Best Day Trip Ever

Today was IMMENSELY better than yesterday! Today, we had a day trip to Camogli and Portofino, two beautiful cities right on the Mediterranean. The day started out with the stress of not having a developed project, but I prayed that God would open my eyes throughout the day and allow me to see the aspects of design that are around me – and that’s just what He did! I’ve kind of gotten the reputation of designing with “natural elements.” How I did that, I have no freaking idea. Nothing that I’ve ever done for class follows this rule, but I have the reputation nonetheless. The more I think about it though, the more I think that it suits me. That’s what I was focused on during today’s adventure – how to utilize nature in designs in an expressive and interesting way.

We started out with a train ride to Camogli – a small ocean-front town that was an old fishing village that sprouted into a town. From there, we took a boat to a small monastery village. The boat ride was amazing! It was the first time that I’d seen this part of the country – mountains so close to the water. Buildings all along the mountainside. Quite beautiful. We made a stop before getting off at a small dock that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. As we pulled up, we were faced with the giant of the mountain – a massive rock face that had rockslide preventive fencing stretched over it. The fencing made it seem like the mountain was a giant ready to burst out of its bond at any moment, but the strength of a woven steel net hindered his escape. As we circled the mountain, the major thing that I noticed was that a lot of the structures built on the mountain were made of the same material of the mountain – a stone tower set perched atop one of the rock outcroppings. I thought that this was really cool – architecture that spring forth from the land. Really powerful statement.

When we got to the monastery, the first thing that we noticed was how clear and blue the water was. I’ve never seen water like that –you could see the smooth, rocky bottom well out from the shoreline. The beach around the area was defined with the same smooth, dark rocks instead of sand. There was just something about the waves coming in and making that clear division between the dry rocks and shiny wet rocks that I thought was amazing.

 

 

One of the main things that I focused on during our surprisingly non-architectural day trip was the usage of and joinery between different materials, notably between the cool, dark color of the rocks and the warm, soft color of wood (chairs, boardwalks, etc.) When I started looking for things like this, they seemed to crowd around me, each vying for a chance to be seen. We were in an area that natural materials were virtually the only form of construction and design, so I found almost every aspect of the trip to be rejuvenating to both the Boy Scout and the “natural architect” within me.
I also noticed that the treatment of pathways and plants seemed to coincide easily – the pathways were largely defined with some form of rock paving (flagstone, cobblestone, etc), but plants were also generally a part of the equation. At one point, I spied a stairwell leading down beside an old defensive wall of the city with plants reaching up from the ground and sprouting out of the wall to create a natural tunnel that served to diffuse the light and provide a natural form of shade for those who would need it.

Our last leg of the trip was by foot – a hike over the mountain from the monastery to Portofino. This was my favorite part of the day (and probably my favorite part of the semester so far)! We started out at sea level, literally, and climbed up about 1,500 feet; all the while with the ocean in full view and serving as a map of our altitude progress. Our end destination was the town of Portofino, a harbor town that exists in a small, protective cove created by the mountains. Back to sea level we go. I’ve always loved hiking through the woods. There is just something about being out in the wilderness that I love. None of the worries from studio, or work, or life in general can filter through the mass of trees to find me there. Nothing matters anymore – nothing except enjoying the stunning landscape that God has given us.

All in all, this trip was EXACTLY what I needed after yesterday’s review, especially our hike, which I had been looking forward to the entire week. It gave me a chance to back up and look at what I was doing; to see what went wrong and focus on how to fix them; to look at the usage of materials and how people had formed the natural landscape to fit their individual use. By the end of the day, I had already sketched out a MUCH better rendition of our project in my head that uses our basic ideas, but focuses on natural materials and concepts. I think that this is my thing, my element; where I can go to clear my head after a long week of worries. Can’t wait to get back home to the old familiar trails with my friends – and maybe a few new routes with a few new faces.

 

A presto,

 

-Tyler

The First Review is a Doozy

Today’s review. How can I express my disappointment about today’s review?

 

This afternoon, we had our first “pin up,” which is a time that all of the professors come and every student “pins up” their work on the wall and presents their ideas to the class + professors. In a traditional sense, these are designed to make sure that we are progressing like we should – checkpoints along the way of the project, if you will. I went into today’s pin up with mixed emotions – I had all of my work done, as my partner and I had decided upon, and most of my ideas were engrained within my memory well enough for me to explain them to people who didn’t understand as well as I did. My partner had stayed up late the night before, with the majority of the class who were putting together last minute things, but I went to bed early. #1 because I’d been working virtually all day on my part of the project while my partner worked on other things. #2 because I didn’t see the point in staying up half the night for a simple pin up. In the morning, however, I felt bad – like I’d left her out to dry. But, it was over and done, so nothing I could do about that one. That morning, I also realized that we hadn’t collaborated about how the presentation was going to be formatted – at all. It is a fair assessment to say that my partner and I don’t communicate as well as we should. So I was stressed about this for the morning – I knew my part, but as far as her part, I didn’t know what she wanted to say or even what her general ideas toward our project were. O crap. Going into a presentation without a clear idea of what the heck is going on. Setting myself up for a loss already…

So we sit through a couple presentations and decide that it’s our turn to go. I start out with our diagrams – why we did what we did. Basically, our project is inspired from a pine cone – the shape and characteristics of the object. We looked at how the lobes terrace and overlap each other and used the circular shape of the cone to organize the park space of our design. That’s the basic outlay that I nailed during the pin up – it’s the details that I botched. I just couldn’t seem to explain why how the overlapping of the terraces was going to be a good thing. I tried to explain it by referencing the “human scale” (which seemed right at the time, but I now know that I used the term horribly backwards!). I felt like I had the words, but they just wouldn’t come out right. Sensing this situation, I just imploded. Crap. In the middle of a review, and I can’t explain my ideas. Crap. The rest of the review matched suit. And to boot, at the end, after the professors are done offering suggestions and the floor is opened up to the class, both my partner and I stare awkwardly at our project board, not at the class – aka, we imploded. Crap. Now we look like we are hiding from explaining our project. Now our lack of communication as a group is pretty dang obvious. Crap…

The one thing that I do like about reviews, though, is that it gives you a chance to literally sit back and look at the work of your classmates and what the professors have to say about them. It’s a good way to get feedback about your project without the pressure of standing up in front of everybody; albeit an indirect way that involves more work on your part in sifting through to the relevant information. I learned a lot about architecture in general and made a lot of mental changes to our project just from listening to what the professors had to say about other people’s project – and what they would inevitably bring up in the final review if I didn’t address them in my project now.

Interesting day, interesting day indeed.

 

A presto,

 

Tyler

History repeats itself...

We designed ourselves into a hole. Literally. Our project was flowing right along. We had some suggestions from professors and had sifted through most of them to refine our design – the driving factor being to reduce the symmetry of place (apparently a classical style thing that is soooo 100 years ago). One of our professors made the comment that we shouldn’t necessarily follow the design factors from the classical period (symmetry included). He thinks, instead that we should try to be more organic and forward thinking. So that’s what we did. We made the mistake, however, of assumption. We came to the point that we felt that digging into the ground was the solution to our design problems. At the time, this made sense – we were going to tunnel under a very busy street to assist in pedestrian safety, but the tunnel was quite deep; therefore, make the grade closer to that of the tunnel. No assumptions up to that point – it’s all valid. The assuming came in the fact that neither of us considered how to buffer between the existing grade level and the new grade level (we assumed that the side of the hole was going to be just a vertical wall with railing around it, which is NOT the way to design a space). We focused more on the general shape of the area that we wanted to create in plan view – never looking at the design in section. Problem. The funny thing is, last semester my partner and I ran into the EXACT same problem – we were tunneling under a railroad track to help pedestrian flow and didn’t consider HOW to go from exiting grade to new grade until very late in the project – not until AFTER our project had earned the unfortunate nickname “the pit.” Yeah, pretty bad. After that fun review, we decided upon a set of stairs on one end that terraced down into the new space and, after we broke off for the individual final project, I decided to make amphitheater seating to blend the ground planes. In this project, I think that we are just going to backtrack a lot and go back to not creating another pit. Simple enough, right?

On another note, I have started to find my discipline (hard to believe I lost it, right?). I’ve decided that having coffee and fococcia bread every morning for breakfast is absolutely awful for me, so I bought some orange juice and crackers that I spread honey on. Between the honey and an apple, I’m probably getting more energy than I was from the coffee (and it’s natural). Also, trying to drink more water to stay hydrated. I’ve started to work out again. And that’s saying something out here – we don’t have access to a gym. I got an app the other day that has different exercises for every muscle group, including “body only” exercises, which I am confined to at the moment. I’ve done pushups every day now for the past week. My goal there is to be able to do 100 in a row by the end of the semester. Today, I went with a group of people and we went running up the hill a little ways. Started small, but at least we started running. I think that running a little a couple times a week will help keep your legs strong and heart healthy. Also, don’t wanna work out just your upper body because then you’ll look like an upside-down triangle, and nobody wants that. I work every day on things for different classes – although this is nothing new for me, I like to do this so that the info keeps fresh in my mind and I keep moving forward. I’ve been reading a little bit in the Bible and doing a devotional every day – recently started a plan about “unquestionable character.” So far so good.
My hope with all of this is that I will become a well-rounded individual, at least better-rounded by the end of the semester – find a balance between my mind, body, and spirit; or something like that. Also, I want to be a good example to everyone here. It’s been interesting to observe how some people’s conduct has changed with the new-found independence; interesting to say the least. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

 

A presto,

 -Tyler

UPDATE!

So the rest of this week was kind of dry, but here's a few things to keep you up to date:

-Our project is coming right along - ideas finally becoming more concrete. We have a midterm review on Wednesday, but I think that we are pretty much ready for it.

-I'm starting to develop my own "style" of architecture. Haven't presented any of it yet, so we'll see how that one goes.

-On Tuesday, we are going to "Pirate...something." I can't remember the name, just that it has Pirate in it and that we are going to go swimming. Also, on that note, we have parrots in our garden...no joke. They are small and green and annoying.

-I bought some orange juice the other day.

-I'm doing pushups in the mornings because I was starting to lose my chest and that made me sad. So far so good.

-Time is starting to "woosh" on me. For those of you who have stayed up working and lost two night worth of sleep in a row, you know what I'm talking about. Really, though, the days are starting to run together.

That's pretty much the extents of my life right now, consider yourself in the know.

A presto,


-Tyler