Arch 101 Final Learning Portfolio
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.
Week 9- Precedence Research - Seeking Inspiration I did a bunch of charcoal drawings for inspiration before starting first iteration.
Charcoal Drawings My goal was to evoke wonder and mystery and I did so by listening to music and closing my eyes.
Iteration 1 & 2 For these first two iterations, I used a folding technique to create crawling spaces.
Iteration 2.5 I was exploring how to make a seating area without using glue, it was difficult but I created a floating bench that has an angled corner.
Week 10-Program & Site Analysis Documentation I chose the site at the top of the hill because it was already flat and there we could build something to attract attention for people to explore our installations. That was something that was important to me because I wanted my installation to serve a purpose.
Week 11- Research/Small Scale Studies (Folding This model is based of Jessica’s model. I wanted to do something similar to hers since we both and the same sight and same folding method. To add to the wonder aspect of the space, I changed the perspective of the experience by adding a panel so that a person would have to crawl or climb over to get through to the seating area.
Week 12-Research Continued:Folding Team Design Work: Iteration 7, Group Model
Week 13- Logistical Planning Our first trip to Lowe’s involved figuring out what materials we could use to minimize the cost. We found the Douglas Fir wood to be cheapest so we bought some 16 foot pieces to be cut into a few small pieces and twenty 8 foot pieces. We also bought a box of 100 fastener joints that were quickly used up. We loaded everything in my dad’s truck and unloaded the wood when we got to Batmale.
Week 13- Logistical Planning For the fabric installation, we needed to figure out how to incorporate that into our frame. We figured out that we needed eye hooks, grommets and fishing line to put it the fabric into our structure. We also bought extra boxes of screws that were an inch and a half and two inches.
Week 14- Installation Initiated This was when I learned how to use the saw. Growing up, I’ve must have seen my dad do this a million times and it was really fun to learn and actually use it myself. Now I can go home and show my dad that I know how to cut wood with the tools that he has.
Week 15-Installation Continued What We Used: 16 ft Douglas Fir Wood, Joist Angles (fasteners), screws, Makita power drill, T square All we have to do was measure the pieces of wood and divide them into equal lengths and then screw them together. We just had to do it over and over again but it was simple.
Week 15-Installation Continued After all our frames were built, we just had to bring them up to our empty and leveled site to be drilled together. The rain got in the way of construction in the beginning but later on we decided to just work in the rain to save time.
Week 16- Installation Continued At this point we were behind schedule with construction. Both our frames were up but we still needed to add seating, a bench and the fabric. I was happy with the way it all turned out and it was fun to figure out where we would the seats to be placed in order to enhance the journey.
Week 16- Installation Continued When we put together the first frame, our installation looked like it was really coming along and that made me excited to how the rest of our structure would turn out. All we did was drill the frames together and it was stable enough for us to climb.
Week 17-Installation Completed: Presentations Design Language: Sense of Journey Multiple Components- complexity Filtered Light- sensory details Tension Points Obstacles To Climb Over
Reflection I learned a lot of new tools this studio especially for making models; wood, super glue, xacto knife, bristol paper. I’m excited to be able to make better models next semester now that I’ve seen what you can make from just wood and glue and even just paper. I learned from my classmates by seeing their models and techniques and also from their hard work and effort. What was most difficult for me this semester was keeping up with my classmates. I felt like everyone was better and far more experienced than I was. What I enjoyed most from this class was the construction phase of the final project. It was so much fun to learn and be able to use tools like the miter saw and drills and doing work outdoors for a change gave us fresh air and exercise. I’m sad that the construction is over because it went by fast and I would love to do it all over again. The final project taught me how to communicate better and how to work well with others.
You have to be responsive with people even if it is just saying yes or ok. People won’t always be there to start and complete a project but you have to go on without them anyways. What I learned most is that in a group design, not all or any of your ideas will be used. This makes if feel like your hard work was for nothing but that is not true. I always thought that in a group design, we would have our ideas included but with five people, it is very difficult for everyone’s ideas to collaborated without looking like a mess. What I learned from the presentation feedback is that a main concept needs to be accurate and credible. Built architecture usually does not last for more than twenty years nowadays. The question is how to make them last not just with photographs. Completing our own projects will keep us inspired and give us ideas for our next projects and it becomes a domino effect of investigating themes and walkthroughs. Always have patience to practice and learn. Passion is about the relationship between architecture and I. No matter what, just keep going and don’t stop. Don’t lose