Arch 101 Midterm Learning Portfolio
By: Connie Wong
August 18th, 2015
Week 1- Syllabus Essentials/What’s Your Sign? It was fairly easy for me to come up with three words that describe myself. I chose responsible, understanding, and patient. Then I chose others words like organized, empathetic, educated, and peaceful to add for consideration. Then when I googled these words, it was hard to find symbols that represented my adjectives. For patient, I got an hourglass and for understanding I found puzzle pieces. Materials for our sign should be light, cheap, toolable, paper or foam core.
What inspires you? The world-all the places I’ve never been to and never seen. Knowing that there are people born into less fortunate countries with less opportunities makes me want to do better and push through all the obstacles in my life.
Week 2- Constructed Sign My first constructed sign was a puzzle piece with a japanese printed paper that I got from a paper store in Japan. I chose to use the paper because I really liked it and the way it looked but from afar you couldn’t really see the pattern. I should have thought about that before. For my next iteration, I need to include something other than my first adjective. Final Sign
Week 3- Journey of Discovery and Wonder This week, we were tasked to go to a local place that we’ve never been before. I chose to go to Stern Grove because it’s close to my house and I drive past it everyday. I’ve seen the entrance but have never been inside. So when I was walking down the hill on the pedestrian path, I was very curious and wondered what’s down there. I took my time taking lots of pictures on the way and when I finally saw the outdoor theater I was shocked at how beautiful it was. I always knew that there was a theater for performances there but I didn’t know that it was an outdoor theater. I’ve never seen an outdoor theater in person but I’ve seen pictures of ancient greek theaters and it was very similar to that. I thought that it was so beautiful how outdoor theaters still exist today.
Week 3- Wonder
These are some pictures I took of Stern Grove.
Week 3- Places of Wonder: Stern Grove Out of about 25 pictures I took, I chose these three to make my collages with.
Week 3- Collages Collage 1 Collage 2
Collage 3
Week 4- Make a Wall, Window, Evoke Wonder This week we did charcoal gesture drawings to research what kind of strokes provoke wonder.. I like the middle drawing the best and my intentions for that drawing was “mystery”. I really enjoyed this class because I got to try a new kind of drawing that isn’t with just a pencil and paper. They turned out really nice and I was inspired to make them look nicer so I did about 20 more charcoal drawings at home.
Week 4- Make a Wall, Window, Evoke Wonder Before constructing our window and wall, we drew a bunch of different ideas out in class. This was suppose to help strip our notions of what a regular wall and window is suppose to look like. Before design my wall and window, I knew that I didn’t want it too look like a standard window and wall. I want it to be more abstract and stand out against most traditional walls and windows.
Week 4- Make a Wall, Window, Evoke Wonder I wasn’t sure what kind of materials to use for making a model because I’ve never done this before. I bought chipboard but the kind that I bought was too thick to cut or glue together. So I got balsa wood and gorilla glue to make my model. Immediately I knew that I wanted to do a corner window but also have it extend to the ceiling because I thought it looked cool. But to solve the problem of evoking wonder, I thought I should add something different so I cut the edge of the window on top.
For a place to sit or lie down, I added a bench. But I didn’t want it to look so standard or robotic so I gave the bench a curved edge to contrast the sharp angles of the window.
I think I did a good job for my first iteration, now I ask myself how can I extend the journey in my model..
Week 5- Window, Wall, Wonder Redux For my first model, you can see the glue I used so that wasn’t working. I had to switch to krazy glue which worked a whole lot better.
For my second iteration, I wanted to see what the wall and window would look like if the top was a different shape so I tried a curved top instead of angled but found out that I didn’t like it. I don’t like the way it contrasts with the other sides of the window. To me it looks sort of awkward.
Week 6- Make A Place That Evokes Wonder We partnered up to critique each other’s work. I found this helpful in a lot of ways. We got to see everyone’s models closely which provided a wide variety of ideas and materials that we could use. It was also helpful to hear about someone else’s design process and to get a second opinion on our design.
I noticed that I’ve been putting holes in corners.
I liked being critiqued by classmates and found it more inspiring.
Week 7- Spatial Journey To A Place of Wonder For my rough model, I knew I needed to add more to create more of a journey so I added an additional floor that a person could climb up to with a ladder. I also created a pattern for a transparent ceiling so that someone from the 2nd floor and look down at the first.
Week 7- Spatial Journey To A Place of Wonder
Rough model that I constructed using bristol paper and masking tape. I never got to present this model because we didn’t have enough time in class.
Week 8- Enhancing The Evoked Experience For this iteration, I changed the windows and added pieces hanging from the ceiling to add more dimension to the space. I want the space to be less of a regular shape. I don’t want the walls to look like normal walls but I don’t know how to change them or what to change them to.