I wrote a paper in the fall for the international U.C. Berkeley prize in architecture.

[ did anyone else submit a paper to this competition? If so, I'd really like to read it. I'm curious what other people wrote about. Please post it here if it fits in the comments, or post a link to it.]

I just learned on Saturday that I was awarded second place in the essay competition. I have no idea how many entries there were, but in past years there have typically been over 120 essays submitted, which makes me feel good.

And I learned a few weeks ago that I was awarded a travel fellowship from them too, so I'm going to get to travel to London & Dublin to study several buildings I proposed and to participate in a brick volunteering extravagaanza to help rebuild the Cotswall canals [its a long story].

2nd place + 3rd place = 1st place? I'm not sure either.

Its good news either way, and frankly I'm just happy that the little thoughts that flood my brain are being articulated into something that evidently has legs to stand on. For years I've just thought I was crazy.

You can read the 2nd place paper here [I hear its actually not boring. Even my parents who have no interest in architecture enjoyed reading it, which was the real test]: http://brickmasonry.blogspot.com/2009/03/paper-submitted-to-berkeley-essay.html

And read about the architecture travel fellowship that I'll be doing in August here:
http://www.berkeleyprize.org/travel/travel.cfm?year=2009&link=index.cfm?pg=proposal

Its not pretentious. The North End is fantastic. Bike + Herb Garden = TLA (True Love Always). Oh yeah, and I'm super into the nostalgia of this video right now, yesssssss!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j-Tji1DueU

We finished classes about a week ago, and we have three weeks before the summer semester starts, so I decided to go on an adventure to Prince Edward Island. Its the smallest province in Canada, there is more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Edward_Island

Its so ridiculous the shit people string together to rationalize their designs. I mean, I don' t give a shit if someone has a fucking story as long as they're making good/beautiful buildings that respond to their context. The architecture community has spent so many years trying to fill the void...

The society for a critical Corbusier education presents its inaugural poster. Please email to obtain large scale PDF for your own printing and distribution.

The port is about a five minute walk from the school of architecture.

"Le Corbusier was the sort of relentlessly rational intellectual that only France loves wholeheartedly, the logician who flies higher and higher in ever-decreasing concentric circles until, with one last, utterly inevitable induction, he disappears up his own fundamental aperture and emerges in...

The assignment: Develop a space where one could go to write, meditate, and sleep, from spring until fall. Maximum 20 square metres (approx 225 square feet) of interior space. The site was an empty 100x100 lot in a flat field with no surrounding buildings, and no real location was given.My concept...

Across the harbour from Halifax.

There are 2.5 floors of studio space at the school arranged in a symmetrical "T" shaped plan. The central studio area of the "T" includes two floors, each with a mezzanine, that overlooks the main critique/presentation space below on the main floor. There are several openings [to below] between...

Is there a word for a plan (site plan, building plan, neighbourhood plan, etc.) that looks good as a plan (on paper, on the wall, nice to look at), but when implemented in real life - three dimensions - it does not work? I am talking especially about projects that are based on the plan (for...

One of the main reasons I chose Halifax to study was for the proximity of the school to the shipping ports/enormous ships/train yards/refineries/large scale industry located along the edges of the harbour. Only a few minutes walk from the school of architecture, and a large inspiration to me.

P R O G R A M | S T R U C T U R E At the Dalhousie School of Architecture there are two divisions: - Step one: The BEDS (Bachelor of Environmental Design Studies) undergrad - 2 years continuous study, all courses are requisites to complete each following semester. - Step two: The M.Arch (Master of...

Impressions from the first two weeks: T H E C I T Y - Halifax is incredibly vibrant. - People are kind and polite (they go outside to use cell phones! - this brings me renewed joy each day) - The hills provide excellent exercise and landscape inspiration, which I have yet to see be utilized as the...

I leave Toronto this morning for Halifax. My plane arrives at 2pm. I didn't sleep much lastnight, dreams of missing planes and beautiful slow motion runs though airports, my fingertips and limbs numb and tingling with anticipation while I lied in bed. I hadn't felt that since I was a kid trying to...