Long time gone

I was going to let this blog die, but I've been selected as a designer for the REST competition that is part of the Interior Design Show West.

The parti is to build a prototype of seating of any kind, indoor or outdoor. I submitted my portfolio on the advice of my AIBC mentor SC, and am really pleased that I was picked as one of twelve designers. Because I don't feel able to build a bench on my own, I've convinced Team to help me (as a side note, I am going to have to call him T4m now, as he came up with the idea to call us TeaM and capitalization isn't enough to distinguish two different things).

Right now the main problem is that T4m is working on his thesis and will be until Jan 12/13th. He's doing a great job and I certainly don't want to distract him, but I'm a little concerned that we might be tight to hit the March 3rd deadline.. Luckily we have the major parts of our design worked out and we just need to build it -- we've decided that we are going to build my thesis problem basically as I designed it, with some minor variations and details because the project has to be mobile and will not be working as a roof.

I think that we should start by deciding what ambiguous spatial conditions we need to use. The bending radius of steel tube is about 1.5 x the diameter of the pipe, so if we use 1" pipe we could conceivably have a radius of 1.5", but when the wood cladding is mounted on that, the absolute minimum we could have is about 5.5" (this is using 1"x2" lumber -- I think it's best to use 2"x4", although that can be open to variation upon testing). Since this is the case, I think that it's best to cut out all of the desk options. There just won't be enough room for legs underneath, and the wood is much more exposed in these areas because it is going around such a sharp bend. As well, since the project is called "rest", it seems like a nice tie in to use only the ambiguous spatial conditions that directly tie into that: seat, reclining seat and counter.

T4m and I have basically decided that this thing is going to be around 4'x6' -- a large seat to be sure, but I want to make sure that it is accessible from both sides and that it can accomodate different uses at the same time. We're going to have the base fabricated: we've worked out (although I haven't drafted up) a detail so the whole thing sits on a base with wheels that is mostly obscured by the wood cladding. I hope that we can make it obvious that there are lots of ways this project can reach the ground and that the wheels are in place to make it easier to transport our bohemoth.

There are a few other details. My boss, WF has agreed to sponsor us for about half of what we expect the project to cost (another person in my firm was also chosen to design and he asked for both of us). Right now, the most important thing is to produce a short (or two short bios) for TeaM.

We can start with T4m. He did a Bachelor in design (but I'll have to check exactly what the degree is in) at the U of M and is currently completing his Masters in Architecture at UBC SALA. T4m originally hails from Brandon, Manitoba. I did an undergrad in the History Honours program at UBC and completed my MArch in Spring 2007. I'm from Vancouver.

Frankly, I can't think of anything else to write. I'm an AIBC Intern (I got the letter last week). I work for WFA .T4m works for HBBH (although he's taken some time off to get his thesis in the can and I don't think he plans on going back). We both want to design and build stuff. We work pretty well together: he's good with details and I'm good at figuring out why we want to do stuff. Our contact with the REST competition said that in-process images and comments can be very useful, but I have no idea what would be appropriate. T4m welding?

I keep hoping I can get T4m to talk about this, but he's too busy thesising right now, so I should really draft up something basic and get him to okay it instead of both of us starting from scratch.

In other news, my family is insane and I don't like Christmas. Probably best to stick with the design stuff, eh?

Ho hum.

I may be able to post in my jammies, but I guess it's going to stay a weekend thing -- I don't have enough to say to post more often.

Since the working world is so much less intense than architectural education, I've been thinking about what I want to do to stay in the design loop and not become a boring architect (as thesis advisor M fears I may do) While competitions are exciting, I don't have the stick-to-it-iveness to do one on my own, so I've been wondering about making furniture. The up side to furniture is that it has to be a design-build project to gauge the success of the piece so I might be able to keep motivated long enough to build some things. The down side is that if I don't stay motivated I'll have a house full of partially completed furniture.

Interwebbin'

This should be my last post from the coffee shop down the street, as tomorrow I'm getting.... internet at home! I finally cottoned on to how strange it was that I didn't have access from my apartment and the installation guy is coming tomorrow. This means...

• I won't have to work an extra half hour every day to make up for my surfing time at work
• I'll be able to obssesively check Facebook from home
• I can arrange music video dates with Mr. Blair -- we find a music video, start it at the same time and make rude comments via MSN.
• I'll be able to post in my jammies. Hooray!

That's the most important thing happening to me this weekend. Since my last post I've had surgery, recovered, got sick, and quit going to Bikram's yoga (hence the sickness). I love the Bikram's series of postures, but the studio I was practicing at just wasn't the place for me: they regularly set the temperature 5-10 degrees higher than recommended, they don't have any towel service, many of the instructors have such strong accents I can't follow what they are saying and they wouldn't let me put my membership on hold for a month to recover from my surgery. It costs $100 a month for unlimited access, and I've been a regular student there for more than a year, but they wouldn't put it on hold. I was surprised and a little hurt.

What this means is that I am going to need to find a new gym. There are a few around where I'm working, so I'm going to check a few of them out next month. My fear is that if I stop exercising I'll immediately swell up and become so enormously fat that I can't make it through doorways. I may have 'doged a genetic bullet' (in the words of an ex-boyfriend) in that I'm close to average weight, but my mother and sister are on the far side of large and the thought of gaining weight terrifies me.

Another good reason for me to change gyms is that my office has suddenly become a much more interesting place to work late. Although I am still working on the same project, moving to the back office (I like to think of it as a suburb of the main office) has caused a shift in my work methods. Sitting in the back with the guys is a lot of fun, and I still get my work done. I'm going to schedule a meeting with the Principle to discuss my performance (as I just passed the three month mark at work) and I want to check that my work maintains high quality and he is happy with it, but I know that the guys running my project are happy with it and I'm much happier to come in early and work later because it can be so much fun. Since making the 6:00 yoga class at Broadway and McDonald ment I had to leave at 5:15 every day, I'm happy to find something that allows me to stay at work later.

The final reason I need to find a gym and start exercising more is because it will take up some of the time I'm currently spending... shopping. I haven't been buying clothes, but since my walks-for-exercise take me past stores, I've been buying books and kitchen gadgets, more groceries than I need, shoes.... It's a problem. I need to go back to the gym so I'm too tired to do this, because I haven't managed to save any money to pay back horribly-mistreated-ex and I'm running out of room in my tiny apartment.

Fall-ing

Life outside school takes a little bit of getting used to. I still haven't adjusted properly to the work/play division that a job requires. To be specific, I would much rather work an 11 hour day if I can take an hour lunch break, a walk around 3pm and surf the web during the day. While I don't mind starting work at 8:30, I just can't focus for 8 hours straight, or even for two 4 hour periods with a lunch break between!

That aside, I have been getting some very interesting tasks. My firm is working on the community centre in the Olympic Precinct, and right now I'm doing rough sketches for the interior elevations. I started out working on reflected ceilings: I laid out lights and vents, made sure there was enough room between the floor slabs and ceilings for all the heating/ventilation equipment, and designed a ceiling system to absorb sound so the acoustics were taken care of. This job evolved into drawing what the inside walls of the building look like, and right now it's a lot of fun to do because I get to make a lot of decisions. I know that when the other firm looks at these drawings they will have lots of different opinions and I'll have to change everything, but right now I get to show exactly what I think a community centre needs and that is great.

I have been enjoying work for other reasons as well. My firm has been expanding so quickly we recently converted the storeroom into office space, and I was one of the lucky four to get a place there. It's nice to sit with other junior members of staff because we can chat, and it's fantastic to have my own set of drawers and shelves. My only concern is that we're so noisy other people might mind...

I think that one of the reasons I've been having trouble concentrating is that I didn't get enough exercise last week. I'm trying to get a grip on my social life and while I do want to be more social, two dates, a concert and a party didn't leave any time for the gym. I'm having a minor medical procedure tomorrow and I've been avoiding yoga because I feel faint and nauseous in class, but I miss the exercise. I have to take a few days off work to recover and I'm not sure how I will feel about yoga after that, but some kind of exercise does need to happen.

Even though I'm not at school, I have been lucky enough to keep up with Team's thesis. He's looking a time and has chosen to design a truck stop. Team's an ambitious man and is extremely serious about his thesis, so it's a real pleasure to discuss his work with him. I've got my fingers crossed that he'll be interested in doing competitions after he graduates. He's one of those people with so much energy and enthusiasm for design that it is catching and I'd love to find out what it is like to do a project with him as compared to talking about our individual work.

Abandoned! Blog!

No that I'm no longer in school, I don't have regular internet access. I do all my web surfing at work. This presents two problems: the first is that I don't feel comfortable updating this page at work (so I don't, clearly) and the second is that I have trouble remembering all the places that I want to visit on the web when I DO have some surf time at work. So I thought I would post links here to some of my favorite sites so I don't have to remember any of them.

Music/Podcasts
TED
Jonathan Coulton
Studio 360
James Lileks

Design
Design Observer
Core 77
Speak Up
Quipsologies
Design Within Reach

Architecture
Archinect
Canadian Architect
AIBC

Comics/Diversions
xckd.com
Damn Hell Ass Kings
Delicious Juice
McSweeneys.net
FBOFW

In other news, I attended the UBC School of Architecture Garmenture presentation last night, making it my fifth. I stopped to say hello to Thesis Advisor M, who (I'm assuming under the influence of the alcohol that flows cheaply at these events) took me aside to make me promise I wouldn't be a boring architect. I know why she did this -- being boring is so easy. I don't want to be boring, precisely, but I don't know what to do to be interesting. I've got my fingers crossed that when Team finishes his thesis (in January of this year) he'll be interested in doing some competitions. I don't have the sticktuitivenss it takes to complete a proposal, but he has so much I think he can spare some.

I also had an interesting talk with my sister this morning. She's going through a tough time, and I told her very forcefully that she couldn't wait for things to happen to her. She has to make them happen. It's easy to say these things, but much harder to do them.

Shoot. I hate it when I'm trying to fix someone else and realize I'm actually talking to myself.

Business as usual...

I've been working for a couple of weeks now. While most of the time I've been updating plans and elevations for a not-very-exciting strip mall in Surrey, I did have the opportunity to illustrate elevations for the biggest project the firm is working on. While I enjoyed the work, more interesting was the design meeting between our firm and the other architects involved. It went an awful lot like a desk crit at school: they had quite a few hard hitting comments about the elevations (which I felt a little guilty about, but they had been okayed by the principle).

The firm is starting to feel like home, and I am getting to know people, but its still much quieter than I would like.

Working girl

These days, I'm a new broom sweeping clean.

I started work last Monday at 10, and sice then I've been rigourously monitoring my interweb use, CADding like a mad monkey, and swearing at the fellow who previously worked on my drawings. Work is not exciting, but pays the bills with unexpected dexterity. I'm currently making enough to pay back Horribly Mistreated Ex in about a year, after which I'll start paying back Financially Exploited Parents. After that is a new car (purchased outright: none of this leasing for me), and after that an apartment in Vancouver proper. By then I should be about 50.

Hot Dog and I have dropped the PoTo competition: the timing was off, and I just couldn't get excited about the topic. If Team and I don't get down to Fort Worth to see the Kimball as we've discussed (something that looks more and more likely) I'll be able to go to the presentations and see what everyone else suggested. I am looking into more competitions: the RIBA is sponsoring a design for a Bat House in England which might be fun (if only to learn more about bats) and there is also a self-sufficient housing project that seems like it could take me in an interesting direction.

The first week of work was memorable not so much for the work, but for the realization that 1) I don't seem to have any hobbies any more and 2) most of my friends are far too busy to socialize the way I want to, meaning that I need to track down some new drinking buddies. It's such a cliche that it is hard to make friends after you leave school, but I'm not sure how to fill my time these days. Lots of gym going is probably the best option. Less shopping may also be a good idea.

I'm hugely annoyed with Team about the Fort Worth trip: I keep trying to discuss it and he doesn't respond to my e-mails. If he doesn't want to go, he should just tell me! Short Bus and I were trying to understand what happens in his head and came up with a blank, but I do know that I don't much want to drag him all the way to Dallas if he isn't excited about it (as I do to Kareoke and the Richmond Night market). We keep trying to get him to come out and he keeps saying he has too much work... silly keener.

My favorite social acitivity these days is hanging out with the Squirrels, who continue to meet for soccer every week. We're having a barbeque tomorrow, so I hope the weather stays nice.

employed!

I've nailed down a job. It's at the not-so-exciting firm: while I would have prefered to architect at the more exciting firm, they offered me a non-architecture job, and very low pay. In addition, a friend told me that she thought I would hate it there, so that sealed the deal.

I should be starting next Monday, if they can find a space for me, and I'm looking forward to having a regular schedule, getting out of the house, and learning lots of new stuff. I'm not looking forward to getting up early, not being able to go outside, and having to sit at a desk all day... but I'll happily swap all those things for a steady paycheque. I'm still ahead of the Vegan's first job (at Mr. Clean's workplace), so I guess I'm okay.

This paycheque thing... I spoke to my financial advisor about how much I would be making, and he broke it down to a monthly take-home. I'm stunned at how much it is, but a little less than half will have to be put aside to pay debts. I'm sure I'll still feel strapped for cash when I'm working, as it doesn't take very long to get used to spending money. When you add this to the fact that I've been spending with wild abandon lately (as il papa pays de bills) it might be a bit of a rude shock when I have to stick to a budget.

Anything else? Hot Dog and I are considering not submitting for PoTo. While I do want to do a competition, it's hard to stay motivated and we don't seem to be getting anywhere productive. We're going for a walk around Yaletown tomorrow to see if we get any great inspiration, but if we don't then we're going to drop it. Everyone is on vacation, even me.

Compromising vs. giving up

What is the difference between compromising and giving up? I swore to myself when I was at school that I would hold out for a great job: I was a good student and I'm personable and friendly, which are good qualities in firms, and I know I deserve to work at the kind of place I want. I swore I wouldn't take a joe job: I'd been at school for too long to take a job that I wasn't crazy about.

Well, I still don't have a job yet. Not only that, I haven't even had an interview or an expression of interest from a firm that I really want to work for. What happens now? I need a job to pay my rent, but I can't take something and leave a few months later: if I don't stay at least a year I'll get labelled a flake and have trouble finding something. I only sent my stuff out about three weeks ago, but I thought I would have heard more by now.

So if I take the job that I've been offered, at a firm close to where I live, that pays well and seems like a bunch of people who might be nice, is it a compromise, or am I giving up? In some ways, it feels like capitulation. I'm abandoning my fine notions of high design just for the money. In some ways though, it feels like a compromise. Work for a year in a firm that is not so great so I can learn something, and in a year, take that knowlege and try again.

I have another interview this afternoon, but this firm is notoriously tough on employees with a high turnover, and I really don't think I want to work there. They aren't going to pay very well (which, as an aside doesn't matter very much because of the money, but more because chronically underpaying employees is disrespectful and indicates other issues there may be in the firm) and while I have friends that work there, they are summer students and will leave in the fall. It would suck if I took the job to hang out with them and they took all the fun with them in September.

I hate the thought of giving up, and even the word compromise reeks of failure: I am who and where I am because I don't give up, for good or bad, and I live alone because I didn't want to compromise any more. And it seems like more and more, the things I swore I would never do again when I left for Montreal are happening. My personal and professional life feel messy and out of control, and I wonder if accepting a job that doesn't excite me would exacerbate this, or make it feel better.

One of the great things about architecture is that I'm not too smart or too good for it: I have to work my very hardest just to get by and I think that makes me a better person. I like to work hard, and I wanted to find a job that would keep me on my toes for a while. I don't get this feeling from what I've been offered... but if I don't accept it by the end of this week, I won't even have the option of taking it.

I guess what I really want is to give myself permission to wait for that great job. My financial backers have given me until the beginning of July to find something, and although I don't much like being unemployed, if I knew the offered job would be waiting for me Jul 2 if I wanted it, I would be a lot more comfortable. But that isn't the case, and I don't know if I should wait for my ship to come in, or take the money and run.

etc, etc, etc.

I printed the short version (very short, at 6 pages + text) of my thesis for Canadian Architect and my portfolio yesterday, and while I'm not sure how crazy I am about the submission, I think my portfolio looks awesome. Thanks to Short Bus and Team for their aid with layout: sometimes it seems that it doesn't matter WHAT work you show as long as it is well laid out and described. I'm very pleased I went with red highlights for important text as well, because it really glows on the black background. I was happy with the test prints on my crappy ink jet, but the professionally printed version blows it away. I'll be very happy to show it off at my interview on Tuesday.

I haven't heard anything from anyone else, which frustrates me, but in a way it's good. I don't really want to work in a firm that will hire just anyone, and I should be happy that they are being thoughtful before getting in touch with me. I want to find a good fit with a job and firm I enjoy, so it's important to be patient at this point. I'm just not a very patient person!

To fill in the time while I am settling into a job, Hot Dog (who helped on my thesis, but I don't remember what I called him at the time) and I are going to be doing the PoTo ideas competition. Competitions are a great way to stay sharp and creative: it's just hard to spend the time doing it when it seems like there are so many other things to do. So far I've spent a little time reading the Harvard Design Magazine, which has an edition on skyscrapers, because I think the key to breaking the Podium Tower Typology may be to identify exactly what causes them to be so popular (beyond Vancouver zoning, of course). If Hot Dog and I can identify exactly what caused them to be the most efficient and otherwise preferred typology, we may be able to identify other equally viable directions it could take and suggest them as options.

What else is going on? Nothing exciting. It's surprising how much time laundry, groceries and the gym take up. I hope I'll be able to fit in a full time job!

All play and no work is astoundingly dull to write about.

I'm still looking for work. So far I've arranged one interview, Tuesday afternoon. While the firm produces amazing domestic spaces, there are a couple of things that make me think that as fun as it might be to work there, it isn't going to work out.

1. They are based in West Van... the western half of West Van.
2. They are alarmingly susceptible to flattery and far too laid back about arranging interviews.

The distance thing isn't a real problem, if the firm is good enough. I can handle the bus/seabus/bus commute if the work day isn't too long, if I can arrange a car pool and if the people and work suit me. I'm also prepared to move in September, as I know that there is reasonably priced rental housing in North Van and it would really minimize the commute. But I don't want to move until after the end of the summer because I like living near my friends right now.

Re: the flattery and laid-back-ness... If this firm is as interesting as it looks, they should get tons of applications. This is clearly not the case. Why is that? Why have I never heard of them before? Why are they in the wilds of West Van? I get that it's a small firm and so they are flexible about when they want to see me. But the approach they have taken to the interview makes me wonder if they are planning on paying me, or if they want me to work for free. Or if there is some other kind of hitch that will be immediately obvious when I arrive, that I'll spend the interview politely trying not to mention. Are they perhaps an architectural firm of Saskwatches? From Saskwatchewan? If I don't post after Tuesday, you'll have to assume that they've had a delicious meal of archigeek and are picking their teeth (I'm stringy).

Totally going to start looking for work any day now...

The weather is amazing right now, and it's become a little difficult to work. I don't have any trouble staying inside, as it's really too hot to go out and my basement is nice and cool, but I seem to spend most of my time slacking and surfing the web.

In spite of this, I have been able to finish my portfolio and CV with tons of help from Team and ShortBus. I'm going to attempt to get up at a reasonable time tomorrow and make some calls to find out what format each firm prefers, and they get sent out tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Dazed and Confused

I convocated on Tuesday, and spent yesterday recovering from the sAra beach party that was held Tuesday night. Convocation was a bit of a let-down -- while it was fun to hear AL speak to a crowd of nurses and engineers about her thesis project, there was a lot of sitting and not a lot of interesting parts. I'm glad I went for my parent's and grandparent's sakes, but not really for my own.

The awards ceremony was much the same: I didn't win anything which was a disappointment, but Short Bus cleaned up, as did some of my other friends. Since they have to pay tuition next semester and I don't, I can't get too worked up about it. There's nothing i can do, so why get upset? I've been consoling myself with the idea that being great at school has limited scope as the work world is so different, so the skills that get awards might not be so useful in the real world. At the very least, there is still lots to strive for.

So this week I HAD planned to sent out my portfolio, but the sun and intermittent web access have conspired to reduce my effectiveness. Today I'm going to finish implementing Team's comments on my portfolio and update my resume. I'm having birthday dinner with Doormat (my one reader, apparently. Hi doormat!) and he has said he might be able to work out something with my interweb connection to make it a little more reliable. When that is fixed I won't have any more excuses and so I hope to send my first wave Friday afternoon.

Transition

I've been thinking about shifting the focus of this blog from my thesis to something a little more personal. There are a couple of reasons for this:
1. It's already set up so I can just start posting whatever I want, even if it isn't thesis related
2. No-one I know actually READS it, so it's kind of like writing in a journal that I leave on the bus.

I'm going to think about it for a little while. Putting together my portfolio is horrible, mostly because I unwisely deleted a ton of stuff when I was in Montreal, but also because it reminds me of just how average most of my work is. I suppose Team has a point when he obsessively revises his portfolio, because with a constant reminder of mistakes, how can you do anything but better.

Also horrible? Not leaving my apartment. My rules are that I'm not going to do ANYTHING but portfolio until it's done: that means I can sleep, go on the web, eat and go to the gym, but that's about it. This means I've barely had a conversation since Sunday night and I'm getting squirelly, and that last night I went to bed at 9:00, just so I could stop working. The shame.

Good News, bad news, navel gazing.

Since the point of this blog was to work things out without annoying my friends & neighbours with meandering drivel, I thought I would slap a post together to talk about my portfolio. Also, before I forget, I'm delighted to say that the School of Architecture and Landscape Archtitecture has asked me to put together a submissision for the 2007 Canadian Architect Student Awards of Excellence. Only downside? Putting together the submission.

Okay.

Now I've finished my thesis, the next step is to find a job and to do that I need to put together a portfolio. Usually I just slap stuff together, but since this is a big-girl job, I want to put a lot more thought into it. While I was in the States this weekend I purchased a VERY expensive portfolio case, so now what is in it needs to be of equal quality.

I want to include work from four or five semesters. My first semester is a write-off -- not only is the work jejeune (I love that word), but a computer crash in the middle of my second semster has destroyed the few files that I was able to produce and the work was not adequately photographed. I don't see this as a great loss.

I am definately going to include my thesis project, and will likely devote twice as many pages to it as to my other studios as it was essentially a year long project.

The middle studios are the Power Studio in the beginning of third year, the Comprehensive studio I did with JBass, and the Process studio with Pat. While the Comprehensive and Process studios focused on one building in particular, the Power Studio had relatively little emphasis on the building as final product so the project is not very resolved.

I'm trying to find similarities between the projects so I can use a consistent layout. I have found that aside from an obsession with people-scale in buildings, I produce similar kinds work to represent my projects.

• Diagrammatic Process work. Power studio has puzzle pieces to look at relationships between furniture, Comprehensive studio has a million chipboard models, Process used collage and physical models and Thesis used drawings (and later 3-D models). I produce many similar iterations to chose between for each of my projects. One of the ways to represent this could be to have a side-bar for each of the projects that shows the iterations next to each other. One thing to consider, however is that it doesn't really matter how you get to a project: it's much more important to show the final process. That's a little confusing. What I mean to say is that while I have a brazillion cardboard model images leftover from my comprehensive work, they are not useful in a project because they do not adequately describe my final project. They are significantly different from the puzzle pieces from the power studio which were part of the final presentation.

If I want to look at my obsession with iterations, the puzzle pieces from the Power studio, the louvres from the Comprehensive studio, the articulations from the process studio and the charts from Thesis should suffice.

I could also look at each of those things in terms of human dimensions: while the puzzle pieces may be a stretch, the louvres, articulations and charts are all investigating the relationship of architecture to the human body. I have diagrams for this for the comprehensive and thesis work, but I don't think I represented this properly for the process studio, and I'm going to have to dig to find it for power.

So, let's say that for every studio there should be one or more diagrams showing how this design relates to the human body. (archigeek pauses to write this down in her moleskin, deploring her lack of internet at home) There are existing diagrams like this for my first vertical studio as well that investigated existenzminimum (w/Jwo) which might be worth including.

What else do each of my studios have?

• Repetitive elements. Is this true? It's linked to the human-scale thing if it is. Power has a giant axo of the cage-thing that supports services, Comprehensive has the obessesively repeating louvres, Process has the glass panels on the inside elevation, Thesis has the material study and detailed ground plane. Does the JWo studio have this? It has the buckminister fuller dome, which I suppose counts. I guess I should draft up a CAD version of this, and then I can use the louvres, cage, glass panels, ground plane and dome CAD work as a grey-scale line drawing as an underlay for the pages from each studio.

So (archigeek reaches for her moleskin) each studio needs to have a line drawing of this small & repetitive element.

What else?

• Perspectives. I like 'em, you like 'em, everybody likes a good perspective. They describe a lot and are pretty. Including these is a no-brainer. I should have enough good ones that I can show two for each project.

• Models. Each project has at least ONE model. Some have two. Whenever there are two models, one shows material details and human scale while the other shows the extent of the project and some site. Power, Process and Thesis have two models. Comprehensive and JWo are the exception: JWo has a detail modeled and rendered in Maya, which should be adequate. Also the JWo maya model is scaled to the hand: it shows connections. This is understandable given the size of the project, but it doesn't fit properly. Comprehensive is a little tougher. I did produce a detail model but it was really ugly and I'm not sure if I want to include it.

This needs more thought (how many posts have I ended like that?) but I'm going to let it percolate while I hit yoga. I may find some answers there or at least a clear path to a cohesive design strategy for this damn portfolio.

Thesis COMPLETED!

I haven't been writing very much lately, because as I said in my recent post, most of the stuff that I need to work out had been worked out and it was just a matter of production. I thought that I would do one final post to tie up loose ends in case anyone runs accross this.

I presented my thesis in the downtown studio at 3:30. I was one of the last people to go, which meant that I missed almost everyone's... not because I wasn't there, but because I couldn't sit still. I got downtown at about 10:10, just in time to see ELeben's presentation. Although JWo said that her perspectives were 'too humerous' and he couldn't consider them (since when is an Ewok NOT appropriate for a render of a farm?) I enjoyed her presentation and was glad it went well.

The other one I paid attention to was KS's. She was happy with her presentation as well. Her boards looked great and she spoke very well for having worked on her model all night. I was sorry but unsurprised when she didn't come out drinking with us Saturday night.

I was able to pin up my boards at lunch, so Team and I took our time to make sure everything was square. Although the sectional model was a smidge too close to the site plan everything else worked quite well: I showed the 2-D matrix of interpretable sections, the 3-D matrix of ambiguous spatial conditions, some diagrams of the site, the model that I made after mid-term, a site plan, small medium and large focus diagrams of the site and details, three perspectives and a sectional model of the site. It wasn't a lot of information on the boards, but I was happy with it and thought it was enough: it explained what I wanted to say without too many distractions. I was also really happy that Team worked out a way to bolt the models to the wall so they could be part of the presentation boards instead of sitting on a table.

I wrote out cue cards before I went down in the morning, so the presentation was mostly a matter of reading them: not too much ad libbing because I wanted to be precise about what I was saying. They were great because I was able to consider exactly what words said what I meant so there would be less confusion. There was about one card for every powerpoint slide.

I was happy with my presentation and felt I described everything, although I haven't mastered endings yet and there was a HORRIBLE silence after I finished up. It took about a minute for anyone to speak and I was a little concerned. Luckily, when they did talk they said:

"mature"
"successful"
"from the first class you have always loved to draw"
"congratulations"

It was the best crit I have ever had.

There were a couple of quibbles: JBass said that he wasn't convinced I had placed the ambiguous spatial conditions optimally and someone else had questions about the materials, but I was delighted with how my presentation went. I've got my fingers crossed for a thesis award. I've always felt really average at the school so it was nice to get a little validation.

I was also very happy that I was able to thank everyone properly. Team, ShortBus, Mr. Clean and the Vegan were all amazing, and Coach Scap was an unexpected addition. Team Fun ended up being huge: last Thursday I had 7 people building my final sectional model and while I was extremely stressed, they did a great job.

This week I've moved out of my desk at school, written my thesis book, cleaned house and tried to get used to spare time again. It feels weird and I miss having the single focus, but it was great to play soccer in the sun yesterday (even though I now have funny tan lines from my shin guards.)

Next task: find a job. This means putting together my portfolio... blech.

Bedtime stories

Once upon a time, Archigeek decided to go to grad school...

Thesis Advisor M has suggested I put together a narrative of my project to keep track of what is and isn't important to show for the presentation. I think it will be a good way to focus my efforts on what is really important and cut down on my distraction (I'd like to point out that I stopped writing in the middle of that sentence to go check out some web sites )
So how does my project start?

This thesis began with an interest in details and ambiguity. I wondered if there was some kind of mechanism with which designers could indicate possible uses of a space without being specific so there were lots of possibilities. After looking at the work of Vernor Panton and some others, I decided that the best way to do this was by using small-scale interventions. That way the whole space wouldn't be affected, just portions of it.

Since I decided I wanted to start with the small scale and was interested in Panton, I went to Architectural Graphic Standards to look at how small small-scale is. When I was there, I noticed that there is some overlap in the measurements for certain things, and since a surface that is a table can also act as a seat is ambiguous, I started to overlay different examples of humans using furniture to produce a surface or section that could do a couple of things at once.

I found this productive, so chose 13 Graphic Standards that I felt addressed a variety of conditions and crossed them with each other to produce a huge number of ambiguous spatial conditions. Some of these were more successful than others, so I picked a representation of the best ones to work with further.

While the sections were interesting, they weren't yet spatial, so I decided I wanted to see what would happen if I combined them in a different way. While the ambiguous spatial conditions were interesting, their use was still limited to what I could imagine. But part of my idea of articulated space is that the architect needs to provide for uses that she can't imagine: the sections didn't address this.

I decided to go into Maya and created 3-D versions of combinations of sections. Each example took two sections and lofted between them. This meant that there were spaces that weren't one thing or another, and the use wasn't regulated by me because the shape was a byproduct of this process. I pursued this with all the sections and created a matrix of 45+ different chunks of habitable space.

When I started to assemble these, I realized that I had to apply some outside influences to arrange them. I had already picked a site that I thought would be productive because the use fluctuates significantly during the day and would vary according to measurable influences, so I began to diagram all the things that influence the site and might influence the placement of the ambiguous spatial conditions.

I spent a week diagramming everything I could think of that varied according to time: daylight access to site, program requirements, pedestrian movement, pedestrian speed. I laid them all out on a single map and realised that it would be possible to insert specific programmatic uses at certain points with the remainder of the site either ambiguous spatial condition that was not linked to program (the midpoint between two sections), or flat space that could be used as a pathway or have a relationship to the sections.

I looked at the solar access to the site and decided to place all the program in the north west corner to minimize shade cast into the site. I looked at the average speeds for paths across the site and decided that the less travelled areas were the best place to add the sections. I decided that the entry to the underground bus loop should have a habitable roof that could also function as a stage, and decided that the rest of the ambiguous spatial articulations should be arranged with the same form.

The end result of this is a ground plane that, at certain moments, undulates to create folds that can be used in ways defined by the original Architectural Graphic Standards.

The end.

Getting personal

When I started this blog, I decided I didn't want to talk about how I felt about thesis and the process because I was going to let people know about it and noone wanted to hear me complain. But I don't know anyone that reads it, and I've had my final committee meeting, so I thought I would blow off a little steam with the understanding that yes, I do love my project and I'm very fond of the School of Architecture, my professors, and the other students.

So in no particular order, a list of questions.

Why do my friends come to sit at my desk and complain about how much work they have to do? And that they can't wait until it's over? I have to produce a thesis project, and I have three weeks of hell to go through. Have they not noticed that I'm at school all the time?

Why does drinking coffee make my stomach decide to suceed? It's apparently trying to abdicate from my abdomen in an intensely painful way.

Why didn't I wear a sweater, or at the very least a long sleeved shirt today? It's freezing.

Why does stress make me hurt my feet so it's hard to walk? Am I trying to prevent myself from leaving my apartment, or possibly even my bed?

Why doesn't complaining about this make me feel better?

Do people actually believe I'm relaxed? And how is saying 'You'll be fine: you're Archigeek!' supposed to reassure me? That's the problem. I'm Archigeek. And she doesn't know what she is doing.

Why is this so unpleasant? I swore I would try to enjoy this thesis as much as possible because it's likely it will be my last real design project. But here I am, moaning and groaning.

What is the best way to deal with someone saying 'I miss being a student. You're so lucky: these days I rarely get home before 7 at night' ? Can it involve some slapping?

Will I ever lose these circles under my eyes? Are the wrinkles I've noticed for the first time this semester permanent?

Why is facebook so addictive, and why won't my friends do more things so it can take up more time?

Did I waste as much time this weekend as I think I did? Was what I was doing instead of homework actually a waste of time? Can I claim that martini drinking as brainstorming time? When am I going to drink my next martini?

Is not going to yoga giving me more time to work on my project, or just making me less focused?

Why can't I start the project that is due April 20th? Do I want to fail?

Why do all my muscles hurt?

Is Team Fun actually going to be fun? Are Team, the DBA, Short Bus, Mr. Clean and The Vegan going to want me dead? Am I going to want them dead? Is there going to be a murder/suicide in the studio, leaving the concrete floors awash with blood?

Can I do this?

This would be an excellent time to delurk, if you feel so inclined.

Final Committee Meeting: Today Only!

I have my last meeting today before the big presentation May-5th-or-6th. I've been awake for too long and haven't exercised properly since Saturday night, so am both sleepy and jittery. Hooray!

I'm pretty happy with most of what I've put together since the last meeting, but there are a couple of holes that concern me. The massing for most of the site should be fine because I'm not going to get too detailed and have some parameters that take care of most of the decisions. The same is true for the structure: there are only so many options, so I just need to pick one and see it through. The issue that concerns me most, however, is weather protection.

The Flame has been concerned about weather protection from the get-go. While I agree that in Vancouver it makes sense to have covered seating areas, I'm not sure if the auditorium (the only area that I plan to really resolve) is the best place for it. The reason? Sightlines. I've been trying to organize the whole site so that you can see the stage part from pretty much anywhere so that it can act as a small stage, an auditorium, or as a huge demonstration/gathering space. I want people looking from their windows able to participate in the stage: I want the whole plaza able to focus on this space.

How do you fit shelter into this? Any roof-ish structure is going to ruin the sightlines from somewhere. There are two walls, it's true, but they are only 3' above grade, and so won't be suitable for hanging any shelter from. I also want to make it possible for people to hang over the edge of them to listen/watch, and any shelter would really detract from that.

Something moveable might be the answer, but it seems so late to be introducing a new element. If I leave it the way it is, I can argue that in this instance there is no shelter because the way the auditorium functions precludes it, but there are lots of other opportunities for shelter in other collections of ambiguous spatial conditions around the square that I have not resolved. If I do add something I run the risk of it becoming the focus of my presentation because it doesn't fit or evolve naturally from these ideas. Yes, there should be shelter. But is it right in this case?

It's funny: I'm usually the most pragmatic of designers. I focus on stairs, shelter, envelope: all the boring stuff we are taught not to care about. But for this project I've thrown the existing program out the window, created a hugely dangerous site, spec'ed some suspicious details.... all in the name of design. If this were to be built, would the design be worth the hassles? That's my working theory, but I don't know.

I'm at T minus one month, one day. I'm going to take it easy this weekend (woo hoo! LONG weekend) and try to keep it down to 20 hours total at school. I'm going to talk about some of my presentation stuff with my committee this afternoon so I can get a better idea of what I should be getting done.... and Tuesday I'm going to send out an e-mail to all the people I've discussed thesis work with so I can figure out who is doing what and when. There are a couple of major players...

Mr. Clean: lightening fast with ACAD, Mr. Clean is best known for his work with physical models, but is now banned from the shop due to his advanced age. Mr. Clean will be tapped to draw and tidy sections.

The Vegan: The Vegan owes me one (1) flash movie, as a direct swap for work done on his thesis. He's going to be producing something very much like what I did for him: an animation that shows how use of the site varies throughout the day/week. He's going to be including shadow patterns as well, so I think it could be a great movie. His mayan expertise will also be required to help with renders.

Team: Team is going home for a week between April 21st and May5/6, but his tofu-powered precision should be put to good use on a mid-sized model of the auditorium with some structural details. I'm not sure how big it will be, but the intent is to show the structure and the relationship between the auditorium and the underground bus loop.

The DBA: I've been in talks with the DBA to build a full size model of some furniture for my reviewers to sit on. This needs to be approved by my committee, as Thesis Advisor M has suggested it may not be a good use of my resources (AKA, money and DBA) so he may end up working on a site model.

Short Bus: The only girl on the A team, Short Bus will be photoshopping and illustrating renders. I would prefer to only have people I know in my images, but we'll see if that happens.

I'm hoping to force sArs, AL, Orphan Annie and possibly some others to give a hand, but too many people is more of an issue at this point than not enough. Orphan Annie has said she might be able to cater, which is great for The Vegan and Team.

I'm stoked about the reformation of Team Fun as a kick off to summer. Go Team Fun!

Still aboot

I haven't fallen off the 3rd floor of Lasserre: I've just entered production/design phase, so I don't have as much to think about.

I've been trying to design the auditorium/staircase from the bus loop as a prototype so that I can do basic massing for the rest of the buildings and mark it as similar. While assembling ambiguous spatial conditions for the auditorium is interesting, I found I was making too many spot decisions.

I went to yoga this morning to think about it and decided (during breathing, giving support to the theory that more blood in your brain helps you think) that what I need to do is design ambiguous spatial articulations to deal with the specific needs of the auditorium. Although I love the look of the lofted Maya 3-D models, they don't actually deal with the realities of the space.

When I was designing, I found myself slapping together solutions for edges where people might fall and desk seats where people need to get in and out. So, today I'm going to try to carefully design two or three units that can deal with this: that are a combination of the Graphic Standards sections but work in both long and short section so people can sit easily.

I'm also going to rethink the ramp access to the site. I placed wheelchair access on the north/east side of the auditorium, but I found the ramp really guided where the ambiguous spatial articulations should go. To this end I'm going to try to stretch the ramp throughout the auditorium so that the whole thing is articulated. The landings work well as rest spaces and are suitable for circles of seating for conversations (using the desk/seat ASC that I assembled in DS)

I hate that I only came to these conclusions the day before I meet with Thesis Advisor M, but I'm glad I was able to look at what I produced yesterday and understand why it doesn't work so I could formulate ideas as to what might work. My way of designing is so SLOW.

Pre-meeting crunch

I got a sneak preview of a new-ish plan for the transit plaza today. Hughes Condon Marler is preparing a presentation for tommorrow between 2 and 6 at the SUB. It overlaps a little with my committee meeting, but I'm sure I won't need 4 hours to look at the plans, so I'm going to stop by.

I was lucky enough to get a jpeg of the new plan, and have been converting it to 3-D to get a better idea of what the changes are and what's going to happen to the plaza. The architects are still working with an idea of using intended traffic patterns to carve out the shapes of the building.

I've spent the past week looking at the old plans, and I noticed two things. The first is that the new plan does not show the carving away as clearly as the old one, and the second is that the current site preforms in the inverse way: that is to say, the entire space is defined by the parts that you cannot move through.

This may be an exaggeration. You can climb over the grassy knoll on your way from the Pit Pub to the Bookstore, but nobody does. The knoll serves the same function in the space as the raised stage in Herman Hertzberger's Apollo schools.

"At first sight it would seem that the potential of the space would be greater if the block could be moved out of the way from time to time and, as was to be expected this was indeed a point of lengthy discussions. It is the permanence, the immobility, and the 'being in the way' that is the central issue, because it is indeed that inescapable presence as a focal point that contains the suggestions and incentives for response in each situation as it arises. The lock becomes a 'touchstone' and contributes to the articulation of the space in such a way that the range of possibilities of usage increases" (Herman Hertzberger, Lessons for Students in Architecture, p. 153)

If the Grassy Knoll is to be removed, it should be replaced with something can address some of the same needs. I'm going to argue that the link between the at-grade plaza and the below-grade hub can have the same qualities of permanence, immobility and 'being in the way'.

I'm going to propose a diagrammatic plan for tommorrow (which I of course have not yet started work on) that organizes the plaza around an expanded stairway. I'm going to arrange elements to encourage use as an outdoor stage/theater and to create sunlit social spaces. I think the retail space and buildings in general need to be secondary to the stair, and I think it can be a great focal space.

What does the stair need to function as an auditorium?

• A focal point to act as a stage: This should probably be fairly large so there can be a variety of different kinds of presentations that occur. Maybe also the possibility of projecting behind it? Some kind of wall or corner? Frosted glass to present on?
• An escape route for people leaving the transit hub: No matter how many people there are in the 'auditorium', it will always be neccessary for people to use the bus loop even when there are presentations. It should be possible to get to the base of the stairs without stepping on anyone even when there are lots of people or walking across the 'stage' area.
• A slope: Obviously the stair will have some kind of slope, as it is a stair. But what slope? I think it's a good idea for it to be fairly shallow so that there is more stair to be an auditorium
• A comfortable place to stop: It can be hard to stand on stairs because they are designed for movement and not for resting. The stairs are going to have to be a bit deeper than the norm, and I would also like to incorporate some seating in a way that sitters do not have their views blocked by standers.
• Other programs built-in: The space needs to work even when there isn't a crowd using the auditorium. Most of the time it will be used by small groups or single people (alone, as compared to not in a relationship. hee.)

I'm going to try too put together a plan/section/something that addresses these issues.

Diagrams

I spent today working on diagrams.

This is actually three diagrams layered on top of each other. I'm hoping to come up with more, but I'm a little stuck at the moment. The coloured dots show premium inhabitation areas re: sunlight, the black dots show speed of movement, and way in the back is a map of the underground bus loop.

I love the way this looks now, but I wanted to get more than three diagrams to layer: the more information I can pull from the site, the better my decisions will be. I like this way of showing information, and I find that layering the different ones on top of each shows very clearly what parts of the site are appropriate for interventions.

There's something about crowds vs. individuals that needs to be part of this diagram as well. I want an area that can transform from being auditorium-like to a social area where people can chat. It could be a simple as a raised stage in one area, but I would prefer raked seating because I think it would be used more.

I spoke to UBC properties trust yesterday, and they said they would get in touch with Karen Marler at Hughes Condon Marler so I can get the real plans for what they are working on. They have to be ready for Tuesday because there is a public presentation, but I'm hoping to get them before that because my committee meeting is next Tuesday. If I don't hear from HCM tommorrow, I'll have to call them. I hate doing that.

longways/shortways

Since I'm not sure what is the most productive direction to follow right now, I spent some time today noodling around with Maya, looking at the material possibilities for my ASC's.

Some renders:

The first image shows the wood slats running accross the long section, the second accross the short section. While I would have preferred the second option to underscore the importance of the short section, the first seems much more likely as it creates more inhabitable space. I'll see what Thesis Advisor M thinks.

ETA: The horizontal slats suggest a screen, which would be fairly doable. Under what circumstances might I want the back of a seat to be a screen? When it's an envelope? What other kinds of screening devices might be good? What other materials might work? A trellis? With plants?

Monday.

It's time to move on to the next step of design for my project, and while I'm nervous that I haven't been following the inverted design process, I have made a number of decisions based on information I currently have about the site. I sent an e-mail to UBC Properties Trust Friday afternoon to ask them to release the most current version of the plans that they have for the site (although I'll have to get the real plans from the architect), but until then I'll be working with a mixture of what I got last time I visited and what I pulled off the U-Boul website. It isn't perfect, but as long as I use the site to produce decision making rationale, any variations between what I have for the site and the actual site shouldn't be hard to fix.

I produced a rough Sketchup model of the site to look at lighting conditions throughout the year, and took examples of shaded areas at specific times throughout the year, layered them on each other in illustrator, and created the following jpegs:





In these images the blue rectangle is the opening to the underground bus loop and the lines show anticpated traffic patterns accross the square. The architect chose to use traffic patterns to carve away from adjacent buildings: this is neccessarily repeated by the ambiguous spatial conditions, but I'm not sure if I'm happy about it or not. The ASC's have to be in low-traffic areas because they impede walking, but I wish it wasn't so similar to the guiding principles of the square.

The traffic patterns delineate certain areas where it would be interesting to apply ASC's:

This is based on a combination of paths and building shapes, with a little bit of the solar studies thrown in. Basically, the daytime use (on sunny days) will break down like this:
I realize that it isn't always sunny in Vancouver in the winter (and in fact is not even the prevailing condition), but I think designing to maximize sun exposure is a good idea if I am trying to include some of the programmatic uses of the grassy knoll. I also want to add some big chunks of concrete on the right side (it's north-east-ish) of the diagram (the solid black line) to take advantage of the solar gain along that wall.

Some other thoughts:

• I want to design the whole thing out of wood and concrete: wood to sit on, concrete for durability and to capture heat. The wood slats would be spaced so that the gaps are not perceptible when you are sitting but would serve to drain water off the surfaces. The slats should probably run parallel to the ASC sections to highlight their importance.
• There needs to be roofs of some kind over a significant portion of the site. I think they should be used extensively on the left (south-west-ish) portion of the site since this portion of the site gets the least direct sunlight in the high traffic portions of the day (3-5). The plaza is equal under overcast conditions (as the sky vault transmits light equally throughout the plaza) and it would be preferable to minimize cover of the sunlit areas (the right, or north-east-ish portion of the site)
• Materials of the roof are important. I'm toying with the idea of frosted glass for portions that have sunlight and clear glass in the shady areas. The frosted glass should diffuse direct sunlight.
• Currently the stairs run from the top to the bottom of the site, but I'd like to tweak them to the left to create a stage-ish area to the right. I'd also like to preserve as many of the paths accross the stair as possible and am thinking about slopes and movement accross the inevitable bridges.
• The shaded areas are keyed to time, and possibly should be keyed to programs of retail spaces adjacent. It makes a lot of sense to have a 'fast' coffee shop in the left building for morning commuters, and a 'slow' coffee shop in the right building for sitting around and waiting for your bus in the sun. It also makes sense to privilege the plaza re: sunlight, as retailers will probably be happy to exclude sunlight from their stores as long as patrons have direct access.

Materials

Olang made the point in my midterm presentation that while hybridization of form may create ambiguity in the short term, in the long term users become accustomed to the new forms and use them in prescribed ways: they become the new norm. He suggested I think about how to make the surfaces preform in unexpected ways to maintain ambiguity. One way to do this is through material use.

While I think that materials are really important, I'm not sure if this ambiguity is something the project wants or needs. I'm wondering if it's a good thing that users become accustomed to the new forms. What advantage is there in a second layer of ambiguity? I don't want the project to get bogged down in material studies.

Right now I see the project as part landscape/part furniture in concrete and wood, possibly with some grass areas. I want most of the seating to be wood because it dries quickly and is not cold to sit on, but I'm interested in the thermal effect of masses of concrete adjacent to seating. It's definately going to be inside/outside and I'm going to start with the stair that connects the transit hub to the main plaza area.

Since it's an inside/outside space, all the materials should be able to weather. I'm concerned about different materials because every material carries associations, and if I choose to make a seat out of wood instead of concrete it begins to direct use. I think I'm going to check out some books on materials and look at what I could use.

Post midterm festivities!

I've made it through midterm! I was very happy with how my presentation went, and only have two complaints. The first is that I'm not sure if the group I presented to were particularly hard hitting -- it's reassuring when you have a decent crit from a tough critic because you know they're asking the hard questions. My second problem is entirely my fault: I wish I had more to show them so they could have given me more design advice.

ARN was nice enough to take pretty comprehensive notes of the presentation so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting it all down, so I have three pages to flip through when I wonder exactly what was said. Olang, S, and JB seemed to understand what I was trying to do, which is a great sign, and they said some nice stuff: that the work I have already done is SOLID (caps courtesy of ARN) and that I've created a nice problem that's well mapped out.

I'm having a little trouble concentrating today and had intended to take the day off, but realized that I have no life outside of school and hence nothing to do except schoolwork. So here I am.

Getting around

I'm currently attending a First Nations Technology summit because of some course work completed last fall. It is unrelated to my thesis, but instead of listening to any of the presentations this morning, I spent the time thinking about what my next steps need to be and trying to work out some of the bugs.

I've been trying to reconcile my working methods with time constraints, and I've realized that while I want to be efficient, time spent working on things that I do not present is not neccessarily a waste of time. While I don't have a lot to show for the work I have done since my last committee meeting, I do think that I'm now at a place where I can go into production mode and start to get drawings, diagrams and models that describe what I've been working on this semester.

So, this is what I currently intend to produce for next week:

1. 3-D models that combine each of the culls, in a matrix
2. Section cuts from the centre of each of the cuts
3. A diagram that compares this section cut to the original Architectural Graphic Standards and shows how the 3-D model can be altered to match the AGS section
4. Diagrams that show the four sides of each of the 3-D models of combined culls and compares them for combinations

This is a ton of work, but I think it's going to be useful. I think that removing the envelope information from the Ambiguous Sectional Conditions (once called MA's) was a good use of time because I can reintroduce it after I assemble groups of 3-D models. Hopefully I won't have to cull again: I don't think that there will be many AGS' that can be applied to the 3-D models, so hopefully that won't produce too many options, and I'll focus on one hub that combines different sides.

When I have done this I'm going to need to produce a full lineage diagram that tracks exactly how I got each hub: the 'parents' of each level. I think I'll do this last!

I need to get the 3-D models done ASAP, so I'm going to find a quiet corner at this conference where I can get down and spend some time working in Maya.

Still here...

I'm still at school. I'm doing a presentation downtown tomorrow and will miss more than half the day of work, so I need to get something finished tonight.

I've been thinking about the ways I've been culling the ambiguous sectional moments, and decided that it was worth another look. I want to produce another matrix that deals with environment (like envelope, shelter from rain, shelter from sun and accessibility), so I've removed all of the 'envelope' category from the previous group. This means that I don't have as many options, but at this point that is a good thing.

I've re-culled the remaining sections by picking a representative from each kind of combination. If I take them into Maya and loft them, I can then look at how they can address environmental conditions.

The architect of my own destruction?

I spent a little while last night thinking about what my next step should be for my midterm and I realized that I haven't fully made the transition out of the ambiguous sectional conditions into three-dimensions. I'm still looking for how and why the sections should be assembled.

Since I don't want to apply programs yet and it's also too early for environmental conditions, I thought I would go ahead and do another matrix. I went ahead and culled them, getting a total of 17 conditions, so I'm going to go ahead and cross each of them together and look at what that produces. I can then maybe look at combining them in the x and y direction, adding weather protection, and think about normalizing the slope. There are certain ramifications of altering the product of two conditions to get a 1:12 slope for accessibility, or a steeper slope for seating and I don't want to make those decisions lightly.

On a side note, it's been strange working this week because since it is reading week there are very few people in the studio. Even the keeners seem to be working from home, so it's chilly and a little lonely here.

Environmental stats

So, following the Flame's comments about environment and my project, I do think that it's important to include some environmental factors in this scale jump. I also want to include program stuff in scale. I might need to have two scale shifts: one for environment and one for program. See, I don't think that I can assemble multiple ambiguous spatial conditions for program yet because I don't want to limit the program by specifying stuff. I realize I'll have to do it eventually, but I think that if I leave it later I'll be able to retain more possible programs. Another reason is that it is too much of a jump between the sectional conditions and program. So introducing environmental factors could be a way to bridge that gap.

Environmental factors (all stats from Environment Canada):

Sun.
In winter, we want sun, in summer we don't. The most popular way to get both is to make an overhang that is deep enough to exclude summer sun but not so deep it keeps out low angle winter sun. In Vancouver, the sun is at around 67.5 degrees on June 21. To keep it off the floor of a 8' room, you need an overhang of 3'-4" at 8 feet. The higher you get, the larger the overhang needs to be, at a rate of about 5" per foot. This keeps out sun only June 21st, the summer solstice. Vancouver is hottest about August, so its a good idea to keep the sun out until then.

Rain.
We have more rain in the winter than in the summer, and frankly it's much less pleasant to be wet in the winter than it is in the summer. And while you might expect the overhang to keep off the rain, most of the time in Vancouver rain comes with wind. Which means it rains at an angle so roof cover doesn't always help.

Environment Canada says that in winter, the wind usually comes from the east and blows around 7-7.4 km/hr from the east (or 2 m/s). Small drops of rain fall around 6.5 m/s (or 23.4 km/hr) and large ones about 9 m/s (or 32.4 km/hr). So for our mythical 8' room, we would need an overhang of 1'-10" for small raindrops and 2'-5" for large ones, or between 2.5" and 3.6" for each foot of room on the east side of the building.

The problem is that while that is the average, the maximum hourly is 32 km/hr (which is around 9 m/s) from the north. This means that our 8' room will need an overhang of 8' on the north to keep off all potential rain.

Wind
It sucks when it's cold and windy, but sometimes when it is sunny if you can find a space out of the wind it can be lovely. The fortunate thing about wind is that if you are protected on a couple of sides, you are usually fine. These two sides would likely be those of prevailing breezes: the north and east. Micropatterns exist around buildings, but it doesn't take a lot of shelter to get you out of the wind.

The problem with environmental stuff is it is so directional. I don't want to decide what direction a seat will be facing if I don't know where it is going to go. Stupid catch 22.

ETA: some other stuff: any grassy area need to be extremely well drained. If it gets sun during the day it will be extremely popular with students. IF there is a roof on whatever thing gets produced, it should be accessible.

Using and abusing the chosen few

I've culled my ambiguous spatial conditions: I'm down to 15 from 115, so I think that's useful. I started by getting rid of the conditions that only matched one surface (about a quarter of them) and then I sorted the rest into types and picked the most interesting of each type -- there are a couple with two, but in most cases each type has a single example. I'm going to leave the rest of them for now, with the idea that I chose what I found to be interesting, but there is always the possibility of going back to the well, so to speak.

I spent some time today putting together a use diagram for the bus loop area. This is the diagram from FOA's Yokohama Port Terminal:

This is mine:
Not as interesting, not as dynamic. I'm also not entirely clear how this informs my scale move. I know there are lots of possibilities for things to add: graduation, meeting friends and studying, suntanning and people watching, political meetings. I have a list of all the possible uses, so maybe what I need to do is imagine how many people will want to do each of them at each part of the day. This one starts with the bus loop stuff, which I think is important, but my other use ideas don't really fit with it.

I also need to start looking at what additional factors should be considered in putting together the spatial hubs. Should I make examples that deal with rain/wind/sunlight? There must be a way to integrate shelter without just adding something.

I've been reading some of FOA's stuff today, and my favorite part is the way they use grass to cover slopes over 12%. I think this is awesome, and a great idea to indicate other kinds of uses. I think material fits in here somewhere as well. It's almost environmental: it's more pleasant to sit on a concrete bench in the sun, but a wood bench when it is damp or cold, even if neither of them are wet. So not only should I be arranging ambiguous spatial conditions to protect from/take advantage of sun, rain, wind, cold and hot, but I should maybe also look at what materials can do this.

So maybe I need to start making rules about these things. I have some climate information for Vancouver that shows the percentage of possible daylight hours for months of the year. If there's a 21% chance of sunshine in January, then there is a 79% chance of rain, so almost 80% of the area should be covered or otherwise protected. Maybe I should look at my chosen few to see what parts can also serve as shelter. Yeah, I think I'll do that and get back to you.

The first one's a doozy...

So, next steps:

Look at sorted ambiguous spatial conditions. Cull: determine which should be kept and which need to go. 15-20 is probably the max to start with, although others could be gradually reintroduced as required.

Produce Maya combinations for all ambiguous spatial conditions: remember, project is most creative when not taken too seriously. Have fun!

Move up scale: look at mechanism for combining conditions. Begin to consider general site: rain, sun, ground plane, envelope, doors, etc. Possibility of a matrix to consider options?

Produced 24 hr. use diagram for site. Look at FOA for precedent.

Assemble midterm presentation. Identify key points. Remember to begin meeting with the intent and idea of project. Clarity is key.

Project intent

In my thesis I would like to investigate the effects of small scale articulations on underprogrammed and empty space. Warehouses and open plazas often do not meet the needs of users because they do not incorporate a human scale. By beginning with human dimensions, ambiguous spatial conditions can begin to indicate use without dictating program. In addition they provide possibilities for users to occupy spaces as they see fit.

In order to test the robustness of ambiguous spatial conditions they will be applied to the programmatically diverse transit plaza intended for the UBC Student Union Building area. The open exterior plaza and food court are both possible sites for design, as each is required to support many different programs simultaneously.

Note: This project and my vocabulary no longer include the terms 'kit of parts', 'tool', 'deploy' or 'useful assembly'.

Post committee meeting update

I've spent a significant part of this week working on a paper for another course and trying to make up for the big work push from last weekend. But I'm back on thesis duty full time until the midterm review, which happens Feb 28th.

I was extremely happy with the last meeting. On Monday night I was finally able to spatialize the MA's (which will hereafter be known as ambiguous spatial conditions) by using Maya to loft between three conditions, producing this:

The consensus among my committee members was this is a productive direction and it's time for me to change scale and move up to what I think of as car size: find rules for assembling these guys.

I was shocked to find out that Thesis Advisor M, Big D and the Flame are unable to read my mind. They pointed out to me that the final intent of the project is still unclear to them and that I should really state that at the beginning of my presentation. I think one of the biggest things for the midterm is not so much that I need to move forward with my project as I need to find a way to clearly show what I've been working on, particularly with my DS, so that everyone watching the presentation is clear about where I am going. I'm totally going to rope Team into critiquing what I show so everything is clear. This is the first time I'll be presenting to people who haven't read my DS so it's a great experience, but I never know what's important about my own project.

The idea of a 24 hour diagram of use for the site came up again, so I'll try to produce one for the next meeting, and Thesis Advisor M suggested I be more specific about what I'm looking to critique in my site. I really enjoyed the conversation about how my project subverts all these givens in Vancouver architecture: it isn't anything I was thinking about at all, but I can see how it would apply. It's strange to have people ascribing motives to you that you haven't considered, but I'd like to play with some of the ideas and see what comes up.

Next post: intent!

Proxemics III

As much as I have enjoyed reading about proxemics, the time I've spent looking into it is wasted if I can't identify and clearly explain why I think it's related to my thesis. Why should I care how close people like to be to each other?

Well, what have I done since my last committee meeting?

What I have done since my last committee meeting

By Archigeek

The last time we saw Archigeek's thesis committee, they commented that her site research seemed premature, and that she think about her definition of ambiguity. Her notes suggest she create a 24hr flow diagram of the site and look at scales of occupations, linear propogation and exponential growth.

Well, since my last committee meeting, I have been thinking about definitions of ambiguity. I realized that the microarchitectural articulations (MA's) were not covering enough potential uses, and the way they were derived was unsystematic. I decided that if I was going to seriously consider MA's as a process, I should investigate all the different surface possibilities inherent in the 16 MA's I had created.

Part of the reason I did this was that the MA's were still program driven. Because they came from Architectural Graphic Standards (AGS), they still appeared to be very linked to the uses keyed to different positions of the body. I was also very aware that when I had been putting the MA's together I had been thinking of different programs that they could be applied to.

I then created a matrix that could explore some other possible MA's. I took each of the initial drawings from AGS: ramp, stair, sitting reach, standing reach, reclining angles, facing table, high work counter, and stage and added envelope as it had appeared numerous times in the MA's. I 'bred' each of these 9 sections together: this significantly increased the MA's. As some of the original MA's had three antecedents, I did this a second time to derive second generation MA's.

I now have a full tool kit of sectional moments. Because I bred together all possibilities, some uses work better than others and in some cases the original uses are impossible (or as Team pointed out, extremely dangerous). This is not a problem: in fact, it may even be desireable because it removes program from the sections and reduces them to an investigation of coincidences in surface variation keyed to the human body.

The matrix opens up my definition of ambiguity by allowing each moment to do more than the 2 or 3 AGS that spawned it. They are no longer designed to be ambiguous because the user needs to choose from 2 or 3 possible uses, but because they appear so strange there is no clear use and so the user need to choose from an infinite amount of habitations.

While the matrix has been tremendously useful, the MA's are still stuck as sectional moments. This is where the study of proxemics starts to come into play. While all the AGS have mimum widths (for example, a seat must be 16" or wider to be used as a seat) most do not have maximums. Those that do are linked to material -- they need to be narrow enough for users to slide their legs into the leg space. This is the case for the facing table and the desk.

So what criteria should be used for giving the MA's depth? I don't think that they can be given depth without beginning to program them. Instead, I looked at human spatial bubbles to find what kind of options I have for width. I'm still looking small, so I decided that a group of two people would be appropriate (something that I should also note is that in a study of 7,405 informal groups and 1,458 people working, 71% of all groups were two people). I took three MA's as examples and applied human bubble distances to them to see what happens. It becomes clear that planning for two people who want to be in each others' intimate or personal space is fine, when they wish to remain at a social or public space, density is too low to design for a public space.

This is when I began to look at the strategies people use to withdraw when people are in the wrong zone of their space. Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of the elevator: users look at the moving light panel because they do not wish to make eye contact with people who are standing closer than they would prefer. On buses, riders tense muscles that come into contact with others, don't make eye contact and do not speak when they might otherswise apologize in order to dehumanize (and aid others to dehumanize) other riders. Shutting out people in your bubble of personal space is a lot of effort and quite tiring.

Because the UBC bus loop will accomodate fluctuations in the number of people that will be using the plaza and adjacent spaces, it is inevitable that at some point people will be crowded closer to each other than they would prefer. In order to accomodate this, the space should be designed both sociofugally and sociopetally. In this way, people who wish to exclude others from their personal space could do so using less room than might otherwise be possible, but there would also be opportunities for groups to meet there comfortably. While sociofugal and sociopetal design is often seen as a matter of style, small moves can have an enormous effect.

People will chose adjacencies related to the different ways they are interacting. This can be broken down into three groups: people confront, consort, or coexist. When people are confronting each other, dominancy is unclear. These people will sit accross from each other to better judge facial expressions and body language. When people consort, it happens in two ways. When people collaborate by working on the same project, they will sit next to each other or around the corner of a table so they see the world from the same perspective. When people converse, they wish to see each other's facial expressions and so will face each other.

Most important is when people are coexisting. Most often people who are coexsting will seat themselves in a reciprocal arrangement that is diagonally separated to minimize eye contact. When trains or buses fill up, people who are coexisting will distribute themselves evenly throughout to minimize contact. In the case of a train, territories can be marked by a coat or briefcase.

This information is particularly useful to me because it begins to suggest ways in which MA's could be assembled to permit different kinds of interaction. The UBC bus loop should have space for confrontation, consorting and coexisting. Since there is not enough space for people to avoid entering each other's personal space, MA's should be arranged to allow people to coexist comfortably. One of the ways this can happen is by designing in sociopetal and sociopetal ways. This will allow spaces to remain ambiguous because the ways that people interact are not prescribed, but will be articulated by the combinations of MA's.

Thesis Advisor M remarked that while she liked the MA matrix, it was time to start thinking about making design decisions for specific reasons, instead of trying to find a program that would solve the problem itself (that's program in the computer sense, not the architectural sense). Arranging the MA's sociopetally and sociofugally would be a step towards doing this.

There are pros and cons to this. I'm arguing that the matrix increases ambiguity by combining surfaces while disregarding program and so creates infinite use opportunities rather than two or three use opportunities derived from the AGS. They are so weird it is not a choice of two or three, but a question of if it should be inhabited at all. If this is the case, I don't want to make assumptions about how people will be sitting because it starts to imply that I'm designing for the one or two programs. How can I mediate this problem?

I might just have to bite the bullet and say I'm designing for two or three uses.

Archigeek leaves for a short time for a consult

Team was out getting coffee, but Short Bus thinks that I should use both definitions of ambiguity. While I'm going to design for the uses specified in AGS, it's with the understanding that there are probably many other uses produced by the conjunction of surfaces that I can't control and don't want to. So, ambiguous is defined as 2+ or 3+ forms of occupation.

Also, there are some AGS's I combined that can't have sociopetal or sociofugal design applied to them. The envelope, ramp and stair do not allow inhabitation. In fact, I'm pretty sure the envelope shouldn't even be included, but it's too late now. The ramp and stair are about movement. You can sit on a stair, but you can't sit on the stair portion of a stair/seat, because the seat is defined as the part you sit on. As soon as you sit, the stair becomes a seat.

There are some AGS that already have relationships built in. The stage is designed for public space (near or far). The high work counter and the facing table allow for competing or consorting: while the distance is considered far-personal, I think the table/counter mitigates that relationship and changes it to close-social.

I think I'm going to take a look at the different relationships inherent in the AGS and see if that gets me anywhere.

Proxemics II

I've been reading up on proxemics: not just Edward Hall, but people who cite him, so that I can squeeze more use out what I've been looking at.

Before I start thinking, some definitions.

Proxemics: The study of how man structures microspace, how he relates physically to other persons with whom he is interacting and what is communicated by these physical relationships.

Fixed Feature: A permanent piece of a building. Always ceiling, walls and doors. In my project, seating, etc.

Semi-Fixed Features: Portions of a building that are always there, but that move around. Chairs, tables, etc. My project wants to make semi-fixed features completely fixed.

Informal Space: At least in this definition, the space that users leave stuff in to mark their territories.

Situational Behaviour: Behaviour that occurs when people enter 'personal space' bubbles that surround the body(distances appropriate to lovers, friends, and strangers are identified).

Territory: The area around themselves that a user wishes to remain free that is 'marked' can be done with a bag or jacket: size is related to relationships with adjacent people.

Sociofugal: A space that is designed to keep others away from the users personal space. Discourages interaction, but is gravitated towards by users who do not wish to interact.

Sociopetal: A space that is designed to encourage interaction with others. Allows groups to interact.

Mental Congruence: When a person feels that his or her personal characteristics, values and life stules are accommodated by particular spactial patterns.

Experiential congruence: How well the environment actually supports the functions, characteristics and behaviours of pepole using it.