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.