I have been a long time Archinect'r, so it's great to be able to maintain a blog on the website. I hope to post not only what is going on with me specifically in the studio, but also the work of others.

Level II added about 10 new faces to the studio. 15 of us started together in Level I and worked all summer together with a design build project. Not that I didn't enjoy the experience with them, but it's interesting to be surrounded by a new group. These new studiomates are from all over: China, South Korea, Indonesia,Venezuela, UF Miami, Harvard, Texas Tech and Texas A&M. This has made things increcibly interesting just getting to know them and find out what their interests in architecture are.

Here are a few pictures of the progress of design/build. Houston weather slowed us down, but we're getting close. We will spend this coming weekend installing the polycarbonate roof system.







Our first project was set up as a completely speculative exercise based on Eisenman's House X. Essentially, we were given a completely open program to explore and consider the mediation between the cube and the labryinth. This has been considered both methaporically and literally by those in the studio.
We have final review for the project on Tuesday, and I would like to get some pictures of the boards on the blog after the review. For now, here are a few samples of work of mine and another student in the class.






Other than studio culture, we're all trying to refresh our memories on high school trig. as we dive into quantitative structures.
Also, the majority of us in the studio are required to take Urban Determinants in which we examine, that's right you guessed it, the makings of the city. The readings for discussion thus far have been:

Face to Face in the Center: William White
Los Angeles, The Architecture of Four Ecologies: Reyner Banham
Heteropolis: Charles Jencks
Architect as Demolition Man: Diane Ghirardo
The Matrix and Philosophy: William Erwin
Fortress Los Angeles: the Militarization of Urban Space: Mike Davis
See You in Disneyland: Michael Sorkin
Paradise Bought: Sharon Waxman
Lost Utopia: Thoughts on the Dilemma of the Modern City: Kaisa Broner-Bauer

The list will go on, and will be updated as we discuss.


Picture of studio space. Notice the typical Postmodern architecture of the columns in the background. Our building was "designed" by Phillip Johnson. It's actually a bad copy of one of the buildings in Ledoux's Saltworks.