Reflection Corona

There is a first time for everything, and at least within our educational period the constellation behind this project has had a ‘first time’-dimension to it; due to the worldwide spread of the Coronavirus, we as students have been obliged to conduct this groupwork separately. Instead of meeting physically, we have only met virtually since the 11th of March 2020.

These conditions have been a challenge for us, and especially the lack of direct and straightforward communication through physical drawings, gesturing and an idea-plastered group room have made this project period very time consuming. Due to the lack of these elements, it has been more difficult to obtain a common understanding of the project than usually. Furthermore, we have been working more individually during this project period than we normally do, causing a greater degree of individual specialists.

One could argue, that this Corona lockdown, has blocked most of the positive aspects of a group work; the direct interaction and quick response, the fast and informal knowledge sharing, the work in pairs and finally, the friendly pat on the back. On the other hand, what might actually have been improved during this lockdown period is the fact that, our group meetings have often been more concentrated and focused than the meetings we used to have at the university. Unfortunately, these meetings have been conducted in Danish, since we are a group of native speakers. By not forcing ourselves to communicate in English and thereby abandoning the practicing of the technical terms in English, we have been disserving ourselves in regards to the preparation for the oral exam.

Since the university has been closed, we have not been able to access workshop facilities and printers as we normally can. This has caused that almost no physical models have been constructed during this project period and thereby, that the main designing has been conducted digitally. Does this show within the final design? Maybe. Indisputable, our final design is very geometrically shaped, though we have decided on this actively, as well as the design for disassembly strategy has likewise pushed us in this direction. However, it is impossible to predict if conclusions had differed if we had been able to carry out an extensive analogue shape study.

Architecture is founded as a very spacious field, where communication and words cannot stand on its own. It is a shame that we are not able to carry out a big presentation model for the exam as we usually do, since it tends to the best way of communicating a project like this. Instead, we must focus on presenting high quality renderings from various angles and hopefully, we can thereby communicate this project in a clear and precise manner, despite the changed format.