This is a ctrl+v from my contribution to archinect.com’s School Blog Project. Since I have graduated, I will use this for archival purposes.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Aug 08 2007
__________________________________________
Design Thesis Final [exhale]
I just finished presenting my design thesis project. The last two months went something like this for me: mid-critique|baby|sell house|job interview|travel|present thesis|document thesis|present again for award|graduate. Here’s the final product.
It’s been a great year….let me credit the contributors.
Design Thesis Mentor
Chris Ford
Design Thesis Critics
Jeff Day
Martin Despang
Hyun Tae Jung
Keith Sawyers
Guest Critics
Lori Brown
Doug Jackson
Bonus:
I was in my Viticulture and Oenology class when the paparazzi found me. Great class…I sampled 8-12 wines a class and received 3 credit hours for it. In all fairness…it was a tough class.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
May 06 2007
_______________________________________________________________________
Design Thesis .03
I am now entering the final stages of my design thesis project. I’m currently working on assembling all the information obtained last semester and am focusing on the architecture.
Under the guise of my premise: -giving equal weight to sites that appears on the macro + micro scale (see the matrix). I extracted from the matrix three specifications: Packaging, The Sublime, and Scalar Oscillation. The specifications will guide the architectural solution.
Packaging: refers to the superfluous materials encasing the machines. This packaging attaches to the structures and plays an aesthetic roll and a division between human and machine.
The Sublime: (this is a heated word that has been debated for century’s and even in archinect threads) I’ve defined The Sublime as danger without fear The sublime is powerful; The architecture will not be a literal interpretation, but a manifestation of the idea of sublime.
Scalar Oscillation: The far ends of the macro and micro scope and removing their scale. In Quantum theory, it would be entanglement- two things existing at the same time regardless of size.
Here are some first steps diving in to the much anticipated formal architecture phase.
-AJ
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Feb 03 2007
__________________________________________
Christmas Reverie
Besides working, family, home/auto neglected repair, and fiancé attention, I built a new PC. For those of you that have an interest in computer building will understand; those that don’t bear with me. My (now ancient) Dell 8500 Laptop just isn’t cutting it for 3D modeling and Adobe applications. I’ve been scraping by year after year as new software updates tax my computer more and more. Sorry 85 (computer’s kickname); times are a-changin’. I firmly believe computers are only a tool for architecture, but when a tool is subpar, it’s necessary to upgrade.
I started my college career in computer programming; until I realized it’s pretty dull and I’m not as enthusiastic about staying on one-side of the computer screen. Plus, I just wouldn’t enjoy all the extra time and money afforded by a computer science degree *sarcasm*. It’s been a while since I’ve built a computer, and with some Christmas fundage, it is time. For those who are inexperience with pc building, it is actually easy(video). Everything fits together beautifully; all cables in only one place.
With a magnetic screwdriver and a glass of Dewar’s, the build begins. The hermetic packages burst open with the smell of a sterile world far away. The parts are fresh; no screws are stripped…yet. It’s always a gamble on whether everything will work together on first boot. The case is easily cracked open with only one screw. Drive bays slide out like Russian dolls; the designers of this case are conscious of the amateur/novice computer builder. Power supply attached, HDD and DVD drive attached; the pinnacle moment of the installation is the CPU. The chip is packaged very carefully in its container. I carefully remove the temporary shipping apparatus and turn over the chip to reveal its vitals. I cradle the processor and make sure it doesn’t receive any static shock. One rogue static arc could end this install quickly. The processor sits in the mobo pin-to-pin and is securely clamped. The CPU fan is always awkward. It sits atop the processor and needs a good amount of force (an uneasy, almost breaking force) to secure it to the chip. Once this step is completed, the ram is installed and the computer is buttoned back together. The computer is complete…time for the lengthy Windows install; at least it runs on its own.
… here’s whats under my hood:
Intel C2D E6300
Asus P5L-MX
2GB (2×1gb) Mushkin Enhanced RAM
In-win case
Seagate SATA 160gb Hd
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Jan 09 2007
__________________________________________
Under Review
It is up to fate now. the 6th year terminal projects are under review by selected faculty members. It’s an interesting process.
1. The student gets a 6′x8′ presentation space to display a semester’s worth of research. No verbal presentation, just boards to explain your project to people often unfamiliar. One 8.5"x11" Arial 14pt font explaining your project.
2. After I pin it up, three faculty members at random review it and decide whether the student is in schematic design phase for next semester.
3. The jury will throw a flag if the student is questionable.
4. The student flagged has a chance to present their project to the entire faculty. Concluding the 15 min. presentation, the faculty takes a silent vote to whether the student is able to continue into the last half of their terminal project.
5. If the student is chosen not to continue, they are placed in vertical studio.
The flagged students find out tomorrow if they need to present. I am confident in my project but non-the-less, this could be interesting.
Three specifications for the final one architecture solution next semester
*bonus photo: This was taken right next to architecture all on campus. It was around 11:00pm and a fellow student runs into the studio…"Is there any reason why the sunken gardens are on fire?". Of coarse I grab my camera and run out side and start shooting (after calling 911). Interestingly, no one was around (except for architecture students) so we just casually strolled around the fire and photographed, very surreal. The building you see in the background is Philip Johnson’s Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery.
no Philip Johnson buildings were harmed in this photo.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Dec 12 2006
__________________________________________
Susudio Fun
Just like everyone else, we’re about 1 week out from the end of the semester, and needed a break from our projects. Therefore decided to invent Susudio.
Susudio (our name, not the students) is a terminal project from a student last year. The model has been adjacent to my desk since the begging of the semester and I noticed when people would converse around my desk, they would start to pick at and break the model just as someone doodles when talking on the phone.
To fulfill our appetite for destruction(thank you G’n'R) we started to destruct the model and rearrange the components. The process was extremely liberating. Other students would simply rearrange the components and after each rendition take a picture. Heres’s some of the photos of the break from terminal projects.
-AJ
Beginning of semester
Erosion from the semester
Lingerie
Animated Destruction
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Dec 03 2006
__________________________________________
Terminal Project .02
“Vehr ist the money Lebowski?“ The critique was both inspiring and tangential. What to do? take on pure formalism or functional based architecture? Before I go into this my critics were:
Keith Sawyers
Jeff Day
Martin Despang
Hyun Tae Jung
Chris Ford
In summary, I have been exploring my site (roughly 56 city blocks) on a macro and micro level. In other words, zooming way out to a global scale and zooming in to the products that Kawasaki manufactures along with various agricultural equipment. These are all welded into a matrix that lines up the components on an equal benchmark. The matrix protects against a hierarchy that usually exists in an architectural project. The question is what do I do with the information? My critics were split, some wanted the studies I did of the interior program to be rearranged and begin to influence the new R + D attachment and others wanted the aesthetic and form of the machine to be the propellant. I believe that both can happen. The OMA side of me enjoys stacking, rearranging, and wrapping the program in a skin; the other has an appreciation with the machine aesthetic like Wes Jones Partners. Which brings me to another point; When did I start aligning myself with other architects? I’ve never believed in using precedents for my projects. Not because I think I need to invent something new, but I’d rather find my own way to a solution with out the influence of something built. I’d much rather reference an image of a baseball pitcher in mid-throw or a river hitting its equilibrium profile and flooding its banks to reset itself then another piece of architecture. Moving on… I believe a marriage of the form and function will work because the two, by association share these traits.
In the end, the terminal project has to be a piece of architecture to facilitate at a human scale, therefore, the program layering and stacking prepares me for a well working creation. The packaging (Heidegger’s definition) can take advantage of the aesthetics of the machine. Mental imagery produced by the word “machine” might indicate a very explicit and overly complex moving part; however this is too literal and archaic of an interpretation. Technology has evolved from mere dynamic parts. Using the latest technology is what it wants.
AJ
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Nov 17 2006
__________________________________________
Architecture in Sci-Fi
I am researching metal surfaces for Materials class and I’ve stumbled upon a topic I’ve always been interested in. What is it about the sci-fi architecture that makes it so appealing? Either it’s over expressed with mechanical ducts/lines/grates EVERYWHERE (Twelve Monkeys, Aliens, Brazil, The Matrix) or its stark white room with anamorphic furniture. But what is actually so futuristic about these pieces. Look at this for example a rendering from the movie Serenity.
This shot – the planet Miranda- was filmed at the Diamond Ranch High School by Morphosis but look at the building to the middle right…similar to the Libeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin? And the tower in the upper middle resembles Piano’s New Caledonia Center. Is corrugated metal the choice building material in 2300’s? This begs the question: these things exist now, so are there movies that express architecture in a realistic projected future? One might say that Star Wars did a good job of this, but I would love to see a movie that I have to ask, “What is that made off?” Well, I’d enjoy seeing a study of how we think of the far future and it’s relation to architecture.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Oct 24 2006
Terminal Project .01
I’m about 8 weeks into my 6th year terminal project. Thus far it’s been mostly nose-in-the-books and hassling people for information, however, this is not an atypical process. Instead of looking at just the Macro site ( the level we employ typical architectural conventions), I am focusing on the micro sites as well. Before I dive into this, let me break in with the overall terminal progect thesis statement (or question)….”ÂWhat if Kawasaki Motors wanted to get into the Agriculture market?” Lincoln, NE houses one of the largest Kawasaki plants in the U.S. (In fact, the N.Y. rail cars are made here.)
Kawasaki makes everything except Agriculture equipment (aerospace, tunnel borers, wind farms…yep ton’s of possibilities) . So I am proposing a Research and Development facility to help them answer this question. The end result is not as important as the process I am choosing to use to get there.
I’ve been collecting Kawasaki engine parts as well as farm-hopping for agriculture products (which has been liberating, although I am from Nebraska I am a city kid that wears cowboy boots, but just for the sake of fashion.) With all these parts in hand, I’ve started to dissect them and the Macro site on the same matrix. The matrix lines up all the sites on an equal hierarchy so there is no variance in prestige (i.e. the left cylinder head from an ATV is as important as the proposed building site) This methodology is closely paralleled by the Eames’s Power of Ten I’m sure most of you saw in physics or architecture classes. The micro sites offer suggestions on what Kawasaki manufactures and what currently exist in the agricultural realm.
Literature:
Darden, Douglas. “Condemned Building”Â
Kelly, Kevin, “Out of Control”Â
Pamphlet Architecture 12 – “Building Machines.”Â
Lim, CJ “Devices a Manual of Architectural + Spacial Machines”Â
Borden, Iain “ Skateboarding, Space and the City”Â
Farm Tractors from 1855 -1995, a compilation of Tractors tested at the UNL
Benham – “Theory and Design in the First Machine Age.”Â
Artists:
Lissitzky, El.
ParkeHarrison, Robert (The Architect’s Brother, really good!)
Tinguely, Jean
Hughes, Aidan “Brute.” (KMFDM Album Art)
Movies:
Vertov, Dziga – “Man with a Movie Camera.”Â
Gilliam, Terry “Brazil” (1985)
Eames – “Power of Ten.”Â
“Aliens 3” – Lebbeus Woods’s Involvement
If I haven’t proved it yet, I am a gear head. I am interested in the Machine Aesthetic, not the utility, not the function, but the aesthetic. The modernists used the idea of the “machine” as an aesthetic also; however this was beauty in appearance and simplicity. This mistake led to shiny metals and simple machine looking objects, i.e. the ridged metallic teapot at the time resembled skyscrapers. The problem with this is the lead into pure appearance and function. A machine is motion; it cannot sit still. If the machine is to have an architectural motive, it must reject utility and economic drive. This is evident by the “packaging” -as Heidegger referred to it – which envelopes the machine for an economic aesthetic propelled by formal notions of beauty. The motorcycles and ATV’s that Kawasaki produces have succumbed to this. While the machine housed within the molded plastic skin may be upgraded the “body” or color of the packaging is the most susceptible to annual model updates. The Ninja’s sleek design looks “fast” therefore to entice the potential buyer. The skin is the information layer of the machine.
Soon I’ll post the results from my halfway critique. Now back to my Dane Cook break.
-AJ
Graphic from the inside of a John Deere Combine
Autman Taylor Steam Tractor I found, I was facinated by the mechanical expression
The Matrix due to be finished soon. A visual catalog of all my research components
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Oct 17 2006
__________________________________________
First year Projects
Vinnie Chase (the lead character from the HBO series Entourage) remarked that Nebraska and the other Midwestern states are the "fly-over states."
Running parallel to my terminal project, I am also teaching architectural rendering to first and second year students. The emphasis is to not only teach what is done in the xyz axis, but what the output is. Just as Vinnie’s observation of the flatlands, the students were asked to prepare an eidetic image of Nebraska. Following the logic of James Corner’s "Aerial Representation and the Making of the Landscape", the students were to present their eidetic image of Nebraska using only Photoshop and Illustrator. Here are some of the first year’s coarse examples.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Oct 12 2006
__________________________________________
The Pavilion of the Broken Horizon
The Pavilion of the Broken Horizon was the product of a design/build class under visiting professor Johan Granberg. The pavilion is a temporary structure on adjacent to Architecture Hall. The steel was generously donated by Rivers Metal Products, Lincoln, NE.
The bodily conditions of being under, on, and above constitutes a particular relationship between us and our environment (loci). This gives us a spatial understanding of our surroundings. The Pavilion of the Broken Horizon operates on this idea of spatial relativity. The body understands gravity through balance. Balance is a complex process where gravity, velocity, bodily configuration, and center of gravitation are constantly recalculated and reacted to. Designing the pavilion according to the body’s position in relation to the ground plane was an exploration of our perception of height and our understanding of gravity. The overall design of the pavilion gives users a sense of unbalance and makes them aware of the process of regaining balance. This concept was achieved in two ways: the arrangement of the columns and the feeling of unstability when on top of the pavilion. Once the users let go of their grip as they arrive to the top of the canopy they realize there are few reference points. The blue color of the ribs and the layers of the canopy structure (ribs, padding, web, and expanded metal panels) interfere with the eyes’ perception of depth. This, along with the elasticity of the web, gives the users a sense of unbalance.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Sep 26 2006
__________________________________________
Design/Build Internship: 3
Continuation of my summer internship at Randy Brown Architects, Omaha, NE
The interior wall stairs are completed. In keeping with the play of entering and touching the wall as the viewer ascends, the exterior stairs needed to be similar in nature, but provide a different material to traverse on. The solid folding stairs were the antithesis to the open metal risers inside the wall. The folding plans create the stair for the occupant. The manipulation of the material into an ergonomic stepping surface is the human affect on the staircase. The railings are the next interaction allowing a moment to touch and be guided around the structure; it never touches and stays a distance from all the objects; the railings are human.
The bar progresses to take a skin. We first built the double stud skeleton for the entire bar solving structural issues and keeping a couple steps in front of what we are doing. The entire bar design was a continuous folding wall that erupted from the basement floor and ascended to engulf the bar stage. The fold leaps forward and soars overhead across the entire stage. The fold breaks free from this axis and angles back to the ground for a short time then back toward the original fold. At this point it stops; it is done. The fold is not dead, just in suspended animation, waiting for its chance to carry on. The skin is made of lath that conforms to the structure below. The object in the tube begins to solidify. The high resolution and transparency of the skin create a sanctuary for daylight and shadows to hide. The forms suspended state becomes a frame for the view, the view that most will see first upon entrance.
More projects on the site
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Aug 14 2006
__________________________________________
Design/Build Internship: 2
Continuation of my summer internship at Randy Brown Architects, Omaha, NE
After all the rigorous designs and construction documents, we jumped head first into construction. Although most of us had drafting experience on the designer’s side, now was the time to switch to the builder’s. The precision of the measurements and angles of the stair design amazingly ended up being right-on (even to the 1/16 of an inch). By frontloading the design process and using Sketch-up to design the timber layout, the construction moved steadily. The entire timber wall structure rises about 20′ then another 10′ to the upper bar level. We devised a way of using 1”Âx3” steel for planks for the wide stairs which proved to have little deflection at all. These metal planks were carefully drilled and installed.
I found it a challenge to leave studs exposed in a finished framing situation (as opposed to a rough framing that will be covered by plywood or drywall). The bare studs hide nothing. They offer no apologies for being dinged or dented and are unforgiving. Handling the wood with care is the best option. Everything you hammer, nail, or screw will be left exposed for viewers to see. We thought of using the nail-gun as a brutish method for our construction, so instead, we used many metal-to-wood connections. The loads are brought to an overly-obvious understanding just as a moment diagram in structures class. Why not make it obvious and be explicit about the tectonics of the constriction? The poetics of the construction are allowed to resonate loudly through the space and not to be muzzled like a drywall clad home.
Side note: Hello Brown Family!
The other teams are working on their areas of the site. The connection team is to deisgn an entrance and a main stair tower for visitors. They are adjoining the existing house with the new.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Jul 31 2006
__________________________________________
Design/Build Internship
For the duration of this summer, I will be posting about my internship here in Omaha, NE. I am working with Randy Brown Architects design/build program and am assigned to the McKinley Project (a residential addition.) The ten interns spent the first 2 weeks drawing, modeling, and designing different areas of the project. I and another student are to design the staircase/bar (ascending 20 ft.) to connect most of the house together. After our challenging design began to take shape, reality started to strike. However, since most of the modeling was done in Sketchup, the ability to move from massing to construction documents was fluid. I am not usually a big fan or using Sketchup for design, but the ability to draw very quickly and use dimensioned lumber/steel was extremely handy. The Sketchup model was all to scale and with dimensioned lumber provided by Sketchup, we were able to bring life to the form and create a feasible structure. The model then was sectioned and put into CAD and within less than a day, we had all dimensioned construction documents to build the project. Next part, building the stairs.
The idea behind the stair idea was to create a fluid flowing wall that bends and breaks and becomes more than just a staircase. The wall inhabits the stairs, it houses the pedestrians, it provides seating and bookshelves for moments upon the assent/decent. The viewer transverses the stairs entering the wall, breaks free, pierces again, then emerges from the wall. The "wall" continues upward to become the shroud to enclose the upstairs bar. The “wall” has a life of many responsibilities, not just one to be touched or dry walled.
I’ll be posting more images on my Flickr account…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexanderjack/sets/72057594079098873/
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Jun 06 2006
__________________________________________
Photoshop Experts Can Help Katrina Victims
Operation Photo Rescue (OPR) Needs help from anyone that can lend a Photoshop hand. Many family photo’s have been ruined due to hurricanes or earthquakes.
I know most of the Archinect users know Photoshop. Here’s your chance to use it to help repair a family.
Here’s an e-mail from Dave Ellis.
———————————————————
Thanks for volunteering and providing me with the link to the posting on digg.com. There’s some interesting comments there.
We’re willing to give anyone and everyone a chance to help. Our issues with quality control are very specific cases and not necessarily the norm of what the work that’s being produced.
We don’t send the original photographs to our volunteers due to the fragile nature and mold contamination of the images. What we are doing is digitally copying the images with Nikon D2X’s mounted on copy stands. After sizing the images, we email them out to our restoration volunteers.
Like the post on digg.com mentioned we’re really busy out here this week. In the meantime, I’ll add you to our network of volunteers and send you some work as soon as we start distribution.
Thanks again for stepping up to the cause. Feel free to post this to digg.com if you think it will better inform the members there.
Please have anyone wishing to volunteer to send an email to OPRvolunteer@gmail.com
Dave Ellis
Operation Photo Rescue
———————————————————–
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
May 04 2006
__________________________________________
Blender Conclusion
The result of implementing the blender scheme. We (studio partner) chose to let the site talk. All we did was apply a translation and sort out the areas. In a way we are the "Rosetta Stone" for the Ham Yard.
You can view the previous post here:http://www.archinect.com/schoolblog/blog.php?id=C0_293_39
Unrelated Question: Is there a way to post bigger pictures on Archinect? Is it always limited to 400 px wide?
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Apr 14 2006
__________________________________________
Process – Blender
Nearing the end – about a week left of a short project entitled Ham Yard. My partner and I created a mode to generated various interactions on the site. Since we had no program in the beginning of the project, our job was to find a way of finding out what the site needs. By taking all the adjacent programs we set them in a matrix to compare and contrast. In Soho, there is a mixture of everything from Sex clubs to primary schools. We set them all up against each other and extracted the information in a periodic table way. From here we will start to match there qualities based on the observations.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Apr 07 2006
__________________________________________
Archinect-effect
Continuing my research on a site entitled Ham Yard in London, I did a simple Google search of "Ham Yard." To my surprise, my archinect school blog was in first place! So your archinect voice pulls more weight then you think…keep posting!
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Apr 04 2006
__________________________________________
Thesis Proposal- Need references please
This is my current proposal for a thesis project. I’d appreciate any suggestions or leads to where to look for books or other information. I’m currently reading "Devices" by CJ Lim and web crawling looking for information.
1. Current Building Machine:
To support the life systems inhabited. The condominium is dependent on all the external systems for life. Without the mechanical, electrical, water, and other utilities, the condominium would not be able to function.
The condominium contributes nothing to the greater system. It is a by-product of the building.
Condos now act as if they were infants in an incubator. Great care is taken to make sure each one is at a 80% satisfaction level. Rather than a life-support system for each of the living programs, what if each played a roll in supporting the greater whole? Condos increase, generally speaking, in sqft’age as they rise, so there are social and monetary differences between all of them. The difference is already there! Now allow each to play a roll, perhaps it is evident to the occupant, or not. End result a massive and balanced functioning machine.
2. Purposed Building Machine:
“Engine” means a device for continuously converting fluid energy into mechanical power. Thus, this term includes, for example, steam piston engines or steam turbines, per se, or internal-combustion piston engines, but it excludes single stroke devices. “engine” also includes the fluid-motive portion of a meter unless such portion is particularly adapted for use in a meter; ~SECTION F of United States Patent ”” mechanical engineering; lighting; heating; weapons; blasting engines or pumps.
Have we encoded binary into a machine subconsciously based on our understanding of our own genetics? Our human genome carries a signature with it. A machine uses machine-code to conduct its operations. However, it also uses machine-code to develop new machines. If we think of the birth of humans and the birth of a new machine as common, the genetic coding used to achieve an end result can be compared.
By using the pure form of the modern machine created by man, a rigorous process will expose the current building process for its secrets. With a genuine interest in the production process of the building, creation of the new machines can harvest ideas and outsider observations. How can we think we are at the best possible solution to our thinking of building? Do we sit docile and wait for new “technology” to be introduced so we can simply throw it into a building scheme and call it good? Will we lay dormant and allow technology be produced by those who are trying to sell it for a monetary value? What is the price we are paying in the long run? Dissolve the political motives, monetary value, and our idea of “beauty.” What are we left with? A machine. It was created to serve, not to make money, but with hundreds of years of the love of invention for its propellant. For the love of inventing, a dilettante.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Mar 30 2006
__________________________________________
Ham Yard Project
A brief introduction to our next 4 week project. I will be posting more about it soon.
Location: Soho, London
Program: To be determined
The site is really interesting. Just read some of the history
History
Ӣ Soho was grazing farmland until 1536
Ӣ The name Soho first appears in the 17th century
Ӣ Bricklayer Richard Frith in 1677 began its development.
Ӣ In 1698 William III granted the Crown freehold of most of this area to William, Earl of Portland.
Ӣ Earls of Leicester and Portland to develop the land on the grand scale of neighboring Bloomsbury, Marylebone and Mayfair, immigrants, such as French Huguenots, settled in the area, and it never became a fashionable area for the rich.
”¢ Soho’s charm and character that it has been neglected and undeveloped and allowed to run a little wild and rough and cosmopolitan.
Ӣ mid 1800s all respectable families had moved away and prostitutes, music halls and small theatres had moved in.
Ӣ early part of the 1900s there was a healthy mix of foreign nationals opening cheap eating houses and it became a fashionable place to eat for intellectuals, writers and artists.
Ӣ 1930s -1960s, the pubs of Soho were packed every night with drunken writers, poets and artists, many of whom never sobered up enough to become successful; and it was also during this period that the great Soho pub landlords established themselves.
Current
Ӣ many record shops in the area
”¢ home of London’s main gay village
”¢ Heart of Britain’s sex industry for at least 50 years.
Future
Ӣ Valentines Day 2006, a new campaign was launched to drive business back into the heart of Soho London. The campaign, called I Love Soho
Ӣ part of a program to further encourage the development of the area as a centre for media and technology industries
Ӣ centre of the independent film and video industry as well as the television and film post-production industry
Ӣ Soho is such a varied and cosmopolitan area that in much of it the sex industry is not at all evident; the idea that it is wholly a red light district is now very out of date
Here are the preliminary studies of the site.
First, What does the area need? The program is up to us, so an indepth analysis of the surrounding context is in order.
Next, What are the imediate conditions affecting the site?
My partner and I have started to diagram the evolution of the site ito explore the thick history of the site. Now the site is only used as a small carpark for Guys and Dolls with most of the site left just a shell of an old building that once existed. This prime location in Soho has been under the maginfying glass of officials for redevelopment for quite some time. Many architects have bid on a project here. So we are given the same problem. What to do with the site?
And the most interesting thing about the site – Soho Parish School wedged between strip-clubs. As you can see in the picture…the children at school with a woman trying to lure visitors into a club.
Next: Further Exploration of the history of the site from 1560 – present.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
__________________________________________
Final Project
The final Project.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Feb 24 2006
__________________________________________
Windsor/Eton Site Photos
Panorama’s of the site.
My partener and I are in final stages of design, so I will post the final outcome to our 3 week crash-coarse project soon.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Feb 21 2006
__________________________________________
Windsor/Eton Project
Windsor Athenaeum
Windsor U.K. — Home of the Queen.
3 week sketch problem
The program is for the Town of Windsor and Eton. The site is located across a huge pedestrian bridge which supported by the traffic from Windsor Castle and Eton Collage. Interestingly enough the bridge is used on Saturdays for a meeting place for the boys from Eton and the girls from Windsor.
The program is a small community room for spaces for Library, Trustee’s, reception, and other public areas. The Athenaeum is an important cornerstone of the two adjacent towns.
Being here in London, we are extremely limited in materials. No printer, no scanner, and expensive by-the-hour internet. A shortage of materials is not a shortage of ideas. This has offered us a great opportunity to explore alternate mediums for presenting. And in the end, we are designing just as fast and rigorous as before.
The project is a sketch problem. By that I mean it should not result in one final solution, but many. Our approach to the problem was to develop four branches to evolve from.
1. Green: To retain the existing structures and infill the outdoor space with program.
2. Circulation: To start to chip away the existing program and modify the existing structures with emphasis on circulation off bridge and thru structures..
3. Void: To completely level the site and completely inverse the two spaces.
4. Ground: To level the site and dig underground.
The end result of our first round yielded many ideas that we implemented into phase 2. New objective: to draw upon the other ideas and merge them into two new projects. Our process was extremely collaborative. We would start on the drawings and then simply swap them and expand upon each. If we explored an idea in 3D Max, we would exchange the files and build upon them.
Phase 3.1 and 3.2 are further modifications before going into our first critique. 3.1 was a draw for more water and 3.2 kept the initial facades intact but hollowed out the innards.
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Feb 20 2006
__________________________________________
Computers impressive to the layperson?
In a conversation, when I tell someone I am an architecture student, the thing they seem to be dying to know is "So…do you use computers and stuff for drafting?" I’ve gotten this response many of times, as if the computer is the most impressive thing in my profession. Why? I understand that I am part of the new generation of computer drafting/modeling and hand drafting is dying, but who doesn’t use a computer in any profession? There must be some sort of aura(Walter Benjamin) of using a computer to construct and design.
-Alexander
-University of Nebraska-
University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Jan 15 2006
__________________________________________
Corn and Beef -vs- Fish and Chips
Greetings, I will be soon posting on my study abroad experience in London. The perspective will be from a midwestern student in the most expensive, massive city in the world. Also view my progress at www.alexanderjack.com
Best,
Alexander Jack
DandyID
Twitter
Facebook
Linkedin
Flickr
Corkd
Delicious
Digg
Dopplr
Google Reader
last.fm
Picasa
Amazon