After a greuling session of formal critiques by studio mates, instructors and TA's, I am spent. Yesterday's pin-up of progress drawings was an amazing learning experience. I was fascinated by the variety of solutions to what appeared to be a simple program with some narrowly defined parameters (not the least of which is a too-small site crammed up against a freeway that is more than ten feet higher than the average elevation of the site).
The most fascinating thing was the abstraction(s) of process by some of my classmates. Perhaps I have been in the world of work for too long... or not in the world of education for so long... My in-progress drawings are solidly in the realm of construction documents. Admittedly, there are flaws, unknowns, details which have yet to be created, structural elements that are possbily the wrong size, or the wrong visual weight. And all of that can be resolved in the next five weeks.
I believe my building is actually build-able without too-terribly much stretching of the current technology. It looks a little mundane (in elevation views, all the sculptural richness is flattened out) and that troubles me. So what's the problem??? I am guessing that my mind is grounded in a way that the other students are not. I have no abstract reasoning that is too difficult to graphically communicate. I have no abstract concepts that have never before been built. I have no abstract reasoning that I do not have words to adequately express. And I feel bad about this. (???)
Still, the building will address a standard of sustainability that is far beyond anything attempted in most municipal construction projects. The facility will depend heavily on natural daylighting, stored solar thermal, and solar electric that is grid connected for net-zero (design goal) night-lighting and AC, recycled "gray" water for site landscaping, natural ventilation / convection in the public spaces, and sustainable materials use wherever possible. The firefighters will be treated to spaces that are created with spiritually restorative qualities meant to manage the stress of life as a firefighter/medical "first responder."
What am I missing?
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"What am I missing?"
ReplyDeleteInterviews with firefighters / medical "first responder"s - to see how they would design their surroundings to generate positive "qi" in order to improve their life - we're talking "feng shui" here: "Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water." (from the "Zangshu" (Book of Burial) by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty)