.
We ALL will start pinning up at 13h00. We'll pin up in the front two rooms on the first floor. EVERYONE should be pinned up in the front first floor rooms at 13h15. We'll do a quick walk through, then we'll start at 13h30.
13h30
Chelsea
Andy
Cameron
14h30
Luis
Christina
John
Frank
15h30
Katie
Nichole
Eddie
16h30
Phil
Jordan
Ryan
Cynthia
17h30
Brittney
Edgar
Jeff
We'll just put the work in the studio and leave after we're done. We'll come back to it Tuesday to clean up and pack the models. If you are not going to be there Tuesday then you will need to have someone take care fo yoru part of the clean-up and packing for Lubbock.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Work
Work Hard. Make smart decisions. You're not alone. Here's a screen cap of my designs for one block of 34th Street.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday - Teacher Crit and Clean Day
On Tuesday Marti and I will share with you some of our work and we'll do a cursory clean up of the studios. Let's meet at 13h00 on Tuesday and be gone by 16h00 with the studio cleaned, cards and keys turned in, and your critiques of our work shared.
I'll show you my designs for Lubbock's 34th Street (to be voted on in a bond election in November), my redesign of a tidal island in Long Island Sound for a new U.N.H.Q. (honorable mention competition entry), my stadium for The Los Angeles Pacifics in Santa Monica (second place competition entry), a design for a boating museum on the Seine in Paris (I was beat by our Professor Chris Taylor in that competition), my Civic Center in Curtis, NE (the town and school don't know I designed this for them), design for wind turbines on the TTU campus (being considered by the Chancellor and President), and my design for a campus lawn between the TTU admin and SUB buildings (nobody who parks in that lot I'm replacing likes this thing- which is the university administration).
I'll try to convince Marti to show her redesign for Galveston Island, her High School in Houston, her floating park in San Francisco, her Hannover study abroad project, and her new project researching the effects of water depletion in the Ogallala aquifer on towns on the High Plains.
That sounds like more than it will be. A lot of the new renderings we both have have never been seen by anyone. We'll just show a few images of each project- enough to present the narrative.
I'll show you my designs for Lubbock's 34th Street (to be voted on in a bond election in November), my redesign of a tidal island in Long Island Sound for a new U.N.H.Q. (honorable mention competition entry), my stadium for The Los Angeles Pacifics in Santa Monica (second place competition entry), a design for a boating museum on the Seine in Paris (I was beat by our Professor Chris Taylor in that competition), my Civic Center in Curtis, NE (the town and school don't know I designed this for them), design for wind turbines on the TTU campus (being considered by the Chancellor and President), and my design for a campus lawn between the TTU admin and SUB buildings (nobody who parks in that lot I'm replacing likes this thing- which is the university administration).
I'll try to convince Marti to show her redesign for Galveston Island, her High School in Houston, her floating park in San Francisco, her Hannover study abroad project, and her new project researching the effects of water depletion in the Ogallala aquifer on towns on the High Plains.
That sounds like more than it will be. A lot of the new renderings we both have have never been seen by anyone. We'll just show a few images of each project- enough to present the narrative.
Monday Schedule
We'll all pin up by 13h15 in the two crit rooms on the first floor. You should put everything on the wall and in front of reviewers that you think helps build the project narrative. We'll go through from 13h15 until 13h30 getting the wall looking good. Here is what was sent to the potential reviewers:
CoA@TTU Montréal Summer Studio 2009
PROJECT REVIEW
Monday 27 July 2009 at 13h00
McGill SoA First Floor Crit Rooms
PROJECT STATEMENT
Urban Centre
at Place d'Youville, Montréal
How else dispose of an immortal force
No longer needed? Staunch it at its source
With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown
Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone
In fetid darkness still to live and run –
And all for nothing it had ever done
Except forget to go in fear perhaps.
No one would know except for ancient maps
That such a brook ran water. But I wonder
If from its being kept forever under,
The thoughts may not have risen that so keep
This new-built city from both work and sleep.
Place d'Youville sits on the former Little St-Pierre River waterfront edge of the old city. It is akin to Canal Street in New York- once a brook, then a canal, then a sewer, then paved over. The studio site is a through block hole in the northern edge of the Place. Under the place in front of the site lies the ancient sewer that will tie the project to the Archaeology museum at the other end of the sewer. Under the site lies the foundations of the former city wall. The Parliament of Canada once sat ablaze in a riot in the Place. On the south side of the place, outside the old city, sits the Grey Nun's Hospital, the generator of the skewed secondary grid in the city's fabric.
The project program is generically speaking an Urban Centre. The studio, whose focus is urbanism, is the last in a sequence that starts with representation and moves through form, program, structure, and envelope before getting here. Each student, through a careful reading of the site and its surroundings in highly contextualist terms, has come to a particular position on how the building and the city will meet and how the project is shaped and will shape event structures in the city.
CoA@TTU Montréal Summer Studio 2009
PROJECT REVIEW
Monday 27 July 2009 at 13h00
McGill SoA First Floor Crit Rooms
PROJECT STATEMENT
Urban Centre
at Place d'Youville, Montréal
How else dispose of an immortal force
No longer needed? Staunch it at its source
With cinder loads dumped down? The brook was thrown
Deep in a sewer dungeon under stone
In fetid darkness still to live and run –
And all for nothing it had ever done
Except forget to go in fear perhaps.
No one would know except for ancient maps
That such a brook ran water. But I wonder
If from its being kept forever under,
The thoughts may not have risen that so keep
This new-built city from both work and sleep.
excerpt from “A Brook in the City” by Robert Frost, 1924
Place d'Youville sits on the former Little St-Pierre River waterfront edge of the old city. It is akin to Canal Street in New York- once a brook, then a canal, then a sewer, then paved over. The studio site is a through block hole in the northern edge of the Place. Under the place in front of the site lies the ancient sewer that will tie the project to the Archaeology museum at the other end of the sewer. Under the site lies the foundations of the former city wall. The Parliament of Canada once sat ablaze in a riot in the Place. On the south side of the place, outside the old city, sits the Grey Nun's Hospital, the generator of the skewed secondary grid in the city's fabric.
The project program is generically speaking an Urban Centre. The studio, whose focus is urbanism, is the last in a sequence that starts with representation and moves through form, program, structure, and envelope before getting here. Each student, through a careful reading of the site and its surroundings in highly contextualist terms, has come to a particular position on how the building and the city will meet and how the project is shaped and will shape event structures in the city.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis :: Representation Techniques
Even they still use extension lines! Please note that yes these are perspectives. The choice is yours whether to draw an oblique, isometric, or perspective, but your choice should privilege a view that best describes your project. The drawing should also show the ideas embedded into your project. Read the project diagram portion of your final drawing list, this diagram must describe programmatic elements (specify types of program, such as the scale, intensity, path/place etc), event spaces and their cycle, and tectonic systems (structure, material difference, components etc).
These are drawing techniques that can be used for your project diagrams. They are done in perspective of course but similar techniques can be used for your project diagrams. These have incredible detail and your projects do not..... no worries, you have program, structure, place space, path space...etc, etc..... just have fun, but please use extension lines.....
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Project Summary
3 Sentence Project Narrative
a project title and 3 sentence text.
media: typed out in .doc format
Project Diagram
3 different each developed from the catalogs on:
programmatic elements
event spaces and their cycles
tectonic systems and components
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum
1/32"=1'0" Project Model (Tectonic Configuration)
Model in a new site model exploring these fundamental conditions:
Enclosed vs. Defined (spatial)
Surface and Mass (formal)
Projecting Space Out and Projected Space In (contextual)
media: foam, white museum board, and piano wire
model scope:
1/16"=1'0" Plan Projection Drawing (Urban Place)
Projection drawing exploring the status of:
project to its surroundings (both above and below ground)
particular contextual elements that shaped or are impacted by the project
general internal structures and sequences of the project
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum (fill sheet)
1/8"=1'0" Plan Projection Drawing (Building Section)
Projection drawing with substantial sectioning that explores the status of:
Skeleton : Held / Holding / Holder (structural)
Skin: Transparent / Translucent / Opaque / Thick (enveloptic)
Physiognomy: Place / Transition / Path / Servant (programmatic)
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum (fill sheet)
Public Project View
Using your own photographs or perspective drawing insert your project into the site using either hand drawing or digital media in a series of views of and from the site.
media: graphite, printer ink, and/or collage on 18” by 18” vellum or printout
a project title and 3 sentence text.
media: typed out in .doc format
Project Diagram
3 different each developed from the catalogs on:
programmatic elements
event spaces and their cycles
tectonic systems and components
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum
1/32"=1'0" Project Model (Tectonic Configuration)
Model in a new site model exploring these fundamental conditions:
Enclosed vs. Defined (spatial)
Surface and Mass (formal)
Projecting Space Out and Projected Space In (contextual)
media: foam, white museum board, and piano wire
model scope:
1/16"=1'0" Plan Projection Drawing (Urban Place)Projection drawing exploring the status of:
project to its surroundings (both above and below ground)
particular contextual elements that shaped or are impacted by the project
general internal structures and sequences of the project
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum (fill sheet)
1/8"=1'0" Plan Projection Drawing (Building Section)
Projection drawing with substantial sectioning that explores the status of:
Skeleton : Held / Holding / Holder (structural)
Skin: Transparent / Translucent / Opaque / Thick (enveloptic)
Physiognomy: Place / Transition / Path / Servant (programmatic)
media: graphite on 36” by 36” vellum (fill sheet)
Public Project View
Using your own photographs or perspective drawing insert your project into the site using either hand drawing or digital media in a series of views of and from the site.
media: graphite, printer ink, and/or collage on 18” by 18” vellum or printout
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Project Catalog
On Thursday at 14h00 we'll have a discussion of this exercise. You will make three diagrams from these catalogs. Make three catalogs by interogating your models, narratives, and projection drawings using the following categories:
programmatic elements (specify the types, scales, and "families")
event spaces and their cycles (specify the cycles, frequencies, durations, volume, and "families")
tectonic systems and components (specify the structures and envelopes from element to component, to assembly, to bay/frame/branch/unit, to zone)
When necessary waterboard your work to gain the necessary information.
programmatic elements (specify the types, scales, and "families")
event spaces and their cycles (specify the cycles, frequencies, durations, volume, and "families")
tectonic systems and components (specify the structures and envelopes from element to component, to assembly, to bay/frame/branch/unit, to zone)
When necessary waterboard your work to gain the necessary information.
New Modeling Exercise
You should be in studio every day this week. A lot of you "failed" at making developments or engaging the coursework in the project this past week. A few were behind and seemed to have used the week wisely fro catch up. A few used the week, as it should be, to develop a project already seeing good development. We'll be in and out grading, teaching, and reviewing your work all week as well. If you want to work together on this then you should ask.
For the next few days please develop the project through a new 1/32"=1'0" scale model made of foam and paper (it can include some piano wire, if you want to use it to show linear elements but it should be made up primarily of foam and white paper stock).
We ALL will meet Tuesday to review these models, to get the final work list, and to hand out these 2/3rds grades.
Our final day of studio in Montréal is next Monday. We'll do studio clean-up and key hand in on the next day right after lunch. If you are bugging out then you will be expected to do your clean-up before you leave.
Stop work on the drawing class completely. An email is forthcoming to all of you in the drawing class on how we'll wrap that up.
For the next few days please develop the project through a new 1/32"=1'0" scale model made of foam and paper (it can include some piano wire, if you want to use it to show linear elements but it should be made up primarily of foam and white paper stock).
We ALL will meet Tuesday to review these models, to get the final work list, and to hand out these 2/3rds grades.
Our final day of studio in Montréal is next Monday. We'll do studio clean-up and key hand in on the next day right after lunch. If you are bugging out then you will be expected to do your clean-up before you leave.
Stop work on the drawing class completely. An email is forthcoming to all of you in the drawing class on how we'll wrap that up.
Project Statement
Please send a project title and a very short (3 sentence) project statement (call it -narrative, proposal, concept, or process) to b.rex@ttu.edu. We'll use it to help grade tomorrow.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Second Grade
We will begin the second grading process Monday morning. Please pin up and have your work up on the wall before 09h00 that day. Below is the list of exactly what we will be assessing.
1 :: 3 sets of Planimetric drawings and 3 Projection drawings of your final three study models :: 15 POINTS
2 :: 3 Paper Models / 3 Foam Models (final three) :: 15 POINTS
3 :: Site Catalog :: 10 POINTS
4 :: 1 Paper Model / 1 Foam Model (final one) :: 20 POINTS
5 :: Event Catalog :: 5 POINTS
6 :: 1/16" Plan Projection drawing :: 35 POINTS
We have a new pin up location roster. Please pin up as if you were exhibiting your final work. We have only one week left here so let's impress. The way things are most often pinned up now is not thoughtful. Line up your work with your neighbors work. Be methodical with how you pin up your work. Think of your project and how you would present it to a jury....this is the way you should always pin up.
1st FLOOR ::
Mike
Micah
Jeff
Chelsea
3rd FLOOR HALLWAY ::
Luis
Cameron
Katie
3rd FLOOR in STUDIO ::
Ryan
Andy
Frank
Eddie
Cynthia
Christina
Jordan
Phil
5th FLOOR ::
Brittney
Nichole
Edgar
John
1 :: 3 sets of Planimetric drawings and 3 Projection drawings of your final three study models :: 15 POINTS
2 :: 3 Paper Models / 3 Foam Models (final three) :: 15 POINTS
3 :: Site Catalog :: 10 POINTS
4 :: 1 Paper Model / 1 Foam Model (final one) :: 20 POINTS
5 :: Event Catalog :: 5 POINTS
6 :: 1/16" Plan Projection drawing :: 35 POINTS
We have a new pin up location roster. Please pin up as if you were exhibiting your final work. We have only one week left here so let's impress. The way things are most often pinned up now is not thoughtful. Line up your work with your neighbors work. Be methodical with how you pin up your work. Think of your project and how you would present it to a jury....this is the way you should always pin up.
1st FLOOR ::
Mike
Micah
Jeff
Chelsea
3rd FLOOR HALLWAY ::
Luis
Cameron
Katie
3rd FLOOR in STUDIO ::
Ryan
Andy
Frank
Eddie
Cynthia
Christina
Jordan
Phil
5th FLOOR ::
Brittney
Nichole
Edgar
John
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Rest of the Week / Notes on the past Tuesday
For Thursday let's meet first at 10h30 (not 10). I'll give a presentation about drawing. Drawing class people must be there. "Outsiders" are welcome too. It will take about an hour. Then we'd like to have a discussion about the ideas presented and then head off to lunch at 12h00.
Thursday afternoon at 14h00 both Marti and Brian will be in studio. We'll start with a short demonstration and discussion of some drawing techniques and then we'll do desk crits until 18h00 while you all work on these plan projections.
On Tuesday:
We talked about the two sorts of comprehensiveness- a) to figure out something in its totality and b) to make something thoroughly understood by others.
We also discussed the value of a narrative to the project- how a narrative attracts and gives "style" to a project but also how it gives the design decisions you've made a standard or plausibility to be measured and weighed against. A narrative is analogous to a rationale you set up to define what's rational. It can be a "World", like Italo Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES (That's what John's "Centre d'Etudes du Monstres Urbain" is.). It can be a "Process", like the first ten houses of Peter Eisenman (That's what Micah's "Traitements de Fenêtres Existant" is.) It can be "Uses", like both Koolhaas' and Tschumi's La VIllette. (That's what Chelsea's "Bureau de Villes Divisées" is.) And there are a number of other ways narrative (a rhetorical device) can generate and support a project. We'll point them out as you deliver them to the discussion and we'll help where we can to find it with you.
The main thing you need to do is keep drawing and exploring decisions. Figure out how you'd do everything in three different ways and then see which choices "fit" as a plausible project. Very nice projects will fall out of this work if you'll make speculations about things and relationships and such in drawing the project.
stories shape drawings shape stories shape drawings (loop)
I will be in studio on Friday afternoon to do some old grading and to help when asked.
Thursday afternoon at 14h00 both Marti and Brian will be in studio. We'll start with a short demonstration and discussion of some drawing techniques and then we'll do desk crits until 18h00 while you all work on these plan projections.
On Tuesday:
We talked about the two sorts of comprehensiveness- a) to figure out something in its totality and b) to make something thoroughly understood by others.
We also discussed the value of a narrative to the project- how a narrative attracts and gives "style" to a project but also how it gives the design decisions you've made a standard or plausibility to be measured and weighed against. A narrative is analogous to a rationale you set up to define what's rational. It can be a "World", like Italo Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES (That's what John's "Centre d'Etudes du Monstres Urbain" is.). It can be a "Process", like the first ten houses of Peter Eisenman (That's what Micah's "Traitements de Fenêtres Existant" is.) It can be "Uses", like both Koolhaas' and Tschumi's La VIllette. (That's what Chelsea's "Bureau de Villes Divisées" is.) And there are a number of other ways narrative (a rhetorical device) can generate and support a project. We'll point them out as you deliver them to the discussion and we'll help where we can to find it with you.
The main thing you need to do is keep drawing and exploring decisions. Figure out how you'd do everything in three different ways and then see which choices "fit" as a plausible project. Very nice projects will fall out of this work if you'll make speculations about things and relationships and such in drawing the project.
stories shape drawings shape stories shape drawings (loop)
I will be in studio on Friday afternoon to do some old grading and to help when asked.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Exercise : Plan Oblique
On a 36" by 36" sheet of trace or vellum, with your project at the centre of the sheet and its context filling the sheet, construct the project at 1/16" = 1'-0" in plan oblique. The choice of angle is yours.First you will gently lay out the drawing starting with the most important lines, edges, forms, and vectors that shape and demarcate the work, then you will gently layout your project in the space of the sheet and its influences. Build up layers of lines and make the drawing transparent (or at least translucent) with layers and depth of lines through which you will bring new information into the project.
This is due Tuesday at 14h00. We'll be in for a short time tomorrow (monday) but the day is a work day. All of these projects are in sink or swim mode right now. The projects are preggers but you are not yet showing. This exercise will be the last one before the next (2/3rds done) assessment.
This is due Tuesday at 14h00. We'll be in for a short time tomorrow (monday) but the day is a work day. All of these projects are in sink or swim mode right now. The projects are preggers but you are not yet showing. This exercise will be the last one before the next (2/3rds done) assessment.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sunday Ride
Today is supposed to be the best day for the next few days. I'd like to take people around the mountain to UdeM and l'Ecole Polytechnique. Meet me at the Church of St-Michael and St-Anthony at the corner of St-Viateur and St-Urbain at 11h00. It will be a fast trip.
If you want to meet us over there then it is easy to meet up. The Université de Montréal subway station is near by on the blue line.
We'll be at the Faculté de Amenagement (the architecture school) at 11h30. We'll go up the magic carpet to the upper campus (where the art deco tower is at) and we'll be at the Bombardier Research Centre at 12h15. Then we'll go to the Ecole Polytechnique's Lassonde Pavilions at 12h30 and we'll wrap up there. Its all on one campus.
All that is within a 1/2 mile of the subway station Edouard Montpetit, if you want to meet us out there. You can bring your bike on the métro, if you want. It is not a real hard ride. You should be on your way home before 13h30.
If you want to meet us over there then it is easy to meet up. The Université de Montréal subway station is near by on the blue line.
We'll be at the Faculté de Amenagement (the architecture school) at 11h30. We'll go up the magic carpet to the upper campus (where the art deco tower is at) and we'll be at the Bombardier Research Centre at 12h15. Then we'll go to the Ecole Polytechnique's Lassonde Pavilions at 12h30 and we'll wrap up there. Its all on one campus.
All that is within a 1/2 mile of the subway station Edouard Montpetit, if you want to meet us out there. You can bring your bike on the métro, if you want. It is not a real hard ride. You should be on your way home before 13h30.
Winter on McGill Street at Place d'Youville
Something to think about and imagine as you consider how the Place is used across the seasons.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Friday Class
The drawing class will not meet today at 10h00. Work on your 1:1 detail drawings.
We'll check each person's progress at 14h00 and determine how we'll adjust this list accordingly. Everyone we speak to during these reviews will have to have significant progress. We'll just cross people off who don't have progress (with good craft) and move the list up in time. Everyone should be in class until we leave for the day.
Marti List
14h00 Jeff
14h30 Micah
15h00 Katie
15h30 Brittney
16h00 Phil
16h30 Andy
17h00 Nichole
17h30
Brian List
14h00 Luis
14h30 Christina
15h00 Cameron
15h30 Cynthia
16h00 Edgar
16h30 Mike
17h00 John
17h30 Chelsea
We'll check each person's progress at 14h00 and determine how we'll adjust this list accordingly. Everyone we speak to during these reviews will have to have significant progress. We'll just cross people off who don't have progress (with good craft) and move the list up in time. Everyone should be in class until we leave for the day.
Marti List
14h00 Jeff
14h30 Micah
15h00 Katie
15h30 Brittney
16h00 Phil
16h30 Andy
17h00 Nichole
17h30
Brian List
14h00 Luis
14h30 Christina
15h00 Cameron
15h30 Cynthia
16h00 Edgar
16h30 Mike
17h00 John
17h30 Chelsea
les Trois Etoiles
At "le fin de bout" (the end of the game) on Hockey Night in Canada they announce three stars of the game.
We (Marti and Brian) talked this evening and we have three stars from what we saw today:
La Troisieme Etoile : numero vignt-deux (22), Brittney "Tower of Doom" Molina
La Deuxieme Etoile : numero trieze (13), Eddie "Foam+Paper=Luv" Lacroix
La Premiere Etoile : numero null (0), Nichole "Itz ya Rolly Tee" Shook
Honorable Mentions: Chelsea and Jordan
I was very, very happy to see the informal interaction going on between you all today. I think many of you are aware of what your classmates are doing and how they are doing it. The way you all know what each other are doing is strange- you'd almost think...uh...you were learning from what each other are doing. In that spirit...
This post is intended to indicate to you who we think is on track.
We (Marti and Brian) talked this evening and we have three stars from what we saw today:
La Troisieme Etoile : numero vignt-deux (22), Brittney "Tower of Doom" Molina
La Deuxieme Etoile : numero trieze (13), Eddie "Foam+Paper=Luv" Lacroix
La Premiere Etoile : numero null (0), Nichole "Itz ya Rolly Tee" Shook
Honorable Mentions: Chelsea and Jordan
I was very, very happy to see the informal interaction going on between you all today. I think many of you are aware of what your classmates are doing and how they are doing it. The way you all know what each other are doing is strange- you'd almost think...uh...you were learning from what each other are doing. In that spirit...
This post is intended to indicate to you who we think is on track.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thursday Ride
Swing Down Sweet Chariot Stop and Let Me Ride...
The funkadelic party starts today at 13h30 (1:30PM) just outside the entrance to the Grande Bibliotheque Nationale du Québec. (la GBNQ @ 475, Boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, across the street from the bus station)
It IS the Berri/UQAM subway station.
Then we'll go west to the Place Bonaventure (800, De La Gauchetière Street, West & also a subway station), KPF's IBM Building (very close by the Place Bonaventure), CIBC Tower (across the street from IBM at 1155, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest).
That set done we'll go to Westmount Square by Mies van der Rohe (also its own subway station).
Then, to finish the day, we'll go to the CCA for some free Architecture Museum love. (also near a subway station).
This tour has lots to see for many of your projects. You can get almost everywhere we're going (maybe everywhere) en la Métro, en la pied, ou Vélo. Come gassed up and ready to Roulleé!
The funkadelic party starts today at 13h30 (1:30PM) just outside the entrance to the Grande Bibliotheque Nationale du Québec. (la GBNQ @ 475, Boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, across the street from the bus station)
It IS the Berri/UQAM subway station.
Then we'll go west to the Place Bonaventure (800, De La Gauchetière Street, West & also a subway station), KPF's IBM Building (very close by the Place Bonaventure), CIBC Tower (across the street from IBM at 1155, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest).
That set done we'll go to Westmount Square by Mies van der Rohe (also its own subway station).
Then, to finish the day, we'll go to the CCA for some free Architecture Museum love. (also near a subway station).
This tour has lots to see for many of your projects. You can get almost everywhere we're going (maybe everywhere) en la Métro, en la pied, ou Vélo. Come gassed up and ready to Roulleé!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Creative Questioning
The Truth is that in philosophy and even elsewhere it is a question of finding the problem and consequently of positing it, even more than of solving it...stating the problem is not simply uncovering, it is inventing...Invention gives bring to what did not exist, it might never have happened.
Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Wednesday Schedule
The drawing class will meet today at 10h00. Bring all of your drawings done to date and we'll pin them up.
We've revised the schedule for the afternoon. We're going to divide you all between us to afford a longer crit for each of you.
Marti List
14h00 Chelsea
14h30 John
15h00 Mike
15h30 Edgar
16h00 Cynthia
16h30 Eddie
17h00 Cameron
17h30 Christina
18h00 Ryan
18h30 Luis
Brian List
14h00 Jesus
14h30 Nichole
15h00 Andy
15h30 Phil
16h00 Jordan
16h30 Brittney
17h00 Katie
17h30 Micah
18h00 Jeff
18h30 Frank
We've revised the schedule for the afternoon. We're going to divide you all between us to afford a longer crit for each of you.
Marti List
14h00 Chelsea
14h30 John
15h00 Mike
15h30 Edgar
16h00 Cynthia
16h30 Eddie
17h00 Cameron
17h30 Christina
18h00 Ryan
18h30 Luis
Brian List
14h00 Jesus
14h30 Nichole
15h00 Andy
15h30 Phil
16h00 Jordan
16h30 Brittney
17h00 Katie
17h30 Micah
18h00 Jeff
18h30 Frank
Program
Urban Center :: Place d’Youville
The Urban Center is a meeting place and intellectual venue for architectural discourse in the city. The relationship between Use / Event / Program is critical to the Urban Center. How will one use the space? How will events happen in this space? What is the program of the place?
The Urban Center will present major lectures, symposia, exhibitions, supporting research and advocacy for urbanism. Using the program Exhibit : Present : Study : Distribute : Administrate how will the urban center relate to its formal context and geometry? How does the Urban Center directly engage Place d'Youville, its double facade, and its underground connection? The sewer will act as a passage between the Urban Center and the Archaeological Museum.
Program ::
Exhibit
Meet < individual & group
Study
Distribute
Administrate
You will create one new paper model, foam model, hybrid model (use both foam and paper), and develop a list of events that may happen at the Urban Center for Wednesday. Think about the types of events, their cycle, their duration, their intensity, and their audience and create a catalog using these terms. Look at your models and focus on the seeing the space of the event. Look at your models to create your event catalog. Use your program : Exhibit : Meet : Study : Distribute : and Administrate while building your models and your catalog.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Welcome Back
We have 3 weeks of class left in Montréal. The final MTL review is on 27 July.
When you talk about your work for this class you do not, most often, talk about the things we talk about nor do you seem to put observations, facts, discoveries, and "hunches" together in a logical and persuasive way. Would you rather listen to a list of problems and how they were solved or would you rather listen to a story about a place? You seem to have problems in all three phases of Aristotle's "De Rhetorica"- Discovery, Composition, and Style. Discovery requires a disciplined curiosity. Composition requires disciplined editing, and Style requires a disciplined projection. Discipline includes professional habit and custom, focus, thoroughness, and iterative considerations. We'll help if you'll engage the matter.
Monday 6 July 14h00 : Have all of your drawings pinned up and models displayed somewhere in the building hallways (1st, 3rd, and 5th) or in the studio. Have the site observation drawings, the three final models, the isos and planimetrics of the models, the new paper models, written out current project statements, and a catalog with your work.
If you expect to see any of your work done before the first assessment "reviewed" then post a sheet of paper to the left of your work that says what should be looked at in that regard for today. If your material is not complete, pinned up, and ready at 14h00 then we won't be talking about your work this week.
In class today we're going to take time to have people present their statements. Then we'll have a talk about these presentations and the project in general, then we'll present a new exercise.
There will be no class on Tuesday.
There will be Drawing class on Wednesday morning.
There will be Studio desk crits Wednesday afternoon.
There will be a Tour on Thursday.
There will be Drawing class Friday morning.
There will be Studio desk crits Friday afternoon.
When you talk about your work for this class you do not, most often, talk about the things we talk about nor do you seem to put observations, facts, discoveries, and "hunches" together in a logical and persuasive way. Would you rather listen to a list of problems and how they were solved or would you rather listen to a story about a place? You seem to have problems in all three phases of Aristotle's "De Rhetorica"- Discovery, Composition, and Style. Discovery requires a disciplined curiosity. Composition requires disciplined editing, and Style requires a disciplined projection. Discipline includes professional habit and custom, focus, thoroughness, and iterative considerations. We'll help if you'll engage the matter.
Monday 6 July 14h00 : Have all of your drawings pinned up and models displayed somewhere in the building hallways (1st, 3rd, and 5th) or in the studio. Have the site observation drawings, the three final models, the isos and planimetrics of the models, the new paper models, written out current project statements, and a catalog with your work.
If you expect to see any of your work done before the first assessment "reviewed" then post a sheet of paper to the left of your work that says what should be looked at in that regard for today. If your material is not complete, pinned up, and ready at 14h00 then we won't be talking about your work this week.
In class today we're going to take time to have people present their statements. Then we'll have a talk about these presentations and the project in general, then we'll present a new exercise.
There will be no class on Tuesday.
There will be Drawing class on Wednesday morning.
There will be Studio desk crits Wednesday afternoon.
There will be a Tour on Thursday.
There will be Drawing class Friday morning.
There will be Studio desk crits Friday afternoon.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Quote: Roger Sherman
Perhaps, rather than assuming stability and explaining change, one needs to assume
change and explain stability. Elastic planning strategies are needed to facilitate surfing the
highly unstable and unpredictable evolution of the contemporary city – that…hinges on learning the ability to operate at the cusp between control and disorganization.
change and explain stability. Elastic planning strategies are needed to facilitate surfing the
highly unstable and unpredictable evolution of the contemporary city – that…hinges on learning the ability to operate at the cusp between control and disorganization.
Texts
If anyone wants to post their three sentence statements as comments to this post, I'll be happy to return comment and suggestions here too.
Give the project a name.
Give the project a name.
Quote: Everything & Withholding Judgement of It
I am refining the design and preparing a presentation of the 34th Street Design that I'll do in Albuquerque in the Fall. I have been rereading this book and ran into this relevant quote.
Denise Scott Brown
"A SIGNIFICANCE FOR A&P PARKING LOTS, OR LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS" (1966):
Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architect. Not the obvious way (but) to question how we look at things.
...(to) take a positive, non-chip-on-the-shoulder view. Architects are out of the habit of looking non-judgmentally at the environment.
...There is a perversity in the learning process: We look backward at history and tradition to go forward; we can also look downward to go upward. And withholding judgment may be used as a tool to make later judgment more sensitive. This is a way of learning from everything.
Denise Scott Brown
"A SIGNIFICANCE FOR A&P PARKING LOTS, OR LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS" (1966):
Learning from the existing landscape is a way of being revolutionary for an architect. Not the obvious way (but) to question how we look at things.
...(to) take a positive, non-chip-on-the-shoulder view. Architects are out of the habit of looking non-judgmentally at the environment.
...There is a perversity in the learning process: We look backward at history and tradition to go forward; we can also look downward to go upward. And withholding judgment may be used as a tool to make later judgment more sensitive. This is a way of learning from everything.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Catalog Samples & Cladograms
Use the index cards to build your catalogs. That should be obvious from the description of the assignment and the time spent buying index cards but...Why do the obvious when there's so much more to complicate, complain about, and obfuscate before you just get down to it and make something of it? The way the sum of the index cards are arranged and related makes a very easy and simple diagrammatic set of relationships.
Grant and I had a discussion just before he left over "Can't see" vs. "Haven't been shown how to see". Today, "Can't see" won today after we prepared very carefully for helping to see. It is so disappointing that everything you do has to have an example to "trace" before it will get done. You've fought the drawings, you've fought the foam, you've fought the paper, and now the catalogs. No invention. No initiative. No innovation. Just meeting the requirements.
Only an example satiates. Explanations do little or nothing. So, here's some examples from people at TTU who have before imagined how to do this and found their own way, here's some example catalogs to "trace":
You go to the site and you write down each thing you see onto a card. You COLLECT the totality of the site. Your bias comes through of course but you don't force it and cater to it. You let it find its way through the seeing. You KNOW everything that is there. You categorize, rationalize, organize, and taxonomize EVERYTHING there. Yes, you do have a bias but a bias is not a right to skip whole matters of the place. That's ignorance, something a professional cannot afford to be accused of. You then build an analysis of EVERYTHING there because you KNOW EVERYTHING there.
Be working at the site at 10h00.
Grant and I had a discussion just before he left over "Can't see" vs. "Haven't been shown how to see". Today, "Can't see" won today after we prepared very carefully for helping to see. It is so disappointing that everything you do has to have an example to "trace" before it will get done. You've fought the drawings, you've fought the foam, you've fought the paper, and now the catalogs. No invention. No initiative. No innovation. Just meeting the requirements.
Only an example satiates. Explanations do little or nothing. So, here's some examples from people at TTU who have before imagined how to do this and found their own way, here's some example catalogs to "trace":
You go to the site and you write down each thing you see onto a card. You COLLECT the totality of the site. Your bias comes through of course but you don't force it and cater to it. You let it find its way through the seeing. You KNOW everything that is there. You categorize, rationalize, organize, and taxonomize EVERYTHING there. Yes, you do have a bias but a bias is not a right to skip whole matters of the place. That's ignorance, something a professional cannot afford to be accused of. You then build an analysis of EVERYTHING there because you KNOW EVERYTHING there.Be working at the site at 10h00.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Catalog
Here's an overview of the catalog on which we'll base our speculations:
Catalog of Urban Elements
M1 Massive Conditions (masses)
M1.a, M1.b, M1.c, M1.d, M1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft3 and counts
S1 Vertical Surfaces (surfaces standing on the earth)
S1.a, S1.b, S1.c, S1.d, S1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft2 and counts
S2 Horizontal Surfaces (surfaces of the earth)
S1.a, S1.b, S1.c, S1.d, S1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft2 and counts
E1 Vertical Elements (objects standing on the earth)
E1.a, E1.b, E1.c, E1.d, E1.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
E2 Path Elements (vectors on the earth)
E2.a, E2.b, E2.c, E2.d, E2.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
M2 Mass-Less Conditions (no point points)
M2.a, M2.b, M2.c, M2.d, M2.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
Catalog of Urban Elements
M1 Massive Conditions (masses)
M1.a, M1.b, M1.c, M1.d, M1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft3 and counts
S1 Vertical Surfaces (surfaces standing on the earth)
S1.a, S1.b, S1.c, S1.d, S1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft2 and counts
S2 Horizontal Surfaces (surfaces of the earth)
S1.a, S1.b, S1.c, S1.d, S1.nth
units: XX,XXX ft2 and counts
E1 Vertical Elements (objects standing on the earth)
E1.a, E1.b, E1.c, E1.d, E1.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
E2 Path Elements (vectors on the earth)
E2.a, E2.b, E2.c, E2.d, E2.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
M2 Mass-Less Conditions (no point points)
M2.a, M2.b, M2.c, M2.d, M2.nth
units: XX,XXX lineal ft and counts
Friday Assignments
By 10h00 everyone needs two things done outside of class:
1) 3 three sentence project statements written out and ready to read to the class
2) 3 new folded paper models
We'll present these at 13h00 on Friday on site along with the catalog we'll make in class on Thursday and Friday.
1) 3 three sentence project statements written out and ready to read to the class
2) 3 new folded paper models
We'll present these at 13h00 on Friday on site along with the catalog we'll make in class on Thursday and Friday.
Schedule for Thursday & Friday 25 & 26 June
THURSDAY
10h00
Meet on the steps of the architecture building. Bring measuring tools if you have them. Bring a camera if you have one (mooch off someone else if you don’t). Bring some index cards, a pencil, an eraser, & a fat sharpie (we’ll stop at a office supply on the way).
We’ll introduce a cataloging assignment we’ll do “in class” on Thursday & Friday on the steps. Then we’ll walk and ride through the city from McGill to the Studio Site on Thursday. We’ll break for lunch on the way. You can bring your lunch if you want. In the afternoon we’ll look at buildings and urban situations around the city and categorize them according to the given catalog. Then we’ll go down to the site and make catalogs there.
18h00
We’ll go to the CCA to see the exhibition there and break up at about 20h00. The exhibitions there are free on Thursday evenings.
FRIDAY
10h00
Meet at the site for site work and further cataloging.
11h00
The site class will meet briefly at the site to talk about progress and the next work. No drawings needed.
13h00
Present three different three sentence project statements and three new folded paper project models at the site.
18h00
Finished
10h00
Meet on the steps of the architecture building. Bring measuring tools if you have them. Bring a camera if you have one (mooch off someone else if you don’t). Bring some index cards, a pencil, an eraser, & a fat sharpie (we’ll stop at a office supply on the way).
We’ll introduce a cataloging assignment we’ll do “in class” on Thursday & Friday on the steps. Then we’ll walk and ride through the city from McGill to the Studio Site on Thursday. We’ll break for lunch on the way. You can bring your lunch if you want. In the afternoon we’ll look at buildings and urban situations around the city and categorize them according to the given catalog. Then we’ll go down to the site and make catalogs there.
18h00
We’ll go to the CCA to see the exhibition there and break up at about 20h00. The exhibitions there are free on Thursday evenings.
FRIDAY
10h00
Meet at the site for site work and further cataloging.
11h00
The site class will meet briefly at the site to talk about progress and the next work. No drawings needed.
13h00
Present three different three sentence project statements and three new folded paper project models at the site.
18h00
Finished
Notes
We have two class days in June and two teachers left for the rest of the semester. Grant left impressed with the amount of work most of you have done, your attentiveness, and your interest in the subject matter. We've worked hard to evaluate you all evenly and fairly and we've worked hard to adjust the lessons to what you all know and don't know OR what you can or can't do.
Working this way this semester has also gotten me to think about how I was taught and what we did to learn "urbanism". I was taught at UTA in a very different way from your design education. I never had a studio that focused on it because every studio that I took assumed that inside and outside are the same thing. The location, scale, shape, and function of a building was interrelated with everything around it and inside of it. I was taught a rigorously ontological approach to understanding my work and its surroundings. We had to make sure everything we did FIT into a specification (categorical description) of the project. Architecture started not at the envelope but where you could tell one thing from another. It always included the grounds around it. Architecture was projective both in how its practice impacted its surroundings and in how we were free to imagine what could be.
We're asking you to look carefully at the surroundings and be ontological in one particular way- the formal context of buildings- and we're asking you to ontologically specify other aspects as well but we preference this one. You're projecting the site out into the city, you're projecting the surroundings into the city, and your projecting (specifying) what the of all these forms, shapes, edges, boundaries, screens, traces, and flows can become.
Just as buildings can be considered as definable agglomerations of something like brick or rooms, you can think of urbanism as conglomerates of buildings and other urban elements such as streetscape, landscape, infrastructure, and traffic. Its no difference. How I work in making a lamp is the same as when I work on five miles of street (34th Street).
Working this way this semester has also gotten me to think about how I was taught and what we did to learn "urbanism". I was taught at UTA in a very different way from your design education. I never had a studio that focused on it because every studio that I took assumed that inside and outside are the same thing. The location, scale, shape, and function of a building was interrelated with everything around it and inside of it. I was taught a rigorously ontological approach to understanding my work and its surroundings. We had to make sure everything we did FIT into a specification (categorical description) of the project. Architecture started not at the envelope but where you could tell one thing from another. It always included the grounds around it. Architecture was projective both in how its practice impacted its surroundings and in how we were free to imagine what could be.
We're asking you to look carefully at the surroundings and be ontological in one particular way- the formal context of buildings- and we're asking you to ontologically specify other aspects as well but we preference this one. You're projecting the site out into the city, you're projecting the surroundings into the city, and your projecting (specifying) what the of all these forms, shapes, edges, boundaries, screens, traces, and flows can become.
Just as buildings can be considered as definable agglomerations of something like brick or rooms, you can think of urbanism as conglomerates of buildings and other urban elements such as streetscape, landscape, infrastructure, and traffic. Its no difference. How I work in making a lamp is the same as when I work on five miles of street (34th Street).
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Building Hours for the next few Weeks
Dear Texans,
We have some funny holidays and closures coming up:
· Wed. 24 June (tomorrow): St. Jean Baptiste day – prox access good
· Fri. 26 June: Summer Friday – prox access good
· Wed. 1 July: Canada Day – prox access good
· Friday 3 July + Sat. 4 July: electrical shutdown in Engineering complex – NO access to building at all
DK
-------
David Krawitz
Administrative Officer
School of Architecture
McGill University
We have some funny holidays and closures coming up:
· Wed. 24 June (tomorrow): St. Jean Baptiste day – prox access good
· Fri. 26 June: Summer Friday – prox access good
· Wed. 1 July: Canada Day – prox access good
· Friday 3 July + Sat. 4 July: electrical shutdown in Engineering complex – NO access to building at all
DK
-------
David Krawitz
Administrative Officer
School of Architecture
McGill University
Monday, June 22, 2009
Folding Paper Assignment
Class starts at 14h00 today as we discussed on Friday. You should be working on three formal foam models for your Final Critique on Tuesday. These three models include concepts discussed on Friday and ideas you have been working through these past two weeks. We are looking for excellent craft and clear intentions in these models. All three models should have integrated access to the old underground sewer and thus a subterranean access to the Archeology Museum. You should also be progressing with a cross section, a transverse section, a planar section, and an isometric (all angles adding up to 120) all completed at the scale of your models. Use construction lines and many lineweights in these drawings, they will be beautiful if you do.
The second part of the assignment includes three folded surface models of your three final formal models, that is a total of 9 surface models. Folded surface models are constructed out of one piece of one-ply museum board, the scale here stays the same and the size of the paper is not regulated. You will have to do lots of experimentation with the size of the paper and the material itself. Your operations for these models may include folding, bending, scoring, cutting, tucking, pleating, etc... These models should take ideas from each formal model and explore the notion of surface within these concepts. Take ideas and concepts you have been talking about this semester and really investigate their potential.
At the beginning of this post there are four examples of folded surface models. Each one is very different and yours should be inspired by your formal models and concepts not from the techniques used in the samples above.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Pecha Kucha Night
Wednesday the 17th is Pecha Kucha Night, a night where designers of all types- game design, animation, urbanism, architecture, robotics, graphic design, industrial design, etc. - come together and each present 20 slides each for 20 seconds (4'20"). It is at SAT (St-Laurent just south of Ste-Catherine) and costs 5$ to get in. They sell drinks. You can bring food.
Last year we met a reporter for the NY Times there and were interviewed for a story on the growing Pecha Kucha movement in design. Two years ago we saw a guy make a presentation on super low resolution gaming entitled, "How low can you go?" They were trying to see how few pixels they needed to make a great game.
It is fun, crazy, and occasionally a little boring. It is defintely cool to see different kinds of designers, the work they do, and the way they present. All the architects never have enough time to present. They gamers don't have enough to say to fill their time. We could learn a lot from them.
We'll go to St-Sulpice pour une pichet aprés la soirée Pecha Kucha.
Last year we met a reporter for the NY Times there and were interviewed for a story on the growing Pecha Kucha movement in design. Two years ago we saw a guy make a presentation on super low resolution gaming entitled, "How low can you go?" They were trying to see how few pixels they needed to make a great game.
It is fun, crazy, and occasionally a little boring. It is defintely cool to see different kinds of designers, the work they do, and the way they present. All the architects never have enough time to present. They gamers don't have enough to say to fill their time. We could learn a lot from them.
We'll go to St-Sulpice pour une pichet aprés la soirée Pecha Kucha.
The Way Studio Works
Focused making, review, editing, adjustment, and improvement are the key part of studio culture and performance, not getting it done. These are not tasks, they are lessons- etudes or canons on urbanism. We're not the sort of teachers who gladly shirk from teaching because you choose not to take the criticism and review necessary for you to improve and professionalize your work. We're not satisfied or relieved when you don't engage us. We have things to teach you. Just doing it is not learning. Diligently, persistently, curiously, and personally learning about the making of architecture is what we're doing. It is how we professionally train. Focus in the studio on your work. Quit making distractions for yourself. Shut off the IM, videos, Facebook, etc. etc. In fact, shut off your computers when in class unless accessing project information.
Schedule for the Rest of June
We're going to make some adjustments to the schedule based on Grant's leaving date and the Québec national holiday, Fete St-Jean Baptiste, which is Wednesday the 24th.
Wednesday, 17 June: Studio Reviews from 10h00 to 12h00 and 14h00 to 18h00. No drawing class. Everyone present and all work completed so far ready to pin-up at 10h00. Late people will not present.
Thursday, 18 June: Optional trip to the Expo Islands. Start at McGill at 10h00 for a presentation, lunch, then meet at 13h00 at Métro Station Jean Drapeau for a tour. Tour will be a loop back to Station Jean Drapeau and will finish by 17h00. It will be a walking tour. I will ride to the station rather than take the Métro. You are welcome to join me on the ride across Pont Jacques Cartier (the big green bridge) to the meeting place.
Friday, 19 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Weekend Grading
Monday, 22 June: Studio at 14h00.
Tuesday, 23 June: Grant's final studio reviews from 10h00 to 13h00 and 15h00 to 18h00. Everyone present at 10h00.
Mercredi, 24 Juin: C'est la Fete St-Jean Baptiste! There will be concerts, fireworks, and fun all over the city. Go work in the morning and then enjoy yourselves in the afternoon and evening. Don't be lazy! John the Baptist wasn't.
Thuesday, 25 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Friday, 26 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Next required meeting is on 6 July. The class is finished on the 27 July.
Wednesday, 17 June: Studio Reviews from 10h00 to 12h00 and 14h00 to 18h00. No drawing class. Everyone present and all work completed so far ready to pin-up at 10h00. Late people will not present.
Thursday, 18 June: Optional trip to the Expo Islands. Start at McGill at 10h00 for a presentation, lunch, then meet at 13h00 at Métro Station Jean Drapeau for a tour. Tour will be a loop back to Station Jean Drapeau and will finish by 17h00. It will be a walking tour. I will ride to the station rather than take the Métro. You are welcome to join me on the ride across Pont Jacques Cartier (the big green bridge) to the meeting place.
Friday, 19 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Weekend Grading
Monday, 22 June: Studio at 14h00.
Tuesday, 23 June: Grant's final studio reviews from 10h00 to 13h00 and 15h00 to 18h00. Everyone present at 10h00.
Mercredi, 24 Juin: C'est la Fete St-Jean Baptiste! There will be concerts, fireworks, and fun all over the city. Go work in the morning and then enjoy yourselves in the afternoon and evening. Don't be lazy! John the Baptist wasn't.
Thuesday, 25 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Friday, 26 June: Regular class schedule of Drawing at 10h00 and Studio at 14h00.
Next required meeting is on 6 July. The class is finished on the 27 July.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ottawa Cost
Reservations are made at Carleton. Everyone has a double room except one lone wolf. For all but the loner the cost is right at $45CDN. The lone wolf pays $65. Pair up and identify the lone wolf. They take plastic and cash.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Ottawa Schedule
Things that you all will need to do are in bold.
Schedule for Thursday:
1) Brian pick up rental car on St-Laurent at 11h00.
2) Go home and load own stuff.
3) Go to Solin by 12h00. Pick up Lauren, Carrie, and Grant.
4) Go to McGill at 13h00. Truck goes to McGill. Load truck with bikes.
5) Car and truck leave Montréal for Ottawa at about 14h00.
6) Arrive at Carleton in Ottawa at about 16h00.
Schedule for Friday:
1) Car and truck pick up students at 08h30 at bus station and shuttle to Carleton.
2) Group check in and assembly by about 10h00.
3) Touring from 10h00 to 18h00. (there will be a meeting of the people in the drawing class)
4) Stanley Cup game 7 is on CBC TV. Everyone in the town will be watching that. It is like their Super Bowl.
Schedule for Saturday:
1) Touring from 10h00 until about 18h00.
2) Shuttle students to Bus Station for 20h00 bus.
Schedule for Sunday:
1) Leave Ottawa at about 14h00.
2) Everyone come get their bikes from the studio at about 17h00.
Schedule for Thursday:
1) Brian pick up rental car on St-Laurent at 11h00.
2) Go home and load own stuff.
3) Go to Solin by 12h00. Pick up Lauren, Carrie, and Grant.
4) Go to McGill at 13h00. Truck goes to McGill. Load truck with bikes.
5) Car and truck leave Montréal for Ottawa at about 14h00.
6) Arrive at Carleton in Ottawa at about 16h00.
Schedule for Friday:
1) Car and truck pick up students at 08h30 at bus station and shuttle to Carleton.
2) Group check in and assembly by about 10h00.
3) Touring from 10h00 to 18h00. (there will be a meeting of the people in the drawing class)
4) Stanley Cup game 7 is on CBC TV. Everyone in the town will be watching that. It is like their Super Bowl.
Schedule for Saturday:
1) Touring from 10h00 until about 18h00.
2) Shuttle students to Bus Station for 20h00 bus.
Schedule for Sunday:
1) Leave Ottawa at about 14h00.
2) Everyone come get their bikes from the studio at about 17h00.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tuesday is a Work Day
It is supposed to rain cats and dogs on Tuesday. Therefore, there will not be a tour scheduled. Today's 10h00 tour and our tours in Ottawa will suffice.
I am OK with the fact that you all have decided that these tours are not valuable enough to participate in but it is perplexing. I'm sure you have your reasons. I'll keep doing them throughout June but will not do them in July.
These are the same paths and points that groups from TTU have gone to for 10 years now. These events have always been tacitly "your choice" and the class workload this year is no different than in years before, but this is the first year that the majority have not taken part.
I've taught many, many studios now. I've always sensed that your class year was a very intelligent group and that there are some very interesting personalities at play in the collective. That's why we keep after you all and aren't satisfied with what you've done so far, regardless of what obstacles that you've felt have been put in your way. There is more to university than getting the coursework done and satisfying the instructor. There hasn't been a lot of example of that for you to observe. This doesn't always seem to be a faculty of wonder and joy in our presentation of professional content. But you're knee deep in this thing now and you've got to generate your own wonder for what you're going to do for the rest of your life. Otherwise, its going to suck. You'll treat it like a job, not a full profession with civic and moral responsibilities in matters of designing and managing the built environment. Give up the sense of efficiency and become more curious and engaged- to a fault try being more of a tinkerer and less of a scientist in your work. The work is the investigation, not theh result or manifestation of it. If studio meetings are like an athletic or musical practice then the goal of the event is not finishing but growing and engaging.
I am OK with the fact that you all have decided that these tours are not valuable enough to participate in but it is perplexing. I'm sure you have your reasons. I'll keep doing them throughout June but will not do them in July.
These are the same paths and points that groups from TTU have gone to for 10 years now. These events have always been tacitly "your choice" and the class workload this year is no different than in years before, but this is the first year that the majority have not taken part.
I've taught many, many studios now. I've always sensed that your class year was a very intelligent group and that there are some very interesting personalities at play in the collective. That's why we keep after you all and aren't satisfied with what you've done so far, regardless of what obstacles that you've felt have been put in your way. There is more to university than getting the coursework done and satisfying the instructor. There hasn't been a lot of example of that for you to observe. This doesn't always seem to be a faculty of wonder and joy in our presentation of professional content. But you're knee deep in this thing now and you've got to generate your own wonder for what you're going to do for the rest of your life. Otherwise, its going to suck. You'll treat it like a job, not a full profession with civic and moral responsibilities in matters of designing and managing the built environment. Give up the sense of efficiency and become more curious and engaged- to a fault try being more of a tinkerer and less of a scientist in your work. The work is the investigation, not theh result or manifestation of it. If studio meetings are like an athletic or musical practice then the goal of the event is not finishing but growing and engaging.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Access to Building
Access to the building has gotten even more complicated. According to a kind engineering student that led me through a back way into the building (ten minute maze of a walk), even his magnetic card doesn't work on the interior side door as of yesterday.
So...
To get into the building, go to the side entrance and yell up to the third floor to your left. That is where your fellow students are working and they will come down and let you in the door. They should be able to hear you easily.
It is important today that someone be in the building to let people in so you all can work tonight. We will sort out the magnetic card problem tomorrow.
So...
To get into the building, go to the side entrance and yell up to the third floor to your left. That is where your fellow students are working and they will come down and let you in the door. They should be able to hear you easily.
It is important today that someone be in the building to let people in so you all can work tonight. We will sort out the magnetic card problem tomorrow.
Monday Walking Tour of Vieux Montréal
I will do a walking tour of old Montréal Monday morning for you and for our newly arrived colleagues. The tour will be about 2.5 miles long. The timing is to be determined.
Here's the general path, starting at the Place d'Armes (the Cathedral) and ending at Square Victoria.
View Tour de Vieux Montréal in a larger map
Here's the general path, starting at the Place d'Armes (the Cathedral) and ending at Square Victoria.
View Tour de Vieux Montréal in a larger map
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Sunday Studio
I will be in studio from 12h00 - 13h00** Sunday to discuss work for the coming week with anybody who is interested.
See you tomorrow.
**I may be running a bit late**
See you tomorrow.
**I may be running a bit late**
Ottawa Particulars
So, here's Nichole's notes on Ottawa:
The bus is cheaper than the train, by far.
The bus leaves almost hourly from:
Station Cenrale d'Autobus Montreal
505 boulevard de Maisonneuve Est.
Montreal QC H2L4R6
(This is at Station Berri-UQAM)
We're going to carry bikes down in a truck. We'll ask you to get your bikes to a common location on Thursday morning. Ottawa is a great biking city and we'll be able to see three times as much in our two days in the city. It is a unique city in North America. It is the only purely Victorian city (made by Victoria) in North America. It is trés Anglais but on the edge of le Nouvelle France. When Ft-Worth and Austin were laid out Ottawa was becoming a capitol city.
The joke is that English Canada went from Victorian to Post-Modern directly.
Ottawa is the city of Dan Akroyd, Tom Green Alannis Morrisette, Peter Jennings, and others.
I got my professional degree there in the best architecture school building I've ever seen. Carleton's building is a unique construction made the very same year as our architecture building- 1966. We'll tour it as well.
The best bus to Ottawa is the Friday morning bus leaving Montréal at o6h00 and arriving in Ottawa at 08h20. From the station in Ottawa we'll pick you up at the bus station and take you to Carleton to get your accommodation and bicycle.
Saturday night you can get the 20h00 bus from Ottawa to Montréal and arrive at 22h20 in Montréal. You all should try to get on to the same bus.
I'm booking all of you for one night's room. You'll pay Wednesday or upon arrival.
Make sure to select student discount on the bus purchase. Everyone thaink Nichole for doing this research.
Greyhound.com
Montreal- Ottawa
The bus is cheaper than the train, by far.
The bus leaves almost hourly from:
Station Cenrale d'Autobus Montreal
505 boulevard de Maisonneuve Est.
Montreal QC H2L4R6
(This is at Station Berri-UQAM)
We're going to carry bikes down in a truck. We'll ask you to get your bikes to a common location on Thursday morning. Ottawa is a great biking city and we'll be able to see three times as much in our two days in the city. It is a unique city in North America. It is the only purely Victorian city (made by Victoria) in North America. It is trés Anglais but on the edge of le Nouvelle France. When Ft-Worth and Austin were laid out Ottawa was becoming a capitol city.
The joke is that English Canada went from Victorian to Post-Modern directly.
Ottawa is the city of Dan Akroyd, Tom Green Alannis Morrisette, Peter Jennings, and others.
I got my professional degree there in the best architecture school building I've ever seen. Carleton's building is a unique construction made the very same year as our architecture building- 1966. We'll tour it as well.
The best bus to Ottawa is the Friday morning bus leaving Montréal at o6h00 and arriving in Ottawa at 08h20. From the station in Ottawa we'll pick you up at the bus station and take you to Carleton to get your accommodation and bicycle.
Saturday night you can get the 20h00 bus from Ottawa to Montréal and arrive at 22h20 in Montréal. You all should try to get on to the same bus.
I'm booking all of you for one night's room. You'll pay Wednesday or upon arrival.
Make sure to select student discount on the bus purchase. Everyone thaink Nichole for doing this research.
Greyhound.com
Montreal- Ottawa
Sunday Ride
Carrie and I will bike up to an archaeological park on the north shore of the city Sunday. All are welcome to join us. We'll leave at 11AM on bike from the the western corner of Parc Lafontaine (where Cycle Pop is at). We're going about 15 miles round trip and almost all of it on bicycle paths. We'll stop on the way up at Marché Jean Talon and get some lunch at the farmer's market, then eat it up at the parc archaeologique. We will be back BEFORE 4PM. I'll go straight to McGill from that trip and make sure there's a way into the studio for you all. That will be between 4PM and 5PM.
Let me know by commenting on this post if you want to go with us.
View Larger Map
Time permitting we'll go look at this nearby Phalansterie (Fourierist Prison, as Foucault writes about). It should be interesting to you. Its the last place they executed a woman in Canada (hanging).
Let me know by commenting on this post if you want to go with us.
View Larger Map
Time permitting we'll go look at this nearby Phalansterie (Fourierist Prison, as Foucault writes about). It should be interesting to you. Its the last place they executed a woman in Canada (hanging).Review : Thom Mayne's New BLDG in NYC
There's a well written and relevant review of Thom Mayne's new BLDG for the Cooper Union in NYC. Watch how in the writing facts are arranged to both explain (describe, reflective and empirical writing) and expound (dialog, projective and intuitive writing). NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF explains it well and makes good points about how it might otherwise be.
The article is HERE.
A slide show of the BLDG is HERE.
Then think about how the BLDG is described as an urban event or element in the city, just as yours could be. Try to consider in your drawings a civic sense to the place. Where do people pause, congregate, collect, disperse, etc? Where is the space vectoral and where is the space non-vectoral and static? What is it about the architecture (BLDGs) at those places that makes the space operate in these civic ways? Why doesn't anyone stand outside of the Customs House except smokers who'd rather be inside? Maybe that has to do with all those lines that surround that building? There is a relationship in all of this between the way things are shaped, formed, laidout, and otherwise constructed and the way they operate. There isn't a necessary relationship or a universal way that things have to to associate with events. But in every situation in architectural thinking there is a way they do relate. The associations are always situational, never universal. As the Ft. Worth art critic Dave Hickey says, "Architecture only has to work where it is."
The article is HERE.
A slide show of the BLDG is HERE.
Then think about how the BLDG is described as an urban event or element in the city, just as yours could be. Try to consider in your drawings a civic sense to the place. Where do people pause, congregate, collect, disperse, etc? Where is the space vectoral and where is the space non-vectoral and static? What is it about the architecture (BLDGs) at those places that makes the space operate in these civic ways? Why doesn't anyone stand outside of the Customs House except smokers who'd rather be inside? Maybe that has to do with all those lines that surround that building? There is a relationship in all of this between the way things are shaped, formed, laidout, and otherwise constructed and the way they operate. There isn't a necessary relationship or a universal way that things have to to associate with events. But in every situation in architectural thinking there is a way they do relate. The associations are always situational, never universal. As the Ft. Worth art critic Dave Hickey says, "Architecture only has to work where it is."
Friday, June 5, 2009
Studio Syllabus Excerpt
course schedule
Week 1 Site Graphical Studies
June 1 First Class Date
Week 2 Site Graphical Studies / Form, Surface, & Use Models
June 8 Major Review of Site Graphical Study
Week 3 Form, Surface, & Use Models / Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections
June 17 Major Review of Form, Surface, and Use Models (First Grade)
Week 4 Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections
June 23 Major Review of Models, Diagrams, and Planimetric Projections
June 26 Last Class Day Before Break
Week 5 Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections / Form, Surface, & Use Models
July 6 First Day of Classes Back
Week 6 Form, Surface, & Use Models / Site Graphical Studies
July 13 Major Review of Form, Surface, and Use Models (Second Grade)
Week 7 Site Graphical Studies
July 22 Last Class Meeting
July 27 Final Review (only projects that are A and B grades after 2/3)
August 5 Final Submission (Third Grade)
Week 1 Site Graphical Studies
June 1 First Class Date
Week 2 Site Graphical Studies / Form, Surface, & Use Models
June 8 Major Review of Site Graphical Study
Week 3 Form, Surface, & Use Models / Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections
June 17 Major Review of Form, Surface, and Use Models (First Grade)
Week 4 Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections
June 23 Major Review of Models, Diagrams, and Planimetric Projections
June 26 Last Class Day Before Break
Week 5 Models, Diagrams, & Planimetric Projections / Form, Surface, & Use Models
July 6 First Day of Classes Back
Week 6 Form, Surface, & Use Models / Site Graphical Studies
July 13 Major Review of Form, Surface, and Use Models (Second Grade)
Week 7 Site Graphical Studies
July 22 Last Class Meeting
July 27 Final Review (only projects that are A and B grades after 2/3)
August 5 Final Submission (Third Grade)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Schedule for Wednesday 3 June
10h00 to 12h00 - Drawing class meets at studio.
14h00 to 18h00 - Design class meets at studio.
14h00 to 18h00 - Design class meets at studio.
Studio
We've been in the studio since 09h00 and have some keys for you all. We'll be here until 12h30. To get a key you will need to give us a 15$ (CDN) deposit, refundable when we return the key later this summer. Magnetic cards for getting into the building after hours are 10$CDN (refundable deposit).
There are three t-squares up here. They are first come, first served.
Monday, June 1, 2009
1) Site Graphical Studies
This diagram shows the approximate extents needed for your study. The area to be included in these drawings is represented approximately by the inverted area. Each drawing should show evidence of an individual investigation and interpretation of the site. The drawings should not be merely a documentation of existing conditions and should engage the particulary palimpsestic conditions unique to the location.A. X-ray Plan: Beginning with the physical conditions of the site, develop a layered representation of built and un-built realities of the area. The drawing is not limited to a single normative elevational datum or set of drawing conventions. One or more notational strategies must be developed to synthesize various types and layers of information in the drawing – the emergence of unrealized relationships in site will be dependent on the successful (legible) interaction of the layers of the drawing.
B. Site Section MRIs: Draw a series of sections through the site and immediate context at 10’-0” intervals. The sections should be oriented perpendicular to Place d’Youville and should include spaces below ground. The sections should each only convey the things that are at the cut, nothing beyond.
C. Unfolded Elevations: Draw two “unfolded” elevations, comprised of both the elevations and facades (all vertical surfaces) engaging the site. Each drawing will begin with a façade of an adjacent building facing Place d’Youville, proceed to the interior of the site and end with the opposite façade facing Rue Saint-Paul.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Schedule (For the first day see below)
WEEKLY SCHEDULE FOR TTU-MAP SUMMER 2009
Monday
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
Tuesday
Work Day
Wednesday
10h00 to 12h00 Building Surfaces Workshop in Session
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
Thursday
Tour Day
Friday
10h00 to 12h00 Building Surfaces Workshop in Session
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
Monday
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
Tuesday
Work Day
Wednesday
10h00 to 12h00 Building Surfaces Workshop in Session
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
Thursday
Tour Day
Friday
10h00 to 12h00 Building Surfaces Workshop in Session
14h00 to 18h00 Building Urbanism Studio in Session
First Day's Schedule : 01/06/09
We've got a busy day and three major things to do Monday. Make that four if you are in the ARCH4000 class.
Check out the weather for the day and dress for working around the weather- cool and cloudy with possible showers. We'll work around the weather and stay close to the schedule below. We will be outside whenever possible.
You will need your camera (if you have one) and your sketchbook and something to sketch with today. You will NOT need your computers.
11h00 Meet up at the Belvedere on Mount Royal. Meet inside the pavilion if is is raining.
View Larger Map
Break for lunch at 12h30.
Meet up at McGill SoA at 14h00. As you arrive go to the back of the first floor and look at the end of year exhibition.
View Larger Map
Break at 15h30.
Meet up at the project site, Place d'Youville, at 16h00.
View Larger Map
Break at 17h30.
The ARCH4000 class will meet again at the site at 19h00.
View Larger Map
We'll make the final break at 20h30.
Check out the weather for the day and dress for working around the weather- cool and cloudy with possible showers. We'll work around the weather and stay close to the schedule below. We will be outside whenever possible.
You will need your camera (if you have one) and your sketchbook and something to sketch with today. You will NOT need your computers.
11h00 Meet up at the Belvedere on Mount Royal. Meet inside the pavilion if is is raining.
View Larger Map
Break for lunch at 12h30.
Meet up at McGill SoA at 14h00. As you arrive go to the back of the first floor and look at the end of year exhibition.
View Larger Map
Break at 15h30.
Meet up at the project site, Place d'Youville, at 16h00.
View Larger Map
Break at 17h30.
The ARCH4000 class will meet again at the site at 19h00.
View Larger Map
We'll make the final break at 20h30.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Montréal Museums Day
On Sunday, 31 May, 30 museums will be free to the public.
Grant, Zach, Carrie, and I will be in the lobby of the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History, which is a focus of our studio study, at 10h00. We'll go to the Science Centre at 13h30 and we'll be at the Museé des Beaux Arts at 16h30 for a quick romp around the art.
The first venue visit is highly recommended.
Jeff, if you're coming along, your dad is very welcome both Sunday and Monday. We'll be mostly touring on Monday. Post to come about that.
Grant, Zach, Carrie, and I will be in the lobby of the Pointe-à-Callière, Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History, which is a focus of our studio study, at 10h00. We'll go to the Science Centre at 13h30 and we'll be at the Museé des Beaux Arts at 16h30 for a quick romp around the art.
The first venue visit is highly recommended.
Jeff, if you're coming along, your dad is very welcome both Sunday and Monday. We'll be mostly touring on Monday. Post to come about that.
je suis arriveé
Both Grant and I are in the city. If you need help setting up or have a question then this is the time to ask.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Residence Locations
I've made a map of residence locations for us. It is permanently linked to the left.
View MTL '09 Residences in a larger map
View MTL '09 Residences in a larger map
Sunday, May 17, 2009
MTL Addresses
I'd like to make a map of where everyone lives. Please leave your living arrangement as a comment to this post and I'll compile where everyone is at.
Comment freely.
Comment freely.
Arrival Dates and Times
Please put a comment on this post listing your date and time of arrival so we can share rides from the airport to our apartments. The cab ride (the only real way to make this trip) is 40$CDN+ whether it is one or three traveling.
My daughter Carrie and I arrive Thursday the 28th at 17h08 (5:08P) from Philly.
If you want to share then let the person know via email. In any case, link-ups should plan on meeting up after immigration, after we get our bags, after we go through customs, out where everyone waits for their loved ones and bosses to come out. Just follow the process and you'll know the place I'm talking about. It takes a while from when you land to get out to this place.
Comment freely.
My daughter Carrie and I arrive Thursday the 28th at 17h08 (5:08P) from Philly.
If you want to share then let the person know via email. In any case, link-ups should plan on meeting up after immigration, after we get our bags, after we go through customs, out where everyone waits for their loved ones and bosses to come out. Just follow the process and you'll know the place I'm talking about. It takes a while from when you land to get out to this place.
Comment freely.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Detailed Site Data ZIP FIle
I have uploaded a large zip file (175mb) of well organized research on your studio site for this summer. This is all material found by last year's Montréal students, Marti, and I at various libraries around the city. You will be responsible for identifying and explaining the contents of every file in this collection. It is HERE. You should start perusing it and getting to know the Place d'Youville (pronounced plahss dYEWVEEluh)
Site in 1917 - the Goad's Map
For every location in the U.S.A. and Canada there is a historical series of fire insurance maps that chronicle the buildings that sat in each location in the city. The maps run from about 1870 until about 1955. They are color-coded by construction type and always show how water could be delivered to the building to fight a fire. It shows where the hydrants are. It also names proprietors of businesses, when known. The maps are watercolour wash over black india ink and then notational systems are added over line work and wash. They were periodically modified and updated. Look closely at the enlargement of this file and look for the "cut in" chunks of water color paper glued to the sheet so an area could be updated. The splice lines become a relief of the history of change in the city. The maps were held in the insurance capitol of the world, New York, and from the data in the map a New York insurance broker would set the going rate on insuring a building against fire, which was much more common than it is today. Today these are the best record of localized change and shifts in a city's fabric.In the USA these maps are called SANBORN Maps. In Canada we call these GOAD'S maps.
Greatest Ride
The longest known ride by anyone on these trips was done by Marti and I last year- in the rain and it started after noon. Google Maps says it was over 70 miles.Take note of the land use patterns in the farm land surrounding Montréal. It is in strips rather than in rectangular plots. There certainly are no pivot irrigators either. Land, in French settled North American was divided up into thin strips of land that all touched a waterway. Water was the highway the French used to get around, not via horse and "pike" as the British did. This same land settlement pattern can be found in Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin; though Jefferson's grid did a lot to obscure it in ensuing centuries.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
St-Viateur Bagels
Soon my children, soon. This is in Mile End at St-Viateur and Clark. It is the best bagel in the world unless you prefer Farimount Bagels, which are one block away. The bakeries are both open 24/7.Go HERE. They are called one of the seven wonders of Canada.
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